mgraham333

My order from Vintage Vinyl came in - first time ordering from them. Good experience. Would do it again.

By Roger Friedman: You can't really tell from the posters or ads what the new Steven Spielberg movie "The Terminal" is supposed to be. Is it a comedy or a drama? Is it existential, philosophical or satirical? On Friday, I said the movie scored high with test audiences, and that a circled 85.7 indicated a B-plus grade. But DreamWorks' Diana Loomis pointed out to me that "The Terminal" actually scored a 90, which was also circled. "That's an A, the way you grade," she said cheerfully. Well, last night I managed to wedge myself into a very small, private screening of "The Terminal" that was held for producers of TV talk shows who are going to be interviewing the cast this week. (The big screening is set for Thursday, and a premiere is being held in Los Angeles prior to the June 18 opening.) Conan O'Brien was there in the back row wearing a baseball cap. The lovely Sue Solomon attended from "The View." I guess we were all the people who didn't get invites to The Tony Awards! So, what is "The Terminal?" In a nutshell, it's a Christmas movie delivered to us in June. It's very essentially Spielberg, and in the end it carries the message of his most beloved movies: it's about trying to get home. Tom Hanks, bouncing back nicely from his bizarre turn in "The Ladykillers," is really terrific as Viktor Navorski, a refugee from a Russian satellite country who winds up without a passport when his government is overthrown during the course of his flight. Victor arrives at a JFK-like airport in New York and is unable to clear customs. He is stateless, and stuck in a diplomatic Twilight Zone. Unlike the man whose story "The Terminal" is loosely based on, however, Viktor is apolitical. He has simply come from Eastern Europe to New York on a personal mission. He plans on returning to his homeland when the mission is completed. When the point of all this is finally revealed at the three-quarter mark you will either be moved or confused. I have to tell you, I thought it was poignant and worked. In fact, it was kind of genius. I won't tell you the whole thing, but it all has to do with the famous 1958 photograph, "A Great Day in Harlem," and jazz great Benny Golson. Much of the film revolves around Hanks, whose character speaks a Russian dialect and very little English. The performance is certainly Oscar-worthy and among his best work. (It's a lot better than the dreadful "Cast Away," although Hanks' character here does share some of the same characteristics, at least in the beginning when he's stranded in the airport. A tin can of Planters Peanuts plays the role of Wilson the Soccer Ball in this movie, except this time there's a point.) It helps, too, that Hanks doesn't showboat around in "The Terminal," but adds himself to the cast of wonderful character actors including Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana and the remarkable Indian actor Kumar Pallana. Unlike some actors, Hanks, who's getting near 50, has allowed himself to age naturally. His face is a little puffy and there is a distinct piece of luggage under one eye. He is not what kids would call buff; in fact, he is now officially lumpy. All of this physicality adds to his character. His Viktor is extremely likeable and human, which is extremely important in order for Spielberg to sell this idea. There's a lot to say about "The Terminal," all of it good. For one thing, the set, which looks like a very real airline terminal, was built in an airport hanger. For frequent fliers there are plenty of good inside jokes, too, and recognizable bizarre nuances. (Romantic rendezvous are made at the Sbarro. Existence in the airport is almost more surreal than in the chalk-marked town of "Dogville" in Lars von Trier's movie.) My favorite scene, though, will always be a candlelight dinner set up in the terminal for Tom's character by airport workers with Catherine Zeta-Jones. (She plays the same stewardess-having-an-affair-with-a-married-pilot that Jackie Bisset played in "Airport" some three decades ago.) Two things about the dinner: First, they are presented with two choices for their main course — the chicken or the pasta — as if airplane dining is normal. Second, Spielberg tries his hand at a secondary visual joke for the first time I can think of, with the brilliant Pallana showing off his circus skills as the evening's entertainment. It's the kind of non sequitur Woody Allen invented, Mel Brooks expanded on and the Zucker brothers perfected. It's kind of nice to see Spielberg take a crack at it, and succeed. Source: Fox411

Thanks for the heads up Jazzmessenger. I just ordered: Baby Face Willette – Face to Face Ike Quebec – It Might As Well Be Spring from their website.

