Ed S

Wes Montgomery Echoes of Indiana Avenue

"Tenderly" from This Is The Place playing right now on John Scofield Station. Sweet.

I thought I was making a big discovery last night when I tried Organissimo in Pandora. I know Pandora doesn't always hit the target with their mix of similar artists/music - but I like what I've heard so far.

I'm totally disgusted by all of this. I have come to be a fan of cycling over the past few years and the more I got into following cycling, the more I realized how dirty it was. I've also done some reading on Armstrong and believe that he deserves whatever repercussions from his confession he gets. His conduct throughout his career has been disgusting. That he has ruined so many lives is despicable. F him. In addition to Lance, I am sooooo disappointed that Leipheimer's whole career was the product of doping. F him. I hope he never rides again. Add Zabriske, Danielson and Vande Velde to that list. Same with Hincapie and his "achievements". I thought that letting him lead the peloton onto the Champs Elysees last year was a totally hypocrital move by the entire peloton. As a casual fan, I used to look at the TdF standings and check where the Americans were. Usually it was Lance up near the top with Landis, Vande velde, Leipheimer in the mix. I thought it was great that they were successful in a sport dominated by Europeans. Total frauds.....and total letdowns. The rest of the peloton? - all frauds as well. Right now, no one is beyond suspicion to me. That include the Sky team of this past year with their questionable physician, all the race directors previously associated with doping, teams that have notoriously turned a blind eye towards doping like Astana and Katusha (who were denied a world tour license). Barry Bonds - you have been passed in doping infamy. I just hope my interest in cycling will carry through this transition period and that eventually a clean peloton will emerge.

While viewing the video, I spotted this one. It's almost an hour long. I found it very interesting "La vie Django":

Sounds like a great project. I'd help out through kickstarter or by whatever means. Just as importantly - who is the new guitarist for Organissimo?

But only 2 days ago - that way it won't be too tough to shave IF this is all a hoax.

I stopped shaving

Anyone pick this up yet? I've been listening to it the past few days and am really enjoying it. Over the past 3-5 years, I've really become a fan of Van's. I must have about 10 discs by him at this point and this one hold up against any of them. Not saying it's a classic, but I think it classic Van Morrison - if you know what I mean. There's the typical blue eyed soul, blue, R&B influenced stuff with a jazzier orientation. I find it very refreshing that a guy who's pushing 70 (I think) is still out there doing new albums with all of his own material. There's a nice video of a live performance of "Open The Doors To Your Heart" from the new album on his website - http://www.vanmorrison.com/index.html I've never seen him live and hope he decides to tour the US at some point. On a side note - I'll never forget my first night in Ireland a couple of years ago. My wife and I were in a small pub near St Stephen's Green with live music. I could reach out and touch the guy who was playing guitar (solo). I went to the bar and ordered something on tap called Bulmers. I thought it would be a beer, but it turned out to be a cider. I loved it - and, thanks to a board member who educated me - now drink it as Magner's in the US. At any rate - during a break, I requested a Van Morrison tune - anything but "Brown Eyed Girl" as I put it. He obliged and sang the best version of "Crazy Love" I've ever heard. Very special night

Thanks for the recommendation. As I usually do after seeing a show and I realize I've missed out on a lot of an artist's catalog I'll go out and buy a few CDs. This one will be on the list.

