Kevin Bresnahan

Quite a few of the extra tracks in the SHM reissue series don't appear in Cuscuna's discography. It makes you wonder if they've uncovered tapes through the years. Steve Hoffman has often claimed that there are several "master tapes" for many of these Blue Note dates. He says that there is some detective work needed on some of them. Then there's the story that someone went through the tapes in the 70's, copied them with Dolby A, and then through out the original or marked it "Do Not Use" or in some cases, chucked them.

Although a good night of Jazz, it was not as good as the last time they came through. Something just seemed off a bit. Pianist Wonsey was the star. His solos were varied yet touching on Horace Silver's style in the right places. I really dug one of his solos a lot. Nelson (purposefully?) seemed to be behind the beat on most of his solos. They did a cover of "Up, Up & Away, My Beautiful Balloon" that came off better than I thought it would but it was still schmaltz and I couldn't warm to it. The worst thing was the noisy crowd. There were two guys at the bar who talked, make that shout-talked, throughout the whole set. The bartender was even laughing at one of their jokes during one of Hayes' drum solos. I was expecting someone to go over and tell them to lower the volume a bit but no one did. They were not the only ones either. There was a row of tables at the back of front section and they mostly seemed to be there to eat dinner and socialize. They rarely watched the band (one guy even had his seat pointing away from the stage) and many of them spent more time on their phones than listening.

Louis Hayes is returning to Scullers in Boston tonight. He's bringing back the very good band I saw him with in July of 2017: Abraham Burton, sax, Steve Nelson, vibes and Dezron L Douglas, bass. An added bonus is Anthony Wonsey on piano, who i haven't seen in a very long time. For an 81 year old guy, Hayes can still play. Well worth seeing if he comes your way.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - my wish is that Mosaic would pay Steve Hoffman to master one set, preferably releasing it using SACD hybrid discs, and see how well it sells. No matter if you like his forums or not, his name on the set will attract buyers who would otherwise never even think about it. So pick any of these suggestions (but my vote is with Jim on Bill Barron), contract Hoffman to remaster it, and see what happens. It can't really hurt sales.

If Gary Bartz had any say in it, I doubt he'd want his Milestone dates reissued by Mosaic. I once tried to get him to sign one of them and he refused, saying something along the lines of "I never made a dime from them".

Happy birthday! At least the rain stopped for you.

Sonny Stitt - Blows The Blues (Verve/Classic Records)

Ben Webster & Harry "Sweets" Edison - Walkin' With Sweets (Verve). An English pressing from the mid-70's of Edison's "Sweets".

I somewhat surprised that this law hasn't been updated again. It's all about Mickey Mouse, and there is no way Disney wants their iconic images in the public domain, where they can't make any money off of it, no matter what the law says.

These "no bag" laws up here suck when it rains. I almost tucked it under my coat to keep it dry but I'm not too worried about it being gone when I go back.

I saw this in a store yesterday for $10 but didn't buy it, mainly because it was pouring rain so I didn't want it getting soaked. Was I wrong? Should I go back and buy it today?

According to the Rock HOF, this is rock: and this is not rock:

What I find funny in all of this is that until Jethro Tull started getting shunned by the Rock & Roll hall of fame, I never even considered them "Prog Rock". To my ears, they were and continue to be simply "rock & roll". Period. How could anyone hear "Locomotive Breath" and think, "Ooooo, that piano intro and that flute makes me think of classical music"? It's especially weird when you realize that many other "Rock bands", even big names like The Beatles ("Sgt Peppers") & The Beach Boys ("Pet Sounds"), did stuff like this first? Why the creation of a new type of rock? Totally unnecessary and in this case, exclusionary. This, coming from a place that considers rap to be closer to rock than Jethro Tull.

I cannot change anyone's attitude. Only you can do that. I can bemoan the fact that you won't. I certainly cannot "punish" anyone for enjoying this song. That's a ludicrous thing to say. What I am saying is that there are women out there who are upset by the language in this song and that by some of us saying, in essence, "It's nothing. It's just harmless flirting. It's from a different era," you are completely ignoring their pain with this song being played. I have no such pain. I actually like the song. And I do get where it's coming from and I do understand that it's not "the date rape song". However, I've never been raped. I have no idea how this is affecting these women. No idea at all. I am willing to have to play this song from my collection to hear it. I am fine with that. I don't need to hear it on the radio as I've got probably 15-20 versions in my stash. And yes, it is in my playlist, so no, your playlist is safe too,

Let me try this again without getting political... I like the song and I would hate to see it pulled from the airways - because I like it. Many people agree. But by ignoring women who have been sexually assaulted, who are admittedly a small minority of women, are we in essence saying that their pain doesn't matter? Our enjoyment trumps their pain? With what is happening in the country right now, the Cosby conviction, the Les Moonves misconduct, Harvey Weinstein, a person who admitted to grabbing random women's pussies getting elected, a supreme court justice getting confirmed despite several women accusing him of sexual misconduct, Michael Weatherly "bull-ing" his co-star... the list just goes on & on. Shouldn't our attitudes be changing? This has been a problem for a long time. A very long time. It doesn't really matter if the initial intent of this song was a man & his wife flirting. We have a chance to do something. We can be more understanding. We can acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, those women shouldn't have to hear what many of them call "the date rape song" on the air over & over. But clearly, that is not what's happening here. People want their holiday ditty and tough crap if it offends these women. It's kinda sad.

I met him twice and I mostly remember feeling that he was bit unusual. I think he had a slight stutter too. Made for some difficulty talking to him.

Just finished: The Hotel Cafe presents Winter Songs Nice compilation of female singers with their interpretations of Xmas tunes. Available for free streaming if you have Amazon Prime.

But don't you feel that's politicizing art? I had to TTK.

Banning this particular song, if it were to happen, is not political. It's moral. At least it should be. I don't care if you're a (D), (R) or (I), you should be aware that some women are offended by it. People don't talk about murder or theft and talk about how the left or the right supports it. It's apolitical. Ditto date rape.

My copy has turned out to be an actual Christmas Day present from my wife. Can't wait to hear it. At least, I hope it was in that box that came in the other day.

I was wondering why I'd never heard of a Christmas tune by Foghat before now and then I listened to it on YouTube. Most unusual version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that I've ever heard.

Interesting... I've never heard of a discussion of date rape being political before.

You mean like, soon you won't be able to hear "Money For Nothing" with the line, "That little faggot, he's a millionaire"? This is already true. It's not played on the radio any more.

True, but we do need to be a way more understanding that others might not appreciate it, nor do we need to celebrate it. How do you think a lot of the "Me Too" women feel about that song? It seems like almost every Christmas CD today has a version of "Baby It's Cold Outside". As I said earlier, "Say, what's in this drink," with what just happened to Bill Cosby, is probably upsetting to any woman who has really been roofied.