Dan Gould

Yeah, that would explain why one of my favorite box sets is the Lester Young Verve set.

BTW, nice to know he has both "some repute" and "an impressive reputation" ... who the hell wrote that synopsis?

No indication of tunes or sidemen?

I'd take what Brad says and multiply it by 100. If he were my kid ... well, that wouldn't be my kid.

The Art Farmers are quite nice.

I think Bruce may be right - my former boss, a Mass. native, always called it "Boston Chicken."

Or share the obsessive, anally retentive interest. All we're doing is adding what we ourselves know. Who cares if its documented elsewhere?

They reunited several times before that tour, I think Mickey Tucker played piano, at least on the studio recordings. Edited clarification: Not that I'm insinuating that you were suggesting that your tour was the only reunion. Just clarifying that there were other reunions.

Well, I was motivated to pull this one out again, and I have a few observations: First, no doubt that it is not top-flight Hank - an obvious reason why its not something I've listened to in quite a while. Second, since Jim has made such a strong assertion about "Early Morning Stroll" I decided to A/B it with its original recording on The Flip, and no doubt, this is not the same jaunty morning constitutional. Not sure I'm ready to go so far with the "hard bop fuck you" description though. As far as breath issues go, I definitely do not hear them. Listening closely to Hank's exclamations during his solo on "Summertime," those hollers come right after the phrase before. How does a guy who's running out of breath have the air in his lungs to exclaim something right as the reed comes out of his mouth? Lastly, I have to say that I think that Hank's performance on "Summertime" is really quite good. Bertrand mentioned above that he thought that the cadenza at the start is just the opening to the "Thinking of Home" Suite, and after A/B-ing it, he is correct. Only I think its performance here is far superior. Not pretty, but certainly not ugly. And as far as breath issues goes, listen from 1:04 to 1:40. That is not a man with breath problems. Overall, I think its the best cut on the album.

The probability is fairly high. To the second question, Yes, yes and yes.

I concede a bit to you on the short term public shame part of it, but on the money side, for multi-millionnairre ball players, loss of 10 day or 30 day pay is nothing. Let's say we've got someone making 8 million a year. Its paid out over six months, which is 1.3 million dollars a month. You don't think a player will pay attention to that hit? I guarantee they'll feel that hit a heckuva lot worse than the slap on the wrist $50,000 fines MLB gives out for a little brawl.

Well, I agree that steroids are part of that picture but there is no way that you can ignore other factors: smaller parks diluted pitching players who work out year round (and aren't all juicing either) and are in better shape than the vast majority of the players of yesteryear. Which brings me to this, in today's NYT: Mike Schmidt Dismisses Steroids - HRs Link By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 6, 2005 Filed at 5:18 p.m. ET FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- Mike Schmidt refused to blame steroids for the increase in home runs in the major leagues -- or for his diminishing stature on the career homer list. ``Leave steroids out of it,'' Schmidt said Sunday. ``There's a simple explanation why the home run totals are what they are, and the guys that are hitting would agree with me -- it's park size, hard baseballs and hard bats.'' Since the Hall of Fame third baseman retired in 1989 with the seventh-most home runs (548), he has been passed by four players -- Barry Bonds (703), Mark McGwire (583), Sammy Sosa (574) and Rafael Palmeiro (551). Several others could move ahead of Schmidt in the next five years. ``Guys are passing me like I was a car on the freeway,'' said Schmidt, a spring training instructor for the Philadelphia Phillies. Schmidt estimates the smaller ballparks and the equipment help elite power hitters add 10-12 home runs more per season than those of his generation -- or about 150 more career homers. But he's quick to note that he isn't bitter over the evolution of the longball. ``That's an honest answer. That's not a chip on the shoulder (or) an old timer whining about things,'' Schmidt said. ``We're not blaming the kids that are playing the game now. They are great hitters. They are further along fundamentally as hitters at this point in their careers than we were in the old days. Everything is better about the game now. They are bigger, stronger and they work out harder.'' Schmidt also insists these changes make it harder to compare players from different eras. ``We all know any discussion about whether Henry Aaron is a better hitter than Barry Bonds is ridiculous because of the conditions under which both played,'' he said. ``The environment in which they played is so totally different, you can't compare.'' **************************** Now, I would not go as far as Schmidt does, but to assert that the home run totals of the last ten years are entirely due to steroids is a bit much.

Ten day suspension, followed by a 30 day suspension is "very weak"? You've got to be kidding me. And do you think there will be no "public shame in getting caught"? There's no provision whereby those who are suspended for ten games get to make up a story about why they are not playing. There WILL BE a public announcement of a positive test result, and if you don't think that will result in some public shame .... as far as the NFL goes, I believe the first positive test results in NOTHING but "counseling". Its only with subsequent positive tests does anyone get suspended, starting with four games. So, at least MLB goes straight for the punishment, even if their punishment isn't quite so bad on the first positive test vs the second positive test for an NFL player.

