Kevin Bresnahan

I have not had any luck E-mailing Don Was at Blue Note. I don't think he reads all of his e-mails or mine got sent to his spam folder - which is more likely. I worked with many people who never read their E-mails, so I'm not surprised with either event.

There's been an official Blue Note club in Tokyo for decades and an unofficial one in Taipei for just as long.

They're their own reissue world over there. Who knows what they're working on. I've never had any insight into their reissue program at all.

This is true that single titles are vinyl only right now. They only seem to be doing CD for the extensive multi-disc release like the latest Kenny Burrell release. I don't think you'll be seeing any CDs of "High Frequency" or "Hipnosis" any time soon. Joe might be able to ask Don Was if there might be a chance and see if he can get a definitive answer there.

Listening to a CD that a friend gave me... not Jazz... not Rock... listed under Classical but not really. I don't know what this is, but it's enjoyable. Lucia Micarelli - Music From A Farther Room (143 Records/Reprise)

I've tried establishing a relationship with Don Was several times with no luck. Your best bet is contacting @Joe Harley. He is a member here, so if you PM him, he should get an E-mail telling him that there is a message here.

The CD being discussed here is a good one. I haven't listened to it in a while. It's too bad that it is so short. In the last year, I picked up a Monterose CD that I was unaware of, titled "Welcome Back, J.R.!", a record he recorded for a Japanese label in 1979 with Hod O'Brien on piano, Teddy Kotick on bass & Jimmy Wormsworth on drums. It's very good. It looks like Wormsworth was still playing as late as 2018. I wonder if he's still playing? Does anyone have "Albany 1990"? I never even knew this existed until I just tripped over it on discogs. It says it's self-released by J.R.

He definitely put out that John Patton Select to help Patton's widow, who was pretty deep in debt due to Big John's medical bills prior to his death. He was disappointed it didn't raise more money in the end.

I love that album. I still can't believe that it's never been on CD anywhere. Not even the Andorrans touched it. My comment about "Tiny In Swingville" was about the others in the band, not Tiny. Jerome Richardson is not a player I think of when I think swing-style Jazz. Yeah, he swings, but not that kind of swing.

Tiny Grimes - Tiny In Swingville (Prestige Swingville). Nice date that... swings. Which is a bit odd given the band, which isn't made up with players typically associated with swing.

I definitely remember Michael Cuscuna saying that he was looking for some way to get that "High Frequency" session out on CD. It's why he didn't add any of it to the CD of "Jacknife". Again, it's likely that he just ran out of time.

I ordered this yesterday. I'll see if it comes in. The place I ordered from is hit or miss, as their website is tied to their store inventory so if someone bought it yesterday before they pulled it for me, I won't get it. It's happened there before.

The first time I heard Van Halen's debut was on an 8-track tape in my buddy's car. Blew our minds, especially "Eruption".

Not my favorite Sanders era. I won't be picking this one up.

I've never heard this one. It looks like her last release recorded in the US with US-based musicians. All of her releases after this were recorded in Japan with Japanese musicians.

The Japanese released both sessions from the US LP of "Hipnosis" as standalone LPs and the earlier of of the two, that they titled "Jackie McLean Quintet", on CD, so it doesn't seem like a timing thing. I have no idea why the "Hipnosis" session has only been on CD in the Grachan Moncur Mosaic Select though. Cuscuna only added the "Jackie McLean Quintet" date to the Connoisseur CD "Vertigo", so he must've felt that was the only way he could get that material out. Maybe he planned to add those other tracks to another McLean CD but ran out of time?

A CD player plays discs in a single pass, correcting any errors "on the fly". If it can't correct it, playback is affected. Many disc drives in computers re-read bad sectors to try and correct errors that a CD can't. This is especially true when ripping CDs to create mp3/aff/flac files using a special program like Exact Audio Copy.

