Joe M

Natalie Coughlin

As far as I know, they are legit. They've got a lot of new product by guys like Fambrough, Bill O'Connell, etc.

Is jazz dead? After reading the playlist, apparently, yes, everyone except the immortal Horace Silver that is!

He's brilliant, seeing him live was a revelation! It's a shame more of his early output isn't available. So underrated! Supposedly Verve is going to start issuing some of the Chess/Argo sessions on CD.

When you only sell a few hundred copies, they don't give you second albums at major labels. Sadly that disc sold very poorly. No one bought it.

Here's the link to the page on the Verve site with the albums... http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/series.aspx?sid=26

Wow, they finally did this! Makes so much sense. They seem to be from all the Verve labels, Verve, Impulse, A&M, Mercury... Let's hope this is a success!

Yes, just got it yesterday.

Ray sounds weak on many of the cuts to my ears, still soulful, still Ray, but like an old man. The cut with BB King is maybe the highlight, the cut with Norah is good too.

Yeah, Tardo's a fine talent, shows a nice mix of Monk and Bud Powell/Barry Harris in his playing without sounding too much like any of them. Good swinging stuff, if not that innovative.

Ford did not license the actual drive train design. If you look at the Toyota and Ford designs they are similar in concept only (full hybrid). They share no common parts or designs to my knowledge. Ford did pay Toyota to license their patents for such a system though to avoid any legal trouble. That is not the same as actually licensing the parts or designs. Firms apply for patents often based on an overall concept or idea. Thus Toyota owns some patents for this specific approach to "hybridization". This is very common in the auto industry, and in fact, in the same deal that gave Ford license to use the Toyota patents, Ford gave Toyota license to use some of Ford's clean burning diesel patents, so no money actually changes hands in the deal. By the way, I produce a weekly radio program about air quality, and have done several interviews with the engineers of these various hybrids, you can listen to them online. Toyota Prius - Bill Reinart, National Manager - Advanced Technology Group for Toyota - Listen Here Ford Escape Hybrid - Tom Watson, Ford Motor Company - Hybrid Powertrain Supervisor - Listen Here

The Big 3 still have to some catching up to do, but I'd much rather have a new Ford or GM vehicle than say, a new VW, talk about lack of reliability! American automakers make some fine products today. No, it's not. Many cars by the Big 3 are either built outside of the US, or are built here using parts made in other countries. The automakers all use similar suppliers, so it's really a global business. However, I think that a lot of people don't even look at US products just because of the "coolness" factor, or precieved reliability.

The Big 3 still have to some catching up to do, but I'd much rather have a new Ford or GM vehicle than say, a new VW, talk about lack of reliability! American automakers make some fine products today.

Well, GM is far behind in the hybrid race. They will be coming out with some "mild hybrid" pickups, but those will go mainly to fleet customers, and aren't all that impressive, nothing like the full hybird powertrains of Toyota, Ford and Honda. GM sunk a lot of money into the EV1 program over the past decade, which was a commercial disaster, though you think they'd try to apply their expertise in electric powertrains from that project to hybird development, but I think their losses there have scared them away. It costs a lot for an automaker to build a vehicle like Prius or Escape hybrid, and some of the juciest gossip in the auto industry these days involves how much both Toyota and Ford are losing per each hybrid sold. Of course, they're making in back in all the good PR, but with GM's auto division still struggling, they're more focused on revamping their existing vehicle lineup. That said, GM is one of the leaders in developing hydrogen fuel cell technology though that is at least a decade away, likely much longer than that. If your interested in buying American, I'd suggest checking out the Escape hybrid, and then in a year or two, Ford will be selling a hybrid version of their upcoming midsize sedan the Ford Fusion. There has also been talk about GM developing a hybrid version of the Chevy Malibu, but who knows when that's going to finally show up.

