Dave James

All time favorite. Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed. Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys. Running this a close second is the Dead Milkmen's Big Lizard in My Back Yard. Up over and out

Jim, Congratulations on the newest addition. Looks like everyone is healthy and well. That's the best thing. As far as names go, how about Leslie. You know, like the speaker. If that doesn't work, I've always like Organissima. Up over and out.

Hey man, good to see you back in circulation. Sounds like you're doing OK. Up over and out.

Check this out: Up over and out.

Hugely important, indeed. There absolutely has to be a flow to an album. For instance, no one would put two ballads one right after the other. That's easy. It's making sense out of what's left that can draw the line between the merely good and the very good or excellent. I've never produced a record, but when I was doing jazz on radio, I would spend hours putting together my shows trying to achieve just the right dynamic. I don't believe everyone has a talent for this and that's why some albums (or radio shows) seem to work better than others, even though the overall quality of the material taken as a whole, isn't that different. Up over and out.

I remember him from his appearances on the Tonight Show. A genuinely funny man with a one of a kind sense of humor. I think Carson really liked him. Glad, and somewhat surprised, to see that he's still around. Up over and out.

Lon, Same idea but I was thinking along the lines of lesser known labels like Pacific Jazz, Cadet, Crown, King, Argo, Roost and the like. As I envision it, these boxes would be more focused on bop and post-bop, which, IMO, is still Mosaic's bread and butter. The other thing that's occurred to me is looking into the European scene. I know they might face some issues with name recognition but, man, there's a lot of A-list stuff to be found on the other side of the pond. Up over and out.

MG, Interesting post. I agree that Mosaic, at least from a big box perspective, is running out of material. I'm sure they have had discussions with many of the labels you mention about the availability of their inventory, but talking about having access and having access are two different things. What's most interesting to me is that while these labels have no intention of putting out a lot of the material Mosaic would like to get ahold of, especially in these days of declining CD sales, they are unwilling to allow anyone else access to it. Seems like you'd want to make some money off a catalogue as opposed to nothing at all, but I guess that's not the case. Frankly, I think this may be why Mosaic is considering the Braxton box, to see what kind of market there may be out there for more outside titles. Another option might be to expand upon their original concept by putting together boxes that are focused on labels as opposed to individual artists. I know Blue Note played around with the Pacific Jazz catalogue a few years back to less than satisfactory results, but what if you could put together a set of obscurities from a given label that would otherwise never see the light of day? Surely there has to be some kind of market for this. I'll tell you one thing. I'd love to be a crumb on the table when Mosaic is having discussions about their future. You could put those recordings together in a box set and I'd buy 'em. Up over and out.

Wow...I mean WOW! Up over and out.

Go to DG's Upcoming Releases tab. Select "Jazz" from the genre choices and enjoy. If you have an account, and who doesn't, you can ask to be notified by e-mail when any CD you've designated hits the streets. Up over and out.

Miller peaked early IMO. Livin' In The U.S.A. was about as good as it ever got. Wasn't his original bass player Boz Skaggs? At any rate, comparing The Dead and Steve Miler is like comparing The Stones and Herman's Hermits. Up over and out.

Picked this up on a whim from Da Bastids. I'm a fan of Redd from way back. This one represents some of his earliest work. 14 of the 16 tracks were recorded in Sweden in 1956. The other two were done in Hackensack in early '55. If you like Freddie, you'll like this. Nice. Up over and out.

I'm reminded of the 1970 movie Colossus, The Forbin Project. Let's just be sure the Rooskies aren't working on anything similar. Up over and out.

Bruce, Absolutely agree. More and more of Shihab's recordings are being cleared to land. This is a good thing. I have these two on my Dusty G wish list, so I'm poised to pounce. Up over and out.

I can only hope that if a Braxton Mosaic does come to pass, he is given the opportunity to contribute his insights. While anyone who has been even marginally exposed to AB's musical musings will acknowledge that this could get awfully strange awfully fast, I still think it goes to the integrity of the overall package. Up over and out.

In my opinion, and that's all it is, this is nothing but bigger is better syndrome. Some of those arrays serve no purpose whatsoever. It's like having ten headlights on a car. Under no circumstances am I impugning his chops, as I'm sure he'd have no trouble negotiating his way around a more traditional layout. I just take exception to the means he chooses to achieve his ends. Some of this is undoubtedly geared to his audience, the fusioneers who have some difficulty differentiating between style and substance. Up over and out.

I had never heard of Bozzio until I was skulking around on YouTube and came across some of his videos. There's a boatload of flash here (his drumsets are ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated) but underneath it all, I think he's got some MAJOR chops. It would be interesting to just sit him down behind a Buddy Rich-sized configuration and see what he could do sans all the glitter and the pyrotechnics. To me, Bozzio represents what's wrong with so much of music today. What I call the "my dog's bigger than your's" syndrome. Up over and out.

I was just listening to the Chet Baker version of Dameron's "On a Misty Night" here at work. It's the one with George Coleman and Kirk Lightsey from the album of the same name. I gotta say, has there ever been a better tune written than this? Perfect in every sense. Not too fast, not too slow and interesting from every possible angle. Any favorite versions out there? Up over and out.

As we speak, I'm listening to a pretty nice set from Jack Sheldon. It's called, Playing For Change. Nothing fancy. Just a nice mix. Some pretty fair sidekicks on board as those things go; Jerry Dodgion, Barry Harris, Rufus Reid and Ben Riley. Recommended. Up over and out.

OK, Lon, I'll bite. Where is your information coming from that indicates the Braxton has been green lighted? I think this would be very interesting from Mosaic's standpoint. The question about free jazz has always been, what kind of market is out there? If this sold reasonably well, it could open the doors for more of the same. If not, then you couldn't say they hadn't given it the old college try. Seems to me with so many other avenues drying up, it would be worth it for them to test the waters. King Ubu mentioned Xanadu. Boy they could make some major big box hay if they could snag the rights to that stuff. There's mountain of great material just sitting out there waiting to be mined. Up over and out.

Good stuff. That electric piano break could've gone on awhile longer and it wouldn't have bothered me a bit. I've always had a soft spot for this guy. If I'm not mistaken, he lives right here in Portland, Oregon or did at one point in the not too distant past. His greatest hits CD is well worth looking up. Up over and out.

I think the "L" in LRC stands for Lester, the surname of Sonny Lester. I used to see these bargain basement CD's at Tower for $4.99 a pop. Never bought one so I can't comment on their quality, but for what eMusic charges, how can you go too wrong? Up over and out.

"The Justice Department said the combination would lead to "substantial" cost saving steps such as consolidating the line of radios they offer. It said those savings would "most likely to be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices." Boy these guys really do live in a dream world. I think the very best any current subscriber might hope for is no cost increase. I'm guessing just about the first thing the newly minted SXM will attempt to do is justify higher price points based on expanded programming. Just wait and see. Up over and out.

I love these guys. I've been a sucker for a pie in the face since I was a kid. We have all their short films on DVD. We watch them sometimes while we eat dinner. I already liked my significant other when we first met, but when I found out she had the complete Stooge collection, that pretty much sealed the deal. Also, I disagree that Curley was the only funny one. It's easy to ignore Larry, but if you isolate on him, he's just as funny in his own way as are the other two. I'll tell you who the genius was in this operation, though, that's the guy who decided to add sound effects to the equation. What would it be like if an eye gouge wasn't accompanied by a tweaked violin string? Up over and out.