GA Russell

This album received four Grammy nominations today. Best Large Jazz Ensemble: "The Jazz Ballad Songbook" Best Instrumental Composition: "I Talk To The Trees" Best Improvised Jazz Solo: "All or Nothing at All" Best Instrumental Arrangement (Peter Jenson): "All or Nothing at All"

Now the Stamps have filed a complaint with the league about this, saying that the Argos did not seek permission to hire Jones while he is under contract through 2012. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=381659

The Ticats today fired Marcel Bellefeuille. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=381618 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/tiger-cats-fire-marcel-bellefeuille/article2255274/ http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/news/news.aspx?id=4454593 http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Hamilton/2011/11/30/19040676.html ***** The Bombers today fired offensive coordinator Jamie Barresi. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=381605 http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Winnipeg/2011/11/30/19037936.html ***** John Hufnagel says that his defensive coordinator Chris Jones is leaving for the Argos, but the Argos deny it. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=381608 http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Calgary/2011/11/30/19041471.html http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/hufnagel-blind-sided-by-co-ordinators-move-to-argos/article2255307/

I'm so sorry my posts don't meet your high expectations, David!

Amazon lists 2,163 Cyber Week deals for tv shows. Here are a few that I've found. http://www.amazon.co...rd_i=2921749011 Madmen: Season Four - $11.91 http://www.amazon.co...22606077&sr=1-5 Madmen: Season Three - $11.45 http://www.amazon.co...2606173&sr=1-16 Madmen: Season One - $12.27 http://www.amazon.co...2606230&sr=1-17 Madmen: Season Two - $11.50 http://www.amazon.co...2606230&sr=1-20 The Wire: The Complete Series - $90.98 http://www.amazon.co...2606454&sr=1-72 The Wire: The Complete Series - $87.69 http://www.amazon.co...606905&sr=1-151 The Sopranos: The Complete Series - $134.50 http://www.amazon.co...2606529&sr=1-82 Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered - $24.99 http://www.amazon.co...2606645&sr=1-97 Gilligan's Island: Complete Series Collection - $34.45 http://www.amazon.co...606789&sr=1-125 Scrubs: The Complete Collection - $95.95 http://www.amazon.co...606999&sr=1-155 Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection - $47.49 http://www.amazon.co...607108&sr=1-157 Upstairs, Downstairs: The Complete Series (40th Anniversary Collection) - $71.99 http://www.amazon.co...607165&sr=1-159 The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition) - $31.01 http://www.amazon.co...607165&sr=1-161 Kung Fu: The Complete Series Collection - $35.49 http://www.amazon.co...607391&sr=1-171 Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Complete Series - $49.49 http://www.amazon.co...607474&sr=1-189 Star Trek: The Original Series - Season One (Remastered Edition) - $40.49 http://www.amazon.co...607573&sr=1-194 Boston Legal: Seasons 1-5 - $67.49 http://www.amazon.co...607691&sr=1-211 Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada Television Series - $74.99 http://www.amazon.co...607800&sr=1-221

It was on this date in 1877 that Thomas Edison first demonstrated his phonograph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph

ECM released two new new by Jarrett and Rava earlier this month that I'm looking forward to hearing. Has anyone heard these yet? Here are the press releases they sent me. ECM Keith Jarrett Rio Keith Jarrett: piano U.S. Release date: November 8, 2011 ECM 2-CD set: B0016119-02 UPC: 6025 277 6645 4 Almost exactly forty years ago, Keith Jarrett’s association with ECM began with the recording of a solo piano album. Facing You (1971) was soon followed by the initiation of the solo concerts, evenings of piano improvisations, documented now on a range of influential live recordings which include Solo Concerts (Bremen-Lausanne), The Köln Concert, Sun Bear Concerts, Concerts (Bregenz-München), Dark Intervals, Paris Concert, Vienna Concert, La Scala, Radiance, The Carnegie Hall Concert and Testament, Paris-London. The span of music addressed on these albums is vast, but they share a common genesis in improvisation, as well as a most remarkable artistic consistency. If it is no longer uncommon for improvisers to fill an evening’s music-making alone, Jarrett remains unrivalled in his capacity to uncover new forms in the moment: the concept of ‘spontaneous composition’ is more than an ideal here. The latest in the series of ongoing solo concert recordings is Rio. Jarrett had played Brazil only once before, more than two decades ago, and said, before his South American concerts, that he felt he had “unfinished business” there: “I really had no idea what I meant, but this concert is it. Everything I played in Rio was improvised, and there is no way that I could have gotten to this particular musical place a second time, or in a different country: not even in a different hall or with a different audience, or on a different night.” Rio documents the entire spontaneous concert at the Theatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro on April 11, 2011. The music that emerges has an intensely lyrical core, reflected in the fifteen short pieces that make up the concert. There is an intimate quality, too, which draws the listener toward it, from the first moments. Jarrett feels the concert was one of his best: “jazzy, serious, sweet, playful, warm, economical, energetic, passionate, and connected with the Brazilian culture in a unique way. The sound in the hall was excellent and so was the enthusiastic audience.” The Rio concert was the second show in a short South American tour which also included performances in Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires. Jarrett has always rationed his solo appearances; there have been just seven so far in 2011. ***** ECM Enrico Rava Quintet Tribe Enrico Rava trumpet Gianluca Petrella trombone Giovanni Guidi piano Gabriele Evangelista double-bass Fabrizio Sferra drums w/ Giacomo Ancillotto guitar U.S. Release date: November 1, 2011 ECM CD: B0015932-02 UPC: 6025 276 6970 0 Enrico Rava Quintet / Winter 2012 Tour February 17 San Francisco, CA SFJAZZ - Herbst Theater February 18 Portland, OR PDXJAZZ- Winningstad Theatre February 21-25 New-York, NY Birdland February 26 Buffalo, NY Albright-Knox Gallery Since his return to ECM in 2003, Enrico Rava, grand master of Italian jazz, has made a number of recordings exceptional by any standards, with groups both national and international. Tribe belongs to the former category and follows Easy Living, The Words and the Days, and The Third Man. As England’s Jazzwise magazine wrote of The Words and the Days: “Enrico Rava, one of the most charismatic of jazz musicians, has truly hit a purple patch in his career – he’s got a great band, he’s with the best label in the world and he’s making the finest music of a long, distinguished career.” Rava is indeed playing at a peak of lyrical invention, and his newest quintet, with Gianluca Petrella retained from the Words line-up, is amongst his strongest yet. Voted Rising Star Trombonist in the Down Beat Critics Poll of a few years back, Petrella has a front-line relationship with Rava which recalls Enrico’s affinity with Roswell Rudd back in the heyday of the New Thing. Fast-moving, quick-witted exchanges abound, as the two of them delight in the whole history of jazz. Reviewing The Words And The Days, Down Beat said “The album’s core sound rests with the two-horn lead: Rava and trombonist Gianluca Petrella. They’re a marvellous pair.” Meanwhile, the range of unique voices in the Rava group is expanding. Enrico has always encouraged younger musicians, and pianist Giovanni Guidi (born 1985) is another real find, a player of great energy and imagination, also capable of an almost Bley-like sensitivity in his approach to ballads. “When I notice the gifts of a young musician, I immediately involve him in my groups. This is not motivated by altruism,” Rava insists. “I simply love playing with young musicians. As I continue to develop, I need to be surprised, and Giovanni Guidi is like Bollani and Petrella: he astounds me every time.” Bassist Gabriele Evangelista (b. 1988), another young player of promise, works splendidly alongside widely-experienced drummer Fabrizio Sferra, whose resumé includes work with Chet Baker, Paul Bley and Kenny Wheeler. The quintet is augmented on several tracks by guitarist Giacomo Ancillotto, an up-and-coming player best known in Italy for his work with the Quartet. Recorded at Arte Suono Studio in Udine in October 2010, with Manfred Eicher producing, Tribe encompasses both new compositions and tunes penned over a thirty year period. “F. Express”, for instance, is a piece that goes back to the 1970s: Enrico introduced it in his Italian quartet with Franco D’Andrea, and then recorded it for the ECM album Opening Night in 1981. “Cornetteology”, meanwhile, celebrating Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry while also referencing Charlie Parker’s ”Ornithology”, was previously heard on Tati, Rava’s 2004 ECM recording with Stefano Bollani and Paul Motian. Enrico also transforms pieces documented elsewhere, like“Amnesia” and “Garbage Can Blues” first heard on Noir (Label Bleu) and “Planet Earth”, originally recorded on Secrets (Soul Note): like the melodies of many of his heroes in jazz, Rava’s themes give the soloists the information they need to make the music new. The quintet continues to tour actively. In November, major appearances include the Enjoy Jazz Festival in Mannheim, Germany, and 2012 dates already in place include a USA tour in February and a special performance in Lisbon as part of a new series of ECM events. In Italy, Rava recently published his autobiography “Incontri con musicisti straordinari. La storia del mio jazz” (Encounters with extraordinary musicians. The story of my jazz), which recounts his adventures with a wide range of international musicians including Steve Lacy, Carla Bley, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri and many others, and charts the development of his own work, up to and including the recording of Tribe. Further biographical information and tour details at www.enricorava.com. Forthcoming concert details also at www.ecmrecords.com.

