Dave James

Being from Montreal, you have to appreciate Gretzky's iconic, near mythical status. With hockey being the national sport and with all the focus on the men's team and their quest for the gold, he was a natural choice. Personally, I'd have gone with either Diana Krall or Geddy Lee.

Not sure how rare they are, I have both of them. The Miles CD is called It's About That Time. It was recorded at Montreaux in 1969 and includes all the players you mentioned. The tapes were made by Chick Corea. There are seven tunes in the set. Directions, Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, Milestones, Footprints, Round About Midnight, It's About That Time and Sanctuary/The Theme. The eBay seller from whom I bought the 20 CD Davis Montreaux box threw this in as a bonus. The Hendrix/Young tunes are on a CD called Jimi Hendrix, The Studio Out-takes, 1966-1970. It's a 2 CD set from an outfit called Radioactive Records. They have released a number of Hendrix LP's on 180 gram vinyl. The two cuts with Larry Young are It's Too Bad (also featuring Buddy Miles) and Larry Young Jam a 10:24 piece with Billy Cox. Interestingly enough, this CD also includes an early take of Valleys of Neptune. It ends abruptly at the 4:25 mark when Hendrix stops playing and announces that he "hadn't thought up and ending yet."

Although this isn't a "hardware" item in the Mulligan canon, Wolfgang's Vault has recently released the tapes from the Concert Jazz Band's July 1960 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. I just finished listening to a couple of the cuts and the sound is very nice. Downloads available in either mp3 or flac format. $9.98 for the former and 12.98 for the latter. I'll second any appreciations of Night Lights. One of my favorites. Same for What Is There To Say with Tommy Flanagan.

Amazon has a dvd available of the "reunion show." And there may be a product scheduled to appear, there's a page in amazon for the first season and you can sign up to be notified by email. Lon, I've heard that the reluctance to release L.A. Law stems from the failure of other Steven Bochco series like Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue to generate much in the way of DVD sales. I also heard it had something to do with music rights, but my recollection of the music they used on the show doesn't support that argument. I signed up on the Amazon release notification site about four years ago. Suffice to say, I'm no longer holding my breath waiting to hear back from them. The reunion movie was OK, but I"m not generally a fan of those kind of things. They seem kind of unnecessary. I did find a guy a month of so ago who was offering the complete series on DVD for peanuts, like $50.00, but I'm enough from the school of "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is" to keep from biting on an offer like this.

L.A. Law. I'd even settle for the two hour premier episode. Ensemble television at its best. Has there ever been a better character than Arnie Becker? I know the series lost a lot of steam in its later years, but the first two or three seasons were, dare I say it, must-see TV. I don't know how they can release all the garbage they throw out these days and still keep this one under wraps.

Alexander started an earlier thread entitled, "Please Check Out Where Dead Voices Gather". Did it occur to anyone else how appropriate that title would have been for this thread?

I came across an article on the Sports Illustrated website today discussing the Yankees interest in Cuban defector Adeinis Hechavarria. He's both a shortstop and an outfielder, so if they do sign him, he could wind up being Derek Jeter's replacement. In the interim, he's apparently good enough as an outfielder to make moving Curtis Granderson from center to left field a possibility.

Wow, that's a drag. Before tossing in the towel, be absolutely sure that you have no recourse given that an "act of God" prevented your attendance. Seems to me, the promoters might be willing to make some extraordinary concessions given the uniqueness of the situation. Have you asked all the right questions of the right people? I just downloaded This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 from iTunes. I could burn you a copy if it would make you feel better.

Unfortunately, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. However, I'm pretty sure if Concord's contingent of pointy-headed bean counters can sniff a profit by re-re-releasing already released releases, then it's only a matter of time. Look no further than the currently active Miles Davis thread for confirmation of the endless possibilities.

Dan, Here's one: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1057843929052

You're right, I couldn't possibly know what your criteria is. What is it?

