brownie

Germany-Netherlands will be THE match to watch this evening, indeed! Hey couw!! you're a Dutchman in Germany. Where does your soccer loyalty stands? The Dutch team looks mighty strong. Arjen Robben should give a hard time to German captain/goalie Oliver Kahn!

To quote from Greg LeMond after Armstrong won the 2001 Tour. LeMond is the first US winner of the Tour de France (he won the race three times): "If Lance is clean, it is the greatest comeback in the history of sport. If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud." Ironically, the Tour de France officials had scheduled weeks ago a news conference for this morning on the doping controls during the 2004 Tour. The news conference was abruptly cancelled last night.

That was one LP box I got when it was released just because I trusted Mosaic back then. If they put it out, it must be good. It was. I keep rotating it off and on and enjoy that one. Yes, in small doses! I was not very much aware of Brown's records then. I'm a huge Charles Brown fan by now.

Stan Getz and Tallulah Bankhead. Never heard the two sides Tallulah recorded back in 1950 for Columbia with Joe Bushkin And His Swinging Strings (and Stan Getz) but the combination always had a defintive appeal!

'How To Murder Your Wife' is included in a list of films soundtracks Shelly Manne played drums on.

There was a record convention yesterday. Went there for a quick visit. Did not come out empty handed. Got these LPs (all decently priced): - Mal Waldron 'Breaking New Ground' (with Reggie Workman and Ed Blackwell), the Japanese Bainbridge original issue, - Georgie Auld 'Plays the Winners', the original US Philips mono copy, with Frank Rosolino, Lou Levy, Leroy Vinnegar and Mel Lewis, - Steve Anderson 'Piano For Dance' on Bel-Air. Had ignored that album when I ran into a better copy several years ago. Did not know at the time that Steve Anderson was Maurice Vander, a pianist that I am rediscovering now. Anderson/Vander had Pierre Michelot on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums on that session. When I did not know what the music was, thought it was an easy listening piano mood album. Turns out it is a pretty swinging and enjoyable date. Got these CDs: - Sonny Rollins in Denmark 2 (Moon) with Kenny Drew, NHP and Tootie Heath, - Von Freeman 'Live At The Dakota' (Premonition), - Guy Lafitte/Wild Bill Davis 'Three Men On a Beat' (Black&Blue)

Clem, I don't mind a journalist not really being involved with the cycling milieu and writing about the sports. One of the problems with the really involved sports journalists is that they are so embedded with the riders and their managers that they will not dare publish incriminating articles for fear of cutting themselves from their sources. This was all too apparent at the time of the doping scandals that plagued the 1998 Tour de France during the Roger Virenque controversy. Most journalists following the Tour de France knew what was going but no one dared talk openly about it. And it took Virenque a couple of yhears to admit he took the wrong substances. Some of the less involved journalists will develop more informative stories as is apparently the case with the LA case. As for Armstrong, I have absolutely no doubt about the veracity of the accounts in the book. I had some of the same informations several years ago from a private and very trusted source. About the Cofidis case, I have not read much about it lately. The Tour de France gets started in three weeks. The Cofidis team - with all its usual suspects - has been invited to the Tour. Will see by then. Last note about Miguel Indurain. He was the first of the BIG TDF winners to get me a bit bored about the whole thing. I long for the years of TDF (and other races) winners with panache. Give me Fausto Copi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Federico Bahamontes, Felipe Gimondi any time. These were real allaround cycling champions!

Dan, there has been pretty wide suspicion that Lance Armstrong is 'under the influence' for quite some time. The fact that so far he has not tested positive is not regarded as proof around here since everybody knows that the cyclling doping controls are not what they should be. Doping has been a wide practice in the cycling world and no wonder since so many of those races require unbelievable efforts and stamina. Armstrong is rated as a great champion here. Winning five Tour de France is a remarkable feat. Experts however wish that he would widen his cycling victories to other classic races (like Paris-Roubaix or the Giro d'Italia, races that Armstrong stays away from) instead of restricting himself to the preparation of his Tour de France victories. Armstrong is known to be surrounded with medics people who are just a bit ahead of the doping restrictions regulations. This has enabled him to maintain a clean reputation so far. That facade is now being attacked. As I already mentioned, the book is not out yet but it it already gathering a hufe media interest.

From AFP: It will be interesting to see the developments of that story. The book is to be out this week but the article in L'Express magazine is well documented. Armstrong carefully avoided to comment on the breaking story yesterday after the final stage of the Dauphine Libere cyclig race in Grenoble, France. I remember the controversy which aroused on the old BNBB two years ago when I made references to similar indications when I voiced dissenting opinions on the cycling star in a thread which was full of praise for him.

