brownie

Spain never seems able to assemble a firstrate team for the big soccer competitions. The Greek team played with gusto and deserved to score the equalizer. Noz all of France will be waiting for tonight's match against Croatia. All French soccer fans still remember the France vs. Croatia semifinal match of the 1998 World Cup when the French team was being led 0-1 with good reasons by the Croats until French defender Lilian Thuram scored an equaliser and then the decisive 2-1 goal which enabled the French team to go to the final to beat the favorite Brazilian team. Thuram will be playing again tonight. Nobody expect him to score this time. The forwards (Zidane, Henry, Trezeguet) should take care of that job!

Paris-Match magazine is out today with an interview of Armstrong's former masseuse Enna O'Reilly. Basically she repeats what she already told the authors of the 'L.A. Confidential' book. However she is asked why she decided to tell all, four years after she left the cycling world. She replies that she felt accomplice to immoral things she had seen and to the cynicism around it. She was struck by the number of riders who died because of the drugs and mentions Marco Pantani (who was found dead in a hotel room in Rimini, Italy, last February). She adds that she was shocked by Lance Armstrong's statements and by how he was telling his sponsors and everybody else he was clean, that youths believed him and still do. When she was contacted in 2003 by the book's authors David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, she found that they already knew a lot and that their questions were right to the point.

Yes, that's the current French RCA CD reissue of the Solal at Newport album. As mentioned earlier, the album was recorded in a studio with added fake applauds which was in fashion at the time.

Give us time! I'm pretty sure the Disconforme people have some plans along that way. When their Fresh Sounds colleagues got started years ago, they released the Best of the West 10inch two volumes as 12inchers.

From AP:

Shirley Scott (and Stan T.) 'Hip Soul' (Prestige)

Bobby Jaspar also plays superb flute in the four tracks he recorded with Blossom Dearie (his then wife) in 1956 that habe been reissued on volume 18 of the Jazz in Paris series 'Jazz de Chambre' (Buddy Banks/Bobby Jaspar). That was his first flute only date. Not to be missed either are the two Prestige albums with Herbie Mann 'Flute Flight' and 'Flute Souffle' and his contributions to the Milt Jackson Atlantic album 'Bags & Flutes'. Jaspar was one of the most individual flute player of his time.

Wish I had jazz courses when I was young/old enough to attend University. Ghost, yours students will be very lucky!

The various sessions that Jerry Newman recorded at Minton's and at Clark Monroe's Uptown House are essentials. The Masters of Jazz CDs are no longer available but the JSP box has pretty good sound on those recordings.

Stay away from that one and get the RVG Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers at Cafe Bohemia, vol. 1 and 2. All the tracks are included in those two CDs. The only rejected sides from the club date are: - Blues - Dedciphering the Message - Prince Albert Now if you can get those three tunes, get them! And I'll take a copy myself B)

The French players could not untangle from the English team tactics which worked wonders until the last quarter of the match. Then the French regained their confidence and team captain Zidane turned his magic on. Will wait for the other regular scorers (Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet) to lead the French team easily into the second round. But the whole team will have to play better.

I was expecting more from the Dutch team. And a bit less from the German team. Not a really exciting match last night and the 1-1 draw seemed fair. The championship enters the second set of group matches with Greece opposing Spain and Russia playing against Portugal. Will see if the Greek team can sustain the strength of its opening match against Portugal.

Nothing really new on the cycling doping front except that three of the italian teams due to take part in the 2004 Tour de France (including Saeco and Domina Vacanze) have been charged last month with using forbidden substances, it was revealed yesterday. Danilo Di Luca and Alessandro Spezialetti are among the riders who were charged. The usually very careful organisers of the Tour de France have not commented yet on those charges. The book attacking Lance Armstrong is out in Paris bookstores now. Lance Armstrong's reactions at the news conference he held yesterday in Maryland were predictable. He has always denied the charges. Shades of Richard Virenque there. Armstrong admitting to the charges would be like shooting himself in the leg. He would lose most of his sponsorships. One aspect of the case that surfaced recently also is that Armstrong was an early user of the stuff (when he still was with the notorious Cofidis team) and this probably created problems that led to the appearance of the testicular cancer that developed in 1996.

In France, the nationwide radiostation France Culture devotes most of the day to a series of shows about 'Ulysses'. The evening shows will be broadcast live from the Paris Left Bank Rue de l'Odeon adress of the Adrienne Monnier bookshop which published the first edition of the book in 1922. There is also a brand new translation of the book, the first since the original French edition of 1929, out now. Nice to see Dublin celebrate a writer the city largely ignored for decades.

Donation? Just say when and where!

Some of the best later-days Lester Young. The Prez obviously enjoyed playing those Washington dates and it shows. There is a lot of excellent and inspired music on all 5CDs. How lucky we are that this music surfaced!

Coleman Hawkins having fun?

Milt Jackson 'Plenty, Plenty Soul' (Atlantic)

Beside 'The World of Cecil Taylor', the Mosaic box had tracks from the following albums: - Jumpin' Punkins' by Cecil Talor, - 'New York R&B' by Buell Neidlinger and Cecil Taylor, also reissued as 'Air' - 'Cell Walk For Celeste' by Cecil Taylor

Must have been a very early pressing

A fairly recent and wonderful Kellaway album is volume 11 of the Live At Maybeck Recital Hall series from Concord. Superb and very persuasive solo record.

Since I'm a fan of Roger Kellaway, I bought this when it came out a couple of months ago. Played it once and was disappointed about the meager jazz content. May have to dig it out from the pile I stored it to relisten...

Ubu, you should have this on your must see films agenda, Right at the top. Excellent film. Probably not shown in Switzerland that often! It was really an excellent view of migrant life in Switzerland and Nino Manfredi was perfect there! And Anna Karina costarred in the film! The tone of the film was pretty harsh on the Swiss!

Where is Late? He seems to be MIA. His last post is a month old. Hope he is all right!

Couw's reply reminds me of that extremely funny scene in the Italian film 'Pane e Cioccolata' in which the late Nino Manfredi playing an Italian migrant in Switzerland tries to hide his true reactions while watching an Italy vs. Switzerland soccer match in a Swiss cafe where he is the only foreigner.