JSngry

Don't overlook the writing on this one:

Ok, imagine if Fathead & Herbie Mann both heard New Grass before it was even recorded and had the same thought - "hey, let's make a Fathead version for Vortex!" So they get a time machine, go forward in time a few months to the New Grass sessions, and Fathead, ever the master metaphysician, periodically take over Albert's mind, body, and band. And calls the tunes, mostly hits of the day, but he doesn't really tell anybody, so the band just jams along seemingly oblivious to the tunes that they're really playing, but still following close enough to make the point. Then imagine that Fathead & Herbie Mann both say, "hey, that was a good idea, but it'll never sell", so they sell the tapes to Barney Wilen, who says, "hey, pourquoi non?", takes the tapes to MPS and cuts a deal. Just imagine that. And if the that sounds like a plan to you (or sounds like it could be a plan to you), then hey - THIS is the album for you!

I've always appreciated, and at times actually enjoyed, Kaempfert, That trumpet soloist he always featured had a gorgeous tone and very nice phrasing on the "swinging" material. In it's own world, his was prime quality material. I'm not surprised that Geller did the gig, I'm just surprised that he was "featured". Then again, I'm pretty much unaware of his activities in Germany, so this might well have not been unusual for him at all.

One of mine too. Along with Shirley Scott's Queen Of The Organ & an Impulse! LP known as Everybody Loves A Lover that I don't think has been reissued. I also dig most of Stanley's CTI work. Sugar is kinda not exactly what I want it to be, but Salt Song & Don't Mess With Mister T are. Duke Pearson's The Right Touch, that's another good one for Turrentine. Truthfully, the guy was pretty damn consistent as leader and sideman on Blue Note, CTI, Prestige, & Impulse! Explore freely there, i say. And do not overlook his work with Max Roach. Not nearly as distinctive as what came after, but damn fine nevertheless, and necessary information lest one think of him strictly as a "Soul Jazz" player who wasn't equipped to deal with more "challenging" material. Au contraire! Edit to add: BLUE HOUR!!!

Unbelievable finish in the relays keeps Phelps hopes alive, but Phelps is not the story here, Jason Lezack is, swimming the last leg, and closing a seemingly insurmountable lead by the French, who had been talking some smack, and now appear...stunned. I mean, this Lezac cat just dug deep and did it, just willed it into being. Got to love that.

Seems a reasonable enough request to me. Don't know if I'd pop a blood vessel over it, but nevertheless...

Anybody see the 33 year old German womens gymnast? That's right - 33 years old. And very much in contention. Her story is more than a little touching (and amazing): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Chusovitina These are the kind of inspirational tales you find out about every Olympics, it seems, the type of things that trump all the petty politics and crass hype machines. As with damn near everything else in this life, when you get down to the most basic level (and yeah, sometimes it takes forever and a day to get there...), it's all about people. Just people.

Just found out about a 1972 Bert Kaempfert album w/Herb Geller as a soloist & was wondering if featuring this level of jazzman was common for Bert Kaempfert, if this level of surrounding was common for Herb Geller, or if maybe this was a hoped-for Bud Shank/Michelle moment for all concerned.

What color is the vinyl? I've got Jazz At Oberlin on 10" green vinyl, but no sleeve. Does this one have a sleeve too?

Yes, I love sports. But, as anyone who cares to notice is well aware by now, there is an ugly underbelly to most sports -- News Flash -- even baseball, which you and I love. The Olympics has had, and will continue to have, its share of ... cheaters, just to be clear. But more than that, the presentation of this mammoth soap opera is what gets to me. Didn't there used to be truces among nations in conflict during the Olympic Games? Now, they start wars timed to the start of the Olympics (see Russian-Georgia). Cynical? Yeah, maybe. But ... there's a grain of truth in there somewhere. More than a grain, actually... But they're grains that I can usually overlook in favor of the basic "drama" of the competitions themselves. I've also gone through the "jaded" phase and have now pretty much realized that shit's always going to be fucked up somehow by somebody, always, and that that's actually part of the drama too, cheating, hype, and all that underbelly crap. Always has been, really (and by always, I mean always). But what has also always been is the basic human elements of competition, especially what for me is the most compelling one - how you handle the competition against your ultimate opponent - yourself. It's in this area where sport and music have the most in common, I believe, to say nothing about where sport & music provide the most basic encounter with everybody's reality. And that, not the hype or the sordidness or the exploitation, is what keep me watching.