No heartbreaker for me! England had the better team in the first part of the match until Barthez saved David Beckham's penalty kick and rerevitalized the whole French team. The French wanted to win and tried and tried again until the last minute. Zinedine Zidane's freekick was masterful and there was nothing the english goalie could do to save his penalty kick seconds later. England has a good chance of surviving against Switzerland and Croatia. Those two teams should be easy prey for England judging from their mediocre match yesterday. There is a slight possibility of another France vs. England match at the final. That would be something!

Getting back to the forums was a long time coming!

'Jambo' is very good and is highly rated. Not familiar with the other two. Will be soon!

It was not slow. It was so ssssllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow, it was dead! Glad to see it brought back to life!

Pee Wee Russell and Thelonious Monk

Didn't realize until I played Daniel A.'s Blindfold Test 12 where there is a version of 'Poinciana' how closely related that tune is with 'Tangerine'.

Roy Brooks 'The Free Slave', one of the first Muse LP albums recorded in April 1970 at the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore with a superb quintet (Woody Shaw, George Coleman, Hugh Lawson, Cecil McBee and Brooks) and an audience that grooved along the music. Don't think this ever came out on CD.

Five additional sides (All Blues/Stella By Starlight/Seven Steps to Heaven/If I Were A Bell/So What) from the Antibes-Juan Les Pins concert of July 1963 have already been issued on the bootleg JMY CD 'Cote Blues'. Sound was pretty good. But the sound on the original official release on French CBS 'Miles A Antibes' was better than the sound of the US original release 'Miles Davis in Europe'. Hope the new box will have the better sound and will even improve on that. The concert includes some of the better George Coleman playing ever!

Jim, so do I (although Gourley is also a favorite) but AMEN is the more successful album of the pair!

And then there's track 15. Come on now, guys!! Who are playing? Brownie is on to something; I'd dare to say that they are among the most well known on their respective instruments - all of them!!! It's too much of a goof on the original arrangement of this piece to spot who these "well known" musicians are. The "Dark Eyes" arrangement they seem to be spoofing is that of the Gene Krupa Trio with Charlie Ventura and Marty Napoleon. Can't even hazard a guess as to who these guys are. I'm on to nothing. I have given up on identifying these people. And waiting for Daniel A. to reveal all... But that short track is a lot of fun which is what those BFT are about. Right?

Strange that Dusty Groove has already shipped them when the new French Gold Series CDs just appeared in Paris stores only today! But I also had some of the new MPS reissues shipped from Germany and the States weeks ago before thet became available here. Anyway, the Guy Lafitte original RCA LPs disappeared pretty quickly. Glad to see them reissued.

Red Kelly Obit. From AP:

Details (and sound samples) from this rare album are available here: http://ubl.artistdirect.com/store/artist/a...78694%2C00.html If the sound samples do not appear (when I tried I got the sound samples display the first time, than this disappeared and an advertisement popped up instead on the second try), try a direct link. It should work!

RCA France has released the following items in their RCA Gold Series: - Art Blakey 'Au Theatre des Champs-Elysees' (the November 15, 1959 concert at Theatre des Champs-Elysees with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Walter Davis, Jymie Merritt), - Lou Bennett 'Amen' (smoking session with organist Bennet, Jimmy Gourley, Jean-Marie Ingrand and Kenny Clarke), - Lou Bennett 'Enfin!' (with Rene Thomas), - Guy Lafitte 'Jambo' (with Sonny Grey on trumpet, George Arvanitas, Jimmy Gourley), - Guy Lafitte 'Blues In Summertime' (with french horn players, Raymond Fol and Art Taylor), - Guy Lafitte 'Sugar and Spice' (with the Four Bones and Raymond Fol), - Martial Solal 'Sans Tambour, Ni Trompette' (1970 date with two bass players Jean-Francois Jenny-Clarke and Gilbert Rovere and no drums as the title indicates), - Martial Solal 'En Solo', a 1971 session. All are 24bit remasters. No bonus tracks added except on one of the Lafitte issues (not Jambo). Too bad that the Art Blakey unhas some of the other numbers that the Blakey Messengers played at the 1959 concert. Not sure this was ever reissued (Japan??).

Brother Ray was hugely popular in France in the sixties and remained right at the top. His passing away was the top item I heard on news radio this morning. And all the national newspapers have the news and a photo of him on their frontpages. 'Liberation's frontpage is all Ray: http://www.liberation.fr/img/pdf/UNE.pdf

The Louis Hayes Group 'Variety Is The Spice' (Gryphon) with Frank Strozier.