Kevin Bresnahan

Check this article out: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/ar...conductor_in_us If these conductors, many of whom simply stand up there swinging a baton and don't play a note, can get paid as much as $3.5 million, why the hell shouldn't Marsalis, who actually writes music and plays an instrument, get $1 million? I've seen the Boston Pops several times. I was always amazed at how Keith Lockhart's baton never seemed to be on the beat, nor did the band seem to follow any of his cues. His baton "swooosh" is flamboyantly wacky, often getting the crowd to laugh. And he gets $739,894 for that? I'm sorry, but you guys are off base here. The "stars" of the top orchestras, and JALC is a top orchestra making plenty of money, get paid well. Why shouldn't Wynton Marsalis?

I was once in the middle of a very serious meeting at work. All of the big hitters from the research group were brought in to try and solve a tricky problem we were having with a product. I presented a paper and it launched an in-depth discussion of what we needed to do from there. As I sat there, my boss slid a paper over to me. Thinking it was something he wanted me to bring up, I read it. It said, "Barry's breath could kill flies". I broke out in hysterics and everyone in the room thought I needed to be sedated. I can't tell you how embarrassed I felt at that meeting. But, I'm still laughing as I type this. It still cracks me up just thinking about it. I can only imagine a similar thing happened here. After all, we can't see his face so we have no idea what he was looking at while that tragic scene was show to viewers.

These numbers are pretty typical. Look at the peers. Several of them pay just as much or more for their president. I'm sure that the others pay less to their artistic director because they don't perform as often. Marsalis plays weekly there. Besides, check the revenues! JALC made $12.8 million last year. Some of the others lost money. All these numbers show is that Wynton's part of corporate America. He's getting a lot less than some of the VPs at companies making $12 million and a whole lot less than most presidents at those companies.

These are V.S.O.P. live dates.

Are my eyes deceiving me?? "Hybrid"? No way! SACD hybrids? I'm there. How many can I afford... hmmm. Kevin

I was checking out the new releases over at ejazzlines.com, and I saw this one with Cybill Shepherd and Stan Getz. Weird. Knowing that Cybill is one of Aric's favs...

Tongue in cheek? He heard it and really hated it? Who knows. Anyway, Michael's reply was, "The tapes for that session have yet to turn up". Alright, who stole them!

Call made - message left - don't expect an answer that will make anyone happy. With that song list? Kevin

Homer looks like he's trying for a "ringer".

Two Buck Chuck is a product of the Bronco Wineries. This corporate mega-wine maker sources grapes from wherever they are cheapest but they almost always blend whatever they get. It's true that the wine varies from year to year and maybe TBC is in one of their good years. Bronco sells their wines by the bottle, box and jug under a lot of different names. The best known one is probably Fetzer. If you do the math on a 3 Liter box of Fetzer Chardonnay, it comes out to about $2.50 for 750 ml. Trader Joe's just got the Bronco Winery to give them the same price as Fetzer got for their boxed wine but they got it in 750 ml bottles. Same wine. If you really like TBC, just but a box of Fetzer. It'll keep longer. BTW, this stuff isn't horrid, but it isn't very complex either. Many wine drinkers want that complexity. Wine tasters at The California State Fair probably wanted something to wash the taste of the fried dough out of their mouth. I have not been impressed with TBC's Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chard is OK, as is the Merlot, but not the Cab.

Denon has three 5-disc CD changers, the DCM-27 ($249), DCM-290 ($249) and DCM-390 ($349). The DCM-390 adds an HDCD decoder, which is a nice feature. Denon's reputation is still pretty good.

What, has political correctness affected even old dirty jokes? The lines are: A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland A week before Kennedy was shot, he was *in* Marilyn Monroe. Badda-boom!!

I know someone who works in a Rotel customer service office, and she says they get a lot of the Rotel 5 disc changers returned as defective. This is completely opposite of Rotel's amps & receivers. They rarely get those back.

Lately, Michael has been giving me PCN numbers for upcoming releases. Somehow, I think this makes them more "official". This is what he sent me: August 21, 2007 Paul Chambers – Bass On Top ICPN: 0094639318223 DICPN: 0094639318353 Walter Davis, Jr. – Davis Cup ICPN: 0094639276622 DICPN: 0094639276554 Duke Jordan – Flight To Jordan ICPN: 0094639275922 DICPN: 0094639275854 Lee Morgan – Vol. 2 ICPN: 0094639277926 DICPN: 0094639277858 Lee Morgan – Vol. 3 ICPN: 0094639274628 DICPN: 0094639274550 Ike Quebec – Bossa Nova Soul Samba ICPN: 0094639278329 DICPN: 0094639278251 September 11, 2007 Lou Donaldson – Gravy Train ICPN: 0094639277322 DICPN: 0094639277254 Kenny Dorham – Afro Cuban ICPN: 0094639274420 DICPN: 0094639274352 Herbie Hancock – Takin’ Off ICPN: 0094639275724 DICPN: 0094639275656 The Magnificent Thad Jones ICPN: 0094639276820 DICPN: 0094639276752 Lee Morgan / Delightfulee ICPN: 0094639277025 DICPN: 0094639276950 Baby Face Willette – Face To Face ICPN: 0094639318025 DICPN: 0094639318155 Sept. 25, 2008 Grant Green – The Latin Bit ICPN: 0094639317424 DICPN: 0094639317554 Lee Morgan – Candy ICPN: 0094639317622 DICPN: 0094639317752 Lee Morgan – Indeed ICPN: 0094639278121 DICPN: 0094639278053 Jimmy Smith – Midnight Special ICPN: 0094639277520 DICPN: 0094639277452 Jimmy Smith – Back At The Chicken Shack ICPN: 0094639277728 DICPN: 0094639277650

Happy birthday Jack!

The only thing Michael tells me is what the whole world knows: CD sales are plummeting. Experts have predicted that when 2007 comes to a close, CD sales will have dropped 15-20% from (the already low numbers of) last year. 2008 is supposed to see another 20-25% drop. Since Jazz CD sales are normally low, I can't imagine the bean counters will allow Blue Note to spend a penny for future RVG CDs. RVG downloads maybe, but not CDs. If they don't sell, the beancounters don't let you issue them.

A few posts?? A few hours of posts?? Pffffffttt, that's nothing! You should have seen some of the stuff, lost forever, that a lot of us posted onto the Blue Note bulletin board. Then there's also all the stuff that vanished into the ether when www.jazzcentralstation.com closed. Or even all of the stuff that was on the original Speakeasy at Jazz Corner (more than just what's in their "Archives"). Organissimo's been very good at retaining a history. This board is one of the better ones. Kevin

PLEASE tell me that's a typo! Ha! Good catch. Sorry for the fright. I have to wonder if the RVG series will even be around by Sept. 2008.

Michael Cuscuna sent me the list of the latest RVGs, scheduled for August & September. I don't know if anyone's even buying these things any more, but just in case anyone cares... August 21, 2007 Paul Chambers – Bass On Top Walter Davis, Jr. – Davis Cup Duke Jordan – Flight To Jordan Lee Morgan – Vol. 2 Lee Morgan – Vol. 3 Ike Quebec – Bossa Nova/Soul Samba September 11, 2007 Lou Donaldson – Gravy Train Kenny Dorham – Afro Cuban Herbie Hancock – Takin’ Off Thad Jones - The Magnificent Thad Jones Lee Morgan - Delightfulee Baby Face Willette – Face To Face Sept. 25, 2007 Grant Green – The Latin Bit Lee Morgan – Candy Lee Morgan – Indeed Jimmy Smith – Midnight Special Jimmy Smith – Back At The Chicken Shack Some good-sounding CDs in here. "Midnight Special" and "Back at the Chicken Shack" sound particularly good on the Japanese versions. Later, Kevin

Let's see if this works. So far, I have been unable to post.

Unfortunately, Plextor has decided to exit the CD/DVD burner market.

It all spends. Looks like an interesting first batch. We'll see what transpires. MG Yeah, but what will happen when Lonehill puts out one of these Dusty Groove titles? Will they sell it side by side with their own version? It just doesn't make sense for Verve to turn a blind eye to Dusty Groove's business practices now that they're working with them as a reissue label. At a minimum, they should have put it in their license that they can no longer sell bootleg material. Right now, Dusty Groove is selling several Lonehill/Gambit/Bootlegs 'R Us titles that are straight rip-offs of Universal product. It's a no-brainer to insist that they stop this per contract.

I'm surprised that a major label is licensing their stuff to Dusty Groove. A 20 second peek at their website would show that Dusty Groove sells every bootleg that the Andorran pirates put out. For this illegal activity, they get rewarded with licenses?

No takers at $65? Lowering the price to $50 plus shipping. Isn't anyone looking for a decent player for their car? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

If Tedy Bruschi can return to playing football, you should be able to join us at the keyboard! :) Good luck on your recovery. Kevin