GA Russell

I received today this press release regarding the new Charles Lloyd album called Mirror. Charles Lloyd Quartet Mirror Charles Lloyd: tenor and alto saxophones Jason Moran: piano Reuben Rogers: double-bass Eric Harland: drums U.S. Release date: September 14, 2010 Many critics have opined that Lloyd’s “New Quartet”, with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland may be the best of all his groups. The quartet’s previous release in this line-up, the live-recorded Rabo de Nube, met with across-the-board approval and was voted #1 album of the year in both the Critics and Readers Polls of JazzTimes. Mirror is the first studio album by the Lloyd-Moran-Rogers-Harland unit and it features beautiful, transformed versions of favorites including both Lloyd originals and tunes Charles has made his own over the years. There is a pair of Thelonious Monk tunes, “Ruby, My Dear” and “Monk’s Mood”, as well as hymns and traditionals including “Go Down Moses”, “Lift Every Voice And Sing”, and “The Water Is Wide”. Lloyd covers Brian Wilson’s’ “Caroline, No” (the saxophonist guested on several Beach Boys albums in the 70s, including the classic “Surf’s Up”), and plays an achingly lovely version of the the standard “I Fall In Love Too Easily”. Lloyd originals include “Desolation Sound”, “Mirror”, “Tagi” (which includes a Bhagavad Gita inspired spoken-word meditation by Lloyd) and “Being and Becoming”. The band plays superbly. Interaction between Jason Moran and the elastic rhythm section of Harland and Rogers is agile and alert in every moment. While each of these three players is completely in tune with Lloyd's way of working, none of them had yet been born when Charles had his idiomatic breakthrough with "Forest Flower" in 1967. Moran recalls that his father encouraged him to listen to Forest Flower when he was just starting to check out jazz, and the album was part of the soundtrack of his childhood. There is plenty of Lloyd’s graceful, mellifluous and poetic tenor sax: We also get to hear some of his rarely-showcased alto saxophone, the instrument that Billy Higgins called Charles’s “secret weapon”. “Charles is playing really beautiful,” Ornette Coleman says, in the documentary film The Monk and the Mermaid. “He’s expressing the qualities of what we experience. Trying to make a contribution to the quality of life, to do with knowledge.” The knowledge, experience, and wisdom conveyed through Lloyd’s tender saxophone soliloquies have drawn great musicians to him over the decades, and contributed to a reputation as one of the most insightful band leaders in all of jazz. Those qualities are reflected once more in Mirror, which is perhaps as succinct a portrait of Charles’ music as can be embraced by a single disc. “Charles approaches the music with such openness”, pianist Jason Moran said recently “I like playing with leaders who let you bring what you’ve got to the table, and interpret the music however you’d like. Charles is a great promoter of free-thinking music, and letting it develop on the spot.” Reuben Rogers was born in the Virgin Islands and grew up listening to calypso and reggae as well as jazz, exposure that seems to have impacted on the lyrical dancing swing of his bass playing. He works exceptionally well with Harland, exploring loose grooves behind Lloyd’s solos, and speaks of the joy of “being in the music in the moment,” when the Lloyd band is improvising collectively, “without any worries, just giving it all.” A much sought after sideman, Reuben has also worked extensively with Nicholas Payton, Joshua Redman, Dianne Reeves and more. Eric Harland is increasingly regarded as one of the most important contemporary jazz drummers. In addition to his work with Lloyd in the quartet and in the Sangam trio (with Zakir Hussain) he has played and recorded with McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Greg Osby, Dave Holland and many others.

Gregg Xenakes Week 8 picks http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=/cfl/news/AJN4335355.htm ***** David Naylor Week 8 picks http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/cfl-week-8-preview/article1677904/

The Eskimos fired their OL coach, Jeff Bleamer, today. When a CFL coach is sacked in mid-season, I wonder if the paychecks stop. I remember a few years ago, I think when he was coaching the Als at the Grey Cup game, Don Matthews made the point at a press conference that he felt something needed to be done regarding the payment of coaches. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/eskimos-woes-continue/article1677224/

Happy Birthday 2010 Laurie! I'll listen to Stuttgart today in your honor.

Danny Kepley resigned as Eskimos linebacker coach today. A real shame. I met him at the '78 Grey Cup. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=330850

Hearing loss among American teens jumped from 14.9% to 19.5%, and ear buds are blamed. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-17/one-in-five-u-s-adolescents-has-hearing-loss-researchers-find.html

The headquarters of personalized online music provider Pandora remained in a state of chaos Thursday as frantic workers struggled to find a song that 32-year-old Boston subscriber Dave Lipton would enjoy. http://www.theonion.com/articles/desperate-pandora-employees-scrambling-to-find-son,17905/

Bobby Thomson has died. I've been to Cooperstown a couple of times, and I've found his bat to be the most memorable item on display! IMO, it wasn't what he did, it was Russ Hodