Dan Gould

ABSOLUTELY! To me, that album is a desert-island disc. So soulful, so blue (the original session, especially) ... I find it especially great when listened to in a dark or darkened room-it brings out the deeply blue feelings, for me. By the way, if its the so-called "snooze" factor that keeps this date from working for you but you'd like to hear Gene and Stanley really wail on some blues, then I absolutely recommend their Concord release "Gene Harris Trio + One" which was a live date at the Blue Note in New York, and Harris and Turrentine tear it up, big time, with the superlative support of Ray Brown and Mickey Roker.

To each his own (ears) but obviously yours are defective if you cannot hear or appreciate the interplay between Harris, Simpkins and Dowdy or the extraordinary blues sense of Harris. What's lamentable is that you refer to The Three Sounds as "pop jazz". Yes, they were popular. But they were pure jazz.

Same here.

All this schtick but you can't manage to mention the label?

What? Nobody else knows or enjoys this film?

As the former Gene Harris Fanatic, I applaud anyone who wishes there could be a Sounds Mosaic. However, it appears that the large number of sessions precludes a Mosaic because Cuscuna views it as too expensive. Nevertheless, he is known to be actively considering the possibility of a two volume Mosaic Select set, which is great to get the music out again, however, since I own these dates, I would re-buy them only if it came with the full Mosaic treatment including the booklet with the exhaustive essay. Guess we can't have everything. As to the issue unissued material, it was suggested once that Mosaic could put out a "Complete Unissued Sounds" set but again Michael shot that down on the basis that these unissued tunes were regarded as lesser efforts than the issued sessions and therefore not really worthy. It is true though that a significant amount of this material has come out on Babes Blues, Standards, and other regular Three Sounds reissues.

I had a strong feeling it would be ducal time. Wonder if Heaney has his ducat for it yet

For what its worth, I have an Emus pressing of Count Basie/Joe Williams, Just The Blues and it is, by far, the very nicest sounding album I own.

I have no idea on the Ray Charles, Ghost, but this is a nice one if you can find it:

And worst of all, he was an unabashed capitalist.

The funniest misheard lyrics comes from Dave Barry's book about rock. From "Help Me Rhonda": "Since she put me down I've had owls pukin' in my head"

Because so few people would choose opt-in, business always pushes for "opt-out" because that requires negative action on the consumer's part. My newest approach to telemarketing calls is this: When I hear that pause before the call gets shuffled to the next rep, I know its a telemarketer, and I simply shut up. No "hello", no nothing. They'll keep saying "hello" for a few seconds and then hang up. Once though, the guy said "I can hear you breathing" but I managed not to start laughing. Another approach that a friend has used if he's really bored is to listen patiently to the pitch, express great interest in whatever is being sold, and then, when they ask for the sale, say, "no, I don't think so" and hang up.

So, what are y'all planning to do to celebrate American Independence? I may actually be stuck working but one thing I always do-the New York Times reprints the Declaration of Independence on the back page of the A section and I always like to read old Tom's words. Thank you, Mr. Jefferson!

I'm afraid everyone's gonna go for "Blues March"

I'm not a Baker fan but I am definitely interested on account of the Dameron involvement-one of my all time favorite jazz composers.

Very hard to choose, of course. Washington probably carries the least amount of baggage, though I am inclined toward the under-recognized Madison and Hamilton, whose vision of American government and the American economy continue to endure.

As the 4th of July draws near, thought I'd bring up this classic film with William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard (who knew he could sing!) as Jefferson, an excellent Howard Da Silva as Franklin and a very young and hot Blythe Danner as Martha Jefferson. Guess I was mighty bored this morning, because I started to think who among us could be cast in which roles, and I came to this inescapable conclusion: Johnny IS John Adams, with his tenacious biting at the legs of the rest of the Congress, so cocksure that he is right. And he certainly fits two of the best numbers-the opener, "For God Sake's John, Sit Down!" and "But Mr. Adams"-"But Mr. Adams, dear Mr. Adams-you are obnoxious and disliked that cannot be denied" (here's a link to a page of lyrics.) I'd also nominate Weizen as fun-loving, partying patriot Henry Lee. Anyone else enjoy this film as much as I do?

Isn't that the old Leona Helmsley Suite up in Danbury?

Those covers ought to bring Aric back out into the open.

Looks like a cool store, and you know, the way used record sellers work-they pay maybe 20% of what they think they can sell the album for, so there's a lot of profit in every sale. Still, $225,000 is a helluva lot to pay for that inventory so there goes your profit, at least for a while. Nevertheless, owning a business like that-no more complaining about not having enough listening time!

Don't know the tune Mny is referencing but it brings to mind the Yoko track from John Lennon's final album, the one where she has a three and a half minute orgasm. Brutal. My wife and I had upstairs neighbors who blasted music about 11 pm on a weeknight, and after we complained to the apartment manager, who told them that the law on such noise was 8 am to 10 pm, well, shockingly, the very next night, promptly at 10 pm, we heard a table saw roar to life as they started cutting wood! We'd hear, over and over again, "REEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR-THUNK" so we called the police and while it took thirty minutes or so, an officer showed up, we told him what had happened, and he assured us he would take care of it and if they don't get the message tonite, if he has to return, someone's going to jail. Well, he definitely made an impression on that couple, because a week later, a young lady appeared at the door, and she said to me (no introduction, so I have no idea who she is) "Hi, ummm, its my birthday and I'm having a party tonite (I'm thinking, what, are you inviting me?) so, if we make too much noise, please, PLEASE, here's the phone number, just call and let us know and we'll stop." (So now I've figured out who this chick is and I also realized that the cop put the fear of God into her and I knew we would have no further problems with these people Don't know if that will help-I'm not sure if the cops are particularly vigilant about enforcing noise restrictions in seedier parts of town (not that they shouldn't be, its just that they may devote more of their time to more pressing matters).

I see I am the first to put him ahead of Ornette. Remember that I was, but still am deep in my heart, the Gene Harris Fanatic. Can't get much further away from Gene than Andrew Hill (though there are surely many others who are equidistant from Gene, but in different ways than Hill). Black Fire is the only release of his I have, and I do dig it, but the other dates I have heard just do not appeal. Too off kilter, I guess. I also have several of his sideman BN appearances and enjoy those.

For what it's worth, B.B. has been doing sets in a seated position for quite some time, I believe. So I wouldn't drawn any conclusions from him doing that on the A&E show.

I don't understand "Monk and Coltrane" as a good introduction to either artist. Both are demanding and distinct musicians and their one CD together is the last thing I would use to introduce them to a newbie. What do you use to show Trane as a leader? Interstellar Space?

Well, since 23 people voted in the run-off poll for the first "Pick the AOTW" poll, I think 10 is a pretty sharp drop-off.