GA Russell

Is that Fats Navarro between Dizzy and Shelly Manne in the Metronome "photo?" I can't read the card.

So in the next two years there will be two new leagues starting up - the Alliance of American Football and the XFL. The CFL's concern is the number of players and prospects it will lose to them. The AAF has decided to sign players to three-year deals for $250,000. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/12/players-in-alliance-of-american-football-league-to-be-paid-3-year-250k-contracts/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/players-already-opting-new-american-league-cfl/#comments ***** Week 6 results Sask 31....Hamilton 20 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2485/saskatchewan-roughriders-vs-hamilton-tiger-cats/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/nfl/saskatchewan-roughriders-hamilton-tiger-cats-1.4753981 ***** Ottawa 29....BC 25 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2486/bc-lions-vs-ottawa-redblacks/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/lions-ottawa-redblacks-1.4755914 ***** Winnipeg 38....Toronto 20 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2487/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-toronto-argonauts/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/winnipeg-blue-bombers-toronto-argonauts-cfl-1.4756551 ***** Calgary 25....Montreal 8 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2488/montreal-alouettes-vs-calgary-stampeders/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/montreal-alouettes-calgary-stampeders-cfl-1.4756554 ***** Standings https://www.cfl.ca/standings/ ***** Stats https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2018-CFL-Statistics-to-Week-6.pdf ***** Week 7 Power Rankings https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/24/nissan-titan-power-rankings-can-bridge-lead-riders/ http://3downnation.com/2018/07/24/3down-power-rankings-riders-rise-now-anyway/#comments http://lastwordonsports.com/2018/07/23/cfl-week-6-power-rankings-roughriders-rising/