PM: on $18 TOCJ-4041 Tina Brooks, True Blue (no OBI)

NEW YORK — MTV rarely covers jazz, but Jamie Cullum is a different story. A recent "You Hear It First" segment on MTV News included an enthusiastic thumbs-up from superproducer Pharrell Williams , who was so blown away by Cullum's jazz version of his hip-hop hit "Frontin"' that he pronounced the 24-year-old British singer-pianist "definitely our kind of people." In Britain, the original new talent has enjoyed unexpected, Norah Jones-like success with his major label debut, "Twentysomething." The CD has sold more than 1 million copies since its October release, making Cullum the top-selling British jazz artist ever. It was his first release under a million-pound recording deal with Universal that garnered tabloid headlines like "Who Wants to Be a Jazz Millionaire?" Cullum, who infuses his jazz with punk, heavy metal and hip-hop influences, has now invaded America with a resequenced version of "Twentysomething" (Verve) and a monthlong tour. His CD has climbed to No. 2 on Billboard's contemporary jazz chart, right behind Norah Jones' "Feels Like Home." While Cullum and Jones both cross genres and generations, Cullum says "the only similarities are the fact that we both play piano and we sing." Jones is subtle and introverted, a well-schooled musician who blends jazz with soul, country, blues and folk. Cullum is precocious, extroverted, largely self-taught -- and in love with pop music. "When I play jazz I try to imbue that kind of urgency and edginess of pop," Cullum told The Associated Press during an interview in the lounge bar of his midtown hotel, shortly before taping an appearance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." "For me, jazz is the widest platform possible to do everything I want to do," Cullum said. "I can pull from so many camps when I'm playing jazz ... from rock 'n' roll, pop, hip-hop, dance and classical. When I was playing rock 'n' roll, it was much more rigid. ... In jazz, I can be different every night." Cullum's CD hardly captures the excitement of his live performances. He is no "scooby-doo" style crooner, but more like "Scrappy Doo" -- energetic, feisty, risky, a 5-foot-4 bantamweight with spiky brown hair and the attitude of a punk rocker or hip-hopper. His music isn't the only thing that sets him apart from retro, suit-wearing young jazz crooners like Peter Cincotti or Michael Buble. He shows up for an interview wearing a T-shirt, paint-speckled blue jeans and scruffy sneakers -- similar to what he wears on stage. Cullum says he gets so hot and sweaty while performing, he'd feel "too encumbered" in a suit. He did make an exception last summer, donning a rented tuxedo for a private party at St. James' Palace in London marking the 50th anniversary of the queen's coronation, which was attended by Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and other royals. "There was a pretty strict dress code and I didn't want to get my head cut off," Cullum laughed. With vocals mixing the technique of jazz singers like Harry Connick Jr. and Kurt Elling with the raw, gravelly tone of Kurt Cobain, Cullum shies away from crooning. "I like to sing those songs but I always associate crooning with an older person," he said. Cullum opened a May set at Joe's Pub in Greenwich Village standing on top of the piano as he launched into his opening number, Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out Of You." He then stood at the piano, pounding out the melody and slamming the keyboard with his foot to accentuate the word "kick." On "I Could Have Danced All Night," he slapped out the beat on the wooden piano frame and played inside the piano. He may be shaking up the jazz scene, but in some ways Cullum is a throwback to an older, pre-bebop generation of jazz musicians who saw themselves as entertainers and embraced the popular music of their day. He cannot read music, relying more on his natural instincts. "Jazz used to be about dancing, drinking and girls, but the first time I went to a jazz club all I saw were old men and no girls," said Cullum. "So what does a 17-year-old make of that? "I'm not trying to change jazz," said Cullum. "I'm just trying to make music that I feel comfortable with ... and that I could relate to as a young man." "Jazz is beautiful, melodic, catchy, cool music and it can be popular if it's just presented in a way that doesn't always try to pretend it's better than everything else." Cullum, who grew up in rural England, comes from a musically inclined family, but never took to formal training. His biggest musical influence has been his brother Ben, a songwriter and dance music producer who now lives near him in London. As a child, Cullum started on piano, but switched to guitar because he loved its powerful sound. When he got back to piano as a teenager, he was into loud, percussive boogie-woogie and rock 'n' roll piano. Cullum, who played in grunge and hip-hop bands as a teenager, says he discovered jazz through the "back door." Listening to heavy metal, he found himself drawn to the guitar solos, which led him to jazz instrumental solos. Then he discovered the jazz samples used by hip-hop bands such as A Tribe Called Quest and Public Enemy. As he got into songwriting, he found his role models such as Bob Dylan and Tom Waits talking about George Gershwin and Porter. "These things kind of led me to buy my first Miles Davis record and then start seeking out some people singing standards," said Cullum. When he was 16, Cullum began immersing himself more in jazz piano, but he didn't think seriously about a musical career until he attended the University of Reading, where he majored in English and film studies. He earned money playing gigs everywhere from strip clubs to weddings and funerals, and at age 19 used his student loan money to cut a record, "Heard It All Before," to sell at shows. He sold his second record, "Pointless Nostalgic," to an independent jazz label, Candid. Its success -- along with major boost from the popular BBC TV talk show host Michael Parkinson -- helped Cullum net his big Universal/Verve deal. Cullum says he isn't nervous about whether his success in Britain can translate to the American market. "I think the U.S. audience seems to be responding to the eclecticism of the music quite well," said Cullum. "But my expectations when it comes to record sales are always zero. ... I just like playing music and I like to develop. "Nothing's changed," he says, "whether it's playing in front of the queen or in front of 100 people at Joe's Pub." Source: FoxNews.com

