Dan Gould

Discussed here.

Well this is good news in that, youmustbe often seems to drop "inside" info but to my knowledge has never revealed his true identity. Looking forward to finding out who you are! (and the book, too)

Actually, if you'd bothered to read the thread Jim posted after he accidentally deleted a critical file, he offered to re-register anyone who had started an account between the date of the replacement file he used and the date that he deleted the old file. So you could have re-established your last user name, had you bothered to investigate. But glad to see you back!

With a decision looming, supposedly coming on June 5th, here's a factor that might just help tip Clemens towards the Sox: Coco Crisp is ready to return. It hadn't even dawned on me til now, but maybe it will enter into Clemens mind that the Red Sox are in first place and have done it without their biggest lineup addition of the off-season. With Crisp back, and Youklis and his .425 OBP moving to the bottom third of the lineup, this offense, which wasn't exactly a slouch either, at around 5th in the league in scoring, can only improve. Having reached first place without him, I think the Sox can now excel with Crisp - and one more starter like Clemens. With the choice reportedly (and believe me, I emphasize "reportedly") narrowed down to Houston and Boston, I'll grasp at anything that makes Boston look like a better chance to get to the playoffs and be competitive!

Anyone else notice that recently joined member Chewy-chew-chew bares some striking resemblences to the recently departed "Contemporary" lady and our old friend Aric? Check out his posts: Particularly the references to Warne and Hank. J'Accuse!

There is surely a very toasty place in hell waiting for him next to that other monstrosity from Braunau. Seriously, its as if he pulled down Monk's cojones and cut them off with a rusty razor. Which would have made better sounding music than that.

Fame and success in the Arts is a fickle thing. Sure, talent helps and often wins out, but it also takes luck, opportunity, and usually a string of (often accidental) right moves to make or break someone. In my business it's writers. In the field of jazz, well - think of your favorite/best local musician who isn't known outside your town and compare him to someone with a record deal. Sure, there are the Rollins/Shorter giants out there, but not always that much seperates the local bar bands from the pros with record deals. Given the crap that fills best-seller lists, movie theaters, and airwaves, it is certainly true that there is often times not much that separates the "success stories" from the wannabes.

I wouldn't look for McPhee to start singing standards anytime soon, at least not as a career move.

Thanks very much, fasstrack, for the report of John's funeral. Very moving.

I was a huge Foreman fan back then, thanks a lot for the trip down memory lane. Ah, the days when they had major fights on free TV. And Howard calling the action.

I know the Rockies are playing better than expected but I kinda doubt they can ever put a championship team together, playing in that ballpark.

Well, I agree with the first two statements but definitely did not love it. And that's coming from someone who enjoyed every bit of their 9/11 coverage at the time.

Bad loss at Fenway last night - but help is finally on the way: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds..._lineup_monday/ After missing 1/4 of the season, it will be real nice to start fielding the starting lineup that Theo assembled. As long as Coco is really ready to go ... I think we'll start taking off!

I'm wondering how the Lithuanian law compares to the typical USA limit of .08, when you convert out of the metric system. And I'm also wondering how the heck this guy could apparently be alert enough to know that when you're in this kind of shape, best thing to do is to stay in the middle of the road.

I'm a little surprised at that comment, Dave. You're the first person I've heard suggest that the Rangers might actually be serious contenders. They certainly don't have the appeal of Houston (home town), the Yankees (where he won his rings) or Boston (where he started and became a star). Plus, given the bullpen issues and the other arms in the rotation, I can't see the Rangers having a better chance at post season glory than the other three teams. The only thing they really bring to the table is being a Texas team, and being willing to pay his price.

