Jim Alfredson

From a pure production standpoint, The Wall is pretty amazing actually. The sonics alone, the density of the music, the layers, how everything flows together... perhaps not radical anymore for the time, but expertly realized, imo. Of course, I lived and breathed that album in middle school. That seems to be the Pink Floyd years for lots of folks. And believe it or not, but I actually liked The Final Cut. I also dug Waters' solo records, which is what The Final cut is really. But again, that was back when I was a wee teen.

We're at about $1600. Almost there for the year!

All things must come to an end; the old cliche is certainly true. I want to thank everyone for their support all these years. We had a good run. I do wish we had achieved more success and recognition. I don't think we were fully appreciated by the jazz press in general. But that's probably due to geography more than anything. As most of you know, in March I accepted an offer to become the keyboardist in blues singer Janiva Magness' touring band (and will probably record with her as well). The original goal was to put organissimo on hiatus and reconvene in the late fall / early winter to write and record another album. We'd do gigs as we could here and there. To say it has been a struggle the last few years would be an understatement. We spent tens of thousands of dollars of our own money on CDs and the promotion of those CDs. As my family grew and my responsibilities for that family grew as well, it has become harder and harder to justify the expenses, especially when you can find all our CDs for free on various blogs out there. Viva the internet! Anyway, at the beginning of July, Joe Gloss announced to me that he's moving to Milwaukee to pursue a new path in his life. I wish him all the best but organissimo can obviously not continue without him. I've been making music with Joe since 1997. I love him like a brother and I'm proud of everything we did accomplish. And Randy's contributions cannot be understated, of course. We had a very special musical relationship, culled over years of gigging together. At our peak, I think we were one of the best trios out there. Too bad most people never heard it! So... what next? I'm going to continue touring with Janiva Magness. I've already made a lot of very good connections out on the road and there's so much more in store. When time allows there are several organ-based projects I would like to do. I will probably release them under my own name and hopefully be able to collaborate with Randy again in some form on them. Randy is busy with his new group featuring a cast of really talented players. And Joe is following a path that he believes with lead to greater fulfillment in his life. I don't know what his musical plans are, if any. Concerning the forums, they will remain as is. I will need everyone's support more than ever to keep this place running since the band won't be bringing in any income. 99% of our CD sales, which we did use to help pay for this site, come from gigs. No gigs = a lot less income. We'll continue to sell our CDs online but when they go out of print they will not be re-printed. We're on our third printing of the first two (Waiting For The Boogaloo Sisters and This Is The Place) and our second of Groovadelphia. We have several hundred of those three. We have about 500 left of the live disc from the first printing. It will not be reprinted. We have about 8 DVDs left. I will not be ordering any more of those either. 10 years is a good run. Thanks again to everyone here for their support.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/59705-gene-ludwig

There's really no comparison. The bigger pedal board is not only easier to play but also sounds better... the tone generation for the bass in the consoles is better. If you want to learn bass pedals, you should get a full sized console.

He was a really great guy and a killer organist. I'm really glad I got to see him again in May. This week has not been so good. I lost my grandpa early Wednesday morning, too. Such is life. RIP Gene.

I just got word that Gene passed away tonight.

I started on an M3. With a synth on top for bass. Nothing wrong with that!

Gene is a good friend and a great player. I saw him in May; he and his lovely wife came to hear me with Janiva Magness in Pittsburgh. Gene is currently in the hospital with an as-of-yet unknown malady. He's doing better, but doctors still aren't too sure what's wrong. Funny trivia: Janiva and Gene were on the same label, Blues Leaf, for awhile in the 1990s.

The definition of overrated.

I gave up watching the NBA two years ago. I realized I was wasting a ton of time that could be better spent doing just about anything else, like a) playing with my kids, b) playing / writing music, or the most fun c) playing with my wife! I'll stick to the NCAA and MSU basketball. So glad Izzo saw what a shithole the NBA has become and stayed at MSU.

Take it to Joe Harley.

Got some checks from the PO the other day. When deposited we'll have about $800. Thank you, everyone!

Well, I've been criss crossing the country like mad. Vegas was actually a lot of fun. Last week we had gigs in Grand Rapids, Lansing, Tuscawaras OH, Lewisburg WV (at the original Carnegie Hall), and Columbus, OH. This weekend we're in Portland OR at the Waterfront Blues Festival. Next week we're going all around Colorado. 4 Portland, OR Waterfront Blues Festival 7 Durango, CO Abbey Theater 8 Woodland Park, CO Crystola Roadhouse 9 Longmount, CO Oskar Blues 10 Denver, CO Blues & Brews Festival 11 Taos, NM Solar Center

Sorry to hear this. My condolences to his family and friends (including Chuck & Ann of course).

Glad you got a good one finally. Curious to hear what you think of it.

For video editing, Corel VideoStudio is pretty simple and yet powerful. Not very expensive either... around $80. For audio, Adobe has something called Soundbooth that gets the job done respectfully. It's a bit pricey ($199) but does a ton.

...unless I'm mistaken, this perfectly sums up the blues. play a phrase, play it again; play another phrase, then play it again. Right and prog rock is supposed to get away from traditional forms, so perhaps that's Bev's beef with Camel. Concerning Relayer, it took me a long time to warm up to it. Yes, I think the quality of the recording itself is partly to blame but I get the feeling now that the band wanted it to be aggressive and gritty and the recording reflects that. It has some great melodies in there but they tend to get buried in the instrumentation, which again may be the point considering the subject matter of the lyrics. I wish they had done another record with Moraz. What did he do afterwards? Anything worthwhile?

Sorry, didn't notice it. Just accepted. Thank you!

Thread cleaned by me. Have a nice day!

Show in Chattanooga was a ball. The crowd quadrupled by our third song. Standing ovation. Good times. Somers Point, NJ tomorrow.

Because we had a database mess-up (caused inadvertently by your's truly) and lost some content. I just recounted everyone's posts. I couldn't find a way to just do an individual's. Some of you may have less posts because posts that have been deleted were not counted.

Flying out today for three more shows this week. June 16 Chattanooga, TN Riverbend Festival June 18 Somers Point, NJ Somers Point Concert Series June 19 Las Vegas, NV Cannery Casino Music Festival

Thanks everyone. Got about $404 right now.

Speaking of prog-metal (which seems to be pretty much the only prog being made these days), I typed Progressive Rock into Pandora and it was pretty much all prog-metal, a genre I'm not really familiar with, but one band stuck out that it played; Symphony X. It's so awesomely cheesy, I actually like it. The singer is a bad-ass. I could never get into Dream Theater because those guys just seem to take themselves way too seriously; maybe Symphony X does too, but I sense a bit of humor in their stuff, or maybe a sense of "fuck it, we like singing about pirates and shit, so let's just do that" instead of trying to be overly profound.