Dan Gould

In fact, even on albums with skips, you can minimize the jarring-ness of the skip by normalizing downward the sound of the needle skipping forward. It doesn't save the missing music but it does make for a less disturbing listen. So all of this is to say that one can lower the acceptable condition standards and still get nice sounding results.

You know, so long as there are no actual skips or scratches that don't play through, most of these VG or VG+ albums can make for *awesome* listening experiences if you have the patience and set-up to throw it into your PC and manually remove the pops and clicks.

Not to hijack the thread in another direction, but what did she think about your jazz interests? Does she have some familiarity with the music? Is she open to it? Does she think Kenny G. when she hears "jazz"? Will she make you go Or will she make you go ?

I'm curious about the Maria Muldaur. She's on the Uptown Christmas comp. and sounds pretty at ease with the jazzbos, didn't know she did an album on the label.

Hey Mike, was that Griffin Argo one of the 70s pressings (in black and white) or one of the way cool originals, with the cover split down the middle? Speaking of '70s Argo pressings, I picked up a sealed copy of Benny Golson's Take a Number From One to Ten so now I can finally hear the three tracks that got dropped from the Universal reissue of "Free". Take that, Keepnews!

I have his "Big Nick" album on India Navigation. But I don't think it solves any mysteries.

Or laying off the drugs?

I was browsing through the CDBaby website and sampled two CDs by Ron Kearns, who appears to be headquartered in the DC area (one of the discs is a live recording at Blues Alley). Anywhoo, I was wondering if any of the DC Brigade was familiar with this guy. The samples sounded solid if not exactly groundbreaking.

My wife (who loves horror/zombie films) and I went to see this last week and we both enjoyed it. Interestingly, today's New York Times reports that a new version will be playing in theaters shortly with an alternate ending, more downbeat than the original film. A reflection of the importance of DVDs, I guess (the DVD is already out in Britain and it has more than this alternate ending).

I have a feeling these might linger on the shelves a wee bit longer ...

I'm gonna bring this up again as a reminder that this starts in a couple of days, and also because I don't think Brad has made his declaration of the July 27 nominee. (?)

I thought it was pretty clear that when Shrugs wrote this: I Remember Clifford for the most part but I really love Whisper Not a la Keith Jarrett and co. Have any other piano trios recorded it? "it" refers to Whisper Not, not Clifford.

AMG reveals a lengthy list of trio as well as duo or solo recordings of "Whisper Not", including Ray Bryant, George Cables, Kenny Drew, Tommy Flanagin, Harold Mabern, Ahmad Jamal and Hank Jones (on a CD I have that is quite nice, Essence with Billy Higgins and Ray Drummond) and Horace Tapscott.

Taking a short look through, I'd say there's a lot of nice one-stop shopping to be had, some of which is very tough to find these days (I'm thinking especially of the Evening Star recordings or the Blacknote recording. Anyone looking for the Another Time, Another Place two disc set featuring Benny Carter and Phil Woods, they've got it in stock. They also have the new Charles Davis/Cedar Walton disc that got a nice write up in the Times, and I also noticed that the Greg Skaff disc has Mike LeDonne on organ and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Definitely a site I need to check out carefully, anyone who gets ringers like LeDonne or Sebastian Whitiker to play on their date, there're pretty good chances I'll dig it.

Sorry if I skipped your favorite, but I think I came up with a pretty good list. Mine is definitely "Whisper Not".

Congrats, Tony, Mom and child!

Yeah, unfortunately, Jim got (I think) color xeroxes when I sent it to him awhile back, while everyone in this batch just got black and white reductions. But believe me, Kynard looks like a freakin' serial axe murderer! If I ever get a scanner maybe I can post it, along with that Hank Mobley photo from the Tete Montoliu date that some of us tried to deconstruct on that forgotten BB.

Normally it would be "I Should Care" by Hank Mobley, but lately I've been floored by LD's "Who Can I Turn To?" on the Cadet LP Blowing In The Wind. See? I got around that "choose only one" BS

My request is somewhat obscure, but a lot of Argo LPs have made their way to CD in Japan, but there is one I've searched high and low for, Richard Evans, Home Cookin'. Not that I expect Universal to put it out in America, but why hasn't it come out in Japan?

That's why I put that last option in, John!

ESPN announced the addition of Rush Limbaugh to their studio "ESPN Gameday" program; Rush is to represent "the fan" and be allowed to interrupt the regular group from a separate perch, kind of like the fan who sits on the couch and says "Mort, you don't know what you're talkin' about!" ***************** From ESPN's website" Limbaugh will be voice of fan on ESPN NFL show -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESPN.com National talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh will join ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown to provide the voice of the fan and to spark debate on the show, the network announced Monday. Limbaugh will appear weekly and make his debut when Sunday NFL Countdown premieres Sept. 7. "Football is like life and I know life," Limbaugh said in a statement. "I am a big fan of the NFL and now I get to do what every football fan would love to do. I get to take my observations from the living room couch to the ESPN studios and talk football with the best journalists and players in the business." Limbaugh, who will appear either on the show's Bristol, Conn., set or via satellite, will provide a weekly opinion piece on an aspect of the NFL making news that week, and participate in impromptu exchanges with the analysts and challenging their opinions on various issues. Limbaugh will be allotted three challenge opportunities to use at his discretion during the show. "Rush is a great communicator and a fan's fan," said Mark Shapiro, ESPN's executive vice president of programming and production. "His acute sense of what's on the minds of his listeners combined with his ability to entertain and serve as a lightning rod for lively discussion makes him the perfect fit for this new role. "We want to give fans a voice, and Rush is the person who can do it." As host of the top-rated Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh has established a following of almost 20 million listeners in more than 650 markets worldwide. Limbaugh has written two national bestsellers, "The Way Things Ought to Be" and "See, I Told You So." One of his first jobs was as director of group sales for the Kansas City Royals in 1979. *************** Interestingly, the NY Times' TV Sports critic, Sandomir, gives a thumbs up, calling the plan for Limbaugh to interrupt the others " ... appealing. The advantage ESPN has in Limbaugh is his brilliance as a communicator, whether you agree with his politics or not. He is not a former player learning sportscasting on the job; he is an effective entertainer." So, what do our football fans, left-leaning or not, think?

Thanks!

An important thing I learned in interviewing Eddie Higgins is that open-ended questions are best. Let the subject answer the way he wants to, let him feel that he is in some control over the interview. Also, don't pose questions in which you provide the answer, as in "X happened-was that because of Y?" The biggest thing is to get the subject to talk and the best way you can do that is to ask open-ended questions. And another thing I learned was that a good closing question is, "Is there anything you'd like to talk about that I didn't ask about?" In Higgins' case, he had been so accomodating that I probably was on the cusp of wearing out my welcome (I knew that when he asked, 'Is that it?") but I went ahead and asked that final question and it netted me one of the nicest stories and quotes of the entire 2.5 hour interview.

I've heard about the garage sale/estate sale route before but unfortunately there is no way I'd have the patience to find anything decent amidst the junk. I'm sure the rare find is extra nice, but my feeling is, I'd rather not waste my weekend listening time driving around, pawing through junk to come up empty too often.

Torri Spelling - "You know, I don't know if I'd even have a career if my father wasn't Aaron Spelling!" Anna Kournikova - "I've never been very comfortable with my body." George Bush - "My favorite philospher? Kierkegaard." Dusty Groove Reviewer - "This album has no redeeming qualities whatsoever." Anyone like to add some?