T.D.

I'm not sure that the Moyer piece was satire. Both it and the Gold piece confused me. Thinking about it for a while, maybe such pieces are a first step toward arguing that jazz is institutionally over-represented in MacArthur Foundation grants, Kennedy Center Awards, Pulitzer Prizes and the like. (I think there was some debate in the UK a few years ago concerning the premise that classical music was over-subsidized and that more "popular" musics should receive a larger share of subsidy money.)

Best wishes!

Many double entendres possible, based on the fact that the statue is located in Tübingen. I'll refrain...

Agreed on "Roccus". There are also two quartet (as, p, b, d) takes of this tune on the Lou Donaldson "Quartet, Quintet, Sextet" album.

Very much agreed, and I'm no fan of Ross. But perhaps the passage in question was sarcastic? [i couldn't find the article after a quick search.] He may have been (a) damning the concerto with faint praise; (b) spoofing the program notes (which are sometimes incredibly fatuous). Not that I really want to defend Mr. Ross...

USA-Portugal match will be played in the dreaded Manaus venue, which adds a bit of a wild-card. The Italy-England clash there was very good, but the players seemed to seriously tire late. Several USA players pulled hamstrings in Natal, and I fear more of the same in the Amazon.

I quite liked Boiler Room back in the day, apparently it is loosely based on Jordan Belfort as well. I found Boiler Room surprisingly good - one of those films that seems consistently under-rated. I wanted to like Margin Call, but it was rather contrived and didn't really work for me. [Disclosure: I worked on Wall St., institutional fixed income, for a long time and probably know too much about the subject matter to be convinced by a film. The world of penny stocks is much easier to portray.]

That looks very interesting indeed I like the looks of Discs 1 and 2 quite a bit, Disc 3 not so much. My sentiments exactly. I'm still considering the set (live near Woodstock and it's a local thing). Anyone heard it?.

Maybe not a massive bargain, but I was very happy to find this at Berkshire Record Outlet for $7.99

To get off to the lead they built and lose this miserably outscored 16-5 and 0-15 on the power play in the last 4 games is the equivalent of folding like a $2 shotgun. None of the Sharks so-called top players contributed on the losses while all or most of the L.A. for_real top players contributed throughout and took over as the Sharks were collapsing. My condolences to Sharks fans, but was this choke really a surprise? Honestly, once LA got the series back to 3-2 I assumed they'd take the next 2. And there's obviously a history of playoff underachieving on the SJ side (if I wanted to be really obnoxious I'd dig up a YouTube clip of the infamous "Marleau bunny-hopping the slapshot" incident...).

Berkshire Record Outlet just e-mailed out details on 4 UA boxes, two Ellington and two classical. I bought the 2 classical (Budapest SQ '51-52 complete Beethoven and Chapuis complete Bach organ works). http://www.broinc.com/search.php?row=0&submit=Find+Item&backinstock=1

I own and enjoy the Sinopoli Tannhauser and Solti Lohengrin, and once owned the Levine Ring, so will vouch for those performances. I also expect that the Kleiber Tristan, Jochum Meistersinger and Sinopoli Dutchman would be good to excellent (esp. Kleiber). Levine conducts the Ring beautifully, though some cognoscenti might not rave about the voices and others might prefer a more "muscular" approach; I decided to trim down to one Ring and kept Solti instead. I don't know what to expect from Solti's Parsifal (came to find his conducting rather loud and strident, and I like Kna '61 on Philips), but I expect it's not bad. I've never heard the early operas (Feen and Liebesverbot), don't consider them worth purchasing outright, but probably OK as throw-ins. I've only heard the oft-anthologized Rienzi overture, no ambition to hear complete recording. Overall, a pretty good set. Few if any would be classified as "the ultimate version", but a solid way to get all the operas cheaply. Depending on how much you really want the whole oeuvre, it might be possible to piece together an excellent package of, say, Ring + Parsifal + Tannhauser + Lohengrin (or whatever your personal preferences are) at a comparable to cheaper price.

I own and enjoy the Sinopoli Tannhauser and Solti Lohengrin, and once owned the Levine Ring, so will vouch for those performances. I also expect that the Kleiber Tristan, Jochum Meistersinger and Sinopoli Dutchman would be good to excellent. Levine conducts the Ring beautifully, though some cognoscenti might not rave about the voices and others might prefer a more "muscular" approach; I decided to trim down to one Ring and kept Solti instead. I have some misgivings about Solti's Parsifal (came to find his conducting rather loud and strident, and I like Kna '61 on Philips), but I'm sure it's not bad. I've never heard the early operas (Feen and Liebesverbot), don't consider them worth purchasing outright, but probably OK as throw-ins. I've only heard the oft-anthologized Rienzi overture, no ambition to hear complete recording. Overall, a pretty good set. Few if any would be classified as "the ultimate version", but a solid way to get all the operas cheaply.

All the best!

PM sent on Jimmy Lyons/Sunny Murray Trio - Jump Up

Why would any intonation problems be much less on the earlier set?? I'm assuming the intonation problems are related to advancing age.

I bought the Vegh set on Valois years ago, when I was heavily influenced by the Penguin Guide and similar sources. It's pretty good, but not the ultimate IMO - the consistent gripe (which I pretty much agree with) is that Sandor Vegh on violin often has poor intonation. The sound quality and instrumental balance are also not optimal, but not to the extent of being deal-breakers for me. I recommend that set at reasonable price levels, but wouldn't pay up. I agree that earlier Vegh recordings would be worth hearing (though I haven't heard them), because intonation problems would be much less. I concur that the Budapest recordings at Berkshire are very tempting! The Takacs also seem to get excellent reviews, but I haven't heard so can't comment.

The concert was originally scheduled pre-illness, as a regular event (see the link I gave above). I assume it only recently switched to benefit.

Strange season so far in the East. Can't get used to seeing Detroit there. West sure looks stronger at this point. Weirdly, I mostly follow NJD (started rooting for them as underdog back in the Gretzky "Mickey Mouse" days), who I expected to be one of the worst teams in the league this year. They're approaching respectability after a horrid start, though playoffs are likely not in the cards.

Importcds.com is having a 10% off sale, so I ordered: Mauricio Kagel, Sankt-Bach Passion Charles Tyler, Saga Of The Outlaws BTW, importcds is also running a promotion on Universal Music Group box sets, and I've found them a good source of Black Saint/Soul Note boxes, so the sale might be worth a look.

Very sad news...he played an August event in Woodstock that I didn't hear about in time. Rudd was also profiled in a recent issue of Ulster, a Hudson valley tourist magazine: http://ulstermagazine.com/roswell-rudd.html

The OOP Don Pullen Select is also available for download, at a slightly higher but still ridiculous price of $12.49. http://www.amazon.com/The-Capitol-Vaults-Jazz-Series/dp/B005DJIG7C/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&keywords=don+pullen

+1 on that. OTOH, I expect (hope) they're a bright enough group to steer clear of utter fiasco... I was a pretty big Stateside Python fan back in the day (late '70s and early '80s). For whatever reason, only discovered Fawlty Towers recently.

Hu Jintao Donald "Duck" Dunn Cousin Itt