GA Russell

Here's another for the Americans.

I listened to this album for the first time in a while today, and I'm confident that it will make my year's Top Ten list. The piano is Henrik Gunde. The guitar is Per Gade.

I listened to this tonight for the first time in a while, and I liked it more than ever. This will go into my regular rotation for a while.

Correct on both counts! Except that his name was Durward.

Yes! But do you remember his name? And do you remember the joke about him on Rocky and Bullwinkle?

Winnipeg Blue Bombers 30....Hamilton Tiger-Cats 27 http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/news/news.aspx?id=4431309 Lots of fun. The first half was windy in Winnipeg, and the team with the wind at its back scored the points. The second half was a seesaw battle.

Happy Birthday Joe!

I'm afraid the Europeans won't get this one.

Correct, Chuck and Jim! I vaguely remember her television show Life with Elizabeth.

On a happier note, who is this beauty?

Here's a Matt Sekeres analysis of the former CFL players currently trying out with NFL teams. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/crunch-time-for-cflers-in-nfl-camps/article2144328/

Correct, Paul. I have to think that Jobs is near the end, and resigned for that reason. Well, at least he has his chance to make peace with his Maker. That photo was taken today.

Umar Ali Week 9 preview http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/news/news.aspx?id=4431152

spotify: The Best of The Animals

Wish I could go. RANDY BRECKER UPCOMING EVENTS Randy Brecker SEPTEMBER 16, 4 pm A Conversation with David Schroeder Barnes & Noble 150 East 86th St. 212-369-2180 Brecker will be featured in B&N's ongoing Jazz discussion series, sponsored by NYU Steinhardt and the Blue Note Jazz Club. Featured topics will include Brecker's latest Half Note recording The Jazz Ballad Song Book, along with accounts of his distinguished career - past, present and future. To go to B&N's website please click here. ***** September 13-18 8:00, 10:30 pm Brecker Bros. Band Reunion Blue Note Jazz Club 131 West 3rd Street 212-475-8592 During his long reign as one of jazz's premier trumpeters, Randy Brecker and brother Michael created a most enduring musical partnership. This Reunion brings together the celebrated musicians who comprised the Brecker Brothers Band. For detailed info please click here.

These look interesting. I received this press release yesterday. HALF NOTE RECORDS ANNOUNCES THREE NEW RECORDINGS Kenny Werner & Brussels Jazz Orchestra Institute of Higher Learning AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE AUGUST 26, 2011 Donald Harrison, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham This Is Jazz AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 Francisco Mela & Cuban Safari with Special Guest Esperanza Spalding Tree Of Life AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 New York, August 23, 2011 - The Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO), led by founder and Artistic Director Frank Vaganée, once again reinforces its reputation as one of Europe's premier big bands, a group that "manifests love," according to Grammy-winning arranger Maria Schneider. Kenny Werner and the BJO have joined forces to create the perfect canvas for Wernerʼs lush compositions and arrangements. The Institute of Higher Learning features 5 tracks, among them the opening "Cantabile," a three-movement suite showcasing Wernerʼs progressive touch. It was inspired by and dedicated to Bob Brookmeyer. Liner notes by Maria Schneider. For further information on Kenny Werner, please visit www.kennywerner.com For further information on the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, please visit www.brusselsjazzorchestra.com TRACK TITLES 1. Cantabile (Ist Movement) (2nd Movement) (3rd Movement) 2. Second Love Song 3. House of the Rising Sun 4. Compensation 5. Institute of Higher Learning New York, August 23, 2011 - For its second Half Note issue, the power trio of Donald Harrison, Ron Carter and Billy Cobham declare themselves spokesmen for a kind of exploratory improvisation and interplay known only to seasoned jazz professionals. Staunch individualists all, they come together with a unified voice of alto, bass and drums - at once steeped in jazz's richly variegated traditions yet forward- thinking in the cause of new creative expression. The group play here is all about a stylized call and response, featuring guys with excellent listening skills and the means to keep the conversation going. Recorded Live at the Blue Note. For further information on Donald Harrison, please visit http://donaldharrison.com TRACK TITLES 1. Cut & Paste 2. MSRP 3. You Are My Sunshine 4. Seven Steps to Heaven 5. I Can't Get Started 6. Treme Swagger New York, August 23, 2011 - Drummer Francisco Mela presents his second release on Half Note, a tour- de-force featuring 10 newly conceived compositions. With the help of his band, Cuban Safari, Mela offers a passionate fusion of Cuban polyrhythms and propulsive modernism. Renown for his play with Joe Lovanoʼs Us Five, Mela and the full scope of his musicianship take center stage with an unexpected turn as a vocalist, duetting with pianist Elio Villafranca, and trading improvs with Special Guest Esperanza Spalding. Tree Of Life is spirited evidence of Melaʼs distinguished place among young group leaders. TRACK TITLES 1. Retrograde 2. Africa en mis Venas 3. Toma del Poder 4. Yadan Mela 5. Classico Mela 6. The Nearness of You 7. Yo Me 8. Just Now 9. Fiesta Conga 10. Gracias a la Vida Francisco Mela & Cuban Safari will perform at the Blue Note jazz club on October 10.