Trulyt an icon, and an icon in whom I've found no small inspiration over the years. His version of "I Stand Accused" takes the gut-wrenching melodramatic totally yet totally believe able perfection of his "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" and makes it even more perfect & more believable. If you've ever had an eye for somebody who's not yours to have an eye for, not just a lustful eye but a loving eye, this one will rip you part down to the bowels of you heart and soul. I'll not even get into what Shaft (song, album, and movie) did to race relations in my little small town East Texas community (largely as part of the zeitgeist, but not insignificantly all by itself), other than to say it was remarkable, positive, and perhaps irrevocable. This is a man who had much, contributed much, squandered much, and still way came out ahead in the final score. Not just anybody can do that. R.I.P., with love and thanks.

"Walk Right In", it was whispered, was a song about a "pot party".

My son would like a few words with you, none of them particularly pleasant, I'm afraid...

Hey, if that's your gig, then I can understand where you're coming form. I thought you might have been one of these anti-sports whiners (of whom, btw, I was a most vociferous one from the age of about 14 to about the age of 26, when I quite accidentally had my childhood passion for baseball reignited, which led to everything else eventually coming back, just with eyes wider open).

What's truly unlistenable for is stuff like the Joe Brazil jam session tape w/Trane & Joe Henderson, stuff where there's no information to hear, period, just noise in the shape of notes. But pretty much everything else, I find is like adjusting your eyesight in a dark room. After enough acclimation (and willingness to make it) you can get what you need to get around ok. Of course, the darker the room, the less definition you get, even at best, but I'm jsut saying, stuff like the Miles/Forrest stuff, compared to some things I've heard (or tried to hear) is not al that hard for me. You can still hear the timbres of the instruments, you can stoill follow the lines and the changes, it's pretty much all there, just....buried. There's some shit where it's not just buried, it's decomposed!

They're trying to pull the wool over our eyes. ... I should admit that it's my job to pay attention to the Olympics, so in that sense I dread the drudgery of plodding along with this beast for two weeks. The whole Phelps thing is going to be pounded into us all until he will come to personify the Olympics for us (should he be successful). Yeah, he's on his way to accomplishing great things, but its the marketing and packaging and endless force-feeding that sours me. And in the end, he'll be celebrated on a box of Wheaties. Pass the sugar. (gulp) 1. What is you job? Seriously, I don't know. If you got to be surrounded by the hype, then...yuck. 2. I wish Mr. Phelps well, and will be following his quest, but for me, he is just one of many parts of the Olympics. I really do make a conccerted effport to avoid/disregard all they hyp lest it spoil for me the enjoyment of the competitions proper. USA men's soccer, vs Netherlands, just completed, tough break at the end, borderline heartbreaking.

Yeah, I hear you. But then again, some of the biggest sports fans I know are some of the finest musicians, and vive-versa. Ame with astuteness about each others' fields. And then there's this: http://www.wfan.com/play_window.php?audioT...audioId=1017802 The survivor of this: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;#entry755684 I think that a lot of musicians, like a lot of the general public, are resentful of the attention and money that surround athletics. But if anybody thinks that if athletics were to vanish that tenor players would suddenly start making millions and all that, hey, ain't gonna happen.

Men's basketball - Lithuania vs Argentina. Helluva ending.

Ah, the old "sport is the opiate of the masses" argument. Might well be true... then again, how would it be any different if we changed the equation a bit to: XXXX Festival/Concert/Gig=Music=Distraction for Sheep Cheers, Shane No different at all. The problem, and this goes for religion too, is not the "activity". The problem is the sheep.

Ah, the old "sport is the opiate of the masses" argument. Might well be true... Then again, it might well be bullshit. Two things common to all civilizations - sport & music. Two things common to more "advanced" civilizations - commercialization and exploitation of sport & music. In neither case are sport or music the problem. Not my opinion. Fact.

Dude, compared to some of the stuff that's floating around, the examples you give are of audiophile quality...

If indeed you had... Great men's volleyball match between USA & Venezuela just concluded. Worth staying up late for!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I was a fan, did not know he was ill, and am shocked by this news. He'll be missed here.