Kevin Bresnahan

I'm sad to read that Larry's phone has been disconnected. Being hospitalized or in a nursing home doesn't usually = no phone, so something bad might have happened.

I'm not a fan of the mastering of the material in this box. I dumped it ages ago and kept my individual discs. I'm not missing much going this route. If Mosaic re-did this with improved mastering, I'd strongly consider it but if they do, I'd like to think they could add more from that aborted session with Stitt than just that one tune. Ron McMaster's SBM mastered discs never sounded right to me.

It has to be better than this!

Allen's back to posting on these forums.

Dave Brubeck - My Favorite Things (Columbia). I found a Sony CD (SRCS 9369) in a cheapie bin so I'm giving it a try. What an odd stereo image. Piano all alone in the right channel and the bass/drums in the left, with Desmond split equally when he plays. When Desmond is playing, it sorta sounds OK, but when it's just the trio, the sound it's not good.

I have a lot of the dates mentioned in this thread but it's hard to sort them all out sometimes. Sessions overlap on different CD releases and it's gotten very difficult to avoid buying music you already have. I recently picked up the Ensayo CD of "Gentle Ben" in a cheapie bin & I was worried that I already had the material on another CD.

The early days of the Internet were newsgroups, not message boards. Text was all you wanted on your screen when using a 28.8 kbps modem. Downloading a single picture could take about 5 minutes.

I've seen Rathbun perform many times but it's been a long time since he toured around here. Maybe this is why?

I still keep hoping that soulstation1 posts to this thread but my fear is that he is no longer with us.

Happy 77th birthday to Ron McMaster.

Because of family history, I have to get one every 3 years. They always find a polyp or two, so it never goes up. I shouldn't complain... colon cancer is a whole lot worse than having a colonoscopy every 3 years.

The Jazz Modes - The Jazz Modes Play Excerpts From The Frank Loesser Musical The Most Happy Fella (Atlantic) This one's OK, but it's not grabbing me. I saw Rouse's name on there and figured that was enough. It wasn't.

I just picked up 3 more of these today. I'm looking forward to spinning them over the next few days. I got the Gene Ammons, Red Holloway & another of the Johnny Hammond Smith discs.

Clare Fischer - ONE - to get ready: FOUR to GO! (Revelation Records)

CDs Art Blakey - Chippin' In Ben Webster - Gentle Ben Gene Ammons - Legends of Acid Jazz Red Holloway - Legends of Acid Jazz Johnny Hammond Smith - Legends of Acid Jazz George Kawaguchi - Maiden Voyage - Music Of Herbie Hancock Various Artitsts - Melancholy - Boogie Woogie & Piano Classics (TOCJ-66006) A rare one! Jackie McLean - New Wine In Old Bottles Joe Newman & Zoot Sims - Locking Horns (Roulette) SHM-CD Dave Brubeck - My Favorite Things (Japan) Steve Kuhn with Joe Lovano - Mostly Coltrane Eddie Higgins - Moonlight Becomes You Eddie Higgins - If Dream Come True Junior Cook - On A Misty Night plus 2 CDs that I already have... I hate when this happens Gene Ammons - Soul Summit - This copy has a totally different cover from the CD I already have. Sonny Stitt - In Style - This is the cheesy 32Jazz plastic case version. I already have the Muse CD. LPs The Jazz Modes - The Most Happy Fella (Atlantic) Clare Fischer - ONE - to get ready: FOUR to GO! (Revelation Records)

Pat Labarbera is coming to Boston as part of Tony Levin's group in May. I've never seen him. Might be time to rectify that. I've been trying to find an decent priced copy of his ballad CD, "Deep In A Dream" for a while now without luck. It seems to only be available in Canada.

He's coming to Portland, ME too and I'm thinking about skipping it. It's happening August 1st and I'm pretty sure that I'll be out of the area then.

I'm somewhat surprised that Esteban has such a limited social media presence. I get that some of the sites, like Facebook, have lost a lot of followers due to the proliferation of AI BS all over it, but you need to have some way to let people know when & where you're playing or else no one can buy tickets. He even allowed his web domain to expire.

I haven't seen Esteban Castro perform, but I'll watch for his name in the future. Young piano masters seems to be a thing throughout history. They crop up time & again going back to Mozart. BTW - one of his recent Smalls' performances is up on You Tube & their website. Free to watch: I believe the second set is up here too. https://www.smallslive.com/events/31534-esteban-castro-trio/

Brecker & Rovatti put on a good show last night. The local rhythm section, Nick Grondin, guitar; Mark Shilansky, piano; Bronek Suchanek, bass and Austin McMahon, drums. I ended up getting moved around to 3 different tables because of a ticketing snafu but the final seat location, up on the balcony, is one of my preferred spots. They opened with a tune from Brecker's, "In the Idiom", which I had him sign after the set. He gave some humorous stories before each tune. Nathan Jorgensen, Director of Jazz Studies at UNH, sat in for the last tune and played a fiery solo on his alto that would have made Cannonball proud. The setlist: There's A Mingus A Monk Us Shanghigh O Corko Mio The Marble Sea Over The Rainbow Dirty Dogs About the only negative (for me) was that the guitarist used heavy reverb throughout the set. I'm not a fan of that sound though my buddy who went with me (who plays guitar) says that some guitarists use that to sound more bluesy. I don't know if that's true.

Everyone has good days and bad days. I once met a pianist after a show to ask him for an autograph. He ignored me and acted as if I was not even standing there. A few years later, I saw him again and when I asked the leader of the gig for an autograph, the pianist stepped up and asked me if I wanted his autograph on the record too. I ended up getting the whole band to sign and got to talk to that pianist for several minutes and he was the nicest guy you'd ever meet. FWIW, if the year was closer to the late 00's (like 2008), she was going through a divorce from Wallace Roney. I worked with a woman for many years and when she was going through her divorce, she was not the same person. It was almost unbearable to be in the same room with her for about a year after her divorce. She actually apologized to me years later because she realized how badly she'd been acting to everyone, particularly men.

Tonight, Randy Brecker and his wife, Ada Rovati are playing with a local rhythm section at the tiny Press Room club in Portsmouth, NH. https://www.portsmouthnh.com/event/randy-brecker-and-ada-rovatti-at-the-press-room/

This was originally released in 1964 on the Workshop Jazz label, a subsidiary of Motown Records. I assume this now falls under the Universal umbrella. Fresh Sounds hasn't reissued this since it went back under EU copyright.

I'm in the middle of the 8th Will Trent book, The Kept Woman, from author Karin Slaughter. I am enjoying these books & can recommend them for fans of crime novels. It's a head-scratcher why the show is so different. One of the main characters in the show, Angie Polaski, is a horrible person in the books. One of the books is all about the history of Will's boss Amanda, whose father was a sheriff and a member of the KKK. In the show, Amanda is a black woman. I guess the show will never do an episode about Amanda's father. 🤔