Dave, I always avoid Joe Morgan and spin tunes while I watch a broadcast but I did hear that Gammons said the same thing, that until he wins a World Series, A-Rod will only be compared to "monuments" and always found wanting. I'm not quite ready to shovel the dirt on the Yanks yet but I will say this: Its the worst time possible for a slump of any sort, just as Clemens is making up his mind. I'm hoping that the Sox put some space between them between now and the end of next week when Clemens will probably make up his mind. Who knows, while I think that the pull of Houston is hard to ignore, the romance of a return to Boston as the final piece on a champion might just do it. I do think that a rotation of Schilling, Clemens and Beckett is about as tough as they come, even factoring in the tougher AL lineups. And those chances go up if it looks like the Sox are ready to take off, with a division lead and Coco coming back. I guess the toughest thing for the Yanks is that it looks like the cinderella's are turning into pumpkins: Chacon and Small look outright bad, and Wang can't decide if he is ready to be a top line starter. With RJ still lost and Matsui gone, it is gonna be tough ... but I can't count the Yanks out yet!

I never liked or particularly respected Tony LaRussa, and I respected him even less in his pathetic defense of Mark McGuire ... but now he and Ozzie Smith are going at it in the paper? That last comment is about as classless as it gets. And unless LaRussa actually wins a few more World Series, he ain't gonna be where Ozzie already is: Cooperstown.

Check out the last Q&A:

Update: I guess my wife was telling me about someone else's prediction (maybe the guy at Colorado State) but the National Hurricane Center issued its prediction today, and its a bit rougher than the other one: 13 to 16 named storms 8 to 10 of them will be hurricanes 4 to 6 of those will be Cat 3 or above

Wonder how long that will stay up as its such an obvious violation of copyright.

that's a fine idea except that we are rapidly running out of brick & mortar independents at any level of quality!

Well, I must say that I enjoyed the group, and Javon's playing a bit more than Marty did. I am guessing that Marty missed the "Meet the Artists" session at the start, where it was made clear that while the members of the band have had a great deal of experience playing together in pairs within other groups, they are not at all a permanent group and they certainly do not have any CDs out as such, and have not played all together previously. I strongly suspect that the setlist was chosen within the parameters of what the South Florida Jazz group booked the group for: an evening of hard bop. Otherwise they would not have played up the connections of Jackson and Green to the Jazz Messengers, or the fact that Carl Allen has led a Blakey tribute band. I would bet that the WPB show will feature more original tunes, though again, considering that Jackson and Green had not played together in a long time, perhaps they will stick with the tried and true repertoire. As for the Henderson influence, I still hear it in the dry tone that Javon has. Also, I should mention that Nat Reeves was the bassist for the show also and he also took care of business.

It seems to me that Green's relative popularity with jazz buyers began to flourish long before the "acid jazz" marketing thing (at least long before I was aware of it). I don't have any sales statistics, but as a jazz guitar networking nut, I had a front row seat in terms of watching Grant's popularity surge back in the early 80's. Grant's later, funkier recordings got significant attention as well, but it was the LT series stuff (and the elusive Japan-only related material) that really got the ball rolling and had people scrambling to keep up. Then came the Mosaic set, and more and more U.S. BN releases, and the momentum just carried on. You may very well be right, Jim. Jazz wasn't on my radar in the early 80s, so I wasn't aware of that surge you describe. I was really only aware of how he was marketed and the extent of the reissues from the late 80s on.

Huh? I don't know what is in print at this moment, but KB recorded 5 CDs for Concord after BN dropped them, and I'm pretty sure they stayed in print for quite some time. I wouldn't say that Concord has dropped the ball on what they have in catalog. And the Muse recordings got packaged by 32 Jazz and aren't impossible to find either. I think its pretty obvious that because Burrell didn't have an overtly funky period like Grant, he couldn't get rediscovered by the Acid Jazz movement which meant he couldn't get marketed like Grant was, and that is the reason why so much of Green's work is reissued and so much of KB's isn't. Having said that, I'd be real surprised if Freedom doesn't come out as a Conn. one of these years. Considering it was a Japan only release and very hard to find, its perfect for that series.