Drew Peacock

I rarely give best of recordings because I find that even over short periods of time my choices change. Regardless; Steve Kuhn has just released a recording called Mostly Coltrane, on ECM. It's getting a lot of buzz right now and I bet makes many top 10 lists this year. I haven't listened to it yet but hope to before the year is out. Flying under the radar is this: George Garzone has the hidden gem for 2009 with his Among Friends recording. With Steve Kuhn, Paul Motain, and Anders Christensen. It's mostly original ballads with some standards and a freeish tune.

I am a landlord if you count owning a two family with a mother in law unit. I rent out the mother in law unit and the upstairs apartment. I live in between. I would recommend that you seek out a real estate broker to help you understand the market. These are the folks who really know where rent is heading and can help you understand what you can expect for a tenant in your location. In down markets the landlord pays the sales commission, in up markets the incoming tenant pays (Boston market, yours will very likely be different). The most important thing to me is finding good tenants. There is no secret formula, you just need to be able to judge a person quickly. Be sure the broker/agent runs a credit report as it can give you a good idea on how they treat other creditors. These come in different levels of detail - you want to know which bills they pay and which are behind in terms. Make sure the tenant fills out an application. You can tell a lot about them just by the way they fill out a form. Be sure to check references - both landlord and employer. In my market, if the credit is less than average then I won't take them unless they have an in-state cosigner. I would only do this for students and the like. I feel that if you are employed then you need to be able to stand on your own. If your home is not de-leaded then you need to be careful about women of child bearing age. Once they are a tenant and if they become pregnant, you will be responsible for having the unit de-leaded. This will involve temporary housing for the tenant and a few thousand for the de-lead company. It's not a pretty sight if you need to do this. Once de-leaded however, you could charge a premium and market to young families. Steering - it's illegal. This is where you try to push a tenant into a unit and avoid showing a similar unit because the landlord doesn't want 'that type'. Brokers/Agents can lose their license if they do this. If an applicant applies for your place then you'll need to base your decision on the information in the application and credit report. What to charge? The most you can get upfront is first, last, and a month's worth of security deposit. The market will decide if you can charge all or some of these fees. I recommend that you always charge a security deposit - which is refundable when the apartment is turned back to you. You'll need to keep these funds in a separate account as you cannot use it for expenses. I waive the last month rent and charge only a half security if I find their credit and references are good. Last, I wouldn't pay a property management company unless I lived far from the apartment. You likely already have a plumber and electrician - keep using the guys that you're comfortable with. No sense in paying a company to field the tenant phone call for just a single home. Most all issues can wait a day or so before they're fixed so don't worry about that 3am phone call. If you have special rules about your house, consider creating a addendum to attach to the lease. We tell our tenants that they cannot park in the driveway. Upstairs tenant is responsible for clearing out the snow on the front stairs. No water filled furniture, no electric exercise equipment. We allow cats but not dogs. Do you want to try to rent it on your own and avoid paying a sales commission? In the Boston market most small landlords try to do this. Post your apt on craigslist as a no-fee owner apartment (you can't charge a fee for your own place, that's illegal). These no-fee apartment listings get a lot more activity than the broker 'for fee' apartments. Be sure to include recent pictures in the ad. Good luck. I'm sure I've forgotten a few pointers so feel free to ask away.

I used to love the Nitty Gritty Dirt band. It's been over 20 years since I played their recordings. Thinking back to their sound, I'm not sure if I consider them bluegrass or classic country music.

I still enjoy Jarrett but I can understand why you feel this way. If I had to put my finger on 'what's wrong' with Jarrett I would have to say that his trio format is stale. He needs to play with different musicians in a different setting.

I didn't know that Claus Ogerman arranged and orchestrated her latest CD. I'm going to have to keep this news away from the wife. She's a huge Krall fan and I am not. I thought Claus was in retirement, good to see that I'm wrong. Why is Russell Malone no longer her guitar player?

I've never purchased a Mosiac.....I know, I know. There is so much that I've missed out on. The top two that come to mind is the Andrew Hill and Gerald Wilson boxes. Oh well....

I picked up the recording I mentioned in the 2nd post above. I'm not disappointed at all - Lovano really works hard to fit seemlessly into this music. It's nice with catchy melodies and good grooves. It's accessible and similar in many ways to the Mesada recordings.

You have 20 gig of RAM? Do you mind me asking why?

I googled jazz and baseball cards...didn't find anything to add to this thread. I did find this CD on Amazon and thought some of you may be interested.

We did the rescan yesterday and our first impression is positive. The low signal strength that we experienced a month or so ago seems to be gone. The only times when the signal wavered was when a set of unplugged Christmas lights were near the antenna. In fact any type of moving metal close the antenna created pixelation. The sound is a bit funky. There is a buzz when set to high volumes and we need to turn it up much further to get the same decibel level. There are some good positives. We went from about 8 channels - 4 which were crap infomercials or SAP, to 16 where we have no infomercials and only one SAP. The new stations are mostly public broadcasting but we also have a few that play old sitcoms and movies. The wife is thrilled. I'll be happy when NESN and ESPN are available.

My apologies for drudging up an old thread. I am still having trouble starting topics so I had to search for something 'close'. I am curious if anyone has listened to: JOHN ZORN MASADA BOOK TWO: MASADA QUINTET [JOE LOVANO/DAVE DOUGLAS/URI CAINE/GREG COHEN/JOEY BARON] - Stolas: 'Book Of Angels' Vol. 12? Comments/opinions anyone?

I'll donate if you can figure out whats wrong with my account. I cannot start a new topic nor can I use the reply button. I've tried this on IE7, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Pop-up blockers are disabled. I'm limited to just the fast reply button.

Thanks Aggie!

I was home sick when my wife went to visit her Mother in an assisted living facility. That's her on the left. Dominique Eade gave a performance that night - she is on the right. She told my wife that she should take a picture of the guy in the middle as he's the real jazz master in the room. I don't recognize him. My guess is Charlie Mariano but I thought he was both ill and living somewhere in Europe or Africa. Does anyone recognize this guy?

I live in an area where we had excellent analog reception. We kept an old ratty TV outside to watch on the patio. About a month or so ago I hooked up the digital converter box to see how good the reception was. I was very disappointed. The TV would freeze and the signal would be searching. I went back to analog in less than an hour. My hope is that they were broadcasting at a lower power output and would be increasing the signal strength by today. I'll let you know how good it is on Monday. Also, I didn't have as many channels but I know most were not yet sending out a digital signal.

Jazztrain, you're right....I'm an idiot. I had her confused with Susannah McCorkle. :blush2:

Mary Halvorson is making great music. Betty Carter deserves mention if for no other reason than she was willing to put it all out there Shirley Horn - one of my all time favorites Carol Sloane - she left us to early Eliane Elias - she deserves more recognition Etta Jones - enough said and yeah, more blues than jazz Hiromi - for what she has released but mostly for her potential for greatness Jane Bunnett - at her creative peak right now Jimmy Scott - okay, that's cruel...but I'm laughing Patricia Barber - she is unique Virginia Mayhew - another talent deserving more recognition I did my best to not include vocalists but had to mention some of their names. Also, I tried not to duplicate what was posted above.

Does anyone have news on his May 5th surgery? I hope he gets to read the excellent reviews on his Shakti CD.

Andrew Hill! Super Genius

thanks KH. I just noticed that it's Charnetts birthday tomorrow!

Adding Charnett Moffett to my newly discovered list. I'm blown away by how good he is. Need recommendations.

I'm a chrome fan too. Its as fast as Firefox used to be before it got bloated. I like how it organizes the sites I visit when I add a new tab. I've also become a fan of iGoogle for a home page. I've had an issue with this forum on all three browsers I use. None of them let me add a new topic or use the add reply button. I'm limited to fast reply.

I am just now discovering Steve Coleman. I forget most of what I read about his earlier music but I recall something about a unified sound with math and mystic elements. I think I was turned off by what I felt was a hokey hook that had little to do with jazz. I still think that way. I've been listening to On the Rising of the 64 Paths and am thoroughly enjoying this music. It sounds to me that Greg Osby was influenced by Steve Coleman to a large degree. Anyways, I'm going to keep looking for more of Mr. Colemans music to add to my collection.

This was just too fun for me as a child. My mom still has my player along with many film/music strips tucked away in her attic. Here is the 3 little pigs, one of my favorites along with Peter Rabbit:

Did the price of booster packs already increase? $0.50 per track