Rooster_Ties

It's a great date, but I think you can probably find it for less than $30 – if you keep your eyes out for it on eBay for a couple months. I've seen a used TOCJ and a used McMasters of this title each go for about $18 on eBay in the last 3 months. And there's also the Spanish Blue Note version (which is supposedly the same remastering as the TOCJ), which can usually be had for $8 to $12. And there's also a JRVG of it floating around too. Dusty Groove currently has the JRVG for $26.99 (not including postage), which seems high to me – but that's probably just the going rate. DG also has the Spanish Blue Note version (with the blue cover), for $9.99. About the date itself - I really like it quite a bit. It's conservative, so no envelope pushing. It seems like a very early 50's date to my ears, though it was recorded in 1961. It has a little something extra – a sort of gospel-ish feel (some might call it soul-jazz, but that's not it in my book), that I wouldn't have expected from a real early-50's date. And even to my ears (that normally get more excited by the likes Andrew Hill and Greg Osby), I still find this date to be a very enjoyable disc. It's grown on me since I first picked it up, only about two months ago for the very first time. Summary: $30 seems high to me, but the disc is great – so do keep your eyes out for it. The TOCJ and Spanish BN versions don't have the bonus tracks, one of which is just an alternate take – but the other one is an entirely different tune from the same session. I think the JRVG might have the bonus tracks, but I'm not really sure. Somebody else here can surely tell. (The McMaster has them all, I do know that.) All things being equal - I'd go for a version with the two bonus tracks, which adds about 13 minutes of music to the disc.

And believe it or not, their address is just this simple: http://www.architecture.org. They have about 50 different tours available throughout the year, including three or four that are available every day of the week. My wife and I spent two weeks in Chicago on vacation in about 1998, and we discovered that if you just join the Chicago Architecture Foundation, that the tours are all free!! (We went on about 6 different tours during that two-week period, so it was cheaper just to join.) Anyway, the two tours I highly recomend most of all are... 1. Historic Skyscrapers The prototype of the modern industrial metropolis arose from the charred landscape left by the Great fire of 1871. Discover the historic beginnings of the Chicago School of Architecture and the earliest skyscrapers, built between the 1870s and the 1930s. This tour features the art deco Chicago Board of Trade Building; the Auditorium Building, a Louis Sullivan masterpiece; and the Rookery, a National Historic Landmark. and 2. Marvel at Chicago’s soaring towers while enjoying a 90-minute, narrated river cruise. This tour spotlights more than 50 architecturally significant sites where you will discover a new perspective on the city. Come aboard either of our well-appointed vessels,Chicago's First Lady or Chicago's Little Lady, where both open-air and climate-controlled indoor seating will make your journey comfortable. Snacks and beverages are available. Just go to their main site, and click on the "tours" link for more details. It looks like you can even buy your tickets on-line. The other thing to consider (if architecture's your thing), is all the Frank Lloyd Wright houses and buildings in Oak Park -- which is an easy ride to get to on the subway. You can tour Wright's home and studio (which is a National Trust for Historic Preservation site), and you can also tour Unity Temple - a Unitarian church that Wright Designed, which is often thought to be one of his best buildings (top-20, for sure).

100 Uranium Marbles (other search keys are: Radiation and Geiger Counter) No really!!! Or who the hell really knows??? ----- is more like it. -_-

DOUBLE THREAD - DON'T POST IN THIS ONE - LOOK FOR THE OTHER ONE Surely this thread will be deleted shortly...

Well, I was just about to vote for Ellington, but then I thought that there's always this big holiday-less gap in the calendar, between July 4th and Labor Day. So, at the last second, I went with Pops with his birthday in early August. Also, why the hell isn't June 30th one of the choices??

SOURCE Can't really explain why, but I love stories like this...

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at this.

By the way, another reason for being cautious about thinking any or all of the previously unreleased Andrew Hill might see the light of day, is this: From talking to M.C. (I'm getting this secondhand, from someone who only posts here very, very occasionally anymore), Andrew doesn't like "Dance With Death" very much, and is very cool about releasing it on CD. Now maybe he is, and maybe he isn't. Maybe he really wants to see "Compulsion!" and some other titles out there first, as 'singles' - before digging down to DWD. Maybe he’s really “sorta OK” about DWD, but wants most or all of his more important dates out there first (meaning stuff from the Mosaic). Or, maybe he really doesn't like DWD – and if so, then the odds aren't necessarily good that he'll like any or all of the previously unreleased material enough to want to see it released to the public. (Nor would I think he’d be all that excited about those extra two half-sessions from the 1st “One for One” LP.) Lord knows I'm as excited as anybody about seeing this material make it out, but I also don't want to get my hopes up for nothing. Wait and see, wait and see...

I read a post somewhere (probably on AAJ, but it could have been here - probably a month or two ago), that the word on the street was that "Where Is Brooklyn" is slated to be a Conn this year. Now I don't know if it's true or not, but the post was from someone who was sure enough that they sold their Don Cherry Mosaic set on eBay, on that basis alone. (Michael didn't mention it specifically, so I'm inclined to say that the rumor is just that, a rumor. But who knows.)

Anoushka and Norah are sisters??

Weirdo! OK, now you can REALLY call me weird -- but the station wagons I like best are IMPORT wagons from the 60's and 70's. Not the big, boxy Volvos -- but smaller wagons, like this... I hate the colors of these two (both yucky yello), but in a dark blue, or green - these are lots of fun!!!!! These two images (the yellow wagons) are both VW's from the late 60's, or very early 70's (like 1970 or maybe 1971). There are some other small-ish import wagons I've seen too, like Saabs and such, maybe Datsun too. Actually, here's a couple Datsuns... And here's a weird 2-door Datsun wagon from 1975 (the orange one). Cool. B) And the B&W one is from 1967 (I think). Also: B) Yeah, I'm weird.

