Jim Alfredson

Wouldn't it be nice to have the documents from Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings back in, what.... 2001?

'Monster Pig' was raised on Ala. farm, sold days before boy shot him Evening update Associated Press FRUITHURST, Ala. — The huge hog that became known as "Monster Pig" after being killed by an 11-year-old boy had another name: Fred. Far from feral, the pig had been raised on an Alabama farm and was sold to the Lost Creek Plantation just four days before it was shot there in a 150-acre fenced area, the animal's former owner said. Phil Blissitt told The Anniston Star in a story Friday that he bought the 6-week-old pig in December 2004 as a Christmas gift for his wife, Rhonda, and that they sold it after deciding to get rid of all the pigs at their farm. "I just wanted the truth to be told. That wasn't a wild pig," Rhonda Blissitt said. Jamison Stone shot the huge hog during what he and his father described as a three-hour chase. They said it was more than 1,000 pounds and 9 feet long; if anything, it looked even bigger in a now-famous photo of the hunter and the hunted. "We were told that it was a feral hog," Mike Stone told the Star, "and we hunted it on the pretense that it was a feral hog." Telephone messages left Friday with Eddy Borden, the owner of Lost Creek Plantation, were not immediately returned. The Blissitts said they didn't know the hog was Fred until they were contacted by a game warden for the Alabama Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. The agency determined that no laws were violated in the hunt. Phil Blissitt said he became irritated when he learned that some thought the photo of Fred was doctored. "That was a big hog," he said.

Yeah, it's all in the heads. This machine is capable of being turned into a 1" 8-track, but I don't ever plan on seeing heads for that around (it uses a very specialized head). Besides, 2" 16 track is the bomb! I think I'm going to start with rebuilding the power supply and go from there. My instinct is telling me the motors are not getting enough juice and that is why they are unable to ff or rw since this deck does not use mechanical tensioning, just electric (ie, voltage).

That's pretty crazy. Pistons better figure out something quick.

I just got home and couldn't watch the game. Were they double-teaming him and he still scored the last 25 points?

I've noticed it on stereo BN recordings too, specifically when Elvin is involved. Sounds like poor mic placement on the cymbals.

Please keep religious discussions in the political forum. Thanks!

Good times. Good times.

I didn't watch a lot of the game last night because the calls were driving me crazy. But I will say towards the end, when there was about 1 minute to go and the Pistons were only down by 4 points or so, Tayshaun got hacked really bad under the hoop (no call) and then on that loose ball Chauncey almost got his head taken off by Gibson (no call) and they call a foul on Rip. Weird stuff. Pistons just need to stick to the gameplan and make shots. They're doing a decent job on LeBron. They will win the next one in Detroit.

I was pretty sure this series would go to 6 or 7 games. I'm not worried yet. Every game has been close. It ain't over until it's over.

I want to see more pictures.

I saw it. I don't believe it. That photo looks fake to me. And why only one photo? If this was the biggest hog in the world, seems to me there would be multiple photos from all different angles. Looks like Photoshop to me.

Really? That first track sounds like Kenny to me. Interesting.

Kenny Burrell on guitar? Sounds like him. Had no idea this was coming out. Thanks for the heads-up.

Yawn.

I think some of the stuff on the Mosaic box is even more "out". Especially some of his solo stuff on those sessions. Jimmy was really stretching, much more than he really ever did again.

No, I'm not sure about the price of tape. I was going by what the studio usually charges us for a reel, the last I knew. Chuck, my machine actually came with 16 channels of DBX NR in the bottom rack. I just got done fiddling around with it, trying to figure out why the FF and RW only work for a few seconds (obvious tension issue) and had the platform where the motors are mounted come down on my head. Looks like somebody punched me in the mouth, since I just bit my lip something fierce. Ouch. The literature I got with it says it was made in 1972 (five years before I was born!) and it runs at 15 ips, although somebody modified it to run at 30ips via a switch underneath. I wish I had the remote for it. The meterbridge is way too cool looking.

Yeah, that's the FOX2 morning show. We did it last year with organissimo. It was really rough. I have a DVD of it somewhere. I look like I have no idea where I am.

Probably about $150 new.

There was an audio recording of Coltrane speaking to an interviewer that was posted on here a few years ago where they talk about Jimmy Smith and Coltrane talks about how Smith's sound on the organ haunted him. I don't think that's really giving JOS enough credit, Clem. What he did seems to me a fair bit more than that. In addition to his technical innovations, which Jim's dealt with, JOS seems to me to have changed the THRUST of organ playing in a way that even people who don't particularly play like him still joined in. To me, that aesthetic revolution that JOS really did inaugurate is the most important thing. That's pretty much what I'm trying to say. I'm not downplaying anyone's importance (and for the record, I don't think I ever called Smith the "Bird of the organ". I think my Charlie Christian comparison is closer). And clem, by me saying that no one plays like Jimmy Smith, I think that's true of most any great musician. Nobody can truly cop their style. Nobody sounds like Albert Collins. Nobody really sounds like Bird. Nobody can totally cop Armstrong. People can get close, but it isn't going to be the same. These people sound like they do because of a culmination of every life experience.

