Jim Alfredson

You can re-size images in Paint.

We have money here?

Last night was the 7th Annual WYCE Jammie Awards and we won both the "Best Jazz Album" and "Album of the Year" awards at the show. It was a crazy night, since we played at Meijer Gardens at 6:30pm, then I played with Root Doctor, then we headed over to the Intersection for the Jammie Awards and played there. Whew! But we're very proud and grateful for the recognition. I guess people like "This Is The Place". Next up, a live album.

Dude, that's awesome... ... not. One more reason football sucks.

So I found this on YouTube.com: http://www.youtube.com/?v=vfn6bBDXIwU Is that Harold Mabern!??!

Oh my, I have tears in my eyes! Let's hope someone doesn't think that's real!!! Oh man... that was funny! I'd like to see the real video clip. What's it from?

For recording an acoustic piano, I'd get a good preamp and some nice mics. I really like the MXL condensors, specifically the 603s and the 604s (the 604s is nice because it has interchangeable capsules for both cardiod and omni polar patterns... depending on your room, one or the other might work better). I use the 603s as drum overheads, spot mic'ing, Leslie mics, etc. and I think they do a fantastic job. They are very similair to the Neumann KM84s, but about 1/10 the price. For an interface, that Edirol looks nice. I've been very happy with my Presonus Firepod which is a little more than you need. Presonus also makes a Firebox, which has two mic inputs and two line inputs and comes with Cubase LE software for recording. The preamps on the Presonus stuff are very clean with a lot of gain. Check out our myspace page for examples of the trio recorded with the 603s (as the main mics, in a stereo pair, picking up the whole band!) going through the Presonus in Cubase LE on my laptop. Granted, they are compressed into mp3s so the sound isn't spectacular, but if you'd like I could post some uncompressed examples. myspace/organissimo

Holy crap, that was hilarious... I was just watching a clip of ELP playing "Knife Edge" and Keith Emerson launches into some Bach after his totally lame synth solo (featuring his big stick thingy) and in the middle of the Bach exercise he TURNS THE PAGE ON A TINY SHEET OF MUSIC SITTING ON THE ORGAN RACK!!! ROCK N ROLL!!!!!!!!!!

Man, there's some crazy stuff on there. Anyone know how to save the movies? I've been reading a bit about it... seems like they are .flv files. Anyway, here's some hilarious Genesis stuff for you prog heads: Genesis - The Musical Box Genesis - Return of the Giant Hogweed

So Charlie Hunter isn't serious jazz?

Then you better buy one and support independent musicians, dog!

He sounds like a real nice cat... hopefully I'll meet up with him in the near future. I saw he had a new one coming out with Adam Nussbaum on it... I'd love to hear it.

That's a heck of a lot of time to spend developing a "gimmick". It's not exactly an instrument you could learn in a few days or months or even years even if you were already a guitarist. I'm not buying it. I think Hunter is brilliant.

I got their first disc off CDBaby called "Darts" and I thought it was pretty cool. The one on ropeadope (or was it Nonesuch?) didn't do anything for me, just listening to the samples but if I find a used copy I'll pick it up and see what the mess is.

The path of least resistance and most money in the music biz involves developing and learning an instrument that had never existed before? Uh...

The XK3 supposedly uses the same sound engine as the New B3. I did not care for the XK2 either. I bought the Roland instead (which has crappy chorus/vibrato too).

What have you heard? Not trying to bust yer nuts, just curious. I would assume whatever they were doing in the mid- to late-90s. It has been some time, so I can't even recall exactly what was so wrong about them - maybe too cloying and/or schlocky. I can't hit the nails on the head like Jim Sangrey today with the whole vituperative specificity thing... They've gone way beyond that.

My biggest concern about this system, and I'm going to have to go back to the store to play it, is the MIDI implementation that connects all the devices. MIDI has inherent latency that, although small, does make a difference. That's my biggest gripe with the software clones like the B4. No matter what you do, you're going to have latency and it just doesn't feel right. Even 1ms, although tiny, doesn't feel right because a real Hammond has no latency.

Uninvisible is my favorite of theirs so far. I certainly don't call myself a pianist either, but that's the problem with keyboard-based instruments... they are extremely easy to sit down and play. You don't have to worry about embrochure, breath support, reeds, lip strength, limb independence, dexterity, etc. Of course to be good at piano or organ, you have to learn independence and dexterity, but to just sit down at one... anyone can do that and start to play.

Irving Berlin? I'd say you're right and I'd say it's Alfred Lion's birthplace Gotenstraße 7, Berlin Impressive elementary: recognise the street signs and general atmosphere, verify by the white licenceplates (front and back) and the yuro cars (VW Golf and some french ditty), go to google and type in "geburtshaus" "berlin" "jazz" and find the second hit leading to a wikipedia article on the man... Can I be your Watson?

The XK3 is around $2100, the extension cabinet with the second manual is $2000 and the pedals are $1900, so yes, it's expensive, but not nearly as bad as a Porta-B! I guess when you think that a B3 cost about $2000 back in the 1950s, it's not so out of touch.

I'm looking at getting one of these: http://www.hammondorganco.com/xksystem.htm I've played one at the local music store and they are very nice! They break down into three pieces and altogether only weigh 125lbs instead of 425lbs. Ham-Suz just offered me an endorsement deal so I can get it at dealer cost, but that's quite a bit of money. I need to figure out a way to come up with that scratch. I'm not joking about my back... I'm scheduled to have an MRI next week and have recently experienced weakness in my left leg and a lack of hot/cold sensation on the left side of my lower back. Not fun.

He had to rent it? I thought Ham-Suz had given him one? Damn... there goes my plan.

Would you? I would consider him a keys player. The times I've seen him, he plays more baby grand and clavinet than anything. I haven't seen him in a while, but the last disc has him playing a lot of synth. Of course it does not matter to me. Yes, I would call Medeski an organist because he has done some very cool things with the instrument that hadn't been explored yet, both in technique and sound. He really uses the drawbars to sculpt the sound expressively. He also has an instantly recognizable signature on the instrument, which is very hard to do.