FWIW, my wife - who never heard of Traffic or Steve Winwood was with me and she said she enjoyed it. But maybe she was being nice to me as I really did not want to go to Vegas. So we compromised and went to Vegas. (ha ha) Actually the compromise was a day trip to Death Valley and the Winwood show. She's 11 years younger than me and our tastes in music are quite different. I've dragged her to enough shows and know her well enough to know when she's BS'ing me - so I think her endorsement was sincere. When I dragged her to Return to Forever - well, that's a different story.... We both like Blues however! Long story short - it's not a must see in the same way that a Pink Floyd reunion Tour would be must see. But if you're not doing anything and like Winwood - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I was in Las Vegas for a brief trip, wanted to catch a live music show and stumbled upon the fact that Steve Winwood was playing Friday night at the Pearl Concert Theatre. I guess I would characterize myself as both a Traffic and Winwood fan from afar. I knew of Winwood's hit songs from his solo career and of course have heard a lot of Traffic material over the years on the radio - but the only music I actually have featuring Winwood is Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Thus - I figured I'd be in for a night of Winwood's solo hits, probably some new material and a few Traffic songs - more or less an oldies sort of act rehashing the hits - maybe even in medley form. Well I only got one Winwood solo hit - Higher Love. There were two Spencer Davis songs - He opened with I'm a Man and Closed with Gimme Some Lovin'. I never knew SDG did I'm a Man until after the show when I looked it up and did not realize that Winwood sang on or that SDG had done Gimme Some Lovin'. So, such for my knowledge of Winwood's career. I knew I was in for something interesting when I saw that the only keyboard on stage was a B-3. I had expected a keyboard array and maybe a piano. I knew I was in for something special special right from the opener which went into an extended jazz oriented jam. He followed that up with a couple of newer pieces that were well done and then, the band just hit a groove and they went on extravaganza of extended jams - jazz influenced rock, sometimes jam band like. They did some song i did not recognize for perhaps 20 minutes of excellence that was just plain outstanding. They followed that up with an equally impressive and extended version of Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. He did a fabulous extended version of Mr Fantasy as well. There were a couple of songs I recognized as Traffic songs - but don't know the titles - all done with everyone in the band having an opportunity to stretch out. The band was terrific. The only name I recognized was the percussionist - Cafe. The drummer was excellent, the guitarist top notch. He had an interesting style and technique. The band member who really impressed me was the guy guy who played tenor sax, soprano sax, flute, backup vocals and the B-3 - when Winwood was not behind it. The tenor solos were excellent - added to the jazz orientation of the music -and again - I was surprised that there was a guy on sax at all. Winwood himself impressed me the most. His voice was in fine for and he really seemed to be enjoying himself. But I had no idea how great a musician he is. He spent most of the night behind the B-3 and was really really good. Certainly not the greasy jazz B-3 of Jimmy Smith - more rock oriented but flavored with jazz - if you know what I mean. He really tore it up on Low Spark and the other long jam I mentioned above. I found it interesting that he actually played the bass pedals on the B-3. I would not have expected that out of a rock guy. He also took a break from the B-3 and did several songs on guitar - with some amazing solos - especially on Mr Fantasy. I have to say the whole night far exceeded my expectations and I was quite frankly blown away by the quality of the music.

Quite a while now, but I hadn't seen this thread. THis past July I went to see the van Gogh exhibit while in Ottawa. Very nice.

It's disgraceful, shameful, disgusting and any other adjective you can throw out there that the Tour de France will not be able to have a winner from 1999-2005 because virtually every possible alternate choice was a doper too. Unbelievable. I watched the UCI press conference and was amazed at the aura of denial they had when speaking of doping which was pervasive throughout the sport leading up to and during the Armstrong years.

Wow - that was fast.

As I mentioned in my post opening this thread, I could not see how Armstrong could have won those 7 Tours riding clean. Since it was made public, I've spent parts of every day reading through the "Reasoned Decision". I am flabbergasted and blown away by the overwhelming and insurmountable evidence - as well as by the scope of doping, the influence LA had on his team relative, the intimidation, the complex network that supported the doping, the involvement of spouses/SOs, the involvement of team support personnel. I'm particularly disappointed to read of the involvement of Hincapie, Leipheimer, Danielson and Vande Velde. Particularly Hincapie whose career was so entwined with Lance's and whose life so benefited from that association. What a bummer. I've always know that Lance was pretty much a prick and had a huge ego. I wonder how it must be to be forced to step down as head of your own organization and be dropped by career long sponsors like NIKE, TREK, Giro etc. The shock waves are still resonating - Levi was fired, White was fired by Green Edge, Sky is forcing riders to sign a no doping statement. The Bruyneel hearing is still to come. One of the articles I've read over the past week characterized Armstrong as the greatest fraud in American Sports history. Move over Barry Bonds - I could not agree more. Huge disappointment.

Wish I could have done one of the in-house concerts. I saw that someone did! That's fantastic. $11,525 right now. Looks like you guys are going to make it! Congratulations in advance

I was a little later to the CD party - probably around '87 or so. My first purchases were a bunch of McMaster Blue Notes (longboxes) that were being sold at "The Record Theatre" - a local record chain in Buffalo that at one point had 5 or 6 locations. I remember picking up a bunch of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon - purchases all inspired by my having seen 'Round Midnight. I actually still have all of those early purchases - never having upgraded. I posted earlier in another thread that I need to make some time and revisit the collection - most of which I have not listened to in years. This thread makes me want to do so even more.

Over the past 12-18 months, I've become quite a big fan of Steve Wilson. Takes me back to my roots in some ways.

