Bill Nelson

But first -- the station's Business Mgr. will send someone with a fat black magic marker to write 'WFIU' across the faces on the front covers.

Always dug Langhorne's contributions to Tom Rush's best album, 'The Circle Game', 1968. Everything worked on that LP and Langhorne sure plays a hot guitar.

Similar to Chewy, I also sold my copy of 'Mingus Trio'. The music wasn't really happenin' and Jubilee's pressings are among the worst.

I'm with Dmitry. Sangrey's constant posting of RIP's has become tiresome.

Julius' soft sell approach to furniture sales: "Now what's it gonna take to make you buy this damn dinette set?"

Got a $5.95 hardbound from the 'Bards and tried to dent the dense, post-doc academic writing. It's chunky style, like reading McLuhan. Haven't touched it since, as I'm not a masochist unless the pay is good.

The multitude of award-winners on the boat are like the sea waters outside -- full of swells.

As the topic involves the operations of Morris Levy's Roulette label, it's advisable not to ask too many questions.

In Feb.1969, two sets by the James Cotton Blues Band provided me with my first night-out gig. I was 15 and my parents had dropped me off at the Univ. of Rhode Island. Cotton was performing as the opener of a Verve Forecast show with Richie Havens as headliner. As Havens was 90-minutes late, it gave every member of Cotton's band -- including the roadie -- an opportunity to stretch. Cotton was a great leader and kept me riveted.

1708 Bennie Green - Soul Stirrin' ("vocals Green & Gonzales") b/w 'That's All' 1868 Lou Donaldson - Funky Mama (pts. 1 and 2) 1918 Lee Morgan - The Rumproller (pts. 1 & 2)

That would make Baby Face a collateral damage victim of un-friendly fire.

One of the best examples of having a record producer with clout at a major label -- Brad McCuen. Within a 12-month span, he recorded and released four RCA LPs by the Burton quartet (all with Coryell): Duster rec. April 18-20, 1967 Genuine Tong Funeral rec. July, 1967 Lofty Fake Anagram rec. August 15-17, 1967 Quartet in Concert rec. Feb. 23, 1968 (at Carnegie Hall) The only personnel change in the above was after 'Duster' -- Bob Moses replaced Roy Haynes

Since 1970, my favorite has been 'Spaces' -- the LP of shared artistry among gifted, soon-to-be-famous peers of Coryell's. A couple years later, the jazz fusion groups of McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra), Vitous (Weather Report), Cobham (Spectrum), and Corea (Return To Forever) would be filling large concert halls. I suspect that some of Coryell's moodiness and inconsistent recordings resulted from bitterness and envy at their success and heavy promotion from major record labels. All while Coryell was still playing clubs and releasing LPs on Vanguard, an independent folkie label trying to be hip. I can hear Coryell saying, "C'mon people, give me some creds. I was the first jazz-rock guitarist on the scene in '66 with The Free Spirits and was in on Gary Burton's jazz fusion 'Duster' album in '67." And he'd be right.

Yep, in the early 1970's when Maynard was hitting big on Columbia, Bob Shad re-issued three of MF's mid-60's albums -- and gave 'em new titles. Of the 122 releases in Mainstream's MRL series, about 20 are repackages or reissues of 50's and 60's recordings which Shad still had rights to. That leaves us with 100 LPs, most of which were risk-taking, original efforts of artists who were passed-over by the major labels (having deigned them unworthy and unprofitable).

Mina and 'The 10th Victim' from 1966 notwithstanding, the primary focus here is on Mainstream's MRL 300 series of contemporary jazz, which ran from 1971 to 1976. As for the huge orange 'distributed by Roulette' stickers, I didn't see them until 1980 or later. Bob Shad must've needed Mo' Levy's help moving out his warehouse stock at near-list price instead of dispatching them as cut-outs.

The guilty pleasure of many (such as Fred Schneider, lead singer of the B-52s) who appreciate good showmanship. As Will Friedwald writes in his 'Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers'*: "When Buddy Greco walks out on stage... he throws in at least one minor move calculated to give a little 'zetz' to his listeners, a little dig, a twist, something to give us pause... Yet even if he starts by teasing us with a little minor annoyance, he's more than able to deliver the goods. No performer works harder at pleasing his crowds." * Pantheon Books, New York, 2010, pg. 197

Dept. of Consumer Affairs Alert: The 1965 Cadet release makes no mention of prior issue release on the jacket's front or back (see Chewy-C-C-B-B's photo). I should know, as I got into a mild argument at a record show when selling my Cadet LP as an 'original'.

For all those sports fans with score cards, the original 'Night At the Vanguard', (Argo LPS-655, 1959) was reissued in 1965 on the Cadet label. It was re-titled 'Man At Work' and given a new cover. Perhaps Cadet/Argo wanted to cash-in because of Burrell's hit with 'Guitar Forms' on Verve.

My sentiments as bigbandrecord above. Last year, I gave away my Nelson box (to a young arranger). As I already own the LPs of Nelson (alone) leading his big bands up to 'Sound Pieces' -- it took one listen to the entire box set to realize I didn't need his stretches into the 'Kennedy Dream', Shirley Scott, Jimmy Smith, and Pee Wee Russell.

Whaddya say,'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off' Probably not... "but it's been real".

Morning of inauguration: over eggs and ham, I played 'Freak Out' by Mothers of Invention (original 2-LP set on Verve) Then I got outta the house to get away from TV. Took a bunch of my de-listed collection LPs to a non-franchise thrift store, where I shelved them myself. (It bugs me when the 'volunteer workers' siphon the good stuff before it gets put out in the bins.) To be sure, there's wise guy 'flippers' everywhere. And the most blatant hustler of 'em all just became President.

When his chops are up, there's probable cause he deserves a hearing. If he takes the stand and proceeds to offend the sitting party, the presiding club manager may well move for a dismissal or issue a restraining order.

Really terrible for Tower of Power's current bassist and original drummer to get clocked by a downtown Oakland train. In 1971, Dave Garibaldi emerged from the Bay Area scene as the hottest white drummer of the funk, starting with TOP's 'East Bay Grease'. The following year, they got signed to Warners and upon releasing 'Bump City', they 'donated' a few tracks to a 2-LP comp on Blue Thumb in recognition of Abe 'Voco' Keshkarian, the legendary FM underground DJ of SF. (The un-groovy Warners had Blue Thumb remove the 'Tower of Power ' name from the outer jackets.) Anyway, here's a killer track from the above, with Dave Garibaldi laying down an incredible drum breakbeat:

Wet Blanket Dept. : A glance this morning at Elusive Disc's JVC XRCD jazz titles shows all thirteen $14.99 sale items have returned to the original $29.99 price.