Jim Alfredson

Welcome, John. Stick around and join the fun!

Suprised someone else hasn't said this yet... Is the cute girl included?

Still running pretty quick for me... much better than all day yesterday. I'm going to discuss options with my server guy.

My terse email must've solved the problem!

Worst. "Band". Ever.

Tom, be strong and be with your family in these trying times. Good wishes to you and yours.

EVERYBODY.... "I'm a rhinestone cowboy......"

Did you know he had new eyebrows permanently tattooed on his face in 1991?!?

How about this one from his previous arrest in 1988?

Anything from MMW or Charlie Hunter.

Lee Morgan appears on Lonnie Smith's two early BN sides, "Turning Point" and "Think!".

Yeah, that's another thing I don't get. Sneakers. A good pair of Italian dress shoes are infinately more comfortable than any pair of sneakers, bar none. And they look better, too.

My problem isn't that I dislike playing piano it's that I can't play piano! I sound like an amatuer. It's really a different instrument. It has a totally different feel (much heavier action), a totally different way to play it (the position of your hands) and a totally different history and expectations of playing than the organ. I've never considered myself to be, for one instant, a pianist. I consider myself an organist because I've spent the last 8 years dedicated to the instrument. If I spent that on piano then I might be somewhere with it. I have done jazz gigs on "piano" (meaning a synthesized piano/keyboard) and I hated them. I didn't know what to play. I actually prefer electric piano much more. I can't really explain why... maybe I'm just intimidated by the acoustic piano. I love Fender Rhodes, I love Wurlizter electric pianos and I love acoustic piano but my preference, if I couldn't play organ, would be electric over acoustic from a playing perspective, not necessarily my own listening perspective. Jimmy Smith has been recorded on piano here and there. The latest example I can think of is a record from the 80s on Elektra called "Keep on Comin'" that has one track of Jimmy playing solo piano. He sounds good. Larry Young's piano playing on the Cassadranite/Woody Shaw record sounds a little... I don't know... weak to me. Not from a musical standpoint, but from a technique standpoint. It physically takes a lot more hand strength to play piano than it does organ and it sounds like he's not quite there to me. But that might just be me. And finally, to answer your last question, I don't think I would take a piano gig at this point. I just wouldn't feel comfortable playing and I feel like I would be a disservice to the music. It would be, frankly, embarassing. I am just not a pianist in any sense of the word. I can fake it here and there for my R&B band but that's the extent of it. I consider myself like Groove Holmes. Groove was not one of those cats that started on piano and switched over. He was an organist from day one. There's nothing wrong with switching and maybe someday I'll take the time to get to know the piano better, but right now I have enough to learn with the organ to keep me busy for quite some time!

Pretend all you want. We know the truth.

Amen to that!

It would be better if it wasn't animated, in my opinion.

Poor James. How the mighty have fallen. Ow!

"No, no Mr. Moose!! Please don't put me in there!!!!"

This is nasty. I can only imagine what those conservatives who against homosexual unions here in the US will do with this gem: Should do wonders for the cause.

That's the plan.

Tell me about it. I hate them. I think they are stupid looking for the most part essentially because they seem glued to people's heads. They never take them off! I was over at my dad's the other day and his girlfriend had a Christmas card/photo up on the refridgerator. Some family she must know... I don't know who they are. But they have three late teens/early 20's sons. And everyone of them is wearing a ballcap in the photo. LAME!

I've got a call into my server guy to try and figure out the problem. I'm hoping he doesn't say, "You need to have your own server." There's $80 a month.

I've done the next best thing... My friend recently bought a Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista CD player. Only 500 made and it cost $3500 ($5000 is retail, so he got a good deal). I know what you're saying... $3500 for a CD player? C'mon! At the time I had better speakers so he brought it over to my house. My CD player is an Acram CD-72, about $800 new (single disc player). I tried three different $1k players and liked the Arcam the best. So we play the new Alison Krauss disc on my player. Sounds good. My wife just happens to be in the room... she's not really paying attention... I think she was reading. My wife is not an audiophile in any sense of the word. She just likes music... she doesn't care what it's played on. Well, we hook up the $3500 Nu-Vista CD player and play the exact same cut off the Alison Krauss record. Before we can say anything my wife comes out of nowhere and says, "Wow! It sounds like she's in the room!! That's amazing!" If she can hear the difference, anyone can hear the difference.

I think this thread collasped under it's own weight.