Marty mentioning Alan's Jazzamataz site sent me over there for the first time this year, and I was stunned to see this listed: Joe Williams with Ben Webster - Havin' A Good Time (Hyena) Feb 22 — live date from 1964 discovered in the Hamilton College Jazz Archive; only known club performance of the two musicians; recorded at Pio's Lodge in Providence, RI, with the rhythm section of Junior Mance, Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker. Needless to say, I jumped all over this one. Anyone else wanting to hear Joe and Ben for the only known date they played together?

The Malo performance that gave me chills was during the Holiday program that ABC ran in December 2001. Him and his guitar, in post-9/11 New York City, singing, "New York, New York." Totally opposite to the bombast of Sinatra and big band, it had this amazing balance, between the gently strummed chords and almost mournful quality in his voice along side the core optimism of the song. Truly incredible.

I am not that sure about that. How does MLB's process compare to other leagues in U.S.A. and the Olympics, does anyone know? From what I read, the process may be adequate but the penalty is not damaging enough to discourage players from going the illegal steroid route. I am a bit suspicious when MLB has to negotiate with the Players Union to come up with this process. They have to come to an agreement with the Players Union because the Basic Agreement covers such things as drug tests. The fact is that the first positive test is a ten day suspension, which I view as pretty damn serious when you consider that the very worst baseball brawls hardly ever result in more than a five day suspension. The second is thirty days, and if you are a regular player, that is a devastating penalty to you and your team. Bear in mind that the suspensions are without pay - a month's worth of salary is a pretty huge hit when you consider that players only draw their gigantic paychecks over the six months of the season. I believe the third positive tests gets you a full season suspension and the fourth is banishment. No, that's not as strict as the Olympics testing which has a two year ban for a first positive result. But then again, for things like 100 meter sprints, that little tiny impact of red blood cells carrying more oxygen to the muscles can make all the difference in the world (see Ben Johnson). While there will always be a battle between drug tests and masking agents, etc., for those who are really intent on juicing, but I think the program is in place to severely restrict the number of players who will do it. With unannounced tests and ten or thirty day suspensions at stake, how long can they risk getting caught? And, the final piece of this puzzle comes from the minor leagues: MLB has total control over the working conditions of minor league players. They aren't members of the union til they make a major league roster. So, for several years now, MLB has had a stringent testing and penalty system in place, and I believe the percentage of positive tests is now no more than 1%. Its virtually a given that in the coming years, minor league players who reach the majors will be clean. That will go a long way toward keeping the majors clean in the future.

I own The Mavericks CD and I don't care what anyone has to say about it, its damn fine retro country. They even make a Bruce Springsteen song, "All That Heaven Will Allow" listenable.

I think its just recently been published. I think I'm going to order through Amazon and get Shaugnessey's "Curse Reverersed" book at the same time and get the free shipping deal. (Just to be clear, I don't think that's the verbatim title of Shaugnessey's book)

I haven't the foggiest idea.

I guess when your team is the defending World Champions, everyone gets on the bandwagon and wants to see them. There were three games in the south Florida area against the Orioles and the Marlins that I tried to get tickets for, we had plans to go to one game with my wife and another with her brother and two kids -- and I was only able to secure a single seat for myself for the March 24 game with the O's, despite being online the moment tickets went on sale. On the positive side, we do have plans to get to Boston in June and I was able to score two pairs of tickets for June 14 and 15. The seats for June 14 are something like these: And best of all, we got Green Monster seats, the coolest seats in baseball, for June 15. BTW, that is the interleague series against the Reds-what are the chances that Junior Griffey will be healthy and playing? It'd be nice to see a future Hall of Famer, but given his recent history, we're almost resigned to the assumption that he'll be hurt by the time June rolls around.

dan- you really don't have to write EVERY thought that pops into your head...... Perhaps, but do you have any other suggestion why ham was dropped from the menu?

Well, I may be more retro than you, but with EA and Hazeltine, if I saw that at Borders or was placing an order at Cadence, I wouldn't hesitate, myself. Bill Fenohr usually gets all Criss Cross releases, maybe he can shed light on it.

Interesting .... do you think its possible that Boston Market dropped ham in south Florida due to the relatively high proportion of Jews in the population? I had assumed that it was a chain-wide change, so if it wasn't, what would make them change it here? Maybe there was just less demand for ham in this area and therefore they just went ahead and dropped it. Of course, that doesn't explain dropping romaine lettuce from the sandwiches!

I also liked the mac and cheese and spinach, and I agree that the sandwiches weren't bad, what I never understood is why they dropped ham from the menu. I'd go to Boston Market about twice a month for lunch, but lately, the final straw was the changes they made to the sandwiches: shredded iceberg instead of the nice leafy romaine toasting it like they're trying to compete with that other, hipper brand. That, and the fact that the last sandwich I got came with not one but two slices of "tomato" which could hardly be called that: they were both lily white and utterly disgusting. How a restaurant could use them was totally beyond me.

Hi Dan, is it good Kharma if I take this.... Cheers, Tjobbe EDIT what I can additionally offer to the board is Along came Jones - New York Connexion (with Eubanks, Allen, Locke and more) Send me a PM with your address and its yours.