Van Halen - Van Heln II (MFSL). I picked up a copy of the SACD. I've never had a digital version of this before. I always loved their debut record & have the DCC gold CD of it, but their second wasn't nearly as good in my memory. Listening again and maybe my memory is being overly critical? I saw Van Halen many times back in their early days, including their first tour when I saw them in a half-filled small arena. When I saw them during the tour for VH II it was at a packed Hartford Civic Center. I went with my girlfriend who is now my wife. I remember specifically that it was in late June or very early July, as there were fireworks going off inside the venue throughout the show. I also remember the show vividly as it ended abruptly after about 3 or 4 songs. It ended because of several things, the main one being David Lee Roth did something really stupid. Apparently, someone was throwing coins at the stage during the opening song. Why? Who knows? Anyway, Roth killed the song, brought up the house lights and started raving at the crowd, demanding that the crowd "Pick up this pussy and throw him up on the stage so we can beat the shit out of him". Then he starts exhorting the crowd, saying, "C'mon you pussy! Throw money at us now! C'mon. Throw it now. I want you to throw money at us now!" As you can imagine, a bunch of stoned and drunk Van Halen fans mistook the demand and most of the crowd began raining money down on the stage. Change was bouncing off everything & the band ran off the stage under a hailstorm of coins. They were gone for about a half hour, with the crowd going nuts, fireworks blowing off and in general getting rowdier & rowdier. Eventually they came back out, played maybe 2 more songs and Roth yelled, "Fuck you all" and the lights came back on. End of show. I don't think my wife ever went to another rock concert with me again.

Joe in a suit - even back then.

I got to see Charlie Mariano play at The Regattabar in 2000, shortly before his Parkinson's made it too hard for him to perform. He was still playing great that night. It would have been a better night if Ray Santisi hadn't decided to play an electric keyboard set to "Doo Wah" mode. The left side of the keyboard made "Doo" sounds and the right made "Wah" sounds. It made for an odd night at the club with Mariano wailing away and Santisi doing that weird stuff with his keyboard. I'm still glad I got see it.

I was in Hong Kong 25 years ago and there were not many CD shops even then. I doubt there are more today.

I remember when I was first getting into Jazz and was on a Dexter Gordon kick. I read the Penguin guide and saw that they rated LTD's "Biting The Apple" as one of Dexter's highest rated sessions, so I just had to check it out. I started listening to it and the drummer caught my ear - Al Foster. I thought to myself, "I have to see this guy live". I tried going to most of the gigs in the Boston area when he was in the band. About 10 years ago, most clubs stopped listing the band members, so I probably missed a few of his stops, but I still caught him live quite a few times. I need to play this again...

Damn. He was such a great drummer. I wish I had gotten to see/hear him more frequently. He always seemed to stay around NYC.

I just learned from Tommy Smith's Facebook page that pianist Brian Kellock died last night at the age of 63. I have Tommy's duet CD recording with Brian, "Whispering of the Stars" (available on bandcamp) and it's a wonderful recording. I'll have to spin it later in Brian's memory. Tommy's Facebook post: With a broken heart, I am one of many sharing the news of Brian Kellock’s passing. Brian wasn’t just a colleague — he was family, family to many. We shared hundreds of concerts together, most often as a duo, but also in many other settings. His playing was a conversation, a joy, a deep connection — and through all those years, we created something that words can’t fully capture. Hearing of his passing last night was utterly devastating. The shock, the sadness, the sheer weight of this loss has left me, and I know so many others, without words. Brian was so deeply loved — not just for his extraordinary musical gifts, but for his humour, his warmth, his generosity of spirit. His talent was immeasurable. He had a way of playing that could break your heart one moment and swing it sky-high the next. That kind of artistry is rare. That kind of person even rarer. To those of us lucky enough to know him, play with him, laugh with him — this is a grief that runs deep. He was a supremely beautiful soul, and his absence will be felt profoundly. We will miss him forever. With love, Tommy

Now playing - Paul Desmond - Bossa Antigua (RCA). This is from the RCA box set that I don't think I've listened to in many years. Such beautiful playing here. I should remember this when I'm looking for some nice mellow bossa sounds to soothe me after a long day... mowing the lawn.