You can ususally find them here when there are some available. When you make any purchase at Borders the cashier will ask you if you would like to leave your email address to receive...blah....blah.... Some of us did and receive the occassional coupon link via email which we in turn post here for the rest of the members to share.

So is it HE or SHE? If it's HE, I've always thought that Gary Coleman could play him in a movie about Birdland. (Look at the Art Blakey - A Night At Birdland Covers (rvg)).

EMI in the last paragraph Labels to dampen CD burning? The recording industry is testing technology that would prevent consumers from making copies of CD "burns," a piracy defense that could put some significant new restrictions on legally purchased music. Tools under review by the major labels would limit the number of backups that could be made from ordinary compact discs and prevent copied, or "burned," versions from being used to create further copies, according to Macrovision and SunnComm International, rivals that are developing competing versions of the digital rights management (DRM) software. SunnComm said a version of its new "secure burning" technology is already being tested by BMG Music Group, the world's fifth-largest record label and the most aggressive to date in pushing CD copy protection schemes in the United States. Macrovision's version is expected to be ready in the next few months. If implemented widely, the new technology would mark a substantial change in the way ordinary people can use purchased music, possibly alienating some customers, analysts said. Given the costs of piracy, however, the labels are moving ahead cautiously in the hope of striking on a formula that works. "There is a fine (DRM) balance that nobody has struck, especially with physical CDs," said Mike McGuire, an analyst with the GartnerG2 research group. "If there's somebody who's making 25 copies for the world and finds they can't do that, then few people will probably complain. But if someone finds they can't make a copy for their kid so he can play it in the car, you're going to have a lot of people returning broken CDs." The trials come as record labels seek to tighten copying restrictions on CDs, a market worth more than $11.2 billion in the United States in 2003. The labels have attributed recent, significant slides in retail CD sales in part to competition from home copying, as well as online file swapping. Consumer concerns Record labels are seeking a way to let consumers make a limited number of copies of their music--enough for a car, a vacation home and a friend, for example--without allowing for uncontrolled duplication. Under the current system, each copied CD can itself lead to an unlimited number of additional copies, cutting substantially into sales, they say. Consumer advocates, meanwhile, have protested against abridgments of today's unlimited freedom to copy, remix or sample from music CDs. Record labels in the United States have been sensitive to these consumer concerns, worrying particularly about earlier versions of copy-protection technology that had difficulty playing in nontraditional CD players such as game consoles or car stereos. They've released many protected CDs overseas, but only a small number in the United States and United Kingdom, where perceived opposition has been the highest. The new plan to lock down burns could reignite a controversy that's smoldered in the United States since the independent release of country artist Charley Pride's album in 2002 incorporated SunnComm's early copyproofing technology, prompting at least one consumer lawsuit. In addition to adding a new layer of copy protection on CDs, SunnComm and Macrovision each say their CD burning limitations could be applied to digital download businesses such as Napster or Apple Computer's iTunes, which do not put any restriction on burned CDs. That potentially could set off a new round of skirmishes between such digital download businesses and the record labels over how consumers can use the music they buy online. "What labels have told us is that their agreements (with the download services) are relatively short term, a year or under, and so they believe that they have the capability to require (the burning tools to be added) next time around," Macrovision Chief Executive Officer Bill Krepick said. Record label executives, although they take very different individual approaches to the market, say they ultimately want to see the rules for CDs and digital downloads converge. "I would say that similar values should apply," said Jordan Katz, executive vice president and general manager of BMG's distribution arm. Digital download services say they aren't yet feeling pressure to add the "secure burning" feature, however. Some said the labels had spent more time discussing the issue as much as six months ago but that it hadn't been a priority recently. "I think the labels have been relaxing a little in terms of usage rules," said Liz Brooks, vice president of business development at Buy.com's music division. A checkered history To date, the history of CD copy protection in the United States has been spotty. Though Macrovision and SunnComm each say their technology is used widely overseas, only a few albums have been publicly released using their technology here. BMG, which has taken a lead in this area, used SunnComm's anticopying tools on last year's Anthony Hamilton disc. The release gained some prominence after a Princeton student demonstrated that the protections could be easily evaded simply by pushing a computer's Shift key while loading the CD. Executives at SunnComm and BMG said they were aware of the issue and that they had been satisfied with the technology as a deterrent to casual copiers, rather than trying to create an unhackable protection. BMG announced last week that it would release three more albums using the technology over the next two months, including recordings by Velvet Revolver, Angie Stone and Yung Wun. Other labels say they are still very interested, but not quite as far along as BMG. "EMI does use Macrovision's technology in just about every country in the world," EMI spokeswoman Jeanne Meyers said. "We're testing other forms of technology from a lot of different companies before launching in the U.S. and the U.K." Source: CNET