I had no idea it has been so long. George was my favorite Beatle as well; perhaps in part because I liked his songs, and in part because they weren't beaten to death.

Last night the Kapp-Mosca encounter made the ESPN Monday Night Football pre-game show. Today, it is featured on the front page of the Fox News website! http://www.foxnews.com/ http://video.foxnews.com/v/1300129546001/?test=faces

When I posted that YouTube clip yesterday at 5:28 pm it had 1,200 views. It now has 138,000 views!

Happy Birthday crisp!

Happy Birthday 2011 John!

The Grey Cup is on cable tv channel TSN (the Canadian equivalent of ESPN), yet over one-third of the Canadian population tuned in to the game last night, making it Canada's most watched sporting event of the year. The Canadian press always ballyhoos hockey over the Canadian league, yet the Grey Cup always gets a bigger tv rating than the Stanley Cup Finals (and the Super Bowl for that matter). http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=381490

Paul, I've received your PM, and I've ordered your Mosaic gift certificate. You're welcome, and thanks to you and everyone else for playing!

Happy Birthday 2011 B!

2011 Grey Cup British Columbia Lions 34....Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23 http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/scores/final/boxscore.aspx?GAMEID=999 http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/news/news.aspx?id=4454100 Dan Ralph http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/lions-win-grey-cup/article2251487/ http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=381436 http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/GreyCup/2011/11/27/19026066.html ***** Montreal's offensive coordinator Scott Milanovich is said to have agreed to become the new Argos head coach, though the deal is not yet done. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=381450 ***** The Grey Cup in a nut shell: The Lions had the chance to bury the Bombers in the first quarter, but couldn't get it done. By the end of the half, the Bombers had the momentum. The third quarter was even until on the last play the Lions scored a touchdown on a 66 yard bomb. That seemed to salt it away for the Lions, but the Bombers came back in the fourth quarter with two touchdowns. After the second TD, however, the Bombers kickoff did not go the required ten yards. The Lions took the ball and kicked a field goal which gave them an insurmountable eleven-point lead with just 58 seconds to play.

It's over! After losing their first five games of the year, the BC Lions are the Grey Cup champions, with the final score BC Lions 34...Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23. So the winner of our contest is the man who picked BC with the tiebreaker of 55...Paul Secor! Congratulations Paul! PM me your address, and I'll order your Mosaic gift certificate immediately. Be sure to tell us what you spend it on!

With 1:37 left, it's now BC 31....Winnipeg 23. So that eliminates Bright Moments and yours truly.

At the three minute warning, it's 31-16. So that eliminates Van Basten II.

The Lions have scored again, so with 6:10 left the score is 31 to 9. So that eliminates Hardbopjazz, B. Clugston, JohnJ, papsrus, danasgoodstuff and Greg K.

After three, it's BC 24....Winnipeg 9 On the last play of the quarter, BC scored a touchdown on a 66 yard bomb. So this eliminates sidewinder, Jeffcrom, mjzee, kh1958, king ubu, Big Al and ejp 626.

At the half, it's BC 14....Winnipeg 6 The defenses ruled the second quarter. BC's offense did everything but pile on the points in the first quarter, but the Bombers' defense shut them down in the second quarter. Winnipeg's offense showed nothing until midway through the second. And in the second, their defense really got it together. The halftime band is Nickleback which is from British Columbia (I think Victoria). I learned this week that these two defenses were the two best in the league this season. PS - I'm sure that I read that Nickleback is from BC, but the announcer just said that they are from Alberta.

After one, it's BC 11....Winnipeg 0. It's been all BC, so I suppose the Bombers are lucky to be down by only eleven.

The game has begun. The contest is now closed. Good luck everyone!

Here it is, on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrkEROiQsa8