Dan Gould

No, you should quit because the Watrous one is sheer perfection-I could definitely hear Chris Berman saying that!

I can attest to the fact that Jim looks fine ... especially compared to yours truly-just check the Clearwater photos. On second thought, don't. I've been struggling with the weight ever since I met my wife-anyone else experience this "fat and happy" syndrome? Any advice? While I don't always eat perfectly, I generally do pretty well. I think what's keeping the weight on is an insufficient regimen of exercise. But I've got hope for the new year now that I have (I think) hooked up with a second tennis partner. I do believe that if I can manage a 4-5 day a week tennis regimen, the fat will melt off. In the meantime, I'll be seeing my folks in a month or so and I know Dad's gonna give me a rash of shit about it, as he has every holiday season since ... well, since I met my wife!

John, great work, and thanks for acceding to my request! I feel bad for having lost track of this thread and only seeing the "sammitch" now.

Peter, I heard about it and ordered it from a European website the early part of this year. I spotted it a month or two ago in a Borders-I was totally shocked-and almost bought it to offer to the board. So, I guess this wasn't a fluke thing that it was at Borders, and at a reasonable price, like $16 or so. I can't recommend this one enough-I came very close to using it on the Blindfold Test but finally decided that Griff is just too darn obvious. But its a gorgeous album, with a fine Monk cover and possibly the highlight is a unique take on Griff's "The Jamfs are coming" which is usually taken a blistering temp but here is slowed down considerably. BTW, the title is "Close Your Eyes"

JazzShrink knows of what he speaks.

Well, further away from trio or solo, I have Glad I Found You which has a front line of Eddie Harris and Thad Jones. Quite nice.

View New Posts. My home page is the Forum main page, and from there I click new posts which brings up everything since I last logged in. Then I keep refreshing that as I am generally here most of the work day. If there's something I want to return to that doesn't come up in the New Posts, then I go to Today's Topics from the My Assistant link. And speaking of New Posts, something odd seems to happen. Sometimes it keeps listing the threads which I have already updated on, and other times, ONLY the new threads show up. Must be something to do with my cookies, but heck if I know.

Didn't he also compose "And like a good neighbor, State Farm is there ..."? I knew someone who's wife loved Manilow and would drag him to concerts. I think he said that Barry usually does medleys of his famous jingles.

Couw's suggestion kind of reminds me of what some people try to do to get around the "scalping" laws (if that's a term unfamiliar to our non-US members, those are laws that limit how much tickets to a popular event like a concert or sports event can be sold over the face value): People would advertise that they're selling some common household item, say, a pen. But its a special pen, because for the low price of $250, we'll throw in, for free, tickets to the Springsteen concert or whatever. In fact, funny story: A guy who lived on the same floor in the dorm once tried to do that and we decided to have some fun with him. One of us called him up and identified ourselves as a Florida State University police officr and gave him hell for trying to evade the scalping laws and told him that if his sign was still up the next time, he'll be arrested. The next sound we heard was his door slamming and his very fast footsteps down the hall, racing to the bulletin board to remove his sign, muttering under his breath, 'Oh shit'. Then we saw him all over campus, taking down his sign! We just about busted a gut.

Rooster, I did respond, I assume you'll get the message at some point!

Thanks to everyone who responded-I think my needs are covered at this point!

It looks like Broadway will be kept safe from Barry Manilow's schmaltz: Manilow's Musical Shuts Down Production By JESSE McKINLEY Published: November 14, 2003 "Harmony," a Broadway-bound musical written by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, unexpectedly shut down production yesterday morning after it became apparent that its producers were millions of dollars short of capitalizing the show. ... With original music by Mr. Manilow, the popular 1970's and 80's singer, and a book and lyrics by Mr. Sussman, "Harmony" tells the story of the Comedian Harmonists, the vaudevillian German sextet, during the fall of the Weimar Republic. It was originally produced in 1997 at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. It received mixed reviews but had been rumored to be coming to Broadway several times since that production. In its current incarnation, the show featured Brian d'Arcy James, leading a cast with 26 other now newly unemployed actors. .... Mr. Manilow, who was on a plane yesterday afternoon, also sounded angry at his producer. "My heart breaks for the hundreds of talented men and women who will be hurt by this colossal blunder," he said in a statement. "We all deeply hope that this situation can be corrected and that this powerful piece will finally be seen."

Woody fans please PM me. Thanks!

Jim, I think you should save the Ray Charles tune for an "official" CD, but how about giving a taste of your fine vocal talents and at the same time giving Sweet Papa Lou some props by doing one of his vocal numbers, like "Whiskey Drinkin' Woman" or "Wig Blues"?

I could be wrong, but I thought that Peter Crawford of Stateside Distributors has the Timeless catalog. And I know Stateside is the distributor of Steeplechase, though I guess CD Universe could beat him on price. Stateside Distributors-1004 N. California. Chicago, IL 60622-3408 Attn: Pete Crawford. Phone toll-free 1-888-776-0436 or e-mail stateside@prodigy.net

Personally, I really prefer to get up when I'm halfway through and change the side.

Wait a minute, now I get it. You're referencing what your Mom would choose for your initiation, not her own, right?

Well, definitely one of those stories that deserves to live on! Personally, I think #2 sounds more likely, but who really knows. The story in its broad terms certainly fits a certain stereotype about MTV "newspeople".

Aggie, I've never known if this is a true story or not, but my understanding was always that Soren did not embarass herself during the interview but rather, afterwards, she screamed to her assistant, "who the hell is the loneliest monk?" If you actually saw that interview and heard that exchange as you remember it, that's the first time I've heard it described that way.

Works for me!!

What Chuck said.

Thanks for the offer, Chuck. I'm pretty sure that Eddie will do the introductions, since I think he enjoyed the interview himself and on top of that, I plan to butter him up by offering him my recently acquired copy of one of his very earliest LPs, something Eddie didn't even remember being involved with when he put together his discography.

Well, I asked Roush and he said that Weinstock would be a little out of their scope since they concentrate on musicians not producers, but if he gave a lot of first person stories about artists and sessions, sure. Otherwise, he'd prefer Ira Sullivan, and I'm hoping that my "in" with Higgins can net me an introduction. Of course, no one said that a Weinstock interview has to go to Cadence, so ...

Here in south Florida there are at least 5 or 6 "Jazz Societies" which try to attract corporate sponsorship, state grants, and member dues to bring in an assortment of jazz artists, mostly during the "season"-October/November through April or so. The concert venues are typically small theaters which work quite well. But I would say that the problem isn't the size of the audience but the age. My wife and I are in our mid-30s and we are always amongst the 10 or twenty youngest people in attendance, and that's including the teenagers who usually appear to have been dragged to the concert by their folks. But for me, its the Jazz Society concerts that get my attention and my cash. There are a handful of active clubs but their music policies aren't exactly strict about defining "jazz" and I inevitably find the level of conversation and disrespect to be too much to tolerate. At least with the jazz society concerts, the blue hairs are there to listen-and me and my wife are still agile enough to get around them and out the door when the concert ends!

As some already know, I had a wonderful opportunity last May to interview pianist Eddie Higgins. Well, the word just came down-Cadence Magazine wants to publish it!!!! No word on publishing date and I bet it will take a while since they only publish monthly and probably have quite a backlog, but watch this space for announcements!