Jim R

I'm a Yankee fan and I'd like to see him not win- he always seemed so damn smug. He can hit, though. LaRussa is another I can't take a liking to- he acts like he invented baseball and the sporting media genuflect whenever he speaks. If any other manager caught a DUI they'd be calling for his heaf, but LaRussa slides. I've never liked LaRussa- even when he was here with the A's, and I'm no Cardinals fan. On the other hand, it's hard for me to pull for the Rangers when I see Dubya in the house. Oh well, give me another game like last night's, and it doesn't really matter who I'm rooting for.

I actually felt the opposite, especially since the Giants won it all last year and took themselves off the dreaded list... and Texas was the team they beat... and because it seemed obvious (several times) that Texas was going to win that game.

This game brought back memories of the Giants blowing it in game 6 vs the Angels in '02. At any rate... WOW. I'm still trying to convince myself that the outcome was real.

Thanks to brownie for posting this in another thread. Classic Saarinen table and chair!

Lefty Grove

Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson Ron "The Penguin" Cey Mark "The Bird" Fidrych

Am I the only one who finds this an odd comment? (the "few" and "Ricky Ford" part). I mean, couldn't we start with... oh, say Rollins and Coltrane?

There's nothing inherently quiet about playing octaves versus single lines. What he did to soften his sound for the sake of his neighbors was to play with his thumb. Wes didn't invent octave playing, he just took it to a new level.

Then again, I goofed by not quite understanding/following the rules (matched a name/word instead of an image).

Odd... it worked when I posted it, and I can still see it now. Can anybody else see it? Anyway, it was this:

I expected this thread to be about a new computer peripheral device.

Monica Vitti. I remember her very well from my teen years, when a lot of european films were being shown on the local UHF tv stations. Modesty Blaise, right?

For both his tone and phrasing/playing style, I've found Joshua Breakstone has continued to be a standout voice among straight-ahead jazz guitarists since the early 1980's... and with no effects or gimmicks- just a Gibson L5 and an amp.

Hey you - just sit the fuck down, shut the fuck up, go make a fucking record, and come back here to fucking sell it. That's the only way I'll ever take you seriously again. EVER!!! Unless maybe you can train some poodles players to carry on the great tradition that is jazz. But even then, amke a record, bitch, make a record.

What in the world is going on here? It really appears that you might be serious. Just for the sake of taking part of this seriously, what would be the difference between a professional musician being allowed to post opinions about musicians (I can't believe I'm taking this seriously ) vs. an amateur musician who is an experienced player, and who could conceivably be a more skilled and insightful musician than the professional in question? Just a hypothetical.

Bobby Flay (or, Bobby Filet, as I like to call him) has grown on me, too. First time (I think) I saw him was when my friend Joe Carter hipped me that he was going to be playing duets with a bassist on Bobby's show. They were pretty much entirely off-camera, but it was cool. This was probably 6 or 7 years ago. The big Food Network question for me is this... how long can Paula Deen continue to shove gigantic amounts of sugar, butter, cream, and fat into her face before she drops dead? I don't want that to happen... I like her, but good lord!! Maybe I shouldn't even be saying this...

Couldn't find Bird, but still a pretty good week... Downbeat has Sidney Catlett and Billie Holiday Onyx has Roy Eldridge and Ben Webster Three Deuces has Slam Stewart Trio with Erroll Garner Zanzibar has Duke Ellington Cafe Society Uptown has Mary Lou Williams Stuyvessant Casino has Bunk Johnson and Baby Dodds Don't worry, I do this kind of thing all the time. In fact, I already checked to see if I posted here before. I had no recollection of it.

me too, Jim R. me too. i was very lucky to study w/ Ronnie for 4-5 months back around '95. he's an unbelievable player. scary. for me, he's the best instrumental electric blues guitar player ever. his recorded output is not that consistent, but his best stuff, imo, is untouchable. the record to have is Blues Guitar Virtuoso Live In Europe. You know, that's a bold statement (and not just because I made the text bold), but it's not at all a crazy statement, imo. I've asked myself on more than one occasion over the past several years whether anybody has ever put more feeling into a blues solo (especially a slow blues). The thing I really like about Robillard- and love about Charlie Baty- is that on a good night they are just about on that same level with Earl when it comes to knocking you out with a slow blues, but they can both do so many other things... especially jazz-influenced blues playing... like T-Bone and Charlie Christian in one body. On steroids. I like Ronnie's jazz-influenced playing too, but it's less about jump style, which was always a favorite of mine.

Good god, this thread has exploded since I last checked in. Trying to catch up now... In an odd way, I approached things in a very similar way, even though I didn't get into it until the mid-70's. I was never into the Butterfield band, Cream, Mayall, the Yardbirds, etc. I started with LP's, 45's, 78's (flea market addiction), the SFBF (saw Louis Myers and Luther Tucker perform there with Rogers), and Tom Mazzolini's "Blues By The Bay" show on KPFA. Started out with T-Bone, Gatemouth Brown, B.B, Freddy and Albert, and within a short period of time I was listening to any and all of the great urban-style electric players. Robert Jr. Lockwood (although obviously he was multi-dimensional), Albert Collins, Otis Rush, Fenton Robinson, Magic Sam, Jody Williams, Phillip Walker, and on and on. R&B stuff too, with Bill Jennings, Billy Butler, Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, etc. After listening to all that for years, trying to go back and listen to british blues is just not a pleasant experience at all (to put it politely), and frankly, trying to go back to the Butterfield band doesn't really do it for me either. Here on the west coast, I was getting a healthy dose of some great live acts like The Robert Cray Band (back when he had Curtis Salgado with him), Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, and a number of bay area bands (Chris Cain was just starting out then, for example). I caught Roomful of Blues a few times when they came out here, which was my first exposure to Ronnie Earl...

I'll admit- Clapton is such a prolific recording artist that there are things I've either never heard or haven't heard in ages. I'll take your word for this, but I would still argue that there is extremely little mimicking of Albert in the vast majority of Clapton's blues recordings. Oh, I understand the idea that a limited player can still be important and have a unique voice. There's a great deal of that phenomenon in the blues. Although I never saw him live, I've heard plenty of recordings, and I can definitely recognize him when I hear him. That's a good thing, of course, just as it is in jazz. The problem for me is, there was never enough going on with him. Too much repetition in his soloing. I respect your opinions, though. Different strokes. But most post-Albert blues guitar players didn't spend so much time literally mimicking Albert's favorite licks. Repeatedly. I do agree with this. He took some Albert, mixed in some Hendrix and a few other various influences, and put his own personal finish on things (especially rhythmically, and in terms of showing off his considerable bag of tricks), and he did end up being pretty distinctive. The constant presence of the Albert King licks is what turns a lot of people (including me, to a degree) away, though. Btw, I saw Stevie at the SFBF in '79, and I don't recall hearing any Albert King or Hendrix licks (his look was different then, too... jeans, sleeveless t-shirt, and a tweed cap). He definitely went through some changes as his career evolved.

I can't agree completely with anybody thus far, but that's probably to be expected. Some misc. random thoughts... Clapton has done some good things in the blues, and there are times when his own personality comes out enough in his solos that I think he's recognizable, but that may have more to do with tone than anything else. He probably always dreamed of being a great bluesman, but it was never meant to be. He's got some talent in other areas that distracted him from that, and I have no problem there. For me, he's really up and down. This thing with Marsalis definitely appears to be a down. I had to chuckle at the comment that Son Seals "bested" Clapton. Even if thats true (and to me, Seals was an extremely limited and marginal talent), there are dozens if not hundreds of blues players that have bested Clapton. I think Lonnie Brooks is quite superior to Seals, but even there it wouldn't occur to me to say that he bested Clapton. There are better examples of players who have excelled in the blues. SRV certainly was a very talented cat, and I do own a few things, but for me, he was always way too close to Albert King. That video they did together is pretty monotonous as a result, imo (but Stevie didn't always stay in that rut). By the way, despite the validity of some of the Clapton criticisms here, I would have to say that suggesting that Clapton stole anything from Albert King is off the mark. Maybe in some indirect sense, but I don't hear any direct mimicking. In fact, I really don't hear any distinct mimicking of other bluesmen in Clapton's playing. To my ears, it's just kind of routine licks, with an emphasis on playing a lot of notes (and a lot in the upper register). I've never been particularly impressed with Mike Bloomfield, or the Butterfield band. They were very good, but I think they're somewhat over-rated. I think their importance is mainly due to when they came along. I don't really care whether a guy is black or white or brown, but as long as the topic has come up, I don't think their is any "standard" for white blues guitarists. How the hell can you compare Mike Bloomfield to Duke Robillard or Charlie Baty or Junior Watson or...? There are different styles of playing blues. Bloomfield was less versatile than any of those three, for example. Love me some Ronnie Earl, by the way.

He seems to pull out some other beauties on special occasions (like the ES-350TN that he played at his appearance with Chuck Berry on "Hail, Hail..."). The other guitar (besides the 335) pictured on the tray card looks like a gem... an early 50's single pickup L5CESN? I'll be looking for more Youtube clips, just for that alone. I listened to Layla on Youtube yesterday, and... meh. I'm not sure Clapton should be playing while sitting down.