Globe (Allan Maki) Week 9 picks http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/cfl-picks-week-9/article2142499/

The Lions have released Kamau Peterson. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Winnipeg/2011/08/21/18583436.html http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=374190

Thanks, guys. Your positive feelings toward those albums are interesting. It's been my impression that they sold very poorly, but that may be just flat out wrong.

I've never had any desire to get We Want Miles, Decoy or Star People. Am I missing anything?

Gregg Xenakes Week 9 picks http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/news/news.aspx?id=4430699

yes!! this was like giving birth!! LOL Correct, brownie and Valerie! I didn't mean it to be so hard. I found a good picture of him sitting at the keyboard, but it would not post properly. I met him in May of 1970 when he was leading his jazz band called Manfred Mann Chapter Three. Great concert! Very nice guy.

I enjoyed his last album, so I'm looking forward to hearing this. I got this press release in the mail today. "Chora Baião," New CD by Brazilian Pianist/Composer Antonio Adolfo, Set for September 27 Release Repertoire Focuses on the Compositions of Chico Buarque & Guinga (& Antonio Adolfo) August 24, 2011 Antonio Adolfo has long been an integral and influential behind-the-scenes player as a producer, composer, arranger, label entrepreneur, and educator -- in his native Rio de Janeiro and beyond. In recent years, however, he has thankfully been devoting more time to recording his own music. First came a critically acclaimed collaboration with his vocalist daughter, 2007's Antonio Adolfo and Carol Saboya Ao Vivo/Live. Last year's Lá e Cá (Here and There), also featuring Saboya, tapped into standards by Americans and Brazilians such as Cole Porter and Antonio Carlos Jobim. For his new CD, Chora Baião, which will be released September 27 on his AAM Music label, Adolfo chose to focus on the Brazilian music styles choro and baião, specifically the works of two brilliant and innovative Brazilian composers, Guinga and Chico Buarque. "I wanted to record an album of material that forces me to play differently," Adolfo says. "My passion is for their harmonies and melodies, which are not just sophisticated, but quite unusual in Brazilian music. When you play American or Brazilian standards, you tend to stay in familiar territory. But with their harmonies you cannot use clichés. It requires you go into some really different directions." The fact that Adolfo's original pieces ("Chicote," "Chorosa Blues," "Chora Baião") fit so comfortably alongside the music of Guinga and Buarque shouldn't be surprising. From Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, and Herb Alpert to Elis Regina, Beth Carvalho, and Sergio Mendes, some of the world's most popular artists have recorded his songs. His title track announces the thread of choro and baião running through the album, drawing on both forms while opening with a bracing jolt of maracatu percussion. "This is a different kind of music, not Jobim," Adolfo says. "Guinga is very inventive with choro and baião. Before Guinga everyone played choro very traditionally. He uses chords like Piazzolla. He's never been played by jazz musicians, but his harmonies are very unexpected." As for Buarque, "I wanted to show him as a musician," says Adolfo. "There's no doubt he's one of the three most important lyricists in Brazil, but he's also a composer who ranks alongside Jobim and Edu Lobo. He chooses different chords and different bass lines. You can hear in songs like 'A Ostra e o Vento' (The Oyster and the Wind) that the harmonies are very sophisticated. As a composer, as a musician who writes songs, he and Guinga do things that nobody else does in Brazilian music, with chords and melodies that are unexpected." Produced and arranged by Adolfo, Chora Baião features the same basic cast heard on last year's Lá e Cá: Uruguayan-born guitarist Leo Amuedo (a frequent collaborator with Ivan Lins), bassist Jorge Helder (often heard with Chico Buarque and Maria Bethânia), drummer Rafael Barata (Edu Lobo, Rosa Passos, Mônica Salmaso), and -- on two tracks -- vocalist Carol Saboya. The formidable Marcos Suzano (Lenine, Gilberto Gil, Zizi Possi) is added on percussion. Besides his prolific work as a pianist, composer, and arranger, Adolfo, 64, continues to be a leader in music education. The Centro Musical Antonio Adolfo in Rio and a new experimental Brazilian music school in Hollywood, Florida, where he resides, are a big part of his current professional life. "Nadia Boulanger and all the other teachers I had were my inspiration to become a music educator myself," says Adolfo. "My involvement in education is a result of my interest in always trying to go deeper and to deal technically with different music subjects, which has helped my own development and growth as a musician." Photos: Paul Constantinides Antonio Adolfo Web Site: www.antonioadolfo.info "Morro Dois Irmãos" (comp. Chico Buarque)

OK, if anyone is still playing, he is the guy with the glasses and the beard in this photo from ca. 1964.