Kevin Bresnahan

I can't believe this disc is still sitting here. Does everyone have it already? Very good CD and hard to find.

I'll have to ask my sister Peggy about that hair thing. Her four year old has given her problems with that for years. I think they have it solved today, but I do remember seeing Grace looking like a rastafarian a few times before they got it worked out. If I get any pointers, I'll let you know. FWIW, did you ever try a shower? Sometimes kids like doing things that Mommy & Daddy do. You could even get in there with her and give her a little tutorial. Hey, be glad that she's at least letting you clean her up! Friends of ours had one daughter who wouldn't allow water on her anywhere. She stunk pretty bad all the time. It got to where we didn't want to visit their place. She reeked.

Jim, enjoy these days. I miss my two-year old daughters!! I still love them as teenagers but they were so much fun when they were little and Daddy was their favorite play-toy. I loved giving them rides on my shoulders. I make a good horse.

BTW, Jim, the only way I could get my youngest daughter to fall asleep at that age was to read her a bedtime a story and lay with her until she fell asleep. I would just tell my wife, "Come & wake me up in an hour if I crash". Another thing to try if you find her up late playing with her toys is to let her stay up. She'll probably keel over from exhaustion eventually. BTW, is she still taking an afternoon nap? She may be ready to stop. Try shortening her "nappy-time" and see how she takes it. She might be so tired that night, she'll fall asleep before you finish the bedtime story. Each of my daughters was very different with regards to napping. My oldest napped until she was almost 5. My youngest? I bet she stopped napping when she was less than 3. Of course, she also slept like a rock from 7:00 PM until 8:30 AM. Later, Kevin

I have to agree rather strongly here. You've already seen that Nora is not listening to you and rebelling a bit. She might decide those pretty bottles under the sink look good enough to drink, no matter how much you've warned her. Every time I read those accidental poisoning stories in the news, I cringe, wondering how I would feel if it were my child. Would I ever be able to forgive myself? I have very little recollection of my toddler days. I don't know many people who do. But one thing I vividly recall is the time I decided to see what would happen if I stuck tweezers into the wall outlet. Sparks flew, and I was shot across the room into a closet door. Got a nasty bump and blistered fingers and I was lucky that was all I got. I bet my parents wished they had these wall covers that we have today. My Dad didn't change that wall outlet for years. He left it. All burnt and melted. Every kid who came in the house got a little lecture about what happens when you stick something in a wall socket. I don'y know of one childhood friend who ever tried what I did. Later, Kevin

Jim, first, I have to say, you gave me a great belly laugh. I haven't laughed this hard since my Dad died. Thanks so much. Laughter is the music of the soul. As for child rearing, I'm no expert, but I think my girls are coming out OK. One thing I would recommend is to continue to let her know who is "the boss". When our girls were very young, we saw several of our friends let their kids rule their lives. These kids would "demand" something and Mom &/or Dad would scramble to comply, regardless of how their child was acting at the time. Joanne & I would laugh. Our girls never got anything if they disobeyed or were cranky. Whenever these parents saw us deny stuff to our girls, they'd say stuff like, "You're so strict". Of course, at the end of many of our visits, a usual comment going out the door was, "Your children are so well behaved. How do you do it?" Every child is different. One thing that worked well with our first was holding a favorite toy "hostage". She must have a favorite something-or-other. This object can be used as leverage. If she does something you distinctly told her not to do, the object gets put away while she sits away from it. We used to call it "time out", but in reality, it was somewhere where she could occupy herself away from her favorite toy. You don't want to try the corner. That only works in the movies. Tried a corner once and it resulted in a meltdown. Even if it isn't a corner, she might scream and cry (and it will break your heart), but in the end, she might understand that what she did denied her that special, favorite object and she might think twice before she rebels again. Of course, she might not care less and do it again anyway. For us, this "time out" only worked until they were about 4 or so. Then we had to come up with something else. Bribery works well after 4. Ice cream was the best bribe, but chocolate worked in a pinch. Unfortunately, ice cream & chocolate contain "brat fuel", also known in layman's term as "sugar". Our oldest got progressively nastier with the more sugar she ingested. We experimented with lowered amounts of sugar with pretty good success from ages 6 to about 8. BTW, milk has lactose, which is a sugar so beware. I second every comment about fixing the fridge. Don't pretty-up anything until your kids are all grown. Don't buy anything fancy either. This includes floors, windows, tables, chairs... anything used on a daily basis. It's almost a sure bet that something will happen to it. Just get used to having beat up furniture and appliances until your kids are fully grown. You might even laugh at some stuff later. Heck, I can still see my name scratched into a dresser at my parents' house. Another great thing is having your child around other kids their age. Sometimes, even very young children can spot a "brat" and learn from their actions. My wife did in-home day care. She watched some real screamers. Even my girls used to complain about these screamers. They would even recognize when they were acting like that other child. Kids learn fast. The poop thing really cracks me up. Hey, at least your daughter hasn't decided that her poop makes good finger paint. Try cleaning that up some time!! Later, Kevin - Dad of Amanda (17) and Melissa (14)

^^^^^^^^^^^ SEE ABOVE ^^^^^^^^^^^ Lon can tell you about "bad months". I bet he'd love to have a broken pipe be his biggest worry in August. I hope your better September only leads into a great October. Good luck with that medical maze. I dread when I have to face this... and really, most if us will have to face it some day. I just hope it's later rather than sooner. Later, Kevin

People... enjoy these things! It's life! I'd trade you busted pipes, my job or anything else in my life to get my Dad back, but it ain't happening. You're alive. You're healthy. Take a deep breath. Smell the coffee brewing. Take a sip of a nice cabernet. Make love. Live it up. It's never a bad month when you can do these things.

I have heard that Freddie's finances are not good at all. In fact, there have been rumors that he's broke.

Two sets at The Regattabar, 7:30 & 10:00. I have tickets for both sets. I love this band. Hard bop at it's finest! I think Eric Alexander is playing at his peak and he seems to elevate his playing when Joe Farnsworth is driving him. Anyone in the area who's into hard bop a la Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, you simply do not want to miss this band on a rare swing through Boston. I'll be at table 253. Stop by and say hello. Later, Kevin

He used to post on the Blue Note bulletin board as Jonaskullhammar. I remember I used to think he was Jona Skullhammar.

But Claude, on the ones I heard, these new TOCJ CDs have other problems. Pull a track to your hardrive and look at the waveform. The ones I've looked at suffer from compression. There is hardly any dynamic range (the difference between "peaks" & "valleys". I get fatigued listening to CDs mastered like this. They usually sound better, but the lack of dynamic range just makes them sound less musical. It's almost like everyone became Phil Spector and wanted a wall of sound. It hits me like that. The new Jimi Hendrix remasters are the worst for this. Great sound - no dynamic range. I've started searching for the old TOCJs wherever possible. I am about ready to give up that anyone will remaster for digital with dynamic range. Everyone is pushing up the levels. I don't see it going away. Later, Kevin

I believe Chuck is right. Connoisseurs are limited to two pressings. They are not required to have two pressings. It should also be noted that the reason some Connoisseur CDs are scarce, like "The All Seeing Eye", "Basra" and "Lee Way", is because that whole batch of titles (6 in all?) had multiple pressing defects and the large return rate pretty much sucked up the whole first pressing. As for those West Coast Classic, I told Blue Note at the time of their release that something happened and the market was absolutely flooded with saw-cut promos for those titles. There was a time when it would have been very hard to find a real copy in a Boston-area store. These promos clearly stole a lot of "legit" CD sales. Kevin

I was able to pick up two tickets to the Pats-Broncos game Sunday night. Me & my daughter Amanda will be tailgating in Foxboro! I am so loving the fact that I have a daughter that likes football.