I just hopped down to Indy yesterday with Greg N and bought this Scully 2" 16 track reel to reel machine. This isn't mine, but it looks just like this: It needs some TLC, but I'm reading the manual right now and trying to learn how to get her back up to speed. Can't wait to track some drums to this mamajama!

this is all important SS except... Charlie Parker is waaaaaaaaaaay beyond Jimmy as an inventor, genius. that's not a fucking cut on Smith but c'mon-- people can NOT play like Bird to this day... And nobody can play like Jimmy Smith to this day. Many people try, but they cannot play with his feel and fire. If you think someone has acheived that, then you're not listening. Mike, I know Patton says he wasn't directly influenced by Smith, but I'll bet you anything he heard him. I'm not saying he sat down and learned Smith's tunes, but he definitely heard him. And just today on the way down to Indy I was listening to the Mosaic Select and I heard multiple Smith licks in John's playing. That's what I'm trying to say. There is pre-JOS organ and post-JOS organ. A lot of people were fiddling with the organ before him, but you cannot deny that he started the organ trio craze and defined what that format sounded like. Again, influence. His influence is undeniable. As for exceptions like Baby-Face and Shirley Scott; there will always be exceptions. Shirley came from church, and had a lot of that in her playing (I've even seen pictures of her playing left hand bass on the top manual... a common practice among gospel organists). She also tried to make the organ sound like a piano, especially with her very bright solo sounds and her comping. She did some great stuff, I love her playing. Baby-Face came from the church, too... especially his bass sound. That's a whole different bag. Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett and their contemporaries were trying to make the organ sound like a big band. Jimmy Smith was the first to take the organ on its own terms, to combine the elements of the others and approach the instrument as the Hammond organ, rather than trying to make it be something it isn't. And I'm well aware others were doing left-hand bass, but nobody else was using the pedals like Jimmy did, which eventually led to people like Chester Thompson of TOP taking Smith's concept and applying it to funk basslines with much more success than most jazz organists (including Smith). Innovation and evolution. Smith is akin to Charlie Christian. There is jazz guitar before Christian and jazz guitar after Christian. Smith was a turning point for the instrument.

He deserved every bit of it. It doesn't mean the other organists aren't special or deserving either (and really, who cares how Downbeat readers or editors vote?) but his influence cannot be denied. I love Patton, but despite what he or others might claim, there is a definite Smith influence there in the way he set up the drawbars, the left-hand bass, and the solo sound. Of course he tried his own settings (as did Groove, McGriff, McDuff, Patterson, etc.) but it is based on the combination that Smith came up with. It's ridiculous to belittle Jimmy Smith because he was popular and downplay his influence. He was popular because he made good music that connected with a lot people. Even today I get folks that come up to me and ask me my influence (or sometimes they just say, "You listened to a lot of Jimmy Smith, didn't you?") and when I tell them Jimmy Smith they smile wide and tell me how much they love him. He changed the instrument. I can't say it better than that.

Clem, I'm not talking about what Jimmy did musically; obviously he borrowed a lot of things stylistically from what was going on around him. The same with Larry Young; apply McCoy Tyner-esque-ness on organ... voila, Larry Young. What I am talking about is Jimmy's technique, his approach to the instrument. Before him, nobody played the Hammond organ like that. The idea of walking the bass lines with (mainly) the left hand, and using the pedals for tapping accents just ever slightly ahead of the beat to simulate the plucking of an acoustic bass, the 888000000 registration with C3 chorus and 3rd harmonic percussion that became his signature solo sound (and pretty much everybody elses after him, with a few exceptions), using 848000000 for bass lines and chords on the lower manual... these are things that other organists before Jimmy did not do and everybody after him did. He changed the way the instrument was played not only in jazz, but in rock, blues, and beyond. I hear Jimmy Smith in every organist that came after him. Every single one. His influence in undeniable.

The simple fact of that matter is this: Jimmy Smith topped the polls year after year because without him jazz organ would not exist as we know it. He single-handedly DEFINED the instrument in the 1950s. He created the standard. As great as all the others are, including Patton and Larry Young and Patterson and Shirley Scott, they would not exist without Jimmy Smith. We're talking about influence here. Jimmy Smith influenced everybody that touched the Hammond organ after him. All the others evolved from what he did, but still within the mold that he created. Even Larry Young, who everyone touts as being so far advanced, used the same registrations, especially his lead sound, that Jimmy created. Harmonically he was different, but I'm talking about the physical technique of the instrument. When it comes to jazz organ, Jimmy Smith created it. To put it more succinctly, what Jimmy Smith did changed the instrument forever. Who else has done that with jazz organ?