GA Russell

Here's someone we haven't done before.

I received this word today. Bay Area Jazz Vocalist Ed Reed Announces East Coast Dates In Support of His Third Album, "Born to Be Blue" Jazz Standard, NYC 1/17; Scullers, Boston 1/18; Cafe Eiko, Hartford 1/21 December 12, 2011 San Francisco Bay Area jazz vocalist Ed Reed and his quartet will be performing three dates on the East Coast next month in support of his third CD, Born to Be Blue. He'll appear at the Jazz Standard 1/17, his third visit to the New York club in the last four years; Scullers in Boston 1/18 for the first time since 2008; and Cafe Eiko in Hartford, CT 1/21. In New York and Boston, Reed will be working with tenor saxophonist Anton Schwartz, pianist Randy Porter, bassist Ugonna Okegwo, and drummer Akira Tana. (In Hartford, the pianist will be Gary Fisher, who's heard on Reed's first two albums, and the drummer Tido Holtkamp.) This is the band (with Okegwo replacing Robb Fisher) that appears on Reed's masterful new release, Born to Be Blue, which was released last June by his Blue Shorts label. The entire project was an outgrowth of Reed's hugely successful five-night run at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland in September 2009. Although he had performed with Porter, Fisher, and Tana previously, the Swiss engagement was the first on which they backed Reed as a unit. They jelled so well that they decided to make an album, adding saxophonist Schwartz for the Bay Area sessions produced by Reed and Bud Spangler last fall. Ed Reed, who'll turn 83 on February 2, has pursued a most unconventional path to his present-day career as a highly regarded jazz singer. It was not quite five years ago that he released his recording debut, Ed Reed Sings Love Stories, when he was 78. The following year came The Song Is You, along with expanded touring opportunities, a guest spot on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, and a Wall Street Journal profile by Nat Hentoff. Reed also placed in the "Male Vocals, Rising Star" category of the DownBeat Critics Poll in 2008, 2009, and 2011, and in the Male Vocalist category of this year's DownBeat Readers Poll. Reed's career may be late-blooming, but blooming it is. In June he was honored as a Bay Area Jazz Hero at the Jazzschool's satellite party for the Jazz Journalists Association Awards. Prior to leaving for his East Coast tour, he is launching a new Jazz at the Chimes series at Chapel of the Chimes, the Oakland landmark designed by Julia Morgan, with a 1/15 concert in the company of Anton Schwartz and Randy Porter. He is also in the early stages of planning a new recording of Nat "King" Cole material. "I'll be happy to be back on the East Coast celebrating my new CD, and honored to be on the bandstand with these world-class musicians," says Reed. "This record means a lot to me because it tells so much of my own story. I think everyone is born to be blue, or at least have the blues. And though most of us tend to hold onto our sadness, I think we need to shout about it and sing about it, so that we can let go of it." Press reaction to Born to Be Blue: "[Ed Reed] puts me in mind of Jimmy Rushing, Joe Lee Wilson, Abbey Lincoln--folks who sing (or sang) from the gut, from life experience, doing it with nobility and smarts, while feeling inside a lyric." --Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News "Certainly a singer who weighs lyrics carefully and treats them with very honest speech inflected respect. His choice of material seems to avoid the obvious, and he seems very comfortable in his aged vocal skin, as it were." --Alan Bargebuhr, Cadence "Mr. Reed has developed a jazz voice that is distinct--full of the pain, sorrow, love and beauty that go along with taking that long, hard trail through life. . . When Ed Reed sings, don't expect scat--instead look for an intimate story every time." --Frank Alkyer, DownBeat "He makes his mark with spectacular control and a grand sense of phrasing. Reed has a marvelous knack for knowing just how much room a lyric needs to breathe, timing his pace and pauses to build emotional impact." --David Becker, Bay Area Jazz Examiner "His deft handling of the likes of 'Some Other Time,' 'Inside a Silent Tear,' 'End of a Love Affair' and the title track do, indeed, suggest hard-earned wisdom, stylistically harkening back to the elegant tenderness of Johnny Hartman while also echoing the intuitiveness of fellow octogenarian Jon Hendricks." --Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes "[Born to Be Blue] possesses all the distilled emotion and narrative coherence of a jazz masterpiece." --Andrew Gilbert, Contra Costa (CA) Times "This is refined vocal jazz that only a lifetime can produce." --C. Michael Bailey, AllAboutJazz.com Ed Reed Web Site: www.edreedsings.com

