The Magnificent Goldberg

Illinois Jacquet, Milt Buckner & Jo Jones - Bottoms up - Black & Blue (reissue) Houston Person - Harmony - Mercury orig Hank Crawford - Don't you worry 'bout a thing - Kudu UK (I only ever play side 1 of this) MG

Don't ask me - he's a techy. He was trying to add a third drive at the time. MG

My wife has never really been much into music. But she would come to the occasional gig - when we were courting, I took her to an Osibisa gig, which she liked a lot. Now she hates the whole thing; only likes a few pop recordings that she can associate with in some way - very few - she recently got me to download a few things from itunes to put onto a CD for her and had great trouble thinking of enough to fill a CD! But so long as I don't make her listen to any of it, and pay for it out of "my own" money, she's tolerant. Could be worse, my daughter has a Kenny G record and one by that singer from New Orleans who imitates Sinatra (forget his name). Oh, and Norah Jones. MG

Fabulous!!!! Has anyone sent Mike Weil a PM about this? MG

My son-in-law buggered both my hard drives at the same time (the second of which was my backup for all but the most volatile files) on my last computer. And, despite sending them to specialist recovery firms, at non-trivial expense, neither could be even slightly recovered. So, everything you've ever believed about sons-in-law is true. MG

Just to remind myself to join in later. MG

it's all about the after party! Oh no, he doesn't drink Guinness; just cheap lager. (We've tried giving him expensive lager, but to no avail.) And I've just noticed my spelling in the thread heading - that's the cheap Strine wine with dinner. OBO110X MG

I just read what I put as the title! Stupid arse! MG

Don't boast! MG

Younger grandson, James (5) is a squirrel tomorrow, which put this into my mind. I was 4 when I had to go in for one of these. My mother got me up as a bear and I had to sing, solo, "The teddy bears' picnic". I hated every second of it. I was , probably fortunately, bearly audible I've never let myself be suckered into doing anything like that again. But I don't have a natural antipathy to "performing". I enjoyed giving talks to visiting delegations from far-flung places like Cuba and China (though it was hard with a translator), as well as economics students and colleagues. It's just the school stuff I hate. I went to one that our daughter was in, when she was about 7. I hated that, just as much. I could feel what I would have been feeling had it been me in her position. Natasha wasn't too keen. And my wife hated the business of workng up costumes with a passion which equals mine for the whole business. Lawrence, grandson #1 (11), is really keen on them. He's most assiduous at learning his lines and recites them to himself in his room. Natasha tells me he gets right into character! And she doesn't seem to mind making costumes for him. Perhaps he's going to be an actor; he certainly takes this more seriously than his proper homework. His school doesn't do a play/show at Christmas. What are your experiences/thoughts? MG

Is you boastin' man! I have something like 10-20% of this already! MG Well...I decided I didn't have enough of it to warrant not buying the set! MG

Christmas seems less special when you're retired and there aren't a few days off to look forward to. But it's Badger's Christmas Curry tomorrow, with some of my former colleagues. I expect to be properly stupid and that'll put me in the mood. And going to our daughter's on Christmas day is always lovely. The elder grandson (11) wanted money from everyone this year, so he's got very few (token) presents - and we're all intrigued to know what he's going to spend it on. But I'm feeling good and not as poor as my wife thinks we are. And I wish everyone the best. MG

Well, Wex says he didn't read the small print. He knew that Sam & Dave, who appeared on Stax, were actually Atlantic artists; and he offered Jim Stewart Aretha on the same basis. I think this is consistent with a view that there were only certain Stax recordings that Atlantic owned; the Sam & Dave's as well as those of Atlantic artists like Wilson Pickett, whose recordings were produced by Stax for Atlantic. Wex says: "In no uncertain terms, the ownership was in the original contract drawn up by Atlantic's lawyer, Paul Marshall. ... I couldn't act unilaterally, because by then I was an employee, no longer a partner." At the time the contract was drawn up, Wexler had only been involved with Atlantic 6 years and, in fairness, his contribution was not to the business end; it was as a record producer. Of course Jim Stewart should have known - the man was a banker by profession. What kind of banker doesn't look at the small print of a contract? So, if you were trying to slip some small print into a contract, would you try it on with a banker? MG

Walt Dickerson Walter Trout Captain Beefheart

Not a new scam, then. Maybe not tried over here before. MG

Blue Mitchell yesterday. Boooooful! MG

Apparently it was a mistake. Ahmet and Jerry Wexler thought the contract they'd signed with Stax was a straight distribution deal, with support for production costs. However, one of Atlantic's lawyers put in a provision under which Atlantic owned all the material they released and all released and unreleased Otis Redding material. When Stax wanted its independence, these bits of small print were found and, according to Wexler, they couldn't forget them, which they were minded to, because Atlantic was no longer independent and he and Ahmet had a duty to Warner/7 Arts. MG

That was never on vinyl, was it? Oops. I'll get my coat. MG

Oh, and I forgot this one, too That is just fantastic!!!! MG

Harold Land Harold Vick Vick

We recently bought a couple of tagines We're still experimenting with them but I wouldn't mind betting that this is the perfect way to do lamb chops. We have a few in the freezer and we'll see sometimg in the next few weeks. MG

A friend sent me this message yesterday. Looks like a serious problem. MG

Oh, I like that. And, I like THAT, too! MG

Sonny Phillips - I concentrate on you - Muse orig MG

Ruttgers Institute of Jazz Studies Dan Morgernstern