I'm sitting on a cornucopia of old stereo gear. The Marantz 2270 I bought in the late '60's is still going strong. I've had it into the shop just once in all that time. It's companion, a Thorens TD-160 turntable also remains fully functional. I also have a Dual 1220 I got a couple of years back and I will be adding a Thorens TD-125 to the TT collection tomorrow night. That one is going to take some work to bring up to code, but once it's running, it'll be sweet. I also have a complete Macintosh system I got from my Mom. It includes an amplifier, a free standing tube pre-amp and a tuner. Speaker-wise, a set of monstrous 15-inch JBL's. All this equipment was purchased around 1961. I still have the original paperwork and owner's manuals. Now if my house was just big enough to deploy all this stuff, I'd really be in business.

Time to fire up the grill. How would you like your buzzard cooked?

Lon, you're not fooling anyone, you're just a sucker for a pretty face. Here's an article from the NYT that ran a couple of days ago. Not only do I like her music, but I like her "I'll do what I want to do when I want to do it" attitude. The anti-celebrity. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/arts/music/07sade.html?scp=2&sq=Sade&st=cse

As long as we're on the subject, I have some other questions. 1) When did a television show become an "event". 2) When (but more to the point, why) is Villanova now just "Nova" and Syracuse, "Cuse". Only a couple of examples. There are many more. 3) What is it about the word "deserve" (as in, get the credit you deserve, or the car you deserve) that's made it the current go to phrase in advertising? 4) How many angels can you stack on the head of a pin? Now that I'm retired, I spend my days contemplating things like this. I feel like I'm doing important work. Is that wrong?

If you were like talking to a teenager and like every time they said like, you had to like take a drink, you could be like totally hammered like inside 20 minutes.

It was '82. In his infinite wisdom, Pete picked the Clash to open. Oy! That's kind of interesting. I'm guessing Townshend may have seen a bit of the early Who in those boys. Nonetheless, a questionable decision, and that's being kind.

I have the rest of the picture, but my sense of dignity and being mindful of what is in the best interests of my fellow board members, I have made the decision not to release it. You will thank me later.

According to Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy on ESPN, Solomon Wilcots just reported that the White House is labeling The Who's halftime performance as an act of terrorism on American soil.

Well The Who were as mediocre as I expected them to be. Makes me wonder what Pete Townshend circa 1965 would have thought if he could have seen Pete Townshend circa 2010. No, on second thought, I don't really want to know. Also, someone should have been put in charge of making sure Pete was all buttoned up before hit the stage. He was flashing a little too much skin for my taste.

Your assertion that The Doors are dated is a tough charge to refute. The fact that they have not made a new recording in almost 40 years is, indeed, a roadblock to relevance. However, outside of the Dead and maybe, Santana, I'm not sure your argument isn't that The Doors are dated but that any music from that era is dated. I've been around the block enough times to realize that my opinion is only one of many, so I do respect your position. After all, disagreement is part of what makes music fun. All I'm saying with regard to The Doors is don't base decisions on their studio work. That's a poor representation of their viability. Much like the Dead, their power, credibility and relevance derive from the legacy of their live recordings. That's the way I choose to view them. But, If you absolutlely demand currency, look at Morrison as the original tea bagger; he's mad as hell and he isn't going to take it any more. Or, if you like, think of him as an early environmentalist based on lyrics like this; "What have they done to the earth? What have they done to our fair sister?"

Late, Thanks for the tip. I was all ready to drop iTunes prices on these two. Makes you wish Amazon would play hardball with Apple and start charging $.75 (or less) a tune and an equivalently lower per album price. They just did went to "war" with Walmart over book pricing, so it's not like it's out of the question.

With all due respect, I'm not sure I could disagree more.

Bev, This set is available on iTunes, but it looks like there's a companion piece featuring the same band at the same venue. There are three tunes on the Waldron Quintet album you've pictured; Snake Out, Judy and Seagulls of Kristiansund, and two on the other one, Status Seeking and Git Go . The second album is called The Git Go - Live at the Village Vanguard.. Any idea what's up with that?