B. Clugston

No kidding. The packaging of Joe Chamber's The Almoravid is so bad, it would be an insult to all children to call it child-like. The covers look like they were done by some computer illiterate who discovered an '80s graphics program on their computer.

Song of Songs and Concert Ensemble at the Berliner Jazztage are musts. The latter was coupled with The Iron Men on a 32 Jazz release. Rosewood is pretty good, though it has a dated sound. The CD reissue also includes three songs off of For Sure! The other CBS stuff remains un-reissued other than the Mosaic set and Stepping Stones. Also, pick up Larry Young's Unity.

I'm sure the Andorrans will release this soon. A Giuffre Verve Mosaic would be welcome. Giuffre is always interesting to listen to, no matter what the content.

Here's some more info from the Gebers' site: Owing to the ongoing violation of the contract the licence agreement was cancelled without prior warning in February 2003. After an objection was filed on behalf of the licensee, action against the notice of termination was pronounced in May 2003. A judicial ruling is still pending. Independent of this decision the last four productions of the label were completed in 2004. As a result of these developments, continuation of the label is no longer possible. The lawsuit of the licensee against the summary dismissal of the licence agreement was dismissed by judgement of May 15, 2006 at first instance by the district court. The licensee Schleif filed an appeal against this decision at the Supreme Court of Appeal. During the hearing which took place on November 21, 2006 it was determined that the termination of the licence agreement without notice on February 16, 2003 was justified. The costs for both lawsuits have to be borne by the complainant Schleif. Furthermore FMP-Publishing has given her until December 31, 2008 to sell off her remaining stock of FMP CDs.

Unlike the last two finals, these are two teams that look like they will be contenders a year from now. Both Ottawa and Anaheim's younger players will only get better from the experience. Nice to see Selanne hoist the Stanley Cup.

Can't wait for the Greatest Blakey DRUM Album thread.

Odd, but may be a rights issue related to the FMP blow-up.

That's a shockingly bad logo. What a waste of money. What an inept design firm. What an out-of-control Olympic organizing committee.

This article tells of Jimmy Page's exploits in appropiating other peoples' songs. The theft of "Dazed and Confused" is quite shocking. http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/jimmypage.html

Wadada Leo Smith has played electric trumpet in recent years, mostly with Yo Miles, but also on Lake Biwa. Toshinori Kondo is another trumpeter who is often plugged in. Lol Coxhill used to play his sax through a Gibson Maestro fuzzbox.

Speaking of stolen horns, this from Leo Records: "A double CD recorded at the Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Art four days after the series of performances at Phonomanie VIII in Ulrichsberg, Austria (Leo Records CD LR 468/471). On the inside photo one can see Anthony Braxton playing bass saxophone. However, very unusually, Anthony only payed alto saxophone in Glasgow. His rare f-alto was stolen from the luggage on the trip from USA to Austria, and his baggage with his sopranino and soprano was lost on the way from Austria to Glasgow. It was delivered only after the performance. Such events could devastate any musician, but not Braxton. The members of his trio are Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet, flugelhorn and trumpbone, and Tom Crean on guitar."

The New York Times is a dinosaur. Some good things sometimes, but too many stories written in a pompous neo-baroque style so the writers (and select readers) can feel self-important.

Uri Caine's recent Mozart album is superb. Also a big fan of the live 2-CD Mahler, Toys and the surprisingly unbombastic Wagner.

Those Mosaic, CD Universe and Downtown Music Gallery orders have never felt so good.

The other two discs are great! Sonny Dallas does just fine. Konitz' work may even be more interesting than on the released disc.

Many of them aren't. HatHut has gone through many design schticks over the years. The Ra gets a new look every times it's reissued. Dark Tree was never on LP, IIRC.

Another factor is that so many CDs aren’t worth owning from a packaging perspective. A younger colleague of mine bought a Dave Matthews Band CD a year or so back and upon finding the packaging to be skimpy, wondered why he didn’t download. So much pop and rock CD booklets are filled with nothing more than vapid lyrics and artists thanking their creator. Tool is an example of group with got-to-have-it packaging (provided you like them).

Bound to be a backlash by the generation after the next. 78s will be in again.

Which Lacy got "less music"? Are you thinking of NY Capers & Quirks? Those two LPs do indeed have more music to offer. So far, no prior compact disc reissue to my knowledge has been trimmed down for re-reissue on hatOLOGY. That and Cliches (nee Prospectus) were shorn of several tracks on their CD editions, the latter due to tape storage issues. The oddity is that in this day and age of CDs being reissued with bonus tracks, here's a case of the opposite. A minor grumble, however, as Werner has documented some important musical milestones over the years.

The Braxton is excellent. The Lake is good, but I don't spin it too much. Nice to see more of the back catalogue back in print, though the Kennel stuff is getting the 'new issue, less music' treatment that a couple of Steve Lacy reissues and one Sun Ra date got from HatHut.

So some fat hick kid kills a rare beast.

I bought it a few months after it came out at a Boxing Day blowout sale. I was only interested in the first 2 CDs, but Discs 3 to 10 with Sco are pretty good, even though there’s not much difference between the respective afternoon and evening sets. Discs 11 and 12 are interesting for the presence of Robben Ford’s bluesy guitar, but the minute the second keyboardist joined, the music got bludgeoned by cheesy synths. I’ve never bothered listening to some of the later discs.

"Complete" Bitches Brew Document: New Music From Russia on Leo

Those Diz-Sam Rivers Quintet dates on WCKR were great. I like a lot of Dizzy's small groups of the '80s. One off-the-beaten-path Dizzy date I like is the Village Vanguard jam with Chick Corea, Pepper Adams, Ray Nance, Elvin Jones, etc.

No shit!