Kevin Bresnahan

I managed to find the postcard Billy sent me to thank me for donating to the funds collected to help him with his medical bills. USPS, written checks and thank you postcards... so different from today's Go Fund Me world.

The movie in question can be viewed here: which I learned about from this post by my Facebook friend Jason Rubin, who also mentions a CD recorded during the last few blues weekends.

From Ron... I am currently on a tour that began as The Golden Striker Trio, consisting of Russell Malone, Donald Vega, and Yours Truly. On the 23rd Mr. Malone suffered a heart attack upon completion of our performance at Blue Note Tokyo. Donald Vega and I are completing this tour as a duo … in respect and honor of the memory Mr. Malone … this chair represents his presence. I will issue a statement in the coming weeks, when I can find the words, and I hope our musical community at large, and the individuals contacting me for commentary in articles, understand that I need this time. Ron Carter

I always meant to pick up that Kuhn/Lovano disc but never did get around to it. I haven't seen Joe perform in a long time. The last two times he was with Dave Douglas & the Soundprints band & I didn't enjoy that band's performance as much as I thought I would. They seemed to meander a bit. Since he's getting up there a bit (he'll be 72 this year), I hope he keeps touring. These days, I find myself playing those old Motian JMT CDs with Lovano more than his leader dates.

This is shocking. I was just talking with him in April at Birdland. He had lost a lot of weight and looking great.

I never understood why anyone would get an AMEX card. I always called it the "Wimpy card" because it allowed you to pay for a hamburger on Tuesday that you got today.

For the longest time, credit card companies made businesses sign a contract stating that they could not charge their customers that fee. In fact, they used to pull the ability to accept credit cards if a business charged it. I don't know what happened to make these credit card companies change this policy. It will drive their customers to switch to cash, which is not good for them. If they want to keep their credit card customers, they really should reconsider this change.

I still don't get why Craft reissued this Volume on LP instead of one of the other volumes. Analogue Productions released this volume on LP in 1996 and it sounds incredible. I have no desire to replace that LP in my collection.

Young Men From Memphis - Down Home Reunion (United Artists).

Conrad Herwig - The Latin Side Of Joe Henderson (Half Note). I do enjoy this one, but then again, with Lovano on tenor & Cuber on bari, how could it be bad?

I don't know where that cover art came from. All of the ones I've seen have this cover.

I hope it's better than season 3, which we felt was pretty weak compared to the first two.

And some worry more about the looks than the sound. In context, while this system looks good, my wife would move out if I tried doing that in any room of my house.

I miss Orrin way more than Chris. I find it funny that Chris could say whatever he wanted about Riverside and we were supposed to take him at his word but when Orrin's words are quoted, it was all make believe, even though he ran the place. They both clearly disliked each other but Chris was much more vocal about it. I had several e-mail exchanges with Orrin and he basically said that he didn't want to get into it with Chris. Now that they're both gone, all we have is the stories. Believe whichever one you want.

I was just listening to this a few nights ago. It used to be a tough CD to find. For Fresu playing ballads, I still prefer his playing on Aldo Romano's "Canzoni"

On Windows, you can do a search on file size to find large files hogging drive space. On Windows, one of the biggest files is hiber.sys, which is a system backup file created for the hibernate function. Maybe Apple does something similar?

I'm really bummed out that Wallace retired before I got the chance to see him perform. I almost went to see him in CT but had to back out at the last minute. It turns out that was one of his last live gigs.

I just saw this on the TV and learned that I had been mis-pronouncing her first name all of these years. I always thought it was pronounced Geena but it's actually pronounced Jenna. Her performance in "The Notebook" was pretty incredible. So sad that she had to go through that in real life a few years later.

This Morgan material is on this CD:

Gorgeous day for a bike ride. ~75 degrees with a light breeze and low humidity.

I haven't played this one in a while. I seem to remember it starting out rather sedate for Jaume. I know I've said this before, but Jaume is someone I've always wanted to see perform live. Is he still playing at 83? Is he still playing gigs?

Still baffling to me why this has never made it to CD anywhere in the world.

This record seems to have been cut up just a bit in the CD era. Most of the tracks are here: But the one long track, "Jammin' With James", was migrated to this CD to keep the session together: I don't have either one... I think I might pick up HiFi Party. Looks interesting.

