sal

yeah, but he just playin' the drums! OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!!

I really like it. Especially the AACM/Chicago type jazz, which rarely uses piano. Check out the trio recordings by the great tenors like Sonny Rollins and Joe Hendeson. They swing like mad.

Has anyone seen this movie? Very impressive!! Almodovar is one of the greatest directors alive today. His films are very unusual, and he's known for always having powerful female characters in his films. His previous two pictures, "All About My Mother" and "Talk to Her" have been Oscar winners, but I feel that this film, which was shunned by Oscar last year, is his greatest achievement to date. Its quite different from his previous efforts, especially given that the only significant "female" character in this story is a drag queen. I don't want to get into the plot, which is somewhat complex, but this film contains alot of similar characteristics as his other films, but has a much darker feel. I experienced similar sensations watching this film as I did when I first saw Mulholland Drive. This film is the true breakout for Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor who starred in Amores Perros, Y Tu Mama Tambien, and Motorcycle Diaries. He gives the performance of his career here. He is extremely talented, and don't be surprised when in a few years he becomes a household name for American audiences. Be warned, however, that homosexual themes run rampant throughout this movie, and there are some graphic sex scenes. So if that sort of thing bothers you, stay away. But if not, this is a brilliant film that you won't soon forget. Also, be sure to watch the NC-17 version. From what I hear, there is an R rated version made for US release that contains some horrible digital censorship that ruins alot of the scenes.

LOTS of coffee today!!!!

I wish they had a price guide for Mosaics like they do for baseball cards and comic books.

McCoy Tyner - New York Reunion............though I'm not sure I'd highly recommend that one.

Nice!!!

My second favorite Mosaic set after JJ Johnson.

I believe he's scheduled to play with the local rhythm section of Willie Pickens on piano, Larry Gray on bass and George Fludas on drums. Great band!

Roscoe by far.

I caught both sets on Thursday night, Cinco de Mayo. The band included his regular bandmates Ugonna Okwego on bass, Marcus Strickland on tenor sax, and Neal Smith on drums. And for this Chicago visit, Harrell had local legend and pianist extraordinaire Willie Pickens on piano. Overall it was a really great show, and seeing Tom play was a special experience as it always is. He debuted some new compositions as well as bringing out some older ones, and even closed the night with a standard, "Hot House". Tom has been my favorite trumpet soloist since I first saw him a few years back, and it seems that now that he has taken his playing up another level. His solos were virtuostic, and every note was packed with emotion. He sounded really fantastic. Even Marcus Strickland, a player who I've always felt is overrated, was sounding better than I've ever heard him play live. While I still wouldn't say I'm a fan of his playing, Thursday night he was showing some potential. His lines are starting to sound more like he's telling a story, rather than sounding so academic like all the other times I've seen him play. And Ugonna Okwego was incredible as always. I think he's one of the finest young bassists around. I hate saying this, because Willie Pickens is one of my favorite living pianists, but I think his style of playing didn't quite mesh with the moods of Harrell's compositions. Willie plays with a funky style drenched in the blues, while using tension with the skill of the classical pianist. I've seen him light fires underneath the bands of Bobby Hutcherson, Fathead Newman and many others passing throughout the Windy City, but this is the first time where it just wasn't working. He played as technically wonderful as he always does, but I just don't think it was the right match. And while drummer Neal Smith threw down some of the most dynamically-rich drum solos I've heard in a while, and had impeccable time, I generally found his comping to be a bit boring. He never really kicked the band in the ass like a good drummer should. Overall, I much preferred the piano/drum team of the Davis brothers, Xavier and Quincy, that Tom used to have with him. But overall, the show was great. It was really great to see Tom playing so well, and his compositions are light years ahead of almost everyone else's. Call me crazy, but I feel that Tom is approaching the level of Wayne Shorter in terms of a composer.

Yeah, same here. Hopefully we can meet up.

Hmmm....I wonder if he was refering to the organ or another instrument, because he told me that he started playing the organ in his mid 20's. Oh well...he's still the shit either way!

Lonnie Smith was older....I think his mid 20's, when he first started playing keyboards.

I thought this too, until I got one. I use mine all the time. Its funny how many things we can see in our day to day lives that are photogenic, but we never think about it becuase we don't have a camera with us. Problem solved!

I am really liking this record. The thing that really does it for me is the fact that it has the feeling of an old school blowing session, but still sounds very modern. It has the two tenors, coming in and blowing on both standards and original compositions by both artists, but it has a very "fun" feel to it. There are times they seem to be trying to outblow each other, which is cool. The rhythm section consists of Liebman's bassist Tony Marino and Eskelin's drummer (at least most of the time), Jim Black. The band is really cooking and they acheive good chemistry with each other. As the notes point out, its very interesting to hear Liebman, typically a post-bop type player, and Eskelin, typically a freer player, find this common ground. As a huge Eskelin fan, I really liked hearing him in this territory that is more mainstream from his recent efforts, but still not mainstream. It sounds like it was a very challenging date for all involved, but I think both men really stepped up to the plate and really threw down some good jazz. Its old fashioned, but its not. That's why I really like this date.