Big trade today. Offhand, I would say that it's the biggest trade since the Als sent Sam Etcheverry and Hal Patterson to the Ticats fifty years ago. The Eskimos traded Ricky Ray to the Argos for Steven Jyles, backup kicker Grant Shaw and the Argos' first round draft pick (second overall). This is the second time Eric Tillman has traded for Jyles. He did it when he was with the Riders too. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=382540

aloc, these are the news clippings I referred to: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/jets-cruise-past-chiefs/article2267347/singlepage/#articlecontent I just quickly skimmed through it, and didn't count how many injuries were head injuries. But it seemed like a number.

Looking at the news capsules, it seems like there were a lot of quarterback head injuries today.

Thanks for remembering to start this thread, LWayne! My Top Ten for 2011 are (in rough chronological order): Kenny Werner - Balloons Art Pepper - Blues for the Fisherman Lee Konitz - Live at Birdland Randy Brecker - The Jazz Ballad Song Book Deep Blue Organ Trio - Wonderful! Chick Corea and Stefano Bollani - Orvieto Rahsaan Barber - Everyday Magic Michael Pedicin - Ballads...searching for peace James Carter - At the Crossroads Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Live

Jeff Garcia signed with the Houston Texans Thursday. At 41 he is now the NFL's third oldest player. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/houston-texans-sign-quarterback-jeff-garcia-after-losing-schaub-leinart.html

Today's song is the Robbie Hardkiss remix (whatever that is) of Duke Ellington's Jingle Bells.

Some, including Mike Ditka, wonder if the game wouldn't be safer if they did away with all the protective gear, and played like the rugby players do.

Happy Birthday 2011 Dmitry!

I once saw Maryann Price, her husband (or boy friend) John whatever, Symphony Sid Page and a fourth person appear on The Gong Show. Everyone behaved as if they were nobodies, without making any mention of the Hot Licks. They were, as you can imagine, by far the best act on the show.

I prefer Jack Benny's radio shows to the tv shows because the sound effects of the car and going to down the money vault are more funny than seeing the picture.

I suppose I should add the link. http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Christmas-Dan-Hicks-Licks/dp/B003ZMDWOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1323463751&sr=1-1

Dan Hicks released a Christmas album last year called Crazy for Christmas, and I picked it up this year. No surprises if you have already made up your mind about Dan Hicks. I like him a lot. It's great to hear Christmas given the Hicksville spin.

Since it was recorded in 1959, more than 50 years ago, I think it is all PD.

Happy Birthday 2011 Ghost!

LOL! That's the spirit!

Not meaning to start a fight, but I definitely disagree with your terms, Jim. A bootleg is not grey market - it's black market. I understand grey market to be legal elsewhere but not in the US, such as a PD.

Dave Naylor coaching carousel wrapup http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=382173

aloc, December Bride was a favorite of my dad's.

Harry Morgan of December Bride, Pete & Gladys, Dragnet and MASH fame has passed away at 96. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/12/07/mash-star-harry-morgan-dies-at-age-6/?test=faces

The perfect Christmas gift for the football fan in Wisconsin! http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2011/12/green-bay-packers-stock-aaron-rodgers.html

