March 2003

I’ve started a new policy of providing updates to earlier columns submitted by readers. All I ask from anyone submitting new information is to please refer to the original month and year the relevant Q&A were published so others will have an easier time accessing the initial question. When possible I will doublecheck the new information provided, but I believe my readers are a savvy lot and usually know what they’re talking about when providing updates. Though all of us, including this columnist, overlooks a source or is just plain wrong once in awhile!

I’ve also had a number of requests to burn out of print LPs or CDs. Because that violates copyright laws, that is something I don’t do, based on the advice of my attorney. Nor do I keep track of music downloading services of any kind.

It is impossible to begin researching and dealing with all possible sources for out of print jazz LPs and CDs. Do you have a favorite web site that you've dealt with which hasn't been mentioned in this column? Let me know about it, with a contact name (if possible). If they choose to advertise in Ask Ken, I'll be glad to send you your choice of CD from a couple hundred or so titles I have available for trade. I will be keeping a dated roster of referrals, so only the first person referring a site to me is eligible, while sites mentioned in my previous columns (for example: Euclid Records, Half.com, Cadence/North Country Distributors, audiophile.com, Dusty Groove, and a few others) will not qualify anyone for a CD.

Update from Bill Cook in Centreville, VA:

You may have received many responses to help out the last gentleman in your February column, Rudy, who asked about the Louis Armstrong piece that opened Ken Burn's JAZZ. But I checked the DVD and found it was actually STARDUST (not Deep Purple) which was recorded in 1931 and is available on Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man on Columbia/Legacy.

Thanks for a great column every month, Ken.

Bill:

Thanks for your additional information and your complement, as well!

Loretta Cormier from San Antonio, TX wrote:

I'm interested in locating a big band jazz album by Helen Forrest titled "Sweeter As the Years Go By." Any information will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Loretta:

Several Half.com dealers have copies of Helen Forrest’s ‘Sweeter as the Years Go By’ on a Jasmine CD reissue. Finding the original record may be a bit tougher.

Jim Rapp wrote:

While on a business trip from Buffalo last week. Yes, I drove into the Mid-Atlantic states last Sunday night for the big storm. I heard a Jazz artist on local Philadelphia Public Radio touted as being the next big thing on the Jazz scene. I believe his name was Peter Siriani (Sabitini ???). He is supposed to have an album out in March. Any clues?

Jim:

There's a teenaged pianist by the name of Peter Cincotti whose debut CD is due out on Concord in March. I picked up an advance copy at IAJE in January and haven't gotten to it...yet.

Steve from Columbus, OH wrote:

How many records did Miles Davis make for Prestige Records?

Steve:

Because of all the various reissues, it gets a little confusing to count them. In all, Miles Davis recorded 17 different sessions for Prestige, which you can buy in one boxed set "Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings'). I'm not sure where to put the count as to original LPs excluding the various compilations.

Elliot Forman from Rochester, NY wrote:

Was Stan Kenton Jazz Party on Creative World 1014 ever really released? It may have been something live and not a reissue of a Capitol LP.

Elliot:

I have tried searching reference source I can think of but I have no trace of a release by Stan Kenton under that title. Maybe a Kenton fan who reads this column has better information.

Chris Williams from Dallas, TX wrote:

Can you please tell me where to find, and/or have CD's made of the following:

Dexter Gordon's Manhattan Symphony

Abbey Lincoln's Golden Lady, or is it Painted Lady with Archie Shepp?

Archie Shepp's Painted Lady

Archie Shepp's Black Standards

Chris:

Dexter Gordon’s Manhattan Symphonie hasn’t been reissued in the U.S., but it has appeared in Europe. I’ve struck out at finding a source for it, though I ran across one which I picked up somewhere in the U.S. within the past couple of years.

Abbey Lincoln’s Golden Lady is a long unavailable LP on the defunct Inner City label. Try euclidrecords.com, dustygroove.com, or ebay.

Painted Lady gets a little confusing. There’s an Abbey Lincoln/Archie Shepp collaboration on an ITM CD called Painted Lady, and I found evidence of another CD on EPM, Painted Lady in Paris, which has Abbey Lincoln, but I’m not sure whether or not Shepp is present, or if it is the same CD at all.

I haven’t run across even a mention of an Archie Shepp title called Black Standards. If anyone knows of it, drop me a line!

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