ECM Mark Turner & Ethan Iverson Temporary Kings Mark Turner: tenor saxophone Ethan Iverson: piano Release date: September 7, 2018 ECM 2583 B0028859-02 UPC: 6025 673 6988 2 Mark Turner & Ethan Iverson on tour September 13 Baltimore, MD An Die Musik Live! September 15 Chicago, IL Constellation September 16-17 Minneapolis, MN Crooners September 18 New York, NY Jazz Standard September 20 Cambridge, MA Regattabar October 10 Denver, CO Dazzle October 11 Santa Cruz, CA Kuumbwa October 12 Los Angeles, CA bluewhale October 14 Portland, OR Old Church October 15 Seattle, WA Earshot Jazz Festival The initial musical connection between saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson was made in 1990s jam sessions in New York City. A decade after their first meeting, the saxophonist and pianist began an association in the Billy Hart Quartet, the two players featuring on two widely lauded ECM albums by that band. Now with Temporary Kings – their debut on record as a duo – Turner and Iverson explore aesthetic common ground that encompasses the cool-toned intricacies of the Lennie Tristano/Warne Marsh jazz school, as well as the heightened intimacy of modernist chamber music. Temporary Kings presents six originals by Iverson (such as the nostalgic solo tune “Yesterday’s Bouquet”) and two by Turner (including “Myron’s World,” which has acquired near-classic status among a generation of jazz players). There’s an off-kilter blues (“Unclaimed Freight”) and a strikingly melodic, almost Ravelian opening track dedicated to the Swiss town where the album was recorded (“Lugano”), plus an interpretation of Marsh’s playfully serpentine “Dixie’s Dilemma.” Undergirding their common history onstage and in the studio, Iverson and Turner share aesthetic enthusiasms, ranging from literary science fiction to a certain free-minded classicism in music. The sessions for Temporary Kings at the RSI Svizzera studio with Manfred Eicher were characteristically marked by deep listening and an appreciation for what Iverson calls “magical confluences” and “happy surprises,” such as the dovetailing melodic phrases in the improvisations of “Lugano.” About the atmosphere of the recording, Turner says: “The studio is essentially a small, intimate concert hall. We played in the same room and didn’t have to wear headphones. There was a peaceful, slightly austere atmosphere – ideal for the kind of music we were recording.” Iverson adds: “We were playing in a spacious, almost abstract way, not going for a hard-edged jazz sound at all. That said, there’s a blues on the album, my tune ‘Unclaimed Freight,’ and ‘Dixie’s Dilemma’ is a contrafact on ‘All the Things You Are.’ But that chamber-music vibe is there, too. The school of Tristano, Marsh and Lee Konitz has its connections to the world of modernist chamber music, and we think it’s important to underscore these connections.” Turner – whose tune “Lennie’s Groove” on the Billy Hart Quartet’s One Is the Other album was a nod to the influence of Tristano – adds: “The Warne Marsh aesthetic is part of both our worlds, and we wanted to include a jazz classic on the album, to underscore our connection to that aesthetic. I like ‘Dixie’s Dilemma’ for its dry-toned, laconic quality, a sound he shared with Tristano and Konitz. The appeal of the tune like that is based more on its content than drama, so the content has to be very strong, melodically, harmonically and rhythmically.” About their interaction as a duo, Iverson says: “Mark makes me listen harder, something I try to do all the time, but if you’re going mano-a-mano with Mark Turner, your ears have to be fine-tuned, very sharp. Mark is dedicated to truth and beauty on a level higher than most people. It’s not only what he plays – it’s what he represents, his integrity artistically and personally. That’s why, along with his great skills as an improviser, so many musicians hold him in such esteem.” For his part, Turner says: “Among the things I like about Ethan is that he makes a point of being personal, of playing things that are musically his own, particularly when it comes to the harmonic realm and voice-leading. Even if he plays the same chords as another piano player, they sound distinctive when he uses them.” Along with the deeply intricate “Myron’s World” – which Iverson calls “so challenging to play but also incredibly satisfying” – Turner also contributed the closing piece, “Seven Points,” a tone poem that has a mysterious, almost cinematic tension and a beautiful melody that at times seems to share the air, with opener “Lugano,” of early 20th-century Parisian modernism. Along with “Lugano,” Iverson’s originals on the album include the elliptical “Temporary Kings,” “Third Familiar” and “Turner’s Chamber of Unlikely Delights,” each piece having the feel of contemporary chamber music, albeit with an essentially free spirit – the two players following each other in spirals of improvisation off the written material. The purity of Turner’s tone is ideal in these pieces, with Iverson’s keyboard tracery to match. Then there is the pianist’s blues in G, “Unclaimed Freight.” Recalling the trick of capturing that distinctly jazzy piece, Turner says: “It can be hard to get the feeling of movement in the music when you’re in the studio, without the vibe of an audience. But with Ethan’s blues, I think we achieved it. You could almost hear a drummer – I felt a little wind at my back.” *** The Ohio-born, Los Angeles-raised Mark Turner is one of the most admired saxophonists of his generation, renowned for his exploratory intellect and intimate expressivity on the full range of the tenor horn. For ECM, the New York-based musician released his sixth album as a leader, Lathe of Heaven, in 2014. The quartet for Lathe of Heaven included trumpeter Avishai Cohen, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore, with The Guardian describing the band appreciatively as “sounding like Birth of the Cool floated over a 21st-century rhythmic concept.” That album followed two for the label in the cooperative trio Fly with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard (Sky & Country and Year of the Snake), along with appearances on key ECM recordings by Billy Hart (All Our Reasons and One Is the Other) and Enrico Rava (New York Days). About Turner, National Public Radio has said: “He has an innovative sonic signature, a certain floating chromaticism, rhythmic mindfulness and lightness of tone, filled with subtleties. Basically, his music has personality, which keeps the best musicians ringing his phone, and the aspiring ones listening hard.” A native of Wisconsin but based in New York City since 1991, Ethan Iverson was long known as one-third of genre-bounding trio The Bad Plus, which he founded in 2000 with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King. The group produced a dozen studio albums and two live albums together before Iverson left the band at the end of 2017. Beyond that body of work, Iverson has worked with artists from Lee Konitz, Albert “Tootie” Heath and Ron Carter to Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Tim Berne, along with serving as music director for the Mark Morris Dance Group. A member of the Billy Hart Quartet since 2003, Iverson has recorded three albums with the group, including the most recent two for ECM. The pianist teaches at the New England Conservatory, and he has established Do the Math as one of the foremost blogs in jazz over the past decade. Time Out New York selected Iverson as one of 25 essential New York jazz icons, describing him as “perhaps NYC's most thoughtful and passionate student of jazz tradition – the most admirable sort of artist-scholar.” ECM Marcin Wasilewski Trio Live Marcin Wasilewski: piano Slawomir Kurkiewicz: double bass Michal Miskiewicz: drums Release date: September 14, 2018 ECM 2592 UPC: 6025 673 8486 1 LP UPC: 6025 673 9916 2 “Wasilewski’s music celebrates a vast dynamic range, from the most deftly struck pianistic delicacies to gloriously intense emotional exuberance, the chords pounded with unrestrained joy, yet always within a marvellously melodic concept.” Jazz Journal Followers of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio have long clamored for a live album. The Polish group made this one “by accident”, unaware that their August 2016 performance at Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp had been recorded by Flemish radio. On listening, they felt that it captured the soul of things rather well, “maybe because there was no awareness of playing to the microphone.” Unselfconsciously dynamic and outgoing, the trio draws an enthusiastic response from the audience. “Being out in front of an audience of 4,000 doesn’t change your playing or your skills,” Marcin Wasilewski reflects, “but with a crowd of this size you do have to project more energy, somehow. You can hear that in this recording.” Bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz adds, “I think this album nicely captures what we have developed over the years in the live playing, and the way that the music can change in concert. It’s an important document for us.” For the Wasilewski Trio, studio and live recording are complementary experiences. “Studio work takes place in quite a hermetic atmosphere,” says Marcin. “The studio is where we try to get compact, condensed versions of the pieces. And live work has to do with opening them up, adjusting the flow and communicating with an audience. We like both aspects.” Repertoire on Live is drawn largely from the program developed for Spark of Life, the group’s 2013 collaboration with saxophonist Joakim Milder, now presented in extended and cranked-up versions for piano trio. Spark of Life’s title track flows seamlessly into “Sudovian Dance” at the start of the album. Other Wasilewski originals here are “Three Reflections”, “Austin” (a tribute to the late Austin Peralta, with particularly graceful solos, in this version, by Slawomir and Marcin) and “Night Train To You” (first heard on 2011’s Faithful) which works up a tremendous head of steam. “Actual Proof” translates the energy and percolating rhythms of this Herbie Hancock piece (written for the movie The Spook Who Sat By The Door and further developed on 1974’s Thrust) into the acoustic context in a powerhouse performance by Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz. The trio members count Hancock amongst their formative influences. “Message In A Bottle” belongs to the trio’s adaptations of pop material – “we like to transcribe rock and pop in our language” – and they’ve previously recorded pieces by Björk and Prince. “Message” was also on Spark of Life, but their involvement with the old Police hit goes back much further, to teenage jamming at music high school in Koszalin, circa 1990. When they first broached it, Marcin recalls, Slawomir was playing guitar: “For us it has an emotional connection to that very early period.” “This was before my time,” laughs drummer Michal Miskiewicz, who joined the trio in 1993, completing what has become one of the most stable line-ups in modern jazz. Listening to Live it is impossible to miss the deep musical empathy of the players, the quality that The Guardian called “their ability to pick up and amplify each other’s thoughts” – it’s the kind of improvisational communication that can only be developed over time. Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz first recorded for ECM as members of Tomasz Stanko’s quartet on the album Soul of Things (2001), soon followed by Suspended Night (2003) and Lontano (2005). Previous ECM albums in trio format are Trio (2004), January (2007) and Faithful (2011), with Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder joining the musicians for Spark of Life (2013). All three trio members appear on Forever Young (2013) with Jacob Young and Trygve Seim, and Wasilewski and Kurkiewicz also play on Manu Katche’s Neighbourhood (2004) and Playground (2007). The Wasilewski Trio is touring widely this autumn, with concerts in Poland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Croatia and Luxembourg. For details of dates visit www.ecmrecords.com ECM Barre Phillips End to End Barre Phillips: double bass Release date: September 14, 2018 ECM 2575 UPC: 6025 675 1712 2 End to End is a solo bass album by one of the great pioneers of the idiom. Over the last fifty years Barre Phillips, California-born but long a resident of France, has periodically issued solo recordings, considering them the musical equivalent of diary entries (the first one, in 1968, was called Journal violone), updates on his ever-evolving relationship to his chosen instrument. This one, he says, will be the last of his albums in this format, so it is of special interest to those who have followed the story so far and, indeed, to anyone wishing to hear a masterful improviser at work, refocussing lessons learned in the course of a long, creative life. “It’s the end of a cycle,” says Barre, now 83, of the present recording. “Not a summing up, but the last pages of a journal that began fifty years ago.” Recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France, End to End juxtaposes partly-composed and freely improvised pieces. “I had five areas of ‘prepared material’, five ’songs’ I wanted to explore,” says Barre. “And the rest was approached as I approach solo performance in a concert.” Producer Manfred Eicher sequenced the pieces into three groups or movements which Barre subsequently named “Quest”, “Inner Door”, and “Outer Window”, titles with a biographical significance: “The journey [with the bass] did become a kind of quest of self-discovery, like in the zen sense, or any other philosophical tradition sense, of finding out who you are. In the process I was looking inward for a long, long time. It wasn’t until I was about 55 or 60 that I reached the point where I was looking outward in the playing.” Whether playing pizzicato or arco in the pieces here, Phillips impresses with his decisiveness: every note, every sound and texture in this music, feels carefully considered and has a cumulative emotional power. Over the years ECM has documented Barre in many musical contexts, including collaborations with John Surman, Terje Rypdal, Alfred Harth, Paul Bley, Evan Parker, Joe and Mat Maneri, Robin Williamson and more. But his first appearance on the label was the landmark recordingMusic from Two Basses with Dave Holland in 1971. In 1983 there was the acclaimed solo recording Call Me When You Get There, including music for Robert Frank’s films. For a sense of how broad the solo bass and bass ensemble genre has since become, visithttp://solodoublebass.blogspot.com. Before Barre’s Journal Violone there were no albums of solo bass improvising; now, they number in the hundreds. So End to End is also a timely reminder of how influential this endeavor has been, at an underground level. The role of the bass and its emancipation as solo instrument has been a recurring theme at ECM through the decades with examples ranging from Dave Holland’s Emerald Tears, Gary Peacock’s December Poems and Miroslav Vitous’s Emergence to Eberhard Weber’s Résuméand Björn Meyer’s Provenance. More bass music is coming in the months ahead with compositions by Stefano Scodanibbio played by Daniele Roccato and the Ludus Gravis Ensemble. In early 2019, ECM will issue The Gleaners, a solo bass album by Larry Grenadier. Scenes from the recording of End to End form part of the newly completed documentary about Barre Phillips, The Workman, by Sam Harfouche. It’s the second film to be made about the bassist’s life, following on from Accompanied Barre: A Portrait of Barre Phillips, by Ariel Pintor (2002).

