GA Russell

After 146 years, Ringling Bros. is closing The Greatest Show on Earth. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/01/15/ringling-bros-circus-plans-to-shut-down-greatest-show-on-earth-after-146-years.html

I remember one night they pulled a prank on her. (Garry Moore explained everything to the audience ahead of time.) A viewer had written in, saying that Betsy never correctly guessed the secret. So they brought a contestant out and started with her. Naturally, she failed to guess the secret. So when her time was up, instead of moving on to the next panelist, Moore said, "Well, I guess we'll never know what your secret is." And the contestant got up and left. Betsy was clueless as to what was going on and why the audience was laughing.

Some quarterback news this evening. The Riders traded Darian Durant to the Alouettes today. http://www.cfl.ca/2017/01/13/riders-deal-durants-rights-alouettes/ http://www.thesnap.ca/cfl-reacts-darian-durant-traded-mtl/ http://www.cfl.ca/2017/01/13/durant-this-is-a-very-emotional-time-for-me/ https://canadianfootballleague.exposure.co/durant-through-the-years http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/alouettes-acquire-rights-quarterback-darian-durant/ http://www.tsn.ca/durant-deal-adds-intrigue-to-the-cfl-qb-carousel-1.649515 http://www.tsn.ca/durant-deal-adds-intrigue-to-the-cfl-qb-carousel-1.649515 http://3downnation.com/2017/01/13/durant-trade-riders-wanted-stay/#comments http://3downnation.com/2017/01/13/alouettes-darian-durant-agree-on-contract-extension/#comments http://3downnation.com/2017/01/13/decision-deal-durant-chris-jones-ego/#comments ***** The Bombers released Kevin Glenn last Friday. http://3downnation.com/2017/01/06/bombers-release-qb-kevin-glenn/#comments http://www.cfl.ca/2017/01/06/bombers-release-veteran-qb-kevin-glenn/ ***** The Stampeders are shopping Drew Tate. http://3downnation.com/2017/01/13/stampeders-shopping-qb-drew-tate/#comments

Free Agency Day will be Feb. 14 this year. So over the next few days, let's catch up on what little news there has been. The only truly noteworthy occurrence was that Riders running back Joe McKnight was shot and killed in suburban New Orleans at 2:45 in the afternoon Thursday Dec. 1 in what police described as an apparent road rage incident. McKnight played his college ball at USC, and he was honored at the Rose Bowl Jan. 2. https://www.bing.com/search?pc=cosp&ptag=AD6C08C471A&form=CONBDF&conlogo=CT3210127&q=Joe%20McKnight http://3downnation.com/2016/12/01/riders-running-back-joe-mcknight-shot-dead/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/02/joe-mcknights-shooter-released-custody-without-charge/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/02/joe-mcknights-shooter-may-get-off-scot-free/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/02/sheriff-defends-release-shooter-joe-mcknight/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/02/mcknight-shooter-previous-arrest-road-rage/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/03/joe-mcknights-death-says-canada-cfl/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/03/nfl-star-reggie-bush-wear-cleats-honouring-joe-mcknight/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/06/shooter-joe-mcknight-case-charged-manslaughter/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/06/sheriff-angrily-defends-investigation-mcknight-shooter-arrested/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/08/funeral-arrangements-set-joe-mcknight/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/13/funeral-held-slain-riders-running-back-joe-mcknight/#comments http://3downnation.com/2016/12/14/mcknight-family-meets-prosecutor/#comments

T Theo Bleckmann voice | Shai Maestro piano | Ben Monder guitar Chris Tordini double-bass | John Hollenbeck drums Beyond being a vocalist of rare purity and daring, Theo Bleckmann is a sound painter who creates what JazzTimes has described aptly as “luminous webs” in music. The German-born New Yorker – after appearing on two ECM albums by Meredith Monk and another by Julia Hülsmann – makes his striking label debut as a leader with Elegy. This album showcases Bleckmann as a composer as much as a singer, with several instrumental pieces voiced by what he calls his “ambient” band of kindred-spirit guitarist Ben Monder, keyboardist Shai Maestro and the subtle rhythm team of Chris Tordini and John Hollenbeck. Highlights include Bleckmann’s sublime rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s “Comedy Tonight” (“tragedy tomorrow… comedy tonight”), as well as the mellifluous vocalise of “Elegy” and achingly poetic “To Be Shown to Monks at a Certain Temple.” IN CONCERT February 7 - New York, NY (Jazz Standard) February 9 - Santa Cruz, CA (Kuumbwa) February 10 - Arcata, CA (Redwood Jazz Alliance) February 11 & 12 Denver, CO (Dazzle) February 13 - Los Angeles, CA ( EDYE) March 25 – Knoxville, TN (Big Ears Festival) © 2017 ECM | ECM Records | Verve Music Group, 150 5th Ave | New York NY 10011 There is an excellent interview with Theo Bleckmann about Elegy here: https://youtu.be/nAtyLP6Gpng And there is a short video here with an excerpt from one of Theo’s songs: https://youtu.be/Wu3D06j212Q

Steve McQuarry's Mandala Nonet & Orchestra To Perform the Music of Gil Evans Saturday, March 4 At the SFJAZZ Center's Miner Auditorium McQuarry to Use Evans Scores From 1947 through 1973, Some Not Discovered Until Recently January 9, 2017 Oakland-based keyboardist-composer Steve McQuarry has long been in love with the unique music of Gil Evans, the late, largely-self-taught Toronto-born composer, arranger, and keyboardist best remembered for his numerous collaborations with Miles Davis. "The whole way he thought about orchestrating using instruments and also pushing those instruments in different ranges is really fascinating," McQuarry says of Evans. "I remember talking with Maria Schneider about this. She said he would write the trombone parts really high and things like that, which academically trained arrangers are told not to do, and how that changed a lot of textures and tone quality in the sound." For a program of a dozen Evans arrangements drawn from his early days with the Claude Thornhill big band through his later work with Davis, Kenny Burrell, and his own ensembles, McQuarry has expanded his 19-member Mandala Orchestra to 25 pieces to accommodate instruments Evans sometimes used to enrich his voicings, including French horn, English horn, oboe, bassoon, and cello, as well as downsized it to nine to play three pieces from Davis's legendary 1949-1950 "Birth of the Cool" sessions. McQuarry's Evans concert will take place on Saturday, March 4, at the SFJAZZ Center's Miner Auditorium, the scene of his highly successful tribute to Carla Bley in June of last year. No transcriptions from recordings will be performed. The musicians will instead play from original Evans scores -- some written in pencil by the composer himself -- supplied by composer Ryan Truesdell. An associate of Maria Schneider, Truesdell had gathered arrangements from Evans's family, musicians who had worked with him, and from the archives of bandleaders for whom he had worked, among other sources, and recorded 10 of them for his critically acclaimed 2012 CD Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans. The earliest Evans composition on the program is "The Troubadour," first recorded by the Thornhill orchestra in 1947. Another Evans composition in the set is "Dancing on a Great Big Rainbow," written for Thornhill in 1950 by not recorded until 2012 by Truesdell. The Mandala Orchestra will also perform "Blues for Pablo" and "The Maids of Cadiz" (both from Davis's 1957 album Miles Ahead) and "Greensleeves" (from the 1964 Kenny Burrell album Guitar Forms), as well as "St. Louis Blues," "La Nevada Blues," "Punjab," and "Eleven," all from various albums made by Evans's own bands. And the Nonet will play "Budo," "Israel," and "Boplicity" from Birth of the Cool. Although born in Canada, on May 13, 1912, Gil Evans resided in the United States from the time he was a boy. He became enamored of the music of Louis Armstrong and other early jazz greats while living in Berkeley in the mid-1920s and formed a nine-piece swing band in Stockton a few years later. He spent most of the 1940s as a staff arranger for the Thornhill band, whose distinctive style greatly influenced that of the Miles Davis Nonet that made the sessions that became known as Birth of the Cool. He recorded in subsequent years with various vocalists and instrumentalists and with bands of his own, but it is the four classic Columbia albums he made with Davis -- Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1959), Sketches of Spain (1960), and Quiet Nights (1963) -- that Evans's reputation most strongly sits in the minds of many. He died on March 20, 1988. Steve McQuarry, who was born in Denver on August 17, 1959, took his first arranging class at age 17 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, with Oakland-born composer-arranger Russell Garcia, renowned for his work Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Stan Kenton, and many others. McQuarry also studied at the University of Colorado at Denver, Berklee College of Music, UC San Diego, and Alexander University. An Oakland resident for the past decade, he has performed as a pianist at Yoshi's San Francisco with his own trio and with flutist Gerald Beckett's quartet and has broadcast with his chamber octet Resonance over KPFA in Berkeley and KKUP in Cupertino. He currently records for his own label, Mandala Records, with his piano jazz trio and the jazz ensembles Resonance, Steve McQuarry Organ Trio, Art-Jazz-Rock group, Echelon; Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz band, Tribu the electronica group Synsor; and the new age group Agharta. "I named my record label, the octet, and the orchestra Mandala after meeting the Dalai Lama and some Tibetan monks drawing mandalas on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley some years ago," he says. The Mandala Orchestra members are pianists Steve McQuarry and Laura Klein; trumpeters Justin Smith, John Worley, Niel Levonius, and Henry Hung; trombonists Keith Yee, Tim Phelan, Joshua Sankara, and Christian Manzana; French hornist Winston Macaraeg; tuba player Portia Njoku; flutist Gerald Beckett; saxophonists Ruben Salcido, Amelia Catalano, Corey Wright, Georgianna Krieger, and Hermann Lara; oboe and English horn player Glenda Bates; bassoonist Wendell Hanna; cellist Nancy Bien; guitarist Mason Razavi; double bassist Ted Burik; drummer Greg German: and tabla player Jim Santi Owens. Steve McQuarry Presents Gil Evans Tribute, March 4 Steve McQuarry Presents Mandala Nonet & Orchestra Performing the Music of Gil Evans Saturday, March 4, 8:00 p.m. SFJAZZ Center, Miner Auditorium 201 Franklin Street San Francisco Tickets: $25 RSVP to mcquarry.org Photography: Irene Young Web Site: mcquarry.org Follow: Like:

