B. Clugston

Particularly when compared to those weird five-star reviews on that site of CDs that haven't been released yet.

Wonder what he would say about BMG?

It's Dickenson's third concussion in 21 months and it's prompted a debate here about his future. Buck Pierce will start Thursday against Hamilton. He's good enough to start every game and Jarious Jackson is no slouch as backup.

I find myself agreeing with everyone on this thread.

The Ayler box is fun, but walks a fine line between practicality (boxed sets do furnish a room) and impracticality (getting CDs out requires excavation). I like Leo's 8-CD New Music from Russia, Conspiracy and the Kuryokhin box. Album size boxes with nice colour booklets. I like the fact the Rhino Atlantic boxes put liner notes in book form. Same goes for the Naked City box, though the book is uninformative. Uptown's Mingus CD has a better booklet than most boxed sets do. Would love to see them do a boxed set. While I like the metal spines, overall I don't like the Miles Davis Sony boxes. Major offences include unreadable yellow type on the In a Silent Way box and glue leeching out and wrecking CDs on the Bitches Brew set.

Get Lord, Lord Am I Ever Gonna Know now. Lucky Strikes is pretty good, too.

Braxton has written compositions incorporating silence in the score.

The box set was released by Abraxas, which used to have a licence to issue ESP CDs. Nothing new here.

Go for the new ESPs directly from the label. ESP was threatening to put out an Ayler box set around the time Holy Ghost came out, but all's been quiet since.

Thanks for posting that. Wish I was there. Hope this gets released soon.

The Argos announced that the 43 year-old (or is it 44?) Damon Allen will be 3rd string this week, behind starter Michael Bishop and back-up Mike McMahon as the Argos play the Ti-Cats. 'Bout time IMHO. Allen is now too slow to avoid the pass rush, and he can't throw the ball deep anymore. Every move he makes seems to be in slow motion. Last week the Argos gave up five sacks when Allen was at QB and I don't recall that Bishop was sacked at all. Even if Bishop isn't the answer, it's time for Damon to gracefully retire. Damon Allen is a grandfather. Great career, but he's no longer starter calibre.

From Wild's web page. http://home.att.net/~dawild/jcdisc61.htm#610701 610701 JOHN COLTRANE QUINTET:: Personnel: Coltrane, ss, ts; McCoy Tyner, p; Art Davis, Reggie Workman, b; Elvin Jones, dr. Location: 'Newport Jazz Festival', Newport RI Date: 7/1/61 Engineer: a. "Impressions" J. Coltrane 6:06 Private tape; MJ(I)2MJP1051 b. "Naima" J. Coltrane 4:05 Private tape c. "My Favorite Things" R. Rodgers - O. Hammerstein 16:27 Private recording; MJ(I) 2MJP1051 NOTE: Information about the release of this recording on MJ is per Fujioka

"Let's Call This."

Tomorrow I'm seeing......Sonny Rollins!

Worst album I ever bought was Bob Dylan's Live at Budokan. I took it back to the store claiming it was warped. Fortunately there wasn't another, so I exchanged it for the Grateful Dead's Dead Set.

That's the only one I've heard, though isn't that the version that turned up on the Gabriel compilation? Or is there another version?

The Braxton solo is my favourite of his alto solo albums. Certain Blacks has never been a favourite of mine and I've never heard the Fontella Bass one. Improvisie is time warped in an enjoyable sense, but not enjoyable enough for me to buy it. With 11 down, 4 to go, might as well pull the trigger on all of them.

Half of it ("The Lowlands") turned up on some shady Swiss or Andorran bootleg along with the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Certain Blacks in a CD attributed to Chicago Beau. I liked what I heard from it.

Any hair metal album from the 1980s would qualify.

I think Chick's work with Miles Davis is outstanding. He's a clever pianist, full of ideas, though his career has been all over the map. I prefer his more aggressive days with Miles and Circle, but also like the later stuff with Gary Burton. Haven't heard much of his later stuff--whenever there's a whiff of L. Ron, I flee.

No kidding. The packaging of Joe Chamber's The Almoravid is so bad, it would be an insult to all children to call it child-like. The covers look like they were done by some computer illiterate who discovered an '80s graphics program on their computer.

Song of Songs and Concert Ensemble at the Berliner Jazztage are musts. The latter was coupled with The Iron Men on a 32 Jazz release. Rosewood is pretty good, though it has a dated sound. The CD reissue also includes three songs off of For Sure! The other CBS stuff remains un-reissued other than the Mosaic set and Stepping Stones. Also, pick up Larry Young's Unity.

I'm sure the Andorrans will release this soon. A Giuffre Verve Mosaic would be welcome. Giuffre is always interesting to listen to, no matter what the content.

Here's some more info from the Gebers' site: Owing to the ongoing violation of the contract the licence agreement was cancelled without prior warning in February 2003. After an objection was filed on behalf of the licensee, action against the notice of termination was pronounced in May 2003. A judicial ruling is still pending. Independent of this decision the last four productions of the label were completed in 2004. As a result of these developments, continuation of the label is no longer possible. The lawsuit of the licensee against the summary dismissal of the licence agreement was dismissed by judgement of May 15, 2006 at first instance by the district court. The licensee Schleif filed an appeal against this decision at the Supreme Court of Appeal. During the hearing which took place on November 21, 2006 it was determined that the termination of the licence agreement without notice on February 16, 2003 was justified. The costs for both lawsuits have to be borne by the complainant Schleif. Furthermore FMP-Publishing has given her until December 31, 2008 to sell off her remaining stock of FMP CDs.

Unlike the last two finals, these are two teams that look like they will be contenders a year from now. Both Ottawa and Anaheim's younger players will only get better from the experience. Nice to see Selanne hoist the Stanley Cup.