Joe G

Thanks guys (and gal) for the get-well wishes. Today was a hell of a day. Michelle was scheduled to have a (relatively) minor surgical procedure done at 8 am, so I got to the hospital around 7:30. There was a delay with the surgeons, so they didn't take us down to pre-op until around 9:30. Then we sat there until almost noon. They then did the procedure, which took almost two hours, much longer than in the past (they removed the Hickman line from her chest, and placed a triple lumin line in her neck). The doctor came out and told me that the surgery went fine, but her heart looked larger than normal in a scan, and they were going to take her right back into surgery to insert a chest tube and drain the fluid around her heart. More waiting. I didn't get to see her again until they put her in ICU, which was about 6 pm. They asked me to leave an hour later for the shift change. She was a mess, and in a lot of pain, but they seem to think she'll be alright. Makes for one long-ass day. Hope y'all don't mind if I have a beer...

I'm sure glad that the worst case scenario didn't materialize for you and your family, Al. Another generally crappy week for me - my wife has been in the hospital for the last two weeks with a blood infection, and it looks like she will be there for another week most likely. I did have fun playing the gig tonight, however.

Don't get me started! We are all perfect human beings.

...if they are paying attention, that is!

The worst one I remember, and it still gives me the willies, was when I was 7 or 8, and got my thumb slammed in the screen door. The wind just caught the door and it shut HARD! As if that wasn't bad enough, later it swelled all up, and I remember the doctor (here's where you scream) inserting a hot paperclip into my thumbnail to relieve the pressure. It just sort of sank in there. GOD! It creeps me out just to write that!

DOB 4/29/70 I was born 6 days after this album was recorded.

Another good musician on the board is Trumpet Guy, aka Phil Grenadier.

That about sums it up for me! BTW, I was listening to Birds of Fire just today.

In the checkout at the grocery store today I noticed he was on the cover of Reader's Digest.

He fought the good fight. Rest in Peace

I was around when 'Saxophone Colossus' was released and - along with a lot of people - was taken over by the sheer brillance. Same thing with John Coltrane's first albums. And then when Albert Ayler's 'Spiritual Unity' exploded. Is there any album by one of the current saxophonists that hit you in the face the same way those did in their time? I have not but would love to hear one. Not for tenor players. I've heard some other stuff that hit me that way.

*Thread hijack warning* I'm just not clear on what an equivalent album to Saxophone Colossus would be, exactly. Would we recognize it as such?

That was a different time.

Check out the Kurt Rosenwinkel album called The Next Step. Great compositions; excellent working group. Another conspicous absence in this thread (and a favorite of mine): Ron Blake.

Maria Schneider's Concert in the Garden and Allegresse have been getting a lot of play here lately, since being hipped to her in that thread Bev S. started a while back.

Add to those to your blinking signature....

Nevertheless, she's not my type...

Nah. She looks like an elf!

Hm. New research that brings us old news. What will they think of next?

Start up a Groove thread guys!

Did that make any cents?

True. It's my understanding that that particular unit of measurement came out of the 12 tone equal tempered scale though, so I guess it's more accurate to say cents correspond more readily to 12 tone E.T.

God! You scared me for a minute. I thought there was going to be a cease-and-desist order being issued soon. By us, that is.

I've never had grits or black-eyed peas. Total Yankee.

Y'all are into grits down in Indy?