I found this one at my local Best Buy today and got to listen to the first track (13+ minutes) on my way back to work. Mesmerizing. I can't wait to listen to the rest!

I'm in agreement with the opinions stated thus far: you've gotta go cold turkey. Try to cut down on drinking a bit as well. When an alcohol buzz kicks in, its hard to resist the craving.

I couldn't attend the show, and now I am kicking myself. I've been hearing all over town that this was one of Sonny's best performances in quite some time. My friend's co-worker said that of the 7 or 8 times he's seen Sonny Rollins since the sixties, this one was the best. Here's an article from Tribune critic Howard Reich: Jazz giant Sonny Rollins runs roughshod over cliches By Howard Reich Tribune arts critic For a jazz icon such as tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, it cannot be easy to compete against your own legend. How does the man who recorded "Saxophone Colossus" and "The Bridge," the musician who practically personifies the jazz life — in all it glories and travails — possibly withstand comparisons to his earlier triumphs? How does he walk onstage and once again play Sonny Rollins as the world expects to him to be played, instantly producing the heroic solos and brilliant technical feats that his name has come to signify? In some previous performances, Rollins essentially has gone through the motions, giving listeners the thunderous crescendos and buoyant calypso beats that they remember from his recordings, right on cue, almost by rote. But the intermissionless, two-hour marathon Rollins played over the weekend in Orchestra Hall was different, as spontaneous and mercurial a set as he has given Chicago in years. Switching restlessly from tenderness to tempestuousness, from serene melody to far-out dissonance, from the skittering bebop rhythms of his youth to the high-flown soliloquies that remain his stock in trade, Rollins erased lingering doubts about the enduring vibrancy of his art. For at nearly 75, he reminded listeners that he still can skirt expectations, that he still can be more than a mere impersonation of himself. Though every set-piece he and his sextet played Friday night held fascinating turns of musical thought, his most startling work unfolded in a vast transformation of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square." Listeners who have followed Rollins' career through the decades already know that he has found entire worlds of sound in familiar, traditional popular songs. But his monumental reassessment of the gorgeous ballad practically turned into a recital unto itself. From the song's opening notes, Rollins summed up the essentials of his style: the down-home blues sensibility, the grainy and gloriously unvarnished tone, the rasps and growls and cries that recast a classic tune in deeply autobiographical terms. Floating lyrically above the beat one moment, hitting swing rhythms hard the next, Rollins' first volleys on "A Nightingale Sang" tapped a lifetime of hard-won knowledge and hard-earned technique. Then he really started to work. Signaling the rest of the band to stop playing, Rollins ventured into a head-tripping, genre-defying, stream-of-consciousness cadenza that freely bounded among styles and idioms and vernaculars. Throaty low notes, surging rhythms, long and winding phrases, telegraphic little riffs, shards of melody and bursts of dissonance — the man nimbly unfurled it all, proving that he still can think as fast as he can play. Suddenly "A Nightingale Sang" re-emerged as "Time After Time," then tipped its hat to "Chicago" and "My Kind of Town" before wending its way back to a motif that Rollins had articulated a few minutes earlier. Yet this outpouring of tone and idea, this illuminating insight into the way Rollins conceives sound, cohered as a bona fide solo. Hungrier to play than this listener has heard him in a long time, Rollins relentlessly interrupted — or, to put it more politely, assisted — solos by his sidemen. The lithe and silken lines that the inspired Chicago guitarist Bobby Broom played throughout the evening would have been appealing in their own right, but they became that much more interesting when answered by Rollins' muscular provocations. Similarly, the statements of trombonist Clifton Anderson, electric bassist Bob Cranshaw, drummer Steve Jordan and percussionist Kimati Dinizulu often received a shot of adrenaline from the maestro. Though a little less amplification would have helped listeners savor the grit and expressive power of Rollins' timbre, there was no denying the vigor of this performance, a tour de force by any standard — even Rollins'.

I've done that before.

I really like Branford's working of "Rose Petals". Some really intense playing.

I love "Desire" as well. In fact, its the album that got me into Dylan!

I think that between the "Blood On The Tracks" peak and his recent "Time Out Of Mind/Love & Theft" peak, his best albums are "Slow Train Coming" and "Oh Mercy".

Come back and visit us soon!

I have it and quite enjoy it, but then again, I'm an Elvin Jones whore. Just about anything he plays on, I'm gonna enjoy. This disc has some real nice cuts with Antoine Rooney and Mike Brecker. The piano Carlos McKinney plays the hell out of "Wise One". Elvin sounds great as ever. I recommend it.