I could have sworn we had a thread here about Heid's work. Did it get lost in one of the server crashes? I know I've mentioned "Da Girl" in a discussion here on the forums. I have a few Heid CDs and enjoy them all. It sounds like I should get my hands on "Dark Secrets". The only reason I didn't buy it the last time I saw it was the cheesy cover. Later, Kevin

I was told many years ago that the Connoisseur series CDs are limited to two pressings. If this title is still hanging in after so many years, it's because it isn't selling, not because it is selling.

I heard back from Cuscuna and he said it's too early for him to start deciding Connoisseur titles. There will likely be a couple more RVG issues before than and if that series grabs a title, it won't be in the Connoisseur series. Anyway, going on titles that Michael & I have talked about before, I would be very surprised if the next batch of Conns excluded the Kenny Cox two-fer and the Frank Foster date. I know he listened to the unissued Foster session and found a lot of good material in it so I would imagine he'd put this out as a Conn. Michael's also a big Andrew Hill fan so "Change" makes sense too. We just have to wait a few more months to see how it shakes out. BTW, Malcolm Addey remasters for Blue Note when they need the multi-track masters mixed to stereo. Apparently Malcolm is the guy for this. This is why he did "Passing Ships" and the Mosaic Select. They were never mixed to stereo. I don't think Blue Note re-mixes if a stereo master exists. Later, Kevin

Patriots trade Deion Branch for a draft pick. Just what we need right now, a draft pick. I hope Belichick knows what the heck he's doing! I was at that Pats game yesterday and it certainly appeared that part of Brady's throwing problems were a lack of open receivers. Well... that and having an arm in face the whol first half. Anyone else notice all of the bad calls (again) this week? The Patriots got both the benefit as well the hurt yesterday. For an example of miss, look at this shot taken as Brady was stripped of the ball in the first 12 seconds of yesterday's game:

I agree. Cuscuna has said he listened to the "trainwreck" again back when they did those "Lost Sessions" Connoisseur CDs and he said he wasn't worthy of release. Of course, he's changed his mind about sessions before. Grant Green's first session comes to mind. FWIW, I still think that with some judicious editing, that unissued 1958 Jazz Messengers session could work. Later, Kevin

Reinier says that it's coming out in the RVG series.

If one considers that Shorter was in a period of re-orientation at the time, after leaving Miles and a number of dates bordering on free playing, but which ultimately lead to the formation of Weather Report ..... Michael probably gave the tapes to Wayne to destroy or whatever. He did that with a Horace Silver session that they listened to together and when Horace voiced his displeasure, he gave him the tapes. At least this is what he told me over the phone about four years ago. Lon, I know Michael gave Horace the tapes from the "Live At Pep's" sessions, but he said he didn't do that with this unissued Shorter date. The tapes must be still in the vaults. I've heard that there is a bootleg out there but I've never seen or heard it.

Get well Paul! You have to be back home by Sunday for the Pats opener. Kevin

I was asking Michael Cuscuna about some unissued sessions in the vault and when we got to that unissued Wayne Shorter session from 1970(?) with the songtitles "A", "Bee", "Cee", etc. Michael told me that he had Wayne in to listen to the tapes to ask what he thought. Cuscuna said Shorter was disgusted with the music and said, "That's Duke Peason's idea of a fucking record," and walked out of the room. I asked Cuscuna if it was just that session or in general, and Michael said that Shorter didn't think much of Duke as a producer. Kevin

Not according to Wayne Shorter!! Wayne did not have a high opinion of Pearson's musical taste. He might be part of the reason Blue Note went down the toilet in the late 60's.

I create my own ringtones. All you need is an mp3 of the music you want as a ringtone. Use Audacity (available from www.download.com) to create a 30 second snippet from the .mp3 file using cut & paste. Export this 30 second snippet back to mp3 and copy it to your phone. I created some Jazz ones. Shorter's tenor solo on "Free For All" is one. The intro to Miles' "So What" is another. I usually leave it on the intro to the Who's "Baba O'Reilly" or the intro to The Cars' "Just What I Needed". Be warned that softer ringtones cause you to miss the call!