The Magnificent Goldberg

Red Norvo Ken Nordine Nervous Norvus

Michael Flatley Joseph Flatley Stavros Flatley

Garbage Man Steptoe Son

This sounds pretty good and is very pleasing. Just out of interest, I looked at the Amazon.com listing for "Vonski speaks" and at thir little note, that I always ignore, that says it's their 23,395th best selling album. What does that mean? So I looked at the other 4 albums listed on the "customers also bought..." bit. Gerald Wilson - Detroit 8 thousand & something Joe Lovano - Folk art 10 thousand & something James Carter - Heaven on earth 27 thousand & something Gonzalo Rubacalba - Avatar 62 thousand & something So I looked at something else Ancient strings - Batorou Sekou Kouyate & Co (kora album) 67 thousand & something New ancient strings - Toumani Diabate 7 thousand & something Mande variations - Toumani Diabate 6 thousand & something So it looks like it's doing moderately well. So, who's buying it from Amazon? WE'RE all buying it direct from Chuck MG

Been playing my newie this afternoon/evening Very exciting indeed. But seems to be a rip off of Pablo, Verve and Tumbao CDs, except for disc 1 - early forties Decca material, which might be a rip off of some Chronological Classics CD. MG

That's surprisingly early! Were there others between 1935 and 1944? Or was that a lone prophetic recording that didn't have much impact at the time? MG

Winnie the Pooh Christopher Robin Eeyore

Just turned up! MG

Amazon Gift Ecard might be a good way. That sounds very promising. Would you explain, please? MG

Bread The Cakewalkers Half Man Half Biscuit

I'm interested in the Gerald Wilson and the Erykah Badu. When was the Wilson recorded? Not doing Paypal is a bit awkward for foreign buyers. I can't just send you a cheque. Suggestions on how to pay, which don't involve a $45 charge by my bank, would be welcome MG

Harold "Pop Pop" Rollins Adrian Rollini Arthur Rollini

My earliest memory is singing along with my Mum to "Open the door, Richard". But I was only three. Old man What did you think of early fifties pop music - "Bimbo", "How much is that doggie", and those Guy Mitchell songs? At 8/9 I thought they were absolutely dire. MG Absolutely dreadful - but the dirty little secret is,once the personnel on many of those records is revealed, the number of players noted normally for their jazz reputations turned up on the dates! (A gig's a gig and the rent is due...and you never turn down a contractor) Undoubtedly - and that's still true. I bet Ronnie Scott played on loads of those Spice Girls records MG

The dollar is taking a pounding Sorry 'bout that. Couldn't resist. MG

Worked this morning. Sometimes things are just odd. It was a message from your blog saying not found, not from the web saying page not found. Yes, Barbara came from me MG

Good point. MG

June Carter Ron Carter Leroy Vinnegar

My earliest memory is singing along with my Mum to "Open the door, Richard". But I was only three. Old man What did you think of early fifties pop music - "Bimbo", "How much is that doggie", and those Guy Mitchell songs? At 8/9 I thought they were absolutely dire. MG

Similar to the UK, Niko, and it's not really a tax. The money collected, minus collection costs, goes to the BBC, or your regional broadcasters. The fee is underpinned by legislation, so you can be prosecuted if you don't pay. But it's not like renewing your car licence every year. That's a tax because the cash goes to government, which is responsible (at different geographical levels) for maintaining roads and building new ones. BBC World Service is funded by tax - paid for by the Foreign office, as the Voice of America is, I believe, funded by the State Department. MG

Is that for a whole year, or just the part of the year you've been on? I thought the BBC was expensive, but my licence fee will be paid next week - £142.50 or 163.42 Euro, for the whole year. MUCH cheaper than commercial television MG Ok guys...explain something to a foreigner. In the U.S. we have "public" tv. Usually one channel, though I am sure other cities have 2 available as we do here in Atlanta. Government, businesses and donations from the people keep it alive and kicking. How many channels do you get in each country, for this princely some??? And MG, how is it much cheaper than commercial TV??? Or are you talking about a monthly fee for Cable/satellite service???? The position in the UK is similar to what Niko has described for Germany. We have two widely available BBC channels here. When we go digital - in our area that's in March - we'll have 4 plus a couple of Parliamentary channels so we can watch politicians debate stuff (I think - I don't watch TV). TV has to be paid for and the people who pay for it are us, whether we watch it or not. If my wife didn't want TV, we wouldn't need to have one and wouldn't have to pay the license fee. BUT WE'D STILL BE PAYING FOR ALL THE PROGRAMMING ON ALL THE COMMERCIAL CHANNELS, because that programming is paid for by advertising which increases the cost of all the goods and services we buy. And on top of that basic advertising cost, which is about the same as the public channels' cost, plus network profits, the distribution chain loads on its profit margin at every stage of the distribution process. In addition, you're right about subscriptions to cable and/or satellite channels. This is one of the things that going digital is going to bring us in March (such delight, analogue will cease, so this is compulsory) and my wife and I are trying to work out what to do about it now. Subscribing to SKY TV (Murdoch, your favourite) would cost 18 pounds a month, and would give my wife the basic recipe of about 40 channels, most of which she doesn't want, but not the one she does want, National Geographic - so she'd have to pay extra for that. So we're taking about £240 a year - about $385. And we're still paying for all the adverts in our shopping baskets. MG

Link doesn't work, Chris. MG

But it was written by Ray Alfred, not Ray Charles, according to the sleeve. Who was Ray Alfred? MG

I think I'd quite like it if Fresh Sound or Lonehill were to reissue some Mainstream albums. MG

Having seen Stuff live back in the day more times than I can count I can only say that the records don't come close to the groove and intensity that was happening when they were gigging nightly at Mikell's in the 1970s. I'm sure they don't. Where's the green with envy smiley? MG Never heard that one. . . . . . . . In fact, I think that I've only ever bought one album Q was associated with - "If you go" by Peggy Lee. . . . . . Oh, and Ray Charles' "My kind of jazz". MG

Is that for a whole year, or just the part of the year you've been on? I thought the BBC was expensive, but my licence fee will be paid next week - £142.50 or 163.42 Euro, for the whole year. MUCH cheaper than commercial television MG