In general, I'm not interested in sportswriters' votes on anything. But I make an exception regarding the Gold Glove. I think that that is a VERY important award, and is not sufficiently appreciated. Two people are tied with winning the most Gold Gloves (I think 16): Brooks Robinson and Jim Kaat. Robinson is already in, of course. I think that that statistic alone is enough to make Kaat worthy of induction. The fact that he also won 280 games makes him one of the best pitchers in my lifetime IMO.

Happy Birthday 2017 7/4!

That's my understanding of it. They're talking about a Mendoza Line player.

Rather than sidetrack the thread about sibremetrics, I thought I would start a new one. Who do you think is in one of the Halls of Fame that you think shouldn't be? And who do you think has been unjustly passed over thus far?

I'm going to start a new thread about Cooperstown.

Milestones, who were the five players?

Duane, those are terrific prices! But about that Casablanca - What are they doing that they turn a 90-minute movie into 3 DVDs?

Happy 40th Birthday 2017 Cliff!

RIP. I liked him a lot.

Here is a list of links to the news articles about this. http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Keurig+InBev&qpvt=Keurig+InBev&FORM=EWRE

ECM. I think that it is Newbury's call because they are the vendor to the public.

It appears to me that this wasn't ECM's call. I think it was Newbury's.

My contact has replied to my query. She says that it has something to do with this law regarding the sale of autographed memorabilia: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1570

I've asked my contact what she thinks about this.

I am enjoying this one. As you say, with Cables and Victor Lewis on the record, how could we not enjoy it?

This is today's ECM press release. I thought it would be best to put it in this forum because of the offer of " free autograph with pre-order purchase." Also note the tour dates. John Abercrombie guitar / Marc Copland piano Drew Gress double-bass / Joey Baron drums Guitarist John Abercrombie – who has recorded as a leader for ECM since 1974 – returns with a second album by his quartet featuring kindred-spirit piano foil Marc Copland, along with longtime rhythm partners Drew Gress and Joey Baron. Extolling 39 Steps, the group’s 2013 album, the Financial Times said: “The emphasis is on subtle intrigue, flowing lyricism and the interplay between the leader’s warm, cleanly articulated guitar and Copland’s piano… with bassist Gress and drummer Baron equally supple and sinewy companions.” The same virtues of lyrical melody and harmonic/rhythmic subtlety are apparent with the new Up and Coming, though with even more emphasis on the enduring values of song. Abercrombie’s liquid phrasing and glowing tone – enabled by the thumb technique he has honed since eschewing a plectrum in recent years – animate his five originals and the pair by Copland, as well as a take on the exotic-sounding Miles Davis classic “Nardis” done in the spirit of Bill Evans. Up and Coming has a twilight atmosphere, with melodic flow the guiding light. IN CONCERT January 21 - Cambridge, MA @ Regattabar January 24-28 - New York, NY @ Birdland January 31 - Washington DC @ Blues Alley February 17-18 - Denver, CO @ DazzleJazz February 19 - Portland, OR @ Portland Jazz Festival February 22 - Saratoga, CA @ Café Pink House February 23 - San Francisco, CA @ SFJAZZ (ECM @SF Jazz II) © 2017 ECM | ECM Records | Verve Music Group, 150 5th Ave, 6th floor | New York NY 10011

Happy Birthday 2017 to our own ornette!

Just to give you an update, I've been using Vivaldi for the past couple of months, and I like it. I have not had any apparent virus problems.

ECM's new press release lists Michael Formanek's group. ECM & The NYC 2017 Winter Jazz Fest ©2017 ECM | ECM Records | Verve Music Group, 150 5th Ave, 6th floor | New York NY 10011