I've often wondered what if anything might happen if everyone from this board who ordered, somehow on the (online) order form indicated that they ordered because of a discussion on Organissimo. There is a place on the online order form for special instructions. We could easily put www.organissimo.org/forum in that box.

I like where BruceH has taken this.... They may be gone from the SATs, but here is an analogy: Homer is to Beer as ________ is to Organissimo board members

This site has settled many bets for me and gotten me out of a number of infinite brain loops.

My company has developed a training program that is in use in over half of the Catholic dioceses in the country. VIRTUS One of our members posted this story to our message board.... A very emotional story. In developing our program I've come across some stories that I wish I could forget...

The ironic thing is that I drive a 77 Lincoln Mark V and gas is over 2 bucks a gallon. Thanks for the rub in. Sonny Stitt sounds pretty good right now. I know how you feel. I constantly have those guilty feelings.... Guilt when I buy too much and guilt when I don't buy enough and my local Borders stores and CDUniverse call me up and say, "Hey, what gives? We haven't seen you in a while, we might not make our sales goals this month...."

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear...... Here is your prize: Name it.

Wesbed: Yes it was! Thanks!! Name your prize.

Watch the end of "High Fidelity", staring John Cusack. He goes into a little 'bit' about making a mix tape. Something along the lines of: 1) Come out swinging 2) Crank it up a notch 3) Bring it back down Great movie BTW.

Somewhere on this board I saw an image that someone had posted that showed several classic blue note album covers hanging on the wall. The album covers weren't the main focus of the image...but they were in the upper left-hand corner. I'm considering doing something like that and I wanted to take another look at the image here on the board, but now I can't remember where I saw it. I've already scanned the entire "Show your collection thread" and it wasn't there. I also checked each of the threads from my last 10 posts (trying to retrace my digital steps...no luck there either). Anyone with a better memory than me....? Please help!

That could have been 16 (sedan sized) tanks of gas..... maybe.....

David Mead - Indiana Bob Schneider - I'm Good Now Ron Sexsmith - Retriever Not jazz..... how'd that happen...

CDUniverse Pre-Order Now! Available: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - $8.39 Blakey, Art Buhaina's Delight Freddie Hubbard Breaking Point Gordon, Dexter Dexter Calling Henderson, Joe Inner Urge McLean, Jackie Action Mitchell, Blue The Thing To Do

I like what must have been the parental logic in that case... The kid wants to make up stories about bombs....let's send him to military school to play with the real thing....

I went to the Dentist today and the most painful part of the experience was the fact that Kenny G was playing from the speakers overhead.

Mine is #2042. I'm on disc 4 right now. Getting close to the track that made me want this set (sample available on the Mosaic site), "For All The Other Times." Don't know what it is about that song - I just can't get enough of it.

I'm listening to Disc I right now. So far, so good! I got this from Mosaic within 24 hours. How's that for service!

Elvin Jones Mosaic - RIP Elvin