GA Russell

Thanks, Pete! Yes, I did mean that my external hard drive is 650 gig.

I think of a stylist as someone who has a unique and consistent interpretation of the music. Am I wrong? For that reason, I would consider Lee Wiley to be a stylist. I have a cassette made up of three 10 inch Columbia albums she did that I like very much. But I haven't been looking to buy any more. A favorite stylist of mine is Mose Allison. Not blessed with a great voice, not a great singer, but IMO a great stylist. I love Frank's Capitol recordings of the 50s, and I enjoy hearing on Sirius his Columbia recordings of the 40s. But I don't care if I never hear his post-'64 Reprise recordings again. I think he aged a great deal very quickly, and not for the better, shortly after he founded Reprise. Tony Bennett, on the other hand, is the opposite for me. I can do without his early work - much too Italian ethnic for me. I don't mind his 60s work. But I love his 90s recordings. Somewhere along the line I got tired abruptly of both Nat Cole and Mark Murphy. Not a criticism. I just don't need to buy any more of them ever again. A very pleasant surprise for me at the 1991 New Orleans Jazzfest was Charles Brown. He was much better than I expected. It's time for me to get another of his. I'm sorry I didn't get the Mosaic. I got four Julie London albums for my birthday last month, so evidently I'm still enjoying her after all these years.

There is a small chance that I will be given for Christmas tomorrow enough to buy an inexpensive computer. My current computer is nine years old, and the repairman told me two years ago that it is not worth fixing. I have recently had problems. The screen once said that the Windows XP was corrupted, whatever that means. I use my computer to surf the web and for the Office Suite type applications. It seems like the internet sites become more developed over time, expecting you to have a new computer to handle what they offer. Are there brands to avoid? I think I've read that Dell computers are not as good as they used to be. I've also read that HP is not as solid a company as it used to be. True? How much memory should I get if I plan to keep it for five years? 4 gig? Is a single DVD read/write drive sufficient? I have a 650 meg Toshiba external hard drive that has never been opened to use as a backup. How large a hard drive would be appropriate? Any suggestions welcome! Please keep in mind that I don't expect more than four or five hundred dollars, if that much. My monitor is fine and doesn't need to be replaced. Thanks!

