The Magnificent Goldberg

Well, I couldn't quite get that you were going out leaving the record player, or whatever, on. That wouldn't happen to me. But sometimes I'll play something and, even though I've had and loved it for decades, I've just got to sit still and listen to it (unless my wife wants me for something). Last album that happened with was Harold Vick's "Don't look back"; led to me playing it quite a bit in recent months (including yesterday). Another was Shirley Scott's "Drag 'em out". MG

Absolutely! Oh WOW!!!!! Any news of what company is going to put it out? The only Nilva albums of which I'm aware of CD reissues have come out on the Japanese label M&I. MG

As I recollect, he's pretty good on Sonny Stitt's 1977 album, "I remember Bird" on Catalyst. I'll dig it out and give it a spin later or tomorrow. MG

Er... (Two nations divided by a single language) MG

Only 2 have turned up so far. But it might be interesting to note that "Branching out" does not appear to be in danger of the axe; my copy was a European Universal issue (and the cheapest of the bunch, I think). And a blindingly good album! MG

Don Gibson Don Wilkerson Donkey Kong

Thanks Jim - I didn't know you could do things like that, so I never asked yahoo how to do it. MG

Honestly, WTF is your beef with Cuscuna? You hammer him in almost every other post you make here on this board. "Fast buck artist"? Fuck you, dude. I'm convinced you think Cuscuna shafted you out of some recording deal back in the day, and you just can't forgive him. I know you're a frustrated musician and all, but damn... Cheers (to Mosaic, of course), Shane Calling Michael Cuscuna a "fast buck artist" is totally uncalled-for and way over the line. Cheers to him and Mosaic indeed. Really, some of the comments here... I quite agree. Michael Cuscuna's taste in jazz is very different to mine and I think he has a very poor appreciation of the kind of jazz I like most. This leads to a BIG gap in my perception of the extent to which Mosaic has fulfilled its original promise, for which I blame MC. And I think he would probably say, "yeah, OK, but this is what I do." But there's no way he should be criticised as a "fast buck artist". MG

Out of curiosity, I checked today. If you look at the CPI (consumer price index), for the last year or two, year-on-year percentage changes for the full index have been higher than those for the core index... until the most recent month. (Which I think was August?) I think the same is true for the PCE (personal consumption expenditure) deflator, which is the measure that I believe the Fed prefers. In other words, for the past year, inflation if you include energy and food prices has been lower than if you exclude them. Somebody who is curious and less lazy than me can go to the BEA website (or is it the BLS?) and give us the exact numbers. Guy Oh well, I'm definitely not less lazy than you, Guy. But the whole argument here seems to turn on what measure of inflation you use. But there's no absolute measure of inflation; it all depends on why you're trying to measure inflation. For example, if you want to look at the way inflation is affecting GDP, to produce real GDP figures, then you have to leave out mortgage interest payments (MIPS), because interest is only a transfer; nothing is produced. But if you want to look at changes in living standards, you need to factor them in because the interesting point is whether earnings are keeping up with the need to spend. This means it's dead easy to make mischief - on both sides. On one side, you can use the wrong inflation measure to compare something and make some kind of unexpected (and illegitimate) political point. And on the other, you can create many alternative measures, thus deliberately producing confusion as to their appropriate use, and enabling you to rubbish political opponents. Inflation (really anticipated inflation) is a very strong influence on people's behaviour. And of course, it can't be known in advance. But people get a feel for what it's going to be by two things: the recent past (not the immediate present) - people get used to a trend over the past couple of years and act like it's going to continue; their shopping basket - this always produces a feeling that inflation is higher than it really is (by whatever measure) because the funds are always inadequate to satisfy desire, which continually expands. If food and energy have been inflating more than the "core" measure for a couple of years, that's what people will take cognisance of, not what August's numbers show. So you have a population that feels that inflation is higher than the headline figure; a feeling exacerbated by their experience with their shopping baskets. People's response to anticipated high inflation is to buy earlier, because those things will cost more later. Cutting interest rates (printing money) at such a time bolsters this behaviour, first by freeing up some mortgage interest payments, and second by enabling further borrowing more cheaply. At this particular time, many families will be able to see in coming months that their home loan interest payments are going to be recalculated upwards. This factor, too, will tend to advance purchases; "we'd better get it now, because we won't/might not be able to afford it soon". I'm afraid the Fed's action will just add to the mountain of debt and worsen the problem when the crunch comes, as it inevitably will. MG

That's the reward of working for 43 years: a well-deserved and ever-so-groovy retirement MG

If I remember correctly, this one is the more "late night" mood album. Big Hits at least had "Sack O' Woe" and a couple of other decent tunes on it ... I agree. Gave a listen to Lavender Sax and was not that impressed, "mood music" is correct. How would either of you compare "Lavender sax" to the Black & Blue "Midnight slows" series? MG

