Alexander

Alexander, I bet as a father you don't want to hear this, but your daughter has quite a bit in common with one Aric Effron. Guy What do you mean? She has all of her hair!

Well. Grover was from Buffalo, ( is your Dad?) so that may explain that. But hey, give him some music, and see how he likes it! My dad is from Buffalo. He was born in 1948 (same year as fellow Buffalonian Rick James). To be fair, his collection did contain quite a bit of Amhad Jamal, which is good (although I already had most of them on CD).

The "dead and dying" comment was made by my daughter when she was about three years old. She said it, I believe, about a John Scofield album. My daughter is now six, and she's made great strides since then. She can identify all the songs on "Kind of Blue" by name when she hears them (when she hears a couple of bars of "Freddie Freeloader," she always cries: "Daddy! It's 'Freddie!'"). On the other hand, she's REALLY into Phil Collins (I believe the whole thing started out when Phil did some soundtracks for Disney). Not wanting to be the kind of father who forbids the music he doesn't like, I went out and got her a couple of Phil Collins albums. She's become quite the expert, actually! She knows the difference between a Phil Collins solo track and a Genesis track when she hears it. I've tried exposing her to Peter Gabriel era-Genesis and Gabriel solo material, and she likes it, but not as much as she likes Phil Collins. Maybe it skips a generation... I must confess, however, to liking the Dixie Chicks. I was listening to the album "Home" earlier today, and it's quite good. I have their new one, as well, althought it's not quite as good.

I thought that flat-tops and shirt-sleeves were the order of the day...

I got a lot of my musical education from my father. He's the one who introduced me to the Beatles, Dylan, Paul Simon, and others when I was a kid. To this day, the music that I heard around the house (especially rock) continues to have repercussions through my own musical interests. Which brings me to his questionable taste in jazz. A few years ago, I inherited my father's LP collection (he's still alive and everything, he just doesn't have a record player any more and I do have one). Aside from the rock LPs I grew up loving (most of which I now own on CD anyway), he had several jazz LPs that well...kind of suck. Even the ones by artists like Bobby Hutcherson or George Benson, who are generally reliable, are pretty much the worst albums these artists have cut. I've looked them up. Most of them are out of print on CD, and listening to them you can really see why. These are minor, minor efforts. Most of them are a kind of weak brand of fusion (my dad was into Spyro Gyra when they were a local band in Buffalo). I just don't understand what was going through his head when he bought them. I seems as though he was just buying things at random. I don't know. He rarely has more than one album by a given artist, and when he does its just embarassing (LOTS of Grover Washington). I dunno. Maybe I'm being too hard on the guy. I do plan on listening to all of these LPs one of these days, but the ones I've heard so far are just so...bad. I'm hoping I'll find a gem or two to sort of rehabilitate my musical opinion of the guy. I mean, some of these albums are really BAD. Where's all the Monk? The Miles? The Trane? He was alive when these guys were releasing new stuff! Why wasn't he buying it? In addition, the sole Chicago album in my dad's collection was "Hot Streets." Not "Chicago Transit Authority" or "Chicago II," or even "Chicago V." No, just "Hot Streets." I shake my head in befuddled wonder...

??????????????? ???????????????? You're getting your classic rock sax appearances mixed up. Curtis Amy is on 2 Doors albums. Without looking them up I'm going to guess The Soft Parade and maybe L.A. Woman. Or would that be Morrison Hotel? I'm on a 15 year sabbatical from The Doors so it's hard to remember the horn songs. Steve Gregory and Greg Beadle handle the sax on Honky Tonk Women.* *page 338 of Bill Wyman's Rolling With The Stones Thanks - you're right. I haven't seen or heard any of those records since 1969. Memory going. "Soft parade" was the one that was out when I worked in a record shop. MG There are some great horn charts on the "Soft Parade" album. Can't remember which track now (possibly "Touch Me"), there's this one song that has an insane little avant-garde freak-out right in the middle of the track. God only knows what fifteen-year-old me must have thought of that when I first heard it!