On Tuesday CBS television will broadcast a two-hour show of the Kennedy Center awards function which honored Sonny Rollins among others. This press release mentions the band with Christian McBride and Jim Hall, so I assume that there will be some music in the broadcast. I imagine that the smart thing would be to tape it and then skip through all the talk to get to the music. 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala To Be Broadcast on CBS Tuesday, Dec. 27, 9-11 PM Honoree Sonny Rollins Celebrated In Musical Segment Led by Christian McBride & Also Featuring Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Jack DeJohnette & Others In Award Presentation at Dec. 3 State Department Dinner, Rollins Was Toasted by Bill Clinton December 21, 2011 Sonny Rollins and his fellow 2011 Kennedy Center Honorees -- Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, and Meryl Streep -- were celebrated for their dazzling professional accomplishments and artistry on Sunday, Dec. 4 at the annual Honors Gala in Washington, DC. Seated with the President of the United States and Mrs. Obama, the Honorees were saluted in turn by an array of world-class and deeply personal performances. (Photo: John Filo) The Honors Gala will be broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, Dec. 27, at 9:00-11:00 pm (ET/PT). Rollins's segment was introduced by Bill Cosby. Musical director Christian McBride assembled an all-star band consisting of Rollins colleagues (and friends) Jim Hall, Benny Golson, Joe Lovano, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Heath, Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Billy Drummond, and Roy Hargrove, who performed in different configurations before coming together for the finale of "St. Thomas." "It's about jazz music," Rollins said of the award's significance for him. "There are many people much greater than I am that were never honored in their lifetime, before honors like this were given out. I accept the award, but I accept it for the music, not so much for my own accomplishment." The Kennedy Center Honors medallions were presented on Saturday, Dec. 3, the night before the Gala, at a State Department dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Each Honoree was toasted by a dignitary; Rollins's toast was delivered by former President Bill Clinton, who'd sat at Rollins's right during dinner that night. President Clinton's remarks appear below. Bill Clinton Toast to Sonny Rollins State Department Dinner, Kennedy Center Honors December 3, 2011 Bill Clinton & Sonny Rollins (photo: Terri Hinte) There are many people in this room who could do this better than me: Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Jim Hall. But it's appropriate because I'm just a fan. I discovered Sonny Rollins when I was about 15, 16 -- about 50 years ago. I loved jazz, and I fancied that someday I might be good enough to do it. And I bought my first Sonny Rollins LP. I listened and listened, I listened the grooves off of it. I subscribed to Down Beat magazine and I kept thinking: if I read every edition, sooner or later I will find one article that will explain to me what in the hell I just heard. It was unbelievable, and it still is. Decade after decade after decade, this man explores the far reaches of the possibilities of what has lovingly been called the devil's horn. His music can bend your mind, it can break your heart, and it can make you laugh out loud. Still today after all these years, if I wake up in kind of a bad humor, or I'm worried about something, if I put on Sonny Rollins's version of "Brown Skin Girl," I will laugh out loud. I have thought so much about his unique gifts. He has done things with improvisation that really no one has ever done. In complexity and creativity, he rivals Coltrane. On one of the three CDs I listened to to prepare my mind for this, the Road Shows 2 album [that] has a lot of the tracks from his 80th birthday concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York -- I was just aghast at how good he still is. There's a duet which is more of a duel with Ornette Coleman, who probably has the most extreme capacity to go beyond normal chord structures and tonal assumptions of any saxophone player. So Sonny just gets right out there with him. Then when he plays beautiful music-- Another one of the CDs I listened to today was called Old Flames. I played that one because it's a bunch of love songs that Sonny recorded in my first year as President. One of them, Duke Ellington's beautiful "Prelude to a Kiss," Jimmy Heath arranged and conducted. . . . It's so beautiful. And then I listened to The Freedom Suite, which he recorded almost 54 years ago, in February of 1958. A propos of what the former speaker said [referring to emcee Renee Fleming's earlier remark: "He'd take a song you'd known all your life and in soaring solos of improvisation strip away the familiar and reveal new universes of wonder"], there are also, at the end of The Freedom Suite, three different takes of "Till There Was You," and they're all different. This man is a marvel. He was born with a strong body and a brilliant mind and a passion for jazz. He knew when he made jazz his mistress he would never be bored, but he would never conquer. And he decided he would spend his life trying again, every single day. At 81, he told me tonight, he said "I still practice every day." Every day. I said, "I love that 80th birthday gig at the Beacon." He said, "I wasn't very good." Some musicians that are really good grace us because they keep playing. Sonny Rollins's great gift to all of us, whether you know a lick about jazz or not, is that he keeps growing. And he still does. A few weeks ago, physicists in Switzerland at the superconductor supercollider, the Hadron Supercollider, fired some subatomic particles called neutrinos through the mountains to a magnet in the Italian Alps, and it appeared that they arrived before they left. That is, it's the first known experiment in physics since Einstein propagated his theory of relativity where anything with matter and mass appeared to travel faster than the speed of light. People who know a lot more about this than I do are still trying to absorb what this means and whether the experiment is accurate. But if it is, it may mean not just that we don't know where we are and what time it is -- something I often feel when I'm in Washington -- it may mean that there is after all a whole fourth dimension to reality. Long before the scientists fired the neutrinos, Sonny Rollins believed there was another dimension to reality. In jazz music, his Mark VI Selmer tenor with his old Berg-Larsen mouthpiece is our superconducting supercollider. He has given us a gift, and reminded us that whatever hand we're given to play, we're supposed to play it to the very end and keep growing. Thank you, my friend. Kennedy Center Honors: Brief video interviews with Sonny Rollins, Christian McBride, Herbie Hancock Reports on the Gala from DownBeat and JazzTimes Sonny Rollins Web Site: www.sonnyrollins.com

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Birthday aloc!

The Riders have released Luca Congi. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=383173 ***** The Regina City Council has voted to kick in for a new Riders ballpark. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=383164 ***** The Argos have hired Jason Maas as their receivers coach. I find that odd considering that he was a quarterback, but maybe not. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=383162

"(Tonight) San Francisco became the first team in NFL history to hold an opponent without a rushing touchdown through each of the first 14 games." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/49ers-turn-the-lights-out-on-steelers/article2277338/

