Kevin Bresnahan

I avoided it for a long time but today I got the dreaded double line on my test strip. So far, it's just nasal congestion and some light-headedness.

Riki - Gold (Dais). During one of Bandcamp's sales, I liked the samples of this synth-pop singer so I picked up the vinyl. Reminds me a bit of an 80's rock band.

So one of the fallouts from the COVID pandemic is the shortage of semiconductor devices. It's causing shortages for everything from washing machines to cars. Car companies are reporting down sales and they are pinning it on low inventories. Guess what? They are lying. Their sales are down because they are gouging the heck out of their customers. For example, I got an E-mail from Toyota telling me about their new EV, the bZ4X. I went to their website and "built" a fully loaded car. It came up as $51,550, which is more than I want to pay but I figured I'd see what they offer. They called me back and said that they have the car I want coming in but in red (not my favorite color at all). I asked how much... $63,000! Screw that! I ain't paying that markup. No wonder everyone is buying Teslas. They put the price right on the website and that's what you pay. It's COVID's fault... No, Toyota, it's greed.

This is one title where the CD release is indispensable for the added material. The original 10" LP only had 4 tracks. The CD version has 12 tracks. On top of that, there 15 more tracks from this date on CD as "Live At The Hi Hat Vol. 2".

The Mulligan set contains: It's not cheap these days. The only one available from a US seller is $160.

For the last few years of his life, Phil toured New England's smaller Jazz clubs with Greg Abate. Because of this, I was able to see these two go at it many times.

I don't know that this story confirms that Mobley was not having money problems nor that he had a steady place to live. Not many people will admit to either condition in life, especially the guys from Hank's generation. I bet if the interviewer asked him how he was feeling, he'd probably say he was "fine". That's all my dad ever said until the day he died.

I just finished spinning a recently acquired SRX LP from Music Matters Jazz of Art Blakey's "Free For All". From my now limited hearing ability, this LP doesn't sound a whole lot better than my old 70's era Van Gelder pressing. If anything, it seems like Kevin Gray pushed the trumpet & trombone further forward in the mix during Shorter's fiery solo on the title track, one of my favorite Jazz tracks. While their fills are prominent on the older LP & every CD version of this date, they aren't usually louder than Shorter. I guess it's a good thing I got it in trade for other MMJ LPs, so the $$ were a wash.

I wonder why that Byrd TOCJ CD was being sold as a "cut-out" (priced cheaply in the bargain bin)? I also bought that same CD for a few bucks at the Tower Records store in Cambridge, MA back in the day. That one and Walter Davis Jr's "Davis Cup" were oddballs in that cheapie bin. I remember it vividly because they were pointed out to me by a guy who I'd seen in the store before but never met. He said I had to buy them. We became friends because of those cheap TOCJ CDs, although we haven't hung out in many years now as our lives went in different directions, but I still have those CDs. In the end though, those cheap TOCJ CDs ended up costing me a bundle, as they turned me onto that series.

I read somewhere that he was homeless and living on the streets near the end, so "got through the 70's" maybe isn't quite true?

That's a different cover than the version I picked up from McPherson's website:

Did he pull a Sue Mingus and take the record with him?

I didn't realize that Brown was a child prodigy on the piano, making his recording debut at 18, "A Total Eclipse" featured none other than Herb Alpert on trumpet. The rest of the band was pretty good too. A little on the smooth side... Sounds like something that would have done well on the GRP label... much different from his work with Garrett.

She felt that she had to do something, as all of the traditional cold medications were doing nothing to alleviate the symptoms. She is feeling better today, but it is only day 2 of taking Paxlovid. I have a co-worker who took Paxlovid two weeks ago and he did start feeling lousy again a couple of days after he stopped taking it, so it does appear that Paxlovid isn't any sort of "COVID killer".

Several musicians have posted on Facebook that pianist Vernell Brown Jr has died at the age of 50. I can find no other confirmation other than these FB posts but one was from bassist Corcoran Holt, who just returned from Europe with Kenny Garrett with Brown in the piano chair and another was from Kenny Garrett's wife. I saw this band last October at the Scullers Jazz Club and he was playing great. Now playing in his memory...

My wife has been suffering the effects of COVID since last Friday. 5 of the teachers on her team, including 2 that carpool with her have also gotten it. It's gotten pretty bad at her school. I don't know how they are finding subs for all of these sick teachers. I'm still negative but it sucks having to keep apart until she gets better. We have a new puppy and because dogs can get it, she has to stay away from him too. She had her doctor prescribe the new anti-viral medication Paxlovid, which seems to be helping a bit. She says that shortly after she takes it, she gets a nasty metallic taste in her mouth. She says it's horrible. I told her she should consider herself lucky that she can still taste anything.

I asked Michael Cuscuna how Mobley's "speech" came about and he said that they tried finding him beforehand with no luck. The night of the concert, Michael was backstage when Mobley came up behind him and "tapped him on the shoulder". Michael went on to say, "The only thing I could think of was to drag him out to say a few words. He didn’t play for every possible reason: no planned performance, no horn, no chops. It would have been great but..."

I think I have that burn somewhere too... maybe I stuck it inside one of the CD cases? I remember asking Michael Cuscuna about that night and I think he said that no one could find him beforehand but on the night of the concert he just showed up. They didn't know what to do with him - they knew he couldn't play - so he just wandered up on stage and gave that speech. I don't think it was planned.

Renee Rosnes - Kinds Of Love (Smoke Sessions Records). Renee's latest release. As usual, some great compositions played by a great band, with Chris Potter on sax, flute & clarinet, Christian McBride on bass, Carl Allen on drums & Rogerio Boccato on percussian. Unusual to hear her on the Fender Rhodes on a couple of tunes. I can't remember her playing one on any of her other CDs.

I gave him a pass... wrong word. I believed him when he said that he was drugged out of his mind when he said those things. Is that a pass? Maybe. I did not defend that racist BS, that's for sure. Maybe I shouldn't have allowed his marketing crew to fool me, but he seemed sincere and went out of his way to avoid saying stuff like that again so I thought, "Maybe he was just stoned out of his mind". Now this latest shit comes out and he's sober as hell. Now I have to wonder if his "I was stoned" defense from years past was just a coverup. He's just an idiot.

According to this: https://downbeat.com/news/detail/maria-schneider-fight-the-power, "By consensus, the piano chair will go to the orchestra’s longtime accordionist, Gary Versace — a “magnificent piano player,” she said, who “knows the aesthetic of the band.”

It'll be weird without Frank Kimbrough, but Maria Schneider's orchestra should not be missed.

When I first played this, I thought it was a Coltrane tribute album. I mean clearly, "Impressions" is a tribute to Coltrane, but he certainly sounds a lot like Coltrane playing an alto on several other numbers. Man, Bartz is on fire on this CD. I had forgotten how fiercely he plays here.

The resolution of the music has less to do with how it sounds than how it was mastered. If someone remasters a recording and crushes the dynamic range by compressing the heck out of it, it won't matter if it was uploaded as a 16/44, DSD or 24/96 file - it will still sound like crap. If there are multiple versions, I would recommend listening to each version and hearing if one sounds better than the other. Just don't worry about the resolution. It means a lot less to the overall sound than you might think.

I'm really starting to have trouble listening to music by this guy these days. He's probably always been an idiot and I gave him a pass for that racist tirade years ago but his most recent BS on stage has really soured me on his music. He's certainly not getting any more of my money, that's for sure.