Early word has it that the Argos have traded Shawn Lemon to the Lions. http://138.197.137.206/2018/07/24/argos-trade-dl-shawn-lemon-lions/#comments

ECM Marcin Wasilewski Trio - Live release date: September 14, 2018 Marcin Wasilewski: piano; Slawomir Kurkiewicz: double bass; Michal Miskiewicz: drums For years, fans of Poland's Marcin Wasilewski Trio have been asking for a live album and now, here it is. Recorded at the Jazz Middelheim Festival in Antwerp, Belgium, in August 2016, it captures the trio in energetic, extroverted mode, fanning the flames of their Spark of Life repertoire and drawing on the deep understanding Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz have established in the course of a quarter century of shared musical endeavor. As UK magazine Jazz Journal has noted, "Wasilewski's music celebrates a vast dynamic range, from the most deftly struck pianistic delicacies to gloriously intense emotional exuberance, the chords pounded with unrestrained joy, yet always within a marvelously melodic concept." ECM Barre Phillips - End To End release: September 14, 2018 Barre Phillips: double bass Barre Phillips was the first musician to record an album of solo double bass, back in 1968, and he has always been an absolute master of the solo idiom. In March 2017, Barre recorded what he says will be his last solo album, the final chapter of his "Journal Violone": it is a beautiful and moving musical statement. All the qualities we associate with Barre's playing are here in abundance - questing adventurousness, melodic invention, textural richness, developmental logic, and deep soulfulness. End to End was recorded at Studios-La-Buissonne in the south of France, and produced by Manfred Eicher. The album will be issued in both CD and LP formats.

The Alouettes made two trades last night and today. The Ticats traded Johnny Manziel, Landon Rice and Tony Washington to the Als for Jamaal Westerman, Chris Williams and first round picks of both 2020 and 2021. https://www.bing.com/search?q=Johnny+Manziel+Montreal&filters=tnTID%3a"BEF72452-D652-4c2a-8A6F-545553C7837F"+tnVersion%3a"2572743"+segment%3a"popularnow.carousel"+tnCol%3a"5"+tnOrder%3a"aaeaf169-592e-4acb-ae4a-0c564fe95ce8"&FORM=BSPN01&crslsl=0 http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/johnny-manziel-montreal-alouettes-trade-1.4757345 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-alouettes-welcome-new-quarterback-johnny-manziel-1.4758401 http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/ticats-and-alouettes-discussing-potential-johnny-manziel-trade/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/johnny-manziel-trade-alouettes-done-deal-report/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/jamaal-westerman-one-players-involved-manziel-trade/ http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/johnny-manziel-involved-five-player-swap-alouettes-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/analysis-johnny-manziel-trade-means-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/qa-ticats-gm-eric-tillman-johnny-manziel-deal/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/22/alouettes-worked-johnny-manziel-last-september/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/3downnation-podcast-breaking-johnny-manziel-trade/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/johnny-manziel-trade-means-alouettes/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/alouettes-gm-kavis-reed-feels-worries-about-manziel-around-montreal-nightlife-overblown/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/ticats-head-coach-jones-still-thinks-manziel-could-be-the-best-player-to-ever-play-in-the-cfl/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/podskee-wee-wee-episode-116/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/22/report-ticats-als-close-manziel-deal/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/22/oleary-trade-opens-immediate-playing-time-manziel/ https://www.cfl.ca/gallery/2018/07/23/lens-first-look-johnny-manziel-montreal/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/23/sherman-manziel-work-will-work/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/23/manziel-eager-build-camaraderie-new-team/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/06/04/steinbergs-mmqb-johnny/ ***** The Bombers traded Adarius Bowman to the Als for a late 2019 pick. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/adarius-bowman-trade-winnipeg-montreal-1.4758402 http://3downnation.com/2018/07/23/bombers-trade-receiver-adarius-bowman-to-alouettes/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/23/montreal-acquires-adarius-bowman-trade-bombers/ ***** Last month Drew Tate retired to join the coaching staff of Coastal Carolina, which is near Myrtle Beach. https://www.cfl.ca/2018/06/01/former-stamps-redblacks-qb-drew-tate-retires/ http://3downnation.com/2018/06/01/former-cfl-qb-drew-tate-accepts-ncaa-coaching-job/#comments

“challenging, accessible and hypnotic…” - Bobby Reed, DownBeat (Editor’s Pick) LISTEN / BUY “...quietly riveting.” – Michael Agovino, The Village Voice LISTEN / BUY “an exceptional addition to Surman’s discography” – Brian Zimmerman, Downbeat LISTEN / BUY “an album of subtle power and lingering splendor.” – Jim Fusilli, Wall Street Journal LISTEN / BUY “it's an atmosphere to soak in at leisure….” – Geno Thackara, All About Jazz LISTEN / BUY “…another poetic work comprising ravishing originals and world-class interpretations of compositions” – Filipe Freitas, Jazz Trail LISTEN / BUY “meaningful tunes (played) with honesty, subtlety and emotion” – Mark Maxwell, Downbeat LISTEN / BUY “not to be missed.” – John Kelman, All About Jazz LISTEN / BUY “further chapters of this group will be eagerly anticipated. Terrific stuff.” – CJ Shearn, Jazz Views LISTEN / BUY © 2018 ECM Records, a Division of Verve Group. | 1755 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, All rights reserved. You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. CJ Shearn makes ECM's press release!!!

The list of members is now so large, maybe it is the greater badge of honor not to be in it.