I don't know Tom Wetmore, but I thought that some of you in New York might be able to tell us about him. I received this in the mail today. I see that he has bookings Jan. 19 in Brooklyn and Feb. 4 in Manhattan. Jazz Pianist/Composer Tom Wetmore Debuts With "The Desired Effect" Due Jan. 17 from His Crosstown Records, CD Features Wetmore's Innovative Sextet & His Striking Original Compositions CD Release Shows Scheduled for Jan. 19 at the Tea Lounge, Brooklyn, & Feb. 4 at Somethin' Jazz Club, Manhattan December 19, 2011 The buoyant grooves and graceful melodies heard on the forthcoming CD The Desired Effect serve to introduce a fresh new voice in jazz -- Tom Wetmore, whose Crosstown Records will release the pianist/composer's exceptional debut, The Desired Effect, on January 17. The 29-year-old Massachusetts native has been active on the New York scene since 2005, leading his own traditional jazz trio as well as his eclectic sextet. He's also performed and/or recorded with Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, T.K. Blue, Bernard Purdie, and the fine contemporary players showcased on his new disc. Its nine tracks feature a uniquely voiced frontline of alto saxophone and two lead guitars, with Wetmore playing electric Rhodes piano throughout, utilizing time signatures that shift frequently within each composition. "It's really two lead guitars," he says of the frontline. "There's no rhythm guitar. When I compose I think of the guitars and sax as contrapuntal voices, and it really allows for some interesting explorations." The nucleus of Wetmore's sextet began forming during his graduate studies at William Paterson University, where he earned a master's degree in Jazz Performance in 2007. He's joined on The Desired Effect by alternating alto saxophonists Jaleel Shaw and Eric Neveloff, guitarists Brad Williams and Justin Sabaj, electric bassist Michael League, and drummer Garrett Brown. The CD title was inspired by a line from the song "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" from Parliament's Mothership Connection (1975): "The desired effect is what you get when you improve your interplanetary funksmanship." "It's my odd little way of saying that this music isn't about having a story, or meaning, or any type of grand idea," explains the pianist. "It's about the desired effect -- which stands in for all the different kinds of beauty people could find." Or as Wetmore writes in his liner notes: "This music is about being true -- or, at the very least, striving to be true. It is about beauty, about being touched. When you allow yourself to be touched, The Desired Effect is what you get." As a teenage piano student, Wetmore was introduced to the music of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, and within months had landed a regular gig playing jazz standards at a local cafe. He went on to study physics and government at Cornell University, but before completing his undergrad work he took a semester off to study in Boston with legendary pianist and composer Ran Blake. "I've never really encountered anybody who has worked out a way to truly transcend style like Ran," he says of studying with Blake. "I learned how to be true to improvising. Every note really comes from inside you, not from a pattern or a lick or from a solo you transcribed." Currently, Wetmore keeps a disciplined regimen of writing at least one new composition each day and posts the scores on tomstuneaday.com. In a "very natural next step for me," he intends to pursue doctoral studies in jazz performance in the near future. "I prize myself as an instinctual natural performer and composer," he says, "but I also believe in contributing to scholarship. I think that working toward a Ph.D. would create a solid balance between performance and scholarly pursuit, which would allow me to become a better jazz musician overall." Upcoming CD release shows for The Desired Effect include the Tea Lounge in Brooklyn, 1/19, and Somethin' Jazz in Manhattan, 2/4. Wetmore will be playing electric piano, with guitarists Brad Williams and Justin Sabaj; bassist Matt Turowski, and drummer Garrett Brown. Alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw is set to appear at the Tea Lounge show, Eric Neveloff at Somethin' Jazz. Photos: Midori Maejima Tom Wetmore Web Site: www.tomwetmore.com www.tomstuneaday.com

Sounds great, Paul! And apropos too. The Ottawa Rough Riders had a player who became an announcer named James "Duke" Ellingson! I heard him guest-analyze the Blue Bombers-Alouettes game this year.

Happy Birthday 2011 Z!

Happy Birthday David!

Allen, didn't they bleach da Vinci's Last Supper a few years ago?

LOL! FFA, that's my laugh for the week!

The Jockey underwear people have apparently signed an endorsement deal with Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. Here's the deal: If the Broncos win the Super Bowl, Jockey will give a $25 gift certificate to everyone who signs up before Feb. 5. http://promo3.cfapromo.com/jockey/

I regret that I forgot to tell you this a month ago, when there was still plenty of time to place your order for Christmas. Here's the situation: The first Grey Cup game was played in 1909. They have played the game every year since then except for three years during World War One. As a result, the 100th Grey Cup game will be played in 2012 in Toronto, and the league is making a very big deal of it. I don't blame them for emphasizing the hundredth Grey Cup, but it was my opinion in 2009 that they should have done something out of the ordinary to celebrate the Grey Cup's centennial. (I might add that this year's Indianapolis 500 was its centennial, and they made a big deal of that.) The league's website now has a few items left over from the 2009 Grey Cup including two $4.99 caps. I think that any Canadian league cap is a bargain at $4.99, so I think it is extra special when it is for the Grey Cup's centennial. http://www.cflshop.ca/store/G2950BLK!REEB/Grey+Cup+2009+Basic+Slouch+Cap http://www.cflshop.ca/store/G2952BLK!REEB/Grey+Cup+2009+Black+Basic+Flex+Cap http://www.cflshop.ca/istar.asp?a=29&icon1=7&sortby=&numperpage=12&pos=0

Here's an LA Times report on Etta James and the nature of her illness, chronic leukemia. http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-etta-james-chronic-leukemia-20111216,0,6511026.story

Thanks Bev!

I wonder what he thinks of atheism and Mother Teresa now.

The Riders today named Ticat defensive coordinator Corey Chamblin as their new head coach. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=382810

Happy Birthday 2011 Gheorghe!

Jim, were these recordings made when he was still with Cadence?

Is anyone familiar with a poster named JSngry? It's his birthday today. Happy Birthday 2011 Jim!

As expected, Wally named his defensive coordinator Mike Benevides the Lions' new head coach today. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=382652

Correct, it's David McCallum!