Damn! And I thought it was Joey, moonlighting! MG

The Florida Mass Choir - Lord, you keep on proving yourself to me - Savoy orig Bishop Jeff Banks & the Revival Temple Mass Choir - Touch me one more time - Savoy orig Dr Charles Hayes & the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer Choir - I kow the Lord laid his hands on me - Savoy orig MG

i see what you mean the word amazon.com is there (the box doesn't open over it but below - guess another programming error in the priority between list boxes or what they are called on the page...) but the search function is the right one... Is this something to do with using different browsers? I'm using Int Exp and it's not like that. MG

No - I get a normal Organissimo search box. MG

LMAO MG

Blood Sweat and Tears Winston Churchill Winston Wright

Good on yer, Lon! I wish you well to use it! I don't buy toys much. I tend to think that the fewer of such things I have, the better off I am. Usually I just replace things that can't be repaired. But last week, I got one of these: A 500GB Western Digital Elements external hard drive. I hope this means I now have enough room to store a good chunk of my music collection. I'll get a backup one pretty soon, I guess, though I'll need a USB hob to hook it up. MG

It seems to me that Paypal has one great advantage over credit cards. Using credit cards lets the supplier PULL money out of your account. Using Paypal, you PUSH the money out of your account to the supplier. The supplier doen't have to know anything about your account to get your money, just like when you go into a shop and pay cash. I don't suppose for a moment that suppliers are dishonest, but it seems to me that the risks of information being intercepted and used against you are much less with the Paypal system. I don't pay a penny for my Paypal account. I understand you have to pay if you want to use your account to receive money. Don't know how much that is. MG

I've only been getting e-mail notifications from Organissimo on sparse occasions for several days now. It's a pain in the arse. But today, when I logged into my e-mail box, my hand slipped and instead of hitting the inbox, I hit the spam box. And I found all the missing e-mail notifications. OK, now I really haven't declared to my hotmail provider that e-mil notifications from Organissimo are spam. So, how do these things get defined as spam? Is it something that I've done? Is it something that the board has done? Or is it just shit happening? MG

MG

Indeed; but in all those situations, you are actually buying something extra that you want. If you buy a Mosaic from somewhere else (I never have), you're getting the same thing you get from Mosaic; but, apparently, cheaper. MG

Harold Vick - Don't look back - Strata East orig Odell Brown - Odell Brown - Paula orig Paul Bryant - Burnin' - Pacific Jazz mono orig MG

John DeAth (the sign on the shop used to say "Family butchers") Frank Butcher Ted Heath

I've posted thi in the SA Jazz thread, but I think there are people here who don't read that thread who would find this interesting. Nyah! I've just been listening to this album, which turned up today from the Sterns sale. It's a wonderful album. I've never heard of any of the musicians, so it seems to me that there is a younger generation of SA jazz musicians, well imbued with the spirit of Abdulah Ibrahim, knocking around SA now. There are several different combinations of musicians accompanying Mrs Kekana. Dumisani Dhlamini - piano, synth, programming, producer & engineer Sello Manyaka - sax Isaac "Mnca" Mtshali - drums Mlungisi Gegana - bass Godfrey Mgcina - perc Kwazi Shange - drums Fana Zulu - bass Themba Mkhize - piano Lawrence Matshiz - guitar Peter Masilela - perc Andile Yenana - piano Ntokozo Zungu - guitar Herbie Tsoaeli - bass Oupa "Poys" Makhubela - guitar It was recorded in 2002. I'm most impressed by Dhlamini and, particularly, by Sello Manyaka, who doen't seem to me to have anything more to do to be a great jazz saxophonist, in the Kippie Moeketsi tradition. Most of the songs are originals, the words by Linda, the music by her husband, Ephraim Kekana, who doesn't appear on the record. The exceptions are the title track, which is a speech by Thabo Mbeki, recited and sung over an old Abdullah Ibrahim tune, the title of which eludes me for the moment; and "Senanapo" which has original music set to a traditional story. Linda seems to me to occupy a similar kind of space to Ursula Rucker, the Philadelphia rap artist whose work is a lesson to everyone about Hip Hop and the world. Indeed, a couple of the tracks on this album are every bit as painful to listen to as some of Ursula's raps; the world CAN be a beautiful place, but often it is almost too terrible to believe. But, of course, the music is different; what you get here is the same kind of Mbaqanga influence turned into jazz via Abdulah Ibrahim, but carried into a different area. The way Linda uses her voice reminds me a bit of Abbey Lincoln; but I don't like Abbey much - I do like Linda, so it ain't the same. This is on sale cheap at Sterns UK. You can listen to samples of all the tracks here http://www.sternsmusic.com/disk_info.php?id=CDGURB035 But I wouldn't advise listening to either "Loss of a child" or "Newsflash" as samples. And "U could be happy too" is untypical of the album, as it's a slow Salsa number. If you're interested in SA Jazz, make a grab for this. If you're interested in unusual and meaningful music, grab this. MG