It seems that Facebook has become the place for tributes & Tom has been getting a ton of them. Good guys like Tom will be missed. From Evan Adler: Just heard that another music industry giant left us. RIP Tom Evered. He was a great guy with great musical ears! He was always so kind to me and all the people he worked with. A Blue Note Records legend! Rest easy Tom and I know you are throwing back martinis with Topsy and Cuscuna. From Susan Fujiwara: I am so sad to hear the news of Tom's passing. I worked with Tom back in the 80's at CEMA. He was and continued to be one of the kindest, funniest, sweetest guys I knew. My deepest condolences to Liz and family. RIP dear friend. From Audrey Singleton: Oh, Tom. I’m so sad to hear about your passing. Working with you in my first industry job was such a highlight. I will always cherish our conversations and I still have that book you bought me on the French Revolution. You were always so kind to me and offered your assistance whenever I needed it, helping me navigate the label manager world at Naxos. I will miss you. RIP. From Saul Shapiro: I was introduced to Tom Evered when I moved to Minneapolis in 1986. Tom was the local rep for WEA. What I didn’t know then was that 6 years later, Tom would get me an interview with then Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall and we would spend the next 15 years working together at the label. I took Tom’s place as head of sales in LA while he became BN’s General Manager. To say we had fun would be an understatement. Very few people I know had the vast amount of knowledge of jazz and classical music as Tom did - and it didn’t stop there. A Bee Gee’s singalong party at his UWS apartment became legendary. He could've also been a great movie critic. Tom’s dry wit and sarcasm didn’t always fly for some. He sometimes had a challenging job as the GM, the self-proclaimed “Dr No” to Lundvall’s “Dr Yes. “ But there was never a better team. Tom, Bruce and and the late Michael Cuscuna, another dear friend to Tom and the Blue Note Recordse family, steered BN into one of the most prolific and successful decades of the label. I was grateful to be in the room when it happened. Tom was gutted after his BN days ended and I’m not sure he ever recovered from that. Many close to him were concerned about the state of his health, he could be reclusive, probably lost in old movies and jazz. I think he just missed NY, the jazz scene, friends and a proper gin "see-thru" at Fred's. A great friend was lost but those memories will last a lifetime. RIP Tom From Kristine England: Tom Evered was my boss for six years. When he interviewed me, I confessed I knew very little about jazz but was eager to learn. He, Michael Cuscuna, and Bruce Lundvall took me under their wings and taught everything I needed to know. He recommended music and books that changed my perspective and gave me knowledge that I will carry with me forever. Tom took me to see Roxy Music and King Crimson, both among the best shows I ever saw (Roxy ranks #1). He told Bob Dorough that my favorite schoolhouse rock song was "Lolly Lolly Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here," which Bob played specially for me at a Central Park concert. I received amazing gifts from him, like both Eno boxes, and Pee Wee's Playhouse box sets. He would go to Virgin Records at lunch and bring back something he thought I should have. Tom was one of a kind. At the end of the day, he would play his "out" song as he was getting ready to leave for the day. This one is for you, Tom. RIP. From Jeffrey Lein: This has been tough one to talk about or even believe, but I am very sad to hear my friend, colleague and a music business legend, Tom Evered, passed away over the weekend. Tom and I were colleagues for several years at Naxos and became fast friends co-hosting the ArkivJazz podcast from 2019-2021 w/ our friend, Kristopher Peck. For those that don’t know Tom, before joining Naxos he was the General Manager of Blue Note Records with the great Bruce Lundvall. To those that know jazz and Blue Note’s legacy, you know exactly how significant that position was. Of particular note, Tom signed Norah Jones, who sold over 50 million units of those famous records. Tom also signed guitarist, Charlie Hunter, and vocalist, Kurt Elling, and launched the careers of so many more on the artist and business side. Tom was also a music advisor to Ken Burns on his documentaries, “Jazz,” and “The War.” Tom was known for his sharp wit and possessed an encyclopedic mind for jazz and classical music. He was a truly kind man and a blessing to anyone who spent time with him. He really was a funny guy and a lot of fun to be around, and boy was he sharp. Outside of work I’d often grab Tom and we’d hit shows together in Nashville. I worried about Tom not being in NYC anymore and missing all that music so anytime a national touring act was coming through, I’d try and get him out. To no surprise of course, he often knew the musicians personally and we’d go hang backstage.. I met Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bill Charlap, Charlie Hunter and several other greats that way, and via our podcast. Being a jazz drummer, Tom liked to learn about what I was into also and we had a great balance and mutual respect for eachother. He would occasionally hit my shows too. The last I saw Tom was earlier this year when I asked him to join me for a concert at Vanderbilt to see the virtuosic singer, Cecile McLorin Salvant and piano genius, Sullivan Fortner. My father-in-law also joined us that night and we were completely blown away by the performance. As we were leaving the venue I asked Tom if he’d like to go with us to grab a drink, as was our custom, but he just said.. “No, no Maestro… I think I’ll let that one settle in a while.” It really was a magical concert and I know he was moved. I’ll miss Tom and his amazing stories and I’ll most certainly miss doing the podcast with him. I hope you’re having great laughs with Bruce, Michael Cuscuna, and all the legends of the music in heaven whom I know you missed, Tom. We’ll miss you down here on earth but will keep it swinging and sharing the music. Until we meet again, my friend. From James Gavin: Farewell, much too soon, to one of the sweetest guys in the record business and a dear friend since 1993. Starting in the '90s, Tom Evered was the right-hand man of Bruce Lundvall, president of Blue Note Records from 1984-2010. Tom served as the calm voice of reason in response to musician-loving Bruce's sometimes overabundant largesse. What a heady time that was - the last golden age of jazz. Holly Cole, Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling, Joe Lovano, Cassandra Wilson, Bill Charlap, Benny Green, Renee Rosnes, Jack Terrason, Us3, Norah Jones, Jason Moran, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Bob Belden, Tom's beloved Bob Dorough, and - good heavens - Lena Horne were all on the roster. Michael Cuscuna, whom we lost this year, presided expertly over the reissues, lots of which I got to annotate. Tom went on to run Angel, another EMI label, until its sad demise. With the record business imploding all around him, he moved to Brentwood, TN, where he worked for the Naxos Records until a couple of years ago. I loved being a satellite member of the Blue Note family. What fun we had! I took the picture below at the 50th wedding anniversary party of the great jazz photographer William Claxton, a pivotal person in my life, and 1960s supermodel Peggy Moffitt. Tom, on the left, was speaking to Jack Larson, who had played Jimmy Olsen on "Adventures of Superman." To me, Tom, Bruce, and Michael were beacons of humanity in a sea of sharks. I'm glad they midwived so much great music to remember them by.