Uncle Skid

I picked up "Yardbird Suite - The Ultimate Charlie Parker Collection" today. I'm just barely beginning to understand the magic of Bird, and my only regret is that it took me so long to discover this wonderful music!

Rooster -- is "Black Fire" anything at all like "Passing Ships"? I didn't have any Andrew Hill until Passing Ships came out, and I absolutely love that CD! I also really like Hutcherson's "Dialog", and I'm slowly warming up to "Point of Departure". I'm curious to learn more about Andrew Hill -- and I vaguely remember reading somewhere that you're a fan?

That shouldn't be too hard -- Metallica has been ripping off nursery rhymes for years!

I saw the Jack Johnson, IASW, Bitches Brew, and Coltrane metal spine boxes today at a local retailer. There may have been others there as well. I'm not sure if the prices were reduced; the original (inflated book store) price tags were stilll on them.

Congratulations, Jim!! All the best to you, your wife, and your beautiful new daughter!

Three songs from The Cure's Disintegration (1989): Fascination Street, Pictures of You, Love Song, Lullaby. Well, OK, four songs. I don't remember if any of these truly qualifed as "popular", but they are all great tunes.

Indeed. I wonder if this type of marketing is planned way in advance, or if somebody realized that sales of these boxes had dropped off quite a bit, and only then decided to repackage and slash prices? I never bought any of the metal spine boxes simply because it was much cheaper to buy the individual CDs. At this point, having a bunch of alternate takes and additional material isn't terribly important to me. Now with these drastically reduced prices, I might have to go the box set route. The individual CD's I already have would make great gifts, especially for non-jazz loving family members! I'm still surprised about the price of the new ones -- the same CDs for about half the cost of the originals!

Jazzmatazz Upcoming Releases has the following Miles Davis Columbia/Legacy box sets listed: Miles Davis & John Coltrane - Complete Columbia Recordings - 6 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 4 Miles Davis & Gil Evans - Complete Columbia Studio Recordings - 6 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11 Miles Davis - Miles Davis Quintet 1965-68 - 6 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11 Miles Davis - Complete In Silent Way Sessions - 3 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11 Miles Davis - Complete Bitches Brew Sessions - 4 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11 All of these say "new edition with less expensive packaging (no metal spine)". I guess that metal spine was pretty expensive -- the 65-68 Quintet box is normally $95, the new edition is $49!! The new Miles/Coltrane edition is $53, the original one was also around $95. Does anybody know more about these? Is the lack of a metal spine the only difference?

The correct way to say that, I've been told, is "go boldly," rather than "boldly go." I can remember one of my high school English teachers complaining that Star Trek had caused millions of people to use adverbs incorrectly. I should have known better than to rely on popular culture for my rules of grammar. It's kind of like a black fly in my chardonnay -- ironic, really.

Fun quiz, Rooster. There were a few I wasn't sure about, but I still got a GOD rating. I assume that rating means 100% correct? That was an easy one! Anybody remember that April Wine song? Star Trek fans should find #11 pretty easy.

If your friend has any interest in guitar, how about Jimmy Smith's The Sermon? I agree with Dave -- the melody is important. This one has some great melodies, and some great grooves as well.

"I'd rather have my rectum scraped with a rusty shovel...."

Temple of Freedom™. Very strange. But, it's hard to argue with How's this for bizarre: Jesus Was Gother Than You.

I'm not offended, but I think you should dump it. Think of it this way -- would you be comfortable having that image on your name tag at a board get-together?

I think so -- the way I understand it is that FICA and Medicare are taxes on *earned* income only. Since capital gains are considered unearned income, those taxes would not apply. Usually, employers handle all of the required deductions of those taxes (straight percentages up to $87,000 dollars), so most people would not have paid too much or too little over the year. Since I'm self-employed, I get to pay *twice*: 7.65% for me, and 7.65% for the "self-employment" tax. I'm sure the answer is there somewhere on irs.gov, but I'd be surprised if it was easy to find.

That's good to know. I thank you, and my worn out Visa card thanks you!

J. Hale Music Supply* * I'm not associated with this company, just a very happy customer. I bought an Ultrasound amp from him last year, and he has some really nice Heritage guitars in stock. That new Kenny Burrell Groove Master looks pretty sweet! Incidentally, J. Hale is also a jazz guitarist, and here's some pictures of him from a visit to the Heritage Factory B)

Yes, Heritage guitars are made in the former Gibson plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan: How It All Began... I've been extremely happy with my H-575.

That's next on my list!

Just picked up today: Incredible! Dang, I *love* this stuff! I already have Miles Smiles and E.S.P, so I kind of knew what to expect, but there are a lot of surprises on this one. I keep thinking I should have just bought the box set instead of slowing aquiring the individual CDs, but it is kind of fun picking up a new one every few weeks.

Mine also has a very small bubble at the outer edge. It looks like it is on the outside of clear part of the outer edge (not on the inside silver part).

My copy skips at 2:28. Most often, it "jumps" back a few seconds, but sometimes it will go all the way back to 1:24. Incidentally, I also had excessive "jitter" errors on that track when I tried to MP3 encode this disc for my portable player. On the MP3-encoded track, the problems also start at 2:28.

MD6-174 Tristano, Konitz and Marsh MD6-181 The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Fifties Sessions MS-002 Carmell Jones My moratorium began after I placed this order, almost a month ago*. Now I'm hearing a J.J. Johnson set quietly calling my name, all the way from Stamford. I'm just hoping that one doesn't show up on the running low list any time soon. *except for "All Music", and some new RVG's. those don't count, right???

Happy (belated) Birthday, Lazaro! Thanks for all that you do to keep jazz alive and well in West Michigan!

KISS, with special guests Cheap Trick. Cobo Hall, Detroit, 1976*. (*disclaimer: I was only 10 years old at the time)