ECM has a new album now of the music of Offenbach. It doesn't sound like it would be jazz to me, but some here might be interested. ECM Gianluigi Trovesi/Gianni Coscia Frère Jacques: Round about Offenbach Gianluigi Trovesi: piccolo and alto clarinets Gianni Coscia: accordion U.S. Release: December 6, 2011 ECM CD: B0016268-02 UPC: 6025 278 1135 2 “Our two friends have their roots in jazz and one’s curiosity is aroused by the challenge they take up with the mode of the can-can before, without our noticing it (or maybe without noticing it themselves) slipping into swing and rhythm ‘n’ blues - certainly not in the search for Offenbach, maybe in search of themselves, or out of the conviction that basically the story of music goes its own way, through evocation and anticipation, as if they were convinced that every composer wrote to anticipate an infinity of music to come: theirs in particular, obviously.” So writes Umberto Eco in his third consecutive liner note for the duo of Gianluigi Trovesi and Gianni Coscia, following on from In Cerca di cibo and Round About Weil, discs which honored respectively Milanese composer Fiorenzo Carpi and Kurt Weil with affectionate, free and witty reinterpretations. They now travel, by the scenic route, Round about Offenbach. Their composed and improvised responses to Offenbach revolve around their arrangements of his works including selections from “La Belle Hélène”, “La Périchole”, “La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein”, and “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”. Offenbach, French composer of German origin (born in Cologne in 1819) wrote some of the 19th century’s most effervescent music, with a sly disregard for highbrow tastes, largely unconcerned whether his work was regarded as high art, certainly unafraid of frivolity. He gleefully parodied Wagner and other cultural icons in ingenious music that could be beautiful and highly satirical by turns, frequently playing with levels and degrees of “seriousness” and “sincerity”. But craftsmanship was a given: his pieces were always meticulously made, as even opponents were forced to allow. Debussy, through gritted teeth, called Offenbach “a gifted musician who hated music.” As a popular composer who remained an outsider, rarely fêted by the critics, he holds a particular appeal for Trovesi and Coscia, who have a long history of siding with cultural anti-heroes, in particular happily waving banners for exponents of art forms alleged to be “minor” - in this case, the operetta. For Gianluigi and Gianni, Offenbach’s a comrade, a soul brother, “Frère Jacques.” Release of Frere Jacques: Round about Offenbach follows on the heels of the DVD release of Sounds and Silence, the documentary about producer Manfred Eicher and the musicians of ECM which includes sequences with Gianluigi Trovesi and Gianni Coscia as well as footage of Gianluigi’s All'Opera project with the Filarmonica Mousiké Orchestra and also with his trio with Umberto Petrin and Fulvio Maras. The old friends from Nembro and Alessandria are enjoying a higher profile lately but it can’t be said that wider recognition is coming too early to them. Gianni Coscia celebrated his 80th birthday this year. On Frère Jacques his accordion is as spry as ever, always ready to challenge Trovesi, and to create, on the fly, shifting associative soundscapes that can cast the clarinet in new light, transforming settings from jazz club to cabaret to concert hall. Gianluigi Trovesi, a mere 67, is increasingly acknowledged as one of the great contemporary clarinet soloists in jazz and related music, and his melodic inventiveness is much in evidence on the present disc, virtuosity imbued with an almost nonchalant charm. A simple pleasure in music making shines through layers of irony in the compositions of Trovesi/Coscia and their dedicatee. As Ivan Hewitt, reviewing the duo in the Daily Telegraph wrote: “There’s an innocence about Trovesi which, despite the vast gulf of time and place reminds one of jazz’s innocent beginnings a century ago.” CD booklet includes liner notes by Umberto Eco in Italian, with English and German translations

aloc, it's common for the teams that don't make the playoffs to change coaches. This year, Wally Buono (who has won more games than any other coach in league history) has decided to retire on top, a week after he won the Grey Cup. In recent years it has been common for head coaches to leave to become an assistant coach at US universities, because the money is so much better in US college ball. Don Matthews (whose winning record Wally broke) used to have it in his contract that he could leave after winning the Grey Cup because that would be when he was in the most demand. He wound up coaching five teams!

The Riders have released Barrin Simpson, and signed Maurice Lloyd. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=382114