Van Basten II

Weren't Barca supposed to be banned of signing players ? Regarding the US-Germany, not much of a game and even worse refereeing , not that the Yankettes didn't deserve the win but they were benificiery of calls that shouldn't have happened. As a French fan, when Sasic missed her penalty, I screamed why didn't you do that the previous game and then called her a few names that traslation wouldn't do justice

Saw Ingrid yesterday in a quintet led by Marianne Trudel, great stuff , beautiful arrangements where Jensen had her share of stellar solos. Think of the Maria Schneider Orchestra richness of sound combined in a quintet while keeping the energy of a small formation.

Erikah Badu highlited my day delivering a kick ass performance turning the cold and stuffy Wilfrid Pelletier room into a dancehall, Amazing charismatic soul singer who showed her chops big time in front of adoring fans, when before the encore, the person in charge of the festival gave her an award for her career , you thought she scored three goals in a Stanley Cup final game for the Habs as people chanted her name. Heads of state with Bartz and Co was a nice outdated night cap, to be fair it was a rather radical transition from Badu to them.

The better looking squads for beautiful play among the ladies were France, Germany and Japan. The Germans did look horrible against the Bleuettes , whether they'll revert back to a better form against the US remains to be seen.Tonight's game is another final before the final as Germans have a gautlet of tougher opponents to go through.

Not just for US, shipping fees have been raised almost everywhere, best bargains are often the marketplace in our own Amazon, for single CDs this is getting the only way

Wigan is now part of Montreal , I know a late mayor who must be doing cartwheels of joy in his grave

According to a few spies Redman with Bad plus was very very good. Saw Robert Glasper, the young man is very talented but I still get the feeling I have yet to see the best of him, mostly doing pieces of his latest CD which is a cover album. Attending a Glasper concert can be an exercice. in frustration ,when he's his MC schtick between songs and can't help but feel he does not integrate completely his talented sidemen into the arrangement of his music gives me a strange sensation of half satisfaction. That said when he is on he is a mesmerizing musician. Just wished he found a live project where he'd be totally immersed in it

Guys the sales pitch is supposed to be done before the sale Seriously, this is good music, they can do a second set and I'd all over it.

The trick is to combine your orders to make it worthwhile.

For the opera buffs Plasson box 38 cds for 35 Euros on Amazon France http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B008NIS38C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1642&creative=19458&creativeASIN=B008NIS38C&linkCode=as2&tag=bpclass-21&linkId=B66K3TGE7OOVZVK7 Am I the only one having the reply box freaking out at times, it takes a while before it opens properly ?

Very enjoyable evening yesterday , saw an good trio led by South-African leader Kyle Shepherd , , those who dig powers trio à la Bad Plus and Cowley should check them out , very modern sound . Enjoyed Enrico's Rava's quintet , the Italian may have reduced the lenght of his show after an hour it was already encore time but with groups like his, it still is high quality high level music, whether it's his own compositions or reworks a well known piece they all are done with flair and substance. Not exactly sure what makes Phronesis to be so popular,and getting adoring crowds, there really was a difference in the behaviour of fans between the usual jazz crowd and this one,as it had a a bit of electricity in the air throughout the set. At some point the leader asked the audience to follow them for all the gigs they'll do next.. There is no denying though that they are a very fine outfit , solid aerial songs played .without rarely falling into the trap of overplaying it. They remind me a bit of Jean-Philippe Viret trio so why do they get the hype and not Viret ? Not really sure. That said they are worth the price of admission. Best moment of the evening though belongs to a first part , as I mentionned Rava does not play long sets so he asked two members of his group to soldier on and deliver a duet , pianist Giovanni Guidi and trombonist Petrella delivered an exquisite set of luxurious compositions played with warmth and rafinement . Rava talks about Italian miracle when he comments about the brand of Italian jazz , I think we witnessed one yesterday with these two playing their project called Soupstar.My spies tell me there is a recording in the makings. . Tonight with the cancellation of Avishai Cohen, only got one gig remaining as Robert Glasper comes back in Montreal. Other worthy shows are in a similar schedule slot which prevents me from attending them.

Amazon Italia has the Wiener box at 65 Euros, for Canucks the thing turns out with the shipping fees to around 81 Euros .

Abou-Khalil and his quartet was a whole lot of fun. He was also very funny in his comments between pieces. After a long and warm applause for a song , he asked the audience do you want that we play it again. Saw the project NettWork , I'll safely stick to say that it was not my cup of tea.

Witnessed yesterday the gut wrenching defeat by the French against Germany in the women's world cup, great spectacle horrible result that ended up in a shootout , shades of Sevilla 82 . Meanwhile the US girls did the business against a too conservative Chinese squad. US will meet a very tired German side in the semis.

On the positive side , glad it is not an health related issue ....

Leroux is a lot of fun to listen indeed especially in a "old school" context , great tone on the sax. Best gig I heard him was with drummer Ari Hoenig who in the words of Leroux kicked his butt and obliged him to go through all his ressources , A bit of a shame he never made the move to try himself out outside our local scene.

They did two nights in Montreal, attended the second so logically they should have been partially rested with no travelling between gigs. I think to make the band work they have to give space to all the instrumentists and some of them had maybe an off night. Choice of arrangements was not what we're used to expect from Nilssen-Love though may have threw me off.

Cancellation bug has hit hard, all the Avishai Cohen concerts have been cancelled, Taj Mahal has been replaced by Harry Manx and King Sunny Ade also has been taken out of the schedule

Seems my comment about seeing them has disappeared , must say I was overall underwhelmed by them . They were some good moments, it was not a bad gig by any means but it lacked the edge i'M used to see when I see PNL.

We're kinda back in the past like the last two days have not happened ...

Ah ok cool , thanks for the answer .

Does it play on regular CD units ?

Regarding McDaniel's first name, most football sites list him as Edward.Don't remember going by any other names than Wahoo. I remember SI did write an article about him http://www.si.com/vault/2001/07/02/306834/wahoo-mcdaniel-he-was-a-flamboyant-footballer-and-a-wacko-wrestler-now-he-just-hopes-to-stay-alive-long-enough-to-raise-his-son

Having followed wrestling until the late eighties, Wahoo kept the same gimmick of the bad ass Indian and he was a legit tough guy was involved in his share of incidents. Regarding Ernie Ladd most of the workers thought he was a sweetheart to work with, very considerate, always made sure he didn't hurt anyone. Among recent ones, Steve McMichael did work in wrestling , most famous one was former Falcon Bill Goldberg . Best pro footballer/pro wrestler ever title does belong though to Bronco Nagurski who ended up in the NFL HOF and "won" the NWA world title.