Kevin Bresnahan

Guitarist Phil Upchurch died November 23rd. He was 84. Looking at his extensive discography, I'm surprised I saw him up on a stage playing Jazz several times, with the last time most likely being the only time I managed to see Jimmy Smith live. His obituary almost glosses over his Jazz credentials to focus on his hits with Michael Jackson. https://variety.com/2025/music/news/phil-upchurch-dead-guitarist-composer-1236599436

I was only able to see them live once on their lone tour of the east coast a looonnnng time ago. They were great then too. If these shows had happened during the summer, I might've made the trip one of the bennies of being retired - but not just after Thanksgiving. Also, I was under the impression that these were anniversary celebrations and not an indication that the band was back to doing live shows on a regular basis. Last I heard, they were on a bit of a hiatus. They haven't released anything since 2017.

Which eventually (inevitably?) morphed into a 38 CD set in 2019. If you want to hear that, get your wallet out as it was very limited and goes for big bucks today.

JD Allen - Love Letters (The Ballad Sessions) (Savant). I like ballad dates for listening while eating dinner. This one is very well done. Pianist Brandon McCune is a new name for me (though it looks like he's been on the scene for quite a while) and he plays very nicely here. Another name to watch for I guess. Weird that the subtitle is "The Ballad Sessions" since it was recorded in one day. I haven't seen Allen play live in a long time. There was a time when he seemed to come through Boston 2 or 3 times a year.

Mags is going through a tough time right now with the death of his wife. The holidays can be the toughest time of the year.

I seem to remember those Firestone & Goodyear LPs in my parents' record stash. My brother might have all of those Christmas records. I was offered them when my parents passed but they were very heavily played on an old console record player, probably with a ceramic cartridge and usually with them stacked 3 or 4 LPs high. I actually did take one home - Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" but it was so scratched up, I could barely hear the music. Record care was not a thing back then.

When I was a kid, my parents played Mitch Miller & the Gang's "Holiday Sing Along With Mitch" quite a bit. I remember singing along with my family, although singing might not be the right word... more like screaming along with Mitch.

The Go Fund Me to help Richie is still live if you feel like helping him: https://www.gofundme.com/f/coming-together-for-the-great-jazz-pianist-richie-beirach

I'm still surprised that this 2-CD set has never been reissued. It's virtually gone on the market. There's been one for sale on discogs for crazy money for several years and the history shows only one sold. You would think Joey's estate would put this out. I think this year I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy the mp3 downloads from Amazon.

Eric Alexander & Vincent Herring - Spli Decision (Smoke Sessions). Excellent live date from these two sax players.

I really like "Night Lights" but his date with Webster gets a lot of play time in my house. I have the Mobile Fidelity gold CD version and the 2CD "complete" version. I tend to pull out the MoFi disc more often these days.

I saw Hill with his big band at Birdland and I had him sign this LP for me. It's hard to photograph something in a frame covered with glass.

I just ordered a copy of this myself. I think I have a different cover though.

I have the OJC CD and the 1996 LP released by Analogue Productions, which sounds pretty great, so I have no need to pick up this new one. I agree that the music is very nice. I don't agree on getting by the cheesecake cover. I always got a chuckle from it.

While "Live" on Pye has not been reissued on CD, the Ronnie Scott's Jazz House label did release 3 additional tracks from that live date on a CD titled, "Playing Changes".

Levy was one of the scummiest of scumbags. I don't know that I'd want to read a book about his life.

Stan Getz - Focus (Verve). I somehow managed to pick up a nice deep groove original along the way. This is my favorite "with strings" Jazz LP.

I've been running low on storage space for a while now, so it's almost a good thing that Blue Note took this weird stance on their hot cuts. They've saved me a bunch of money.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/oklahoman/name/hugh-walker-obituary?id=27591505 For those that don't want to follow the link: Hugh Walker Obituary Memorial services for Hugh Walker, Jr. will be at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, January 9, 2008, at Temple and Sons Funeral Home, 2801 N. Kelly Ave., Oklahoma City, OK. Hugh was born in Purcell, OK on November 22, 1942 to Hugh and Mae Ella Hill Walker and died on Tuesday, January 15, 2007, at Sweetbriar Nursing Center. He grew up and attended schools in Oklahoma City where he discovered his musical talent. He started with the French horn and later discovered his favorite, the drums. Years later, he stated, 'I love those drums like Michelangelo loved his marble.' After graduating from Douglass High School in 1960, Hugh left Oklahoma City to pursue his musical career. He played and recorded with many local, national, and international jazz greats. He was preceded in death by his mother and father and his youngest brother, Glen. He is survived by his son, Hamza (Stephanie) of Chicago, IL; daughters, Rhonda Richardson of Baltimore, MD, Nyemah of North Hollywood, CA; their mother, Rosetta of Baltmore, MD; and grandchildren, Eva and Milo of Chicago, IL. He is also survived by brothers, Wilbur (Tomycine) of Oklahoma City, William (Helga) of San Antonio, TX; sisters, Huretta Dobbs and Joyce (William) Dunlap of Oklahoma City; special cousin, Don Miller of Spencer, OK; many nieces, nephews, aunts, cousins, and many friends. He loved and was loved by many. I found it a little odd that they held the funeral almost a full year after he died.

If you're OK with downloads, Urbie Green's "A Cool Yuletide" is pretty awesome. The only negative is that it's very short.

I already had the Pure Pleasure LP at that point and I agree that it sounds fine.

I changed over to that myself after having Blue Note refuse to fix a couple of very hot cuts in their LP reissues. When they acknowledged it on their Tone Poet of "Picture of Heath" and basically said, "Sucks to be you", that was my cue. This is how Blue Note addressed the issue: We’re aware of the complaints about the Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of Chet Baker & Art Pepper “Picture of Heath” from some customers who are experiencing skipping on side two, while for most it plays fine. We’ve looked into it and have determined there is no defect with the pressing. It is however a very dynamic recording and Joe Harley & Kevin Gray don’t use any limiting or compression in their mastering approach. That can expose the need for some adjustments to be made with particular turntable set-ups. For instance, we’ve found that customers who adjusted their tracking force and anti-skate (even slightly reducing both), and made sure their turntable is level, no longer had playback issues. We hope this helps!

Groove Holmes had no problem having women on his covers.

Interesting arrangement, but man, that reverb! What the heck was the recording engineer thinking with adding that much echo? It makes it sound like they're playing in a huge cave. It has an almost "lounge music" sound.

I was barely 20 when Stitt stopped playing live and much more likely to be found at a rock concert than a Jazz club.