Most hybrid cutsomers don't get even close to the mileage quoted by the EPA test. That's not to say that a hybrid isn't a good thing, just that the current testing scheme was designed in the 70's and cars have changed. The 60mpg number sounds high for a Prius. The Honda Insight is supposed to get around that number, but it's not nearly as practical. More and more hybrids are coming out too, Ford is launching the Escape hybrid compact SUV, and Toyota has some more on the way also.

Well, it would be hard not to pick his trumpet playing, but that question is like asking a dad which of his kids he likes better, his son or his daughter! I think a lot of jazz snobs look down on both his singing AND his trumpet playing and toss them off as mere dixieland or uncle tomming, but that's their loss. He's like the Babe Ruth of jazz. Not only was he far and away the greatest improvisor and instrumentalist of his era, (and maybe any era), he also had that other side as a singer, which was almost as brilliant (like Babe Ruth's remarkable record as a pitcher).

I don't know, Hank Jones, Von Freeman, George Shearing, Dave Brubeck, Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins all seem to be recording fine work today, and they're all older than Gary Bartz. I know what you mean about McCoy, but I think his last album Land of Giants, with Bobby Hutcherson, Charnette Moffett and Eric Harland is excellent. The live Coltrane tribute record is good too. This new one has its moments (Blessings - by Ternece), but it's not one of his best.

EAS is regularly used here in California for AMBER Alerts (child abductions) and it has apparently saved several lives in just the past year or so. We just had one on Saturday, in fact.

Yes, they are "from" Universal France, but if it wasn't for the good folks at Sunnyside, they wouldn't be out in the US! And they all do have the Sunnyside logo on them. Verve US is just about out of the business of instrumental jazz records, mainly just pop vocalists, so I think we'll see a lot more of these Universal/Sunnyside issues in the months and years to come.

Both Mulgrew Miller and Kenny Barron have excellent new albums out, and it's hard to get better than either of these two on the piano today. Mulgrew's album is "Live at Yoshis Vol 1" on MaxJazz, with Derrick Hodge and Karreim Riggins, an excellent live set, all trio. Mulgrew always sounds great, but I think this record is a better showcase of his talents than the last Wingspan record. Of course, after so many years without a record under his own name, and now two in just a short time, it's hard to complain. The tunes are mostly standards, one original, plus Woody Shaw's "Organ Grinder" and Donald Brown's "Waltz for Monk". Kenny's album "Images" is a quintet record on Sunnyside, with Stefon Harris, flutist Anne Drummond, Kyoshi Kitagama and drummer Kim Thompson. Mostly originals by Kenny and Stefon, with Bud Powell's "Halucinations" and "Footprints" too. Harris and Barron make a great front line, Drummond ads some nice texture, but her work on Halucinations sounds a little stilted to these ears, and doesn't quite swing, at least in her articulation. It's a shame we seem to take both Kenny and Mulgrew for granted, but they're just so consistenly excellent, and do so much sideman work (especially Mulgrew) that sometime it happens. Maybe if they dressed up like the Bad Plus...

Yeah, this is really, really good. Violets for Your Furs is just one of those tracks that simply commands your attention! Only Sonny can pull off the solo tenor like Von does on this track. The band swings great on the rest of the tracks, this is just the real thing, excellent. By the way, anyone notice that Premonition's distribution deal with Blue Note is apparently up? This cd says Premonition in the US is now through Koch Records? I guess no more Patricia Barber on Blue Note?

That's cool, I've got enough postcards though! Keep em for the next contest!

Milt Jackson - Wizard of the Vibes (Blue Note) Milt Jackson Quartet - (Prestige) Jackson's Ville - (Savoy) Bags Meets Wes or Big Bags - (Riverside)

Dexter Gordon & Milt Jackson

The recent DHQ albums are not ECM-ish in any way that I have come to understand the term at least. A far cry from the plantive "Nordic" studio sound that some people either love or hate. I think Prime Directive is maybe the best place to start with this group, but if you think guys like Chris Potter and Billy Kilson are boring, then maybe it's simply not for you, which is ok, everyone's got their thing.