JSngry

Not unbeatable, but definitely with the mental advantage now, I should think. Veteran team and they just got their ace back. And he's back to form now, too. We got the old guy starting to wear out, which is still an upgrade, but... Rangers have yet to show real mental consistency and those sillyass Angels now, you can never tell. So I am not really solid yet on these Rangers. Like 'em, but not loving them. Not yet. But, let's play the games, see what happens

Cool, thanks!

Well, that's that then.

Or Betty Carter. Or Andy Bey. Or Joe Lee Wilson. Or Cassandra Wilson. Or... Etc

A not uninteresting story. RIP

Available from the usual sources?

Interesting! This is legit and cleaned up and all that?

I got lucky and the first copy of Down Beat that I ever saw had a Freda Payne Blindfold Test. Leonard Feather told all about her background in jazz. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403795233396 But also check this out - her debut album was on impulse! and had Phil Woods on it! https://www.discogs.com/master/148606-Freda-Payne-After-The-Lights-Go-Down-Low-And-Much-More More delicious - she covers "Lonely Woman", the Ornette song, and yes, Phil plays. I don't know if there are any documents of her stint with Basie, but she did that gig for a bit. According to people who have worked her show as recently as 10 years ago or so, Freda Payne can seriously deal.

And then we have this, from 1979(?): 1981, excuse me.

Freda Payne began as a jazz singer!

We have added pitching, which is a need. I'd like to be more excited than I am. This team is too easily thrown off, imo. Are the Dodgers out on Verlander now?

Ok, here it is: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Chaloff Serge Chaloff was the son of the pianist and composer Julius Chaloff and the leading Boston piano teacher, Margaret Chaloff (known professionally as Madame Chaloff). He learned the piano from the age of six and also had clarinet lessons with Manuel Valerio of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At the age of twelve, after hearing Harry Carney, Duke Ellington's baritonist, he taught himself to play the baritone. Chaloff later explained to Leonard Feather in an interview: 'Who could teach me? I couldn't chase [Harry] Carney around the country.' Although he was inspired by Carney and Jack Washington, Count Basie's baritone player, Chaloff did not imitate them. According to his brother, Richard, 'he could play (baritone) like a tenor sax. The only time you knew it was a baritone was when he took it down low. He played it high....He had finger dexterity, I used to watch him, you couldn't believe the speed he played. He was precise. He was a perfectionist. He would be up in his bedroom as a teenager. He would be up by the hour to one, two, three in the morning and I'm trying to sleep and he'd go over a phrase or a piece until it was perfect...I used to put the pillow over my head, we had battles.' So, he got top-shelf instruction on the physical processes of sound production and breath control from the classical instruction, had some definite role models in Carney and Washington (two different tonal paradigms, yes?), and simply did the work to use what he knew to get what he wanted. There's a lot of luck/chance/whatever in a lot of things, but a highly controlled sound on any instrument that requires an embouchure ain't one of 'em! And yeah, Jack Washington!!! Attention should be paid!!!

Her time has always been "stiff". That's just her, I guess. Whatever other skills she might have had, rhythmic suppleness will never be one of them.

I'm a bit surprised that there does not appear to be any collection of Laine's very first recordings, pre-Mercury, and apparently aimed at the "race" market. Any such compilation on the market today?

What did he (Chaloff) die from, spinal cancer or something? That seemed an odd turn of events. As for his tonal control, he probably had access to top-shelf classical saxophone/woodwind instruction, no? They would have had that in Boston, right?

The spirit of Tommy Hunter

And being introduced by John Davidson to boot! Love that Basie cut too. Also need to get the Radio Citizen/Rucker record, don't have that on yet.

The transition from The Pee Wee Herman Show to Pee Wee's playhouse was amazing, how the kept all of the out there stuff while also making it a kid-friendly show. Lines were skirted, but never crossed. Groundbreaking stuff!

I would VHS all the Playhouse shows on a separate tape. My son would ask for them specifically. He was 3. The first season in particular was sheer genius. Also I that first season, Playhouse was followed by the Ralph Bakshi Mighty Mouse, which was its own kind of brilliance. RIP, dammit.

This. And add Fred Jackson.

Oh no...

Tapp Watertown - Drippin'

Richard Pryor?!?!?!?!

Pretty easy listening.

You overpaid at that.