The Real Bossa Nova (3 CDs) - 4.99 GBP https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IMRFCL0/

More headlines: NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens is thinking about playing in the CFL. http://3downnation.com/2018/04/09/terrell-owens-spoke-with-alouettes-kavis-reed-about-a-cfl-comeback/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/19/eskimos-add-receiver-terrell-owens-neg-list/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/terrell-owens-triggers-10-day-clause-puts-eskimos-on-the-clock/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/17/3downpodcast-owens-way-bridge-man-riderville-gable-hit/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/17/terrell-owens-put-butts-seats-cfl-agent/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/18/far-cfl-concerned-t-o-might-stand-old/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/terrell-owens-believes-can-defy-odds/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/video-justin-dunk-on-tim-and-sid-talking-whats-popping-with-terrell-owens/#comments ***** Former NFL Pro Bowl returner Dexter McCluster has signed with the Argos. http://3downnation.com/2018/07/10/argos-work-out-former-pro-bowl-returner-dexter-mccluster/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/argos-officially-sign-former-nfl-former-pro-bowl-returner-dexter-mccluster/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/17/oleary-former-nfl-star-getting-acclimated-argos/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/17/argos-introduce-rb-dexter-mccluster/ ***** Andy Fantuz has retired. Remember Fantuz Flakes? http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/former-riders-and-ticats-canadian-receiver-andy-fantuz-expected-to-retire-report/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/podskee-wee-wee-episode-115/#comments http://www.3downnation.com/2018/07/19/andy-fantuz-one-best-canadian-receivers-ever-retires/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/video-andy-fantuz-discusses-winning-2007-grey-cup-riders/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/video-andy-fantuzs-full-retirement-presser/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/watching-ricky-ray-be-carted-off-convinced-andy-fantuz-to-retire/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/19/andy-fantuz-announces-retirement-12-seasons/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/19/tributes-pour-following-fantuz-retirement/ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/andy-fantuz-1.4753091 ***** Larry Robinson has died at 76. RIP. https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/cfl-stampeders-mourn-death-larry-robinson/ http://3downnation.com/2018/07/18/former-stampeders-star-larry-robinson-dies-76/#comments http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/larry-robinson-dead-76-calgary-stampeders-1.4752414

Now let's look at a few recent headlines. After an extraordinary amount of hemming and hawing, the Ticats cut Vernon Adams. The Als promptly scooped him up. http://3downnation.com/2016/11/10/vernon-adams-2016-contract-numbers/#comments http://3downnation.com/2017/08/31/podskee-wee-wee-episode-85/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/02/02/3downnations-justin-dunk-sn960-breaking-crazy-cfl-day/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/02/19/riders-ink-star-dl-charleston-hughes-extension/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/05/27/johnny-watch-injury-vernon-adams-means-reps-manziel/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/07/june-jones-says-ticats-qb-vernon-adams-will-traded-today/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/08/vernon-adams-trade/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/12/ticats-practice-update-vernon-adams-back/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/13/scuttled-trade-vernon-adams-back-ticats-receiver/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/21/ticats-release-qb-vernon-adams/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/26/alouettes-bring-qb-vernon-adams-to-montreal/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/26/qb-vernon-adams-jr-reunites-alouettes/#comments ***** Delvin Breaux has rejoined the Ticats. http://3downnation.com/2018/03/14/new-orleans-saints-dont-tender-former-ticats-db-delvin-breaux-making-him-a-free-agent/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/18/former-cfl-star-db-delvin-breaux-returning-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/18/ticats-make-delvin-breaux-highest-paid-db-cfl/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/18/breaux-show-back-heres-means-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/19/remarkable-perseverance-delvin-breaux-died-field/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/19/ticats-make-signing-of-db-delvin-breaux-official/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/20/milton-breaux-didnt-hesitate-to-come-back-to-ticats/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/20/ticats-coach-jones-says-breaux-looks-like-he-can-play-against-eskimos/#comments http://www.3downnation.com/2018/06/21/breaux-tolliver-line-ticats-versus-esks/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/19/ferguson-ticats-db-breaux-earning-respect-across-league/ ***** Sam Giguere has signed with the Eskimos. http://3downnation.com/2018/06/23/eskimos-signing-canadian-receiver-sam-giguere/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/06/26/eskimos-officially-sign-veteran-canadian-receiver-sam-giguere/#comments

The Alouettes will be wearing their old helmets throughout the season, changing every four weeks or so. If you look at the Plays of the Week videos, you can see that through Week 3 they wore their pre-1970 helmet, which I associate with Sandy Stephens. They are currently wearing their "french horn" helmet with which they won the Grey Cup in 1970. ***** Week 6 power rankings http://3downnation.com/2018/07/16/power-rankings-chaos-reigns-mushy-middle/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/17/nissan-titan-power-rankings-can-anyone-beat-stamps/ ***** Week 6 picks http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/week-six-picks-riders-big-underdogs/#comments http://3downnation.com/2018/07/19/slam-dunk-picks-ridin-the-green-riders/#comments https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-make-picks-week-6/ https://cflpowerrankings.wordpress.com/2018/07/18/cfl-week-6-picks/ https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/weekly-predictor-big-bounce-back-expected-harris-redblacks/ ***** Week 6 game notes https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/cfl-ca-game-notes-look-week-6-2/ ***** Week 6 checking down https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/18/checking-harris-says-theres-no-need-worry-redblacks-fans/

Week 5 results (only 3 games) Calgary 27....Ottawa 3 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2482/calgary-stampeders-vs-ottawa-redblacks/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/ottawa-redblacks-calgary-stampeders-july-12-1.4745148 ***** Edmonton 16....Toronto 15 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2483/toronto-argonauts-vs-edmonton-eskimos/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-eskimos-weather-toronto-argonauts-rally-avenge-1.4747056 ***** BC 20....Winnipeg 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2484/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-bc-lions/ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/lions-blue-bombers-recap-1.4747609 ***** Week 5 Plays of the Week https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/16/burnhams-last-minute-heroics-lead-off-week-5s-timber-mart-plays-of-the-week/

Week 4 results Sask 18....Hamilton 13 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2478/hamilton-tiger-cats-vs-saskatchewan-roughriders/ ***** Ottawa 28....Montreal 18 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2479/ottawa-redblacks-vs-montreal-alouettes/ ***** Toronto 20....Edmonton 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2480/edmonton-eskimos-vs-toronto-argonauts/ ***** Winnipeg 41....BC 19 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2481/bc-lions-vs-winnipeg-blue-bombers/ ***** Week 4 Plays of the Week https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/09/josh-stanfords-clutch-grab-features-in-wk-4s-timber-mart-plays-of-the-week/

I'm looking forward to the Gustavsen and the Turner/ Iverson as well!