"Anoushka, Anoushka, Anoushka-ya-ya!" Was it Anoushka that was runnin' up that hill?? (God, how these threads devolve - is simply amazing!! )

Do tell...

That's probably the case. I don't know for sure, but haven't the new Conns been released more recently about 10-months between each new set?? (I'd have a tough time thinking that there'd be both a new round of Conns in the Spring, and another one in the Fall. I sure wish there were going to be two rounds, but that would be quite different from what their release schedule pattern has been like for the last 2, or even 3 years.)

Since "Fuschia..." was a Conn (instead of an RVG), we won't see "Contours" as a Conn for at least 2 more years (meaning at least two more sets of new Conn releases), is my guess. (In other words, don't hold your breath for "Contours" this Fall.)

Thanks for sharing, Rooster T! ubu FOR THE RECORD, Michael said he's talking with Andrew about it, and NOTHING is at all certain about whether any of those unreleased Andrew Hill sessions will ever see the light of day. Personally, I would guess that there's only a 50/50 chance that Andrew will end up wanting them released. Maybe he will, but there's every chance that maybe he won't. Nobody's more excited about the posibility of hearing all those unreleased Hill sessions than I am. But we need to be clear that this is probably very much an "iffy" project, at this point. I don't want to give the impression otherwise, and don't want to raise expectations beyond just the "maybe" stage. I don't know Andrew (I only just met the man for two minutes last July), but my gut tells me that this really could go either way. Let's all keep our fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

Wow, major congrats!!! I love station wagons (call me weird, I've been called worse). Paul, as you might remember - I drive a Honda Accord Wagon (1992), and I'd buy another Honda wagon in a heartbeat, if they still made them. Acutally, they are starting to make Honda wagons again in the U.K. (as of last year), and maybe in Europe too (well, maybe, I haven't checked into it really). In any case, that gives me a little hope that Honda will bring back their wagons in the U.S., after they stopped making them maybe 3 or 4 years ago. And yeah, I'm definitely gonna wanna see your Forester sometime. No tellin' for sure if Honda is gonna come through for me with another wagon, so I'm gonna have to keep my options open, if I really want a wagon next time. I've got about 130K-miles on my '92 Accord wagon, so I'm hoping to get another 3-5 years out of it, knock on wood. (Then again, it could die tomorrow - who knows.) Again, congrats!!!

Ahem... HELLO!!! OK, I'm bumping this topic up again, cuz Michael seems to be thinking about the next round of Conns, for the Fall of 2004 - and he doesn't seem to have a full list of titles set in stone yet. So, we may yet be able to put a bug in his ear about one or two 'pet' titles that we are desparate to get. So, put your thinking caps on again - and what do you REALLY want to see released in the next batch of Conns in 2004??? He did say that the Booker Ervin / Woody Shaw date was a "probable" release for this Fall, so don't bother to vote for that one. And all the previously unreleased Andrew Hill is already on his radar, but seems to be more like as some sort of Hill "Select" - than a Conn. Here's exactly what I got back from Michael today, in an e-mail... Also, the Horace Silver "United States of..." whatever series (3LP’s that would be on 2CD’s) already seems to be a good possibility (although he didn't specifically mention it in his e-mail to me). Rest assured, it's probably on his radar, one way or another.

My uncle played a number of things for me, when I was probably in high-school. They didn't really leave all that much of an impression on me at the time, but later - when I was in college - he played more and more for me, and some of my earliest specific memories of particular jazz artists were probably of Charlie Parker, and Diz, and probably also Miles. Also, lots and lots of big-band material, including Duke, plus a dozen other more conventional big bands, plus some Kenton probably. And, oddly enough, Sun Ra - who my uncle also loved to tell stories about. So, I guess my earliest jazz-related memories were really more about the stories my uncle told me, more than the music itself. It wasn't until about my junior year of college, before I took the "Intro to Jazz" class, offered by the music department. Did my final term-paper for the class on Sun Ra -- not because I particularly "got" Ra's music back then, but because I was so taken with the stories my uncle had told me in the few years prior. I can't remember any specifics, but the stories were probably about my uncle having seen the Arkestra at the Chicago Jazz Fest in the early 80's (which would have been only about a decade before I did the paper). I remember him (my uncle) talking about all the costumes, and dancers, and lights, and the WILD, WILD solos the various band members took. I don't even think my uncle really "got" Ra all that much, when you get right down to it. I think he just got off on the spectacle and theatrics of the whole thing. The first jazz recordings I ever owned (I had cassette tapes of them, made for me by a friend), were of KoB backed with Nefertiti (with the tune "Prince of Darkness" from Sorcerer, tacked on at the end of the tape, after Nefertiti). And another tape of "Mode For Joe" backed with "Power to the People". I about wore those two tapes out over those first couple months, playing the Miles tape non-stop some days.

Anoushka is related to Ravi Shankar??

OK, literally 2 minutes ago I got the following e-mail from Michael. And of all things, it answers the very question we've been wondering about for - what? - the last hour???

This was the post I replied to above, but now it has vanished too! What's happening?? Don't fret. I just edited out all that stuff, and replaced it with "Just started THIS THREAD about it." instead. But as far and the original "mystery" post goes, that wasn't me - and I have no idea why the person who posted it, presumably later deleted it.

Just started THIS THREAD about it.