I usually don't reply to these sort of threads, but holy smokes, this one really hit me. I was raised during the space race years and to me, Armstrong embodied everything great that our country and our planet can be when he walked on the moon. Years later, when my son was in 2nd grade (10 years ago) his class was asked to write about who they admired most. Most of the kids picked movie stars, music stars like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, presidents present or past. I saw a Thomas Edison and Henry Ford in there too. My son picked Neil Armstrong. I don't remember ever having mentioned Armstrong as a personal hero of mine, so I was really impressed by my son's choice. So, I sent a copy of what he wrote about why he admired Armstrong along with the drawing of him walking on the moon that my son did as part of his project to a company for which Mr Armstrong was a board member. Eventually, my letter made its way to Mr Armstrong and he was nice enough to write a thoughtful note to my son - something that he has to this day. I have to say that I was touched, especially after reading that Armstrong was somewhat guarded when it came to signings and letters to Eagle scouts,etc. Something like that tends to reinforce the admiration I already had. Sad day.

In a word, Warren Wolf was amazing. Never heard of the guy - but wanted to take my sons to the Vanguard - so I went. An incredible show. For the encore they did Back in New York City and Fly on a Windshield. Both were excellent. Trey Gunn, by the way was incredible. It was a real treat to hear him play.

As part of my annual summer vacation with my now teenage boys, I was in NYC the past week. Our first night there, I dragged them to a show at the Village Vanguard - the Warren Wolf Quartet - just so they'd have something to remember me by - as in Hey - remember when Dad dragged us there? We did a lot of stuff during the rest of the week , but for our last night in New York, we saw the Security Project at BB King's. If you don't mind nostalgia bands with "sound alike" lead singers,then all I can say is this performance was awesome. This is a band performing the music of immediate post Genesis Peter Gabriel. The sound alike Peter Gabriel singer was great - without coming off as a Gabriel wannabee. Think San Jacinto, Not One Of Us, Hum Drum, I Don't Remember. Holy crap - the band was awesome.

The fact that Wiggins' win was a foregone conclusion did make it somewhat boring from the GC standpoint. As much as I dislike Contador - not having him and Andy Schleck there made the mountains far less interesting. Evans and Nibali were neutralized by the Sky riders and Wiggins top challenger was his own teammate. It would have been interesting if both Froome and van Garderen were allowed to allowed the freedom to ride to their abilities in the mountains - but that was not allowed. The green jersey competition was also a total bore. More than in any previous year, I focused less on the GC and more on the individual stages and found enough to keep me interested. I enjoyed Voeckler's quest for the polka dot jersey and his 2 stage wins. That was quite an accomplishment after a bad first week and an injured knee. I liked what I saw from Thibaud Pinot and Pierre Rolland - despite the latter's attempt to attack during the tack incident. I thought Chris Anker Sorensen had a great tour - lots of fun to watch. I developed a lot of admiration for Jens Voigt as well as Ritche Porte and Michael Rogers for their work every day. I always follow the US riders - not because they are Americans per se, but lke FDJ, Europcar, Vacansoleil and Euskatel Euskadi - I consider them underdogs. I thought van Garderen had a great tour as did Horner. I got a thrill seeing the tribute to Hincapie today as he was allowed to lead the peloton onto the Champs Elysees. Farrar was a disappointment, though. Too bad Danielson had to drop out. I enjoyed seeing Cancellara in yellow for the first week - he's one of my favorites. Also thought that Cavendish's wins today and Stage 18 were special. It was really something to see Wiggins as part of the lead out train - especially today when he personally had nothing to ride for. The win in stage 18 was phenomenal, in my opinion. Today's was almost equally impressive. When the cycling let me down, there was always the scenery. As usual, it was the star of the show.

I'm looking forward to this year's tour. As mentioned above, there's no clear favorite. I follow several different cyclists and teams, so it will certainly keep my interest. Wiggins, Cadel, Schleck, Horner, Levi, Hejedal, van Garderen will be some of the GC guys I'll be keeping an eye on. Lots of really strong teams - BMC, Garmin, Radio Shack, Omega. I also like to keep an eye on some of the smaller underdog teams like Euskatel Euskadi, FDJ, Saur-Sojasun - it's nice to see some upsets. I'll be interested to see how Orica Greenedge doe in their first tour. I find this stuff compelling! I was happy to see Cancellara take the prologue. Maybe the win will allow Radio Shack Nissan to focus on racing. I'd like to see him hold the yellow for a few stages. The first week will be interesting. I wonder how Cavendish will do without his long time lead-out guys. Sagan's been having a great year. Some of Cav's former lead-out guys are top sprinters on their own teams. Farrar's somewhat of a wild card who might come into play if Cavendish falters. Like I said - very compelling. Looking forward to 3 weeks of fun and the biggest reason I started watching and continue to do so - the fantastic scenery.

I'll invoke the F word regarding this album. Fun. Admittedly, I'm one of the few who enjoys this period of Byrd and Blue Note. Not more than the classic period, but on its own. I think a lot of this stuff is fun to listen to. Love the Rare Grooves!