Never fear, I have a plan to catch up! Week 3 results Calgary 24....Ottawa 14 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2474/ottawa-redblacks-vs-calgary-stampeders/ ***** Hamilton 31....Winnipeg 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2475/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-hamilton-tiger-cats/ ***** Edmonton 41....BC 22 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2476/bc-lions-vs-edmonton-eskimos/ **** Montreal 23....Sask 17 https://www.cfl.ca/games/2477/montreal-alouettes-vs-saskatchewan-roughriders/ ***** Week 3 Plays of the Week https://www.cfl.ca/2018/07/03/diontae-meets-ciante-in-the-wk-3-timber-mart-plays-of-the-week/

ECM Mark Turner / Ethan Iverson - Temporary Kings release date: September 7, 2018 Mark Turner: tenor saxophone; Ethan Iverson: piano Mark Turner and Ethan Iverson on tour: September 13 Baltimore, MD at An Die Musik Live! September 15 Chicago, IL at Constellation September 16-17 Minneapolis, MN at Crooners September 18 New York, NY at Jazz Standard September 20 Cambridge, MA at Regattabar October 10 Denver, CO at Dazzle October 11 Santa Cruz, CA at Kuumbwa October 12 Los Angeles, CA at bluewhale October 14 Portland, OR at Old Church October 15 Seattle, WA at Earshot Jazz Festival The initial musical connection between saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson was made in 1990s jam sessions in New York City, with both going on to individual success - Iverson in hit trio The Bad Plus and Turner as a solo leader and in such groups as the trio Fly (recording in both capacities for ECM). A decade after their first meeting, the saxophonist and pianist began an association in the Billy Hart Quartet, the two players featuring sympathetically on two widely lauded ECM albums by that band. Now with Temporary Kings - their debut on record as a duo - Turner and Iverson explore aesthetic common ground that encompasses the cool-toned intricacies of the Lennie Tristano/Warne Marsh jazz school, as well as the heightened intimacy of modernist chamber music. The album presents six originals by Iverson (such as the nostalgic solo tune "Yesterday's Bouquet) and two by Turner (including "Myron's World," which has acquired near-classic status among contemporary jazz players). There's an off-kilter blues ("Unclaimed Freight") and a strikingly melodic, almost Ravelian opening track dedicated to the Swiss town where the album was recorded ("Lugano"), plus an interpretation of Marsh's playfully serpentine "Dixie's Dilemma."

ECM Sungjae Son Near East Quartet Sungjae Son: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet Suwuk Chung: guitar Yulhee Kim: vocal, percussion Soojin Suh: drums. with Sori Choi: traditional Korean percussion on “Baram” Release date: August 31, 2018 ECM 2568 UPC: 6025 676 5877 1 The ECM debut of the Near East Quartet was recorded in Seoul in December 2016. The group, however, has been a force in Korean creative music since 2009, when leader-saxophonist-composer Sungjae Son formed the band with guitarist Suwuk Chung. Singer-percussionist Yulhee Kim and drummer Soojin Suh joined the group in 2015, helping the ensemble get closer to Son’s original vision of a natural music informed by improvisation and drawing upon gugak, the multi-facetted traditional music of Korea. Together the four musicians play a floating music of drifting texture and slowly-blossoming sound colours, expressed through distortion saturated guitar sounds, the delicate tracery of Son’s saxophone, and abstract playing from the drums. Yulhee Kims’s evocative voice conveys messages from pansori epics and folk song. Kim also contributes to the improvisatory flow as percussionist, and on one piece, “Baram”, the quartet is augmented by Sori Choi on traditional Korean percussion. Sungjae Son and Suwuk Chung met each other as Koreans abroad, in Boston, where both were studying. Sungjae was at the Berklee School and Suwuk at the New England Conservatory. “We didn’t really talk, then,” Sungjae recalls. “I was very much into bebop at the time, and Suwuk was more into fusion guitar and some Third Stream ideas [George Russell was among Suwuk’s teachers], and we didn’t find a common interest or background. It wasn’t until many years later when we were back in Korea that we ended up playing a gig together. After the concert I talked to him about wanting to make music with a completely fresh and different approach, and that was the start of the Near East Quartet.” Meanwhile, Soojin Suh was beginning to make waves as the most interesting young female drummer on the Seoul jazz scene. Sungjae: “She was a very promising musician, and already quite famous in Korea. Everybody wanted to play with her. And then she, too, left to study in the USA. When she returned she had really grown as a player, and I just fell in love with her sound. She is the one and only drummer in Korea for me.” For the way in which she implies a beat more often than she states it, Suwuk Chung compares Soojin Suh’s drumming to Paul Motian’s. In the Near East Quartet Suh faces special challenges when paraphrasing aspects of traditional Korean music, where percussion roles proceed along a different basis from the grid-like metrical organization of jazz’s time signatures. Soojin Suh talks about the necessity of reduction in this context: “What I try to do is think about what I’m not going to play. I think about what I must remove in this or that part of the music. I listen to the very slow Korean traditional music and the way they play or pound; the way the music breathes is very attractive to me.” She emphasizes that the aspect she wanted to approximate was the often unstated “deep sense of pulse in Korean traditional music.” Sound and space and silence are important factors in traditional Korean understanding of rhythm, Suwuk Chung agrees, “and forward motion has more to do with the length of a breath than with Western ideas of time keeping. This is one of the elements we are trying to resonate in our group.” This applies both to the traditional music the group has adapted and to Sungjae’s thoughtful compositions, which sometimes take inspiration from the charged emptiness of oriental painting. Before taking off as an improviser, Sungjae majored in composition, “studying everything from Gregorian chant to Schoenberg. I spent a lot of time with 12-tone music and serial music. But I also listened to Korean traditional music, and to jazz. My graduation recital was dedicated to Ornette Coleman.” After coming back from the States and his bebop period, Sungjae Son played for a couple of years with one of the masters of Korean percussion, Kim Duk Soo of the SamulNori ensemble, known to ECM listeners for Then Comes The White Tiger, the collaboration with US-Austrian group Red Sun with Linda Sharrock, Wolfgang Puschnig and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. “Kim Duk Soo was reviving the Red Sun idea. Two different elements put side by side – it didn’t feel right to me, or it wasn’t enough. In our group I want to keep the focus on what is natural for us.” He emphasizes the importance of shaping an unforced, organic-sounding music. Yulhee Kim was “singing and dancing, playing percussion and doing something like Korean shamanism” when Sungjae first encountered her in performance. “I was very interested in the shamanic ritual music at that time, and so I asked her to join the band.” Suwuk Chung: “When we rehearsed the new music that Sungjae came up with, we had to come out of our contexts - modern jazz and improvisation on our side, and Yulhee Kim out of Korean traditional music. We tried to find a common space. That was challenging. You don’t usually listen to female pansori voice with rock guitar sound, without pulse! It was hard to frame those elements in one context. Soojin helped to find the threads between them.” European audiences will get their first opportunity to hear the group’s aesthetic blend live in November, when the Near East Quartet plays dates including the London Jazz Festival. The Near East Quartet’s ECM debut was recorded at Seoul’s Stradeum studio, then mixed at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France by Nicolas Baillard, Manfred Eicher and album producer Sun Chung.