??????????????? ???????????????? You're getting your classic rock sax appearances mixed up. Curtis Amy is on 2 Doors albums. Without looking them up I'm going to guess The Soft Parade and maybe L.A. Woman. Or would that be Morrison Hotel? I'm on a 15 year sabbatical from The Doors so it's hard to remember the horn songs. Steve Gregory and Greg Beadle handle the sax on Honky Tonk Women.* *page 338 of Bill Wyman's Rolling With The Stones Thanks - you're right. I haven't seen or heard any of those records since 1969. Memory going. "Soft parade" was the one that was out when I worked in a record shop. MG There are some great horn charts on the "Soft Parade" album. Can't remember which track now (possibly "Touch Me"), there's this one song that has an insane little avant-garde freak-out right in the middle of the track. God only knows what fifteen-year-old me must have thought of that when I first heard it!

Don't have enough experience with either player to be able to comment. It certainly could be Richmond instead of Taylor. Taylor is credited in the liner notes, but you could very well be right. It's certainly no "honk-and-wail" solo.

I think it's Sam "The Man" Taylor. MG It is. I said so in the original message. I wasn't asking who played it. Just remarking on how good it is.

I was just listening to some Buddy Holly this afternoon, and was really struck by the sax work by Sam "The Man" Taylor on that recording. His obbligatos behind Buddy's vocals are in a Lester Young/West Coast style and his solo is absolutely breathtaking! He almost sounds like Stan Getz! The orchestration is lush, but not overbearing the least. I think that this was one of Buddy's posthumous releases. If this is the direction he was taking before he died, all I can say is what a pity!

Big man on campus admits holdup Preacher's son admits gambling debt drove him to rob bank Wednesday, July 12, 2006; Posted: 6:42 p.m. EDT (22:42 GMT) ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A former university class president accused of robbing a bank to pay his online poker debts pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony robbery. Greg Hogan, 20, the son of a preacher and former president of Lehigh University's class of 2008, was accused of holding up a Wachovia bank on December 9. He allegedly handed a teller a note demanding money and saying he had a gun. Hogan got away with $2,871, then drove off with two of his fraternity brothers, according to police. Both said they knew nothing of Hogan's plans, and neither was charged. Hogan, a cellist, was arrested during orchestra practice the night of the robbery, after he had gone to the movies and eaten pizza with his unsuspecting friends. He owed $5,000 in debts from playing online poker and later entered a treatment program for gambling addiction, according to his attorney, John Waldron. "I think this incident was a cry for help from Greg Hogan," Waldron said, noting that Hogan wore no mask and did not actually have a weapon. "He wanted to be caught." The Rev. Gregory Hogan Sr. said his son completed a 36-day treatment program for gambling addiction and has received a "good bill of health from that." "Greg is very sorry," said the elder Hogan, who sat next to his son in court with his arm around him. "He's apologized. We're here to support our son. We love him." Greg Hogan is no longer a student at Lehigh, said school spokeswoman Sarah Cooke. She said she could not comment on any possible school-related discipline because academic records are private. The elder Hogan said his son hopes to finish his college degree, but did not know when. Under sentencing guidelines, he faces 22 months to three years in prison at a hearing set for August 17. Prosecutors say Hogan should get no special treatment, but Waldron said that a sentence of community service would allow his client to help others avoid what he called the nation's epidemic gambling problem. "People can get help earlier and not go out and rob a bank," he said. Thank goodness! Hogan's plea comes as Congress is debating whether to pass tougher laws to restrict online gambling. On Tuesday, the House passed legislation that would prevent gamblers from using credit cards to bet online and could block access to gambling Web sites.

I used to file the CDs in my collection, but they took up too much space (I have twenty sets). Now I keep them (and the booklets) in their boxes on a bookshelf in the livingroom, right next to my CDs. This way when I want to listen to a set, I get to look at the whole package!

When I was seventeen...it was a very good year... (actually 1987 wasn't all that great) Happy Birthday!

I haven't read the rest of the thread, but the film in question is "The Big Sleep."

My dad was into her back in the late 80s/early 90s. I never thought too much of her, aside from finding the timbre of her voice to be generally pleasant.