I'm not familiar with the Edifier brand. Hope they're good! ***** Amazon Music Unlimited - first four months for 99 cents. https://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/promotions/AmazonMusicUnlimited/

$100 Edifier bookshelf speakers for $70. https://www.amazon.com/Edifier-R1280T-Powered-Bookshelf-Speakers/dp/B016P9HJIA/

Not much. Yesterday I received a $5 discount for buying $20 worth of print books. I have read: If you buy a $25 gift card, they will give you a $5 credit for a future purchase. If you buy an eBook, they will give you a credit for a future eBook purchase equal to 30% of the price of the first eBook. I have not seen anything regarding cd's or dvd's.

Any suggestions for any other votes besides HOF?

ECM Tord Gustavsen Trio The Other Side Tord Gustavsen: piano, electronics Sigurd Hole: double-bass Jarle Vespestad: drums Release date: August 31, 2018 ECM 2608 CD UPC: 6025 675 1618 7 LP UPC: 6025 675 8251 9 Tord Gustavsen Trio on tour: September 25 New York, NY Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola September 27 Santa Cruz, CA Kuumbwa September 28 Stanford, CA Bing Concert Hall Studio (Stanford Univ) September 29 Vancouver BlueShore Financial Centre September 30 Portland, OR Classic Pianos October 2 Minneapolis, MN Mindekirken Norwegian Lutheran Church Pianist Tord Gustavsen began his ECM tenure with three trio albums, released from 2003 to 2007, that enjoyed a remarkable confluence of popular and critical success. JazzTimes described this trilogy as having the potency of “distilled magic,” while the Guardian stated “Gustavsen’s tunes are hypnotically strong, and the integration of bass and drums in his regular trio is total”. In four further recordings for ECM over the past decade, Gustavsen explored the quartet format, as well as worked with an expanded ensemble and vocals. Now, for his return to trio with the album The Other Side, the Norwegian pianist has convened a new working group, which includes ever-faithful drummer Jarle Vespestad – a kindred spirit who has drummed on all of Gustavsen’s albums. There is a new bassist, Sigurd Hole, whose eclectic approach to his instrument – drawing on influences from folk music as well as modern jazz – makes him ideally suited to the pianist’s gradually developing, melodic pieces. The Other Side incorporates Gustavsen’s love for the church music of his village youth and the ancient folk melodies of Norway that have become a passion in more recent years. This mix of compositions and arrangements of chorales ranges from grave beauty to flowing dynamism, marked throughout by the trio’s seemingly telepathic chemistry. Along with being 11 years since Gustavsen’s previous trio album, it has been seven years since the tragic early passing of the group’s original bassist, Harald Johnsen. “I didn’t want to just continue the trio with another bassist,” Gustavsen explains. “Then the quartet I had with Jarle, saxophonist Tore Brunborg and bassist Mats Eilertsen felt so strong that it demanded its own cycles of recording and touring. After that, we did like to explore new songs with electronics and vocals. But following all this, it seemed like the time to bring the piano back as the lead voice. This new version of the trio feels in line with the initial group, even as it exists on another wavelength – it would have to, as it somehow includes all that came in between those first records and now. And, the trio represents Tord’s passion for paradoxically uniting clarity and freedom. The title of The Other Side reflects multiple ideas, it also refers to the trio as being another side of Gustavsen’s music-making from the quartet and vocal explorations of recent years, not to mention his frequent side ventures with choirs, fiddle players and even Iranian musicians. “Then there is also this idea in the title of the way the trio plays as being the other side of virtuosity, a kind of paradoxical virtuosity where you don’t play all the notes you can but merely the notes that are really needed,” he says. “It’s about subordinating your ego to the flow of the music – and that takes a kind of ‘radical listening’ – listen more than you play. That’s a passion the three of us share.” Gustavsen arranged several chorales by Bach for the album, as well as one by 19th-century Danish composer, organist and folklorist Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. Bach’s “Schlafes Bruder” has deep groove led by Vespestad, while Lindeman’s “Kirken, den er et gammelt hus” has a feel that’s alternatively ruminative and rhapsodic, with an electronically shaded intro. “We’re interpreting the church music that I grew up with in an abstract way,” the pianist explains. Gustavsen composed the grooving “Re-Melt” and haunting “Leftover Lullaby No. 4” as divergent responses to the chorale arrangements. He originally wrote the gospel-tinged “Tunnel” and melodic highlight “Taste and See” for a literary festival in the mountains of northwest Norway, where the pieces were played in conjunction with readings; they evolved further as vehicles for the trio. The stately, blue-hued title track and ravishing “Curves” are original pieces that Gustavsen composed at soundchecks on quartet tours, inspired by how the other group members were responding musically to his ideas; the seeds of the quietly atmospheric “Duality” were also sown in that way, but the track ended up as a mostly free improvisation in the studio. Always subtle and lyrical, Gustavsen’s pianism has evolved in recent years to incorporate more modal playing, moving beyond chord changes; through his quartet work and his early experiences as a solo performer, his blending of composition and improvisation has also become freer, more seamless. Both of his trio mates have sensual sounds that complement his own. Sigurd Hole has a lyrical bent on bass, although his arco playing can be expressively percussive. “Sigurd also has a natural way of injecting modal Norwegian folk melodies into the music that makes the group’s connection to these roots stronger,” Gustavsen points out. “The old Norwegian lullabies and dance forms find their way in now almost without us thinking about it.” Gustavsen and Vespestad, musical soul mates, have played hundreds of concerts together. “Early on, in our playing of ballads, we discovered this sense of micro-timing, and loaded minimalism – the feeling that the less we play, the stronger it gets – and this sense has evolved ever since. Now, we are also stretching out and using more dynamics, but this fundamental experience of ‘essence’ and reduction is always our point of departure. Jarle can groove in such an understated way and play so quietly that all the timbres of the piano can be heard. That said, he has such technical ability. It’s fascinating that beyond his groups with me, he often plays complex music with fierce tempos and a lot of volume and noise. A funny thing is that he’s so attuned to the lyricism in the trio’s music that I can often hear him humming the melody as he plays. That’s rare for a drummer and something that, as a composer, I find touching.” “I like to analyse and break things down in music, of course, but first and foremost, it’s about touching people in the way that I like to be touched in music,” Gustavsen concludes. “That’s the most meaningful part of all this for me, being moved and moving others.” ECM Trygve Seim Helsinki Songs Trygve Seim: tenor and soprano saxophones Kristjan Randalu: piano Mats Eilertsen: double-bass Markku Ounaskari: drums Release date: August 31, 2018 Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim’s eighth ECM album as a leader or co-leader, Helsinki Songs, reaches out to the listener, tugging the ear with its overt lyricism, ethereal atmosphere and air of sustained melodic invention, often with hints of the East. Seim wrote most of Helsinki Songs on sojourns in the Finnish capital, in an apartment with “a composer’s aura.” Back in Oslo, he brought the compositions to life at Rainbow Studio with his simpatico quartet featuring Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu, Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari. Themes of dedication and tribute run throughout the new album, including pieces referencing Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Webb, as well as tunes dedicated to Seim’s children and bandmates. It was with his ECM leader debut, Different Rivers, that Seim made an immediate impact on the jazz scene, with the disc winning the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik as Album of the Year in 2001. Since then, the saxophonist has been heard on more than 20 ECM releases, including Sangam with his large ensemble, on multiple albums with the collective The Source, in duos with accordionist Frode Halti and with pianist Andreas Utnem, and on recordings led by Manu Katché and Jacob Young. Recently, Seim has been heard as part of Eilertsen’s septet (Rubicon), with Iro Haarla and symphony orchestra (Ante Lucem) and with singer Sinikka Langeland and Trio Mediaeval (The Magical Forest). As a leader, Seim’s previous ECM release was Rumi Songs, the 2016 album featuring his settings of words by the titular Persian poet, the group including Haltli, cellist Svante Henryson and mezzo-soprano Tora Augestad. The Guardian praised that record as “playful, guileless, accessible,” singling out Seim’s playing for being full of “tonal and melodic surprises.” A natural improviser, Seim ventured beyond early jazz playing to expand his palette via studies of Arabic music in Cairo; between 2005 and 2010, he collaborated often with Egyptian musician Fathy Salama. Seim has also explored Indian classical traditions, along with being inspired by Armenian duduk virtuoso Djivan Gasparyan – whose influence can be heard unmistakably in the emotive keening of “New Beginning” and “Sorrow March” on Helsinki Songs. In recent years, the saxophonist recognized certain kinships that these traditions – with their scales, modes and melodic arabesques – have with the folk music of his native Norway, even as he has returned to the format of the classic jazz quartet. “After the early ’90s, I was drawn to larger ensembles and small situations, like duos – perhaps unconsciously to avoid the jazz quartet, which has such a weight of history from Lester Young to John Coltrane and on and on,” Seim explains. “But now I’m surrounded in this quartet by players who enable me to really be myself.” “Kristjan Randalu has technical skills that are beyond belief for me – he can do anything you need to be done at the piano,” the composer says. “But most important is that he can really make the piano sing, which is a rare thing. His touch is so beautiful that when you hear him play a chord, there are more than just those four or five notes in it. There’s soul.” About Eilertsen and Ounaskari, Seim adds: “Mats is such a creative bass player, with a wonderful sound. And Markku was inspired by Edward Vesala and his free, dramatic playing, though he can also play very simply. Mats and Markku also have this great connection with each other, something you can feel.” The other dedications on Helsinki Songs include “Birthday Song,” which Seim wrote for Eilertsen. “For his 40th birthday, I got Mats a nice bottle of champagne and a Moleskine notebook for composing,” the saxophonist explains. “In that notebook, I wrote four melody notes and a chord – ‘here’s something to get you started,’ I said. Very early the next morning, after our celebrations, I came home a bit drunk and sat down at the piano, playing those four notes and the chord. I ended up ‘stealing’ them to write the rest of ‘Birthday Song’ before I went to sleep. The piece has some longing in it, like your 40th birthday can have.” Seim wrote the sweet-toned album opener “Sol’s Song” for his 7-year-old daughter and the Baroque-referencing “Ciaccona per Embrik” for his 9-year-old son, “although I actually wrote that tune when I first found out that I was going to be a father – when I felt emotions that were both fantastic and frightening, those feelings of a first-time parent.” The melancholy “Katya’s Dream” was inspired by Seim’s viewing of Coco and Igor, a film about Stravinsky’s early years in Paris and his supposed relationship with Coco Chanel. Katya is the famed composer’s long-suffering first wife, who sacrificed her artistic dreams for those of her husband. When Seim first wrote “Morning Song,” the pianist Andreas Utnem noted hints in its opening to Jimmy Webb’s ballad “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.” Seim didn’t know that song as a Webb composition, having assumed it was an original by singer Radka Toneff, whose cover was iconic in Norway. Subsequently delving into Webb’s music, Seim became a fan of the American hitmaker – and gave a new coda to “Morning Song” directly inspired by Webb. The album’s closing piece, “Yes, Please Both” manages to reference both a Winnie the Pooh phrase in the title and Ornette Coleman in the sound of the music (with the piano laying out in the introduction, à la Coleman’s classic recordings). Seim explains: “I’ve always been drawn to both free playing as inspired by people like Ornette and this other desire to play simpler, more melodic music.” Reflecting on his influences, Seim says: “When I was a young boy, my father got me a saxophone, but I was more interested in soccer. Then we went on a long car drive, and he played Jan Garbarek’s ECMalbum Eventyr. I was so touched by it, just by the sound of Garbarek’s saxophone, that I really became interested in the instrument. Even now, that impression never leaves me. It’s something about the special way he produces his tone, but also the fact that while most players are concerned with how many notes they can play, Garbarek is always telling a story on the saxophone. Ever since, I’ve always been drawn to musicians who tell a story through their instruments. And that’s what I hope to do.” ECM Sungjae Son - Near East Quartet release date: August 31, 2018 Sungjae Son: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Suwuk Chung: guitar; Yulhee Kim: vocal, percussion; Soojin Suh: drums with Sori Choi: traditional Korean percussion on "Baram" The Near East Quartet has been a force in Korean music since 2010, juxtaposing elements of contemporary jazz and traditional Korean music with pure sound exploration to create new forms. Saxophonist/clarinetist Sungjae Son and guitarist Suwuk Chung have been members from the outset and the group has been strengthened with the integration of pansori singer Yulhee Kim and highly creative drummer Soojin Suh. On their ECM debut the NEQ plays five compositions by Sungjae Son and three Korean traditionals. Near East Quartet was recorded in Seoul, and mixed at Studios La Buissonne by Nicolas Baillard, Manfred Eicher and album producer Sun Chung. “This is the chill-out as a state of grace, and it can go as deep as you like. Sublime,” wrote the Independent on Sunday of the Gustavsen’s Trio’s Being There, released in 2007. Over the last decade Tord has experimented with other ensemble forms and formats, but on The Other Side - recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in January 2018 – he returns decisively to the piano trio, with faithful drummer Jarle Vespestad, and excellent new bassist Sigurd Hole. Hole’s approach to his instrument, drawing on folk influences as well as modern jazz, is ideally suited to Gustavsen’s slowly-developing, deeply melodic pieces. PRE-ORDER CD With its overt lyricism, strong themes and a sense of perpetual melodic invention, Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim’s new album quickly identifies itself as a classic-in-the-making. Themes of dedication run through Seim’s Helsinki Songs, a set of tunes composed – for the most part – in the Finnish capital, and radiating tributes in many directions. Here are songs referencing Igor Stravinsky and Jimmy Webb, pieces dedicated to each of Seim’s gifted bandmates, and tunes that tip the hat, obliquely, to Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans. The quartet plays superbly throughout, with outstanding solos from leader Seim and pianist Kristjan Randalu. PRE-ORDER CD The Near East Quartet has been a force in Korean music since 2010, juxtaposing elements of contemporary jazz and traditional Korean music with pure sound exploration to create new forms. Saxophonist/clarinetist Sungjae Son and guitarist Suwuk Chung have been members from the outset and the group has been strengthened with the integration of pansori singer Yulhee Kim and highly creative drummer Soojin Suh. On their ECM debut the NEQ plays five compositions by Sungjae Son and three Korean traditionals. PRE-ORDER CD © *2018 ECM Records US, A Division of Verve Music Group. All rights reserved. NPR Music's Top 10 Classical Albums Of 2017 “You don't have to be a Scandinavian musicologist to fall in love with Last Leaf, the Danish String Quartet's new album of Nordic folk songs and dances. The fact that the atmospheric "Drømte mig en drøm" (I Dreamed a Dream) is over 700 years old and the rollicking "Stædelil" is based on a Faroese medieval ballad later reworked by Beethoven is not as important as the fluency and grace that infuses these blithesome performances. In the quartet's eloquent, but not overworked, arrangements, you can hear the shuffling feet of dancers and wheezy bagpipes. "Æ Rømeser," from the Danish island of Fanø, mesmerizes, as the whirl of a polka meets a wistful melody. The band stays busy playing Brahms and Haydn — and even contemporary composers like Thomas Adès and Hans Abrahamsen, featured on a superb album released last year. But when it comes to the simple idea of a classical string quartet performing folk tunes, the Danish musicians have exceeded all expectations.” – Tom Huizenga New York Times 25 Best Classical recordings of 2017 “It is wonderful to hear these superb players let their collective hair down in this collection of (mostly) Scandinavian folk tunes and original material composed in like fashion. This should warm the heart of every fan of fiddling, whether bluegrass, Celtic or Bachian. “ – James Oestreich VINYL / CD / DOWNLOAD / STREAM SUMMER CONCERTS August 7, 8 - Santa Fe NM St Francis Auditorium / Chamber Music Festival August 9 - Albuquerque NM Simms Auditorium / Chamber Music Festival August 10 - Skaneateles, NY First Presbyterian Church / Skaneateles Festival August 12 - Woodstock NY Maverick Concert Hall August 14 St John’s, Newfoundland The Old Church in Admiral’s Cove / Tuckamore Festival Repertoire will include works from and from their previous Adès/Norgaard/Abrahamsen recording. © *2018 ECM Records US, A Division of Verve Music Group. All rights reserved.

I remember that Shelly Berman was on Verve. Jonathan Winters? Mort Sahl? Anybody else? ***** Jazziz Magazine has named this cd one of July's Top Ten most exciting new jazz releases. https://www.jazziz.com/10-new-jazz-albums-you-need-to-know-about-july-2018/

"Getting Sentimental," Debut Recording by Chicago Jazz Vocalist Gayle Kolb, Set for 8/31 Release by JeruJazz Records Kolb to Showcase Album, Produced & Arranged by Bassist Dennis Carroll, At Her 8/31 Chicago Jazz Festival Appearance With Her CD Band: Guitarist Bobby Broom, Pianist Joey Skoch, Drummer George Fludas, Trombonist Tom Garling, & Carroll July 10, 2018 With the August 31 release of her debut recording Getting Sentimental, Chicago's Gayle Kolb makes a triumphant statement in song after a stretch of years away from music. Produced and arranged by acclaimed Chicago bassist Dennis Carrollfor JeruJazz Records, the album reveals Kolb's metamorphosis from a former nightclub headliner in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and her hometown of Chicago into a compelling jazz artist in full command of her material and her gift. Kolb will showcase the album on its release date during her Chicago Jazz Festival debut, performing with the same personnel heard on the recording: guitar great Bobby Broom, in whose trio Carroll has been a longtime member; Cleveland piano phenom Joey Skoch; ace trombonist Tom Garling of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra and Chicago Yestet; bassist Dennis Carroll: and the always-in-demand drummer George Fludas. With her low tones and coolly relaxed phrasing, Kolb never settles for easy emotion. "Gayle sells a song without having to do the big dramatic stuff," says Carroll. "She is a subtle conveyor of story [with] real authenticity." Among the tunes Carroll had Kolb cover was Ray Brown's rarely heard "Gravy Waltz," recorded by the Oscar Peterson Trio in the early '60s and with lyrics by talk show host and jazz pianist Steve Allen. "I had her go toe to toe, back and forth, with [Broom]," says Carroll. "It was real old school." Kolb turns in a thoughtful version of "Two for the Road" featuring a smoldering trombone solo, and a bright but pensive reading of Marcos Valle's "If You Went Away," performed in a medium-tempo arrangement featuring Skoch on electric piano. Another highlight is a beautifully restrained rendition of Jimmy Webb's masterpiece, "Wichita Lineman," recorded not long after the death of its beloved interpreter, Glen Campbell. Kolb had sung the song early in her career, when she mixed a lot of country and pop into her sets. Gayle Kolb was born and raised in the southwestern Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, where her father served as mayor for nearly three decades. She studied piano throughout her childhood, and later sang in the high school choir. Relocating to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, she met the keyboardist and vocalist Mel Norfleet, who became her mentor and urged her to go hear Lorez Alexandria. Attending a show by the Chicago-born Alexandria, Kolb experienced a kind of epiphany. "Lorez was unbelievable," she says. "She spoke the lyrics, pronounced them, and you believed every word. I realized that that was what I wanted to learn and accomplish with my music." Though Kolb did mostly commercial singing during engagements at the Hyatt and Bel-Air hotels, she discovered that when she inserted a jazz classic like "Midnight Sun" into her set, she drew the crowd in. (Kolb has been compared to such cool-school singers as Peggy Lee and June Christie, but says her primary influences were actually Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, and Joe Williams.) After moving back to Chicago in 1974, Kolb was contracted to work five nights a week in a suburban showroom, a gig that lasted four years and gave her the opportunity to take her show to Las Vegas. Back in the Windy City, she was asked to fill in for Lainie Kazan, the theater and TV star. Eventually Kolb became fed up with commercial singing and quit the music business to devote herself to her family. She also found satisfying work as an interior designer. But jazz beckoned in the early 2000s. Newly single, Kolb reached out to musician friends and sat in at jam sessions, getting her chops back and learning tunes again. Singing before audiences after all her time away proved "difficult and scary," she says. Having seen the highly regarded Carroll (pictured above with Kolb) in performances in Chicago and admired his work with singers, Kolb called him out of the blue for advice on reentering the music world -- or not. "I knew he would tell me the truth about my singing," she says. "He would tell me if I should go home. I was ready for that." During her afternoon "audition" at his house, Carroll had Kolb sing songs at extended lengths and also scat -- something she had done very little of. "I wanted to see how much jazz she had in her," Carroll says. She passed all tests with flying colors, and it didn't take him long to make a decision. "We can do a CD," he told her after seven minutes, by his estimation. And thus began Gayle Kolb's exciting new chapter as a jazz artist on record -- singing, swinging, truth-telling. Photogrpahy: Suzanne Plunkett Web Site: gaylekolb.com