You mean Amadeus wasn't realistic either ??!!? It's still an amazing film...

Well-said, sir!

It may be pure fiction, but read with Russell's various biases in mind (and taken with a generous grain of salt) it is a VERY entertaining read. It plays to legend rather than fact, but it's a real page turner! As to the "Bird" film, I just revisited this the other night (I own it on DVD, along with several other music related films). I do find Whittaker's miming on the saxophone to be distracting. You only have to watch "Round Midnight" to see that when saxophonists really play that don't move their fingers all that much (even when playing a "fast" number). Not being a musician I can't say for sure, but it sure looks fake to me. That said, I think that Whittaker gives a very moving performance, potraying all aspects of Parker's personality (including his good humor and joie de vivre). Yes, he spends a lot of time being bitter and angry, but the film is largely set in Bird's last days when he was a much less vibrant figure than he was in his youth. While I've always been miffed about the exclusion of Max Roach and (especially) Miles from the film, I've always loved the wonderful scene when Parker describes a recording session with Diz, Miles, and Fats Navarro. It's really sad when he talks about Fats' passing. I also like the way the famous telegrams from LA are depicted. Whittaker really shows Parker's shifting state of mind.

When I was in college, I pawned CDs and box sets with great frequency. Usually it was when a batch of Conns came out (or some other batch of reissues) and I didn't have the money to buy them. I'd usually grab a handfull of rock CDs or a box set that I didn't listen to very often and trade or sell them in order to get the jazz CDs I wanted. In those days I prioratized jazz over rock, so this was fairly easy for me. The problem was that I always wound up regretting getting rid of the rock CDs. In fact, there are a few that I've sold and bought back two times or more! I've ended replacing nearly every CD or box set I've ever sold, and for obvious reasons I hardly ever sell or trade anything anymore. Every so often I will upgrade something I already own, which gives me a buch of duplicates that I can then trade or sell on eBay. Otherwise, I never get rid of anything, much to my wife's chagrin... As to the question of not liking something, I've found that in recent years I've become so broadminded (relative to the way I was when I was younger) that I'd have to really go a LONG way to find something that's so distasteful that I'd get rid of it right away. Do I ever take risks? Yes, but I usually research things very carefully (listening to samples and such) before I take the plunge, so I rarely walk into something with my eyes completely shut. For example, after reading several very positive reviews, I decided to check out the Dixie Chicks. I've been exploring country music lately, and this seemed a fairly natural progression of an existing interest. First, I got their most recent album "Taking the Long Way" which is pretty good. Then I got "Home" which has a more traditional country feel (and I honestly like better than the new one). Now what if I had decided I hated it? Well, I'd just listen to it all the harder to decide what about it I didn't like!

I'm thinking some huge entertainment entity spen $xx million in the hopes of making $xxx million, nothing less and nothing more.

Jack White has a thing for her, too! At least two songs on the last White Stripes album (including "Take, Take, Take") contain Rita Hayworth references...

I saw it last night with my family, and we all LOVED it. Is Routh a good actor? No. To be totally honest, Reeves wasn't that great either, but he was a great Superman and Routh does a fine job. Spacey was in top form as Luthor. Honestly, this film is far more reverent towards the Reeve films than anyone had a right to expect. References were dropped left and right to the earlier films (anyone notice where the Kryptonite was originally found? And in what year?). Is this the kind of thing only hard-core nerds like me would even notice? Damn right! Singer has made a film that plays to the nerds and the little kids, and fuck everybody else!

I don't believe in hell, but I wouldn't be surprised if a special hell were created just for Spelling. A hell where they play "Love Boat" reruns all day long...episodes from AFTER Ted McGinley joined the crew...

I happened to see the '89 quake on TV (big deal, right? Since it was during the World Series EVERYBODY saw it on TV). In my case, however, that was the only part of the World Series I happened to see! I was over at a guy's house watching "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" on VHS. When the movie ended, we happened to switch over to the World Series to see the score. No sooner did we tune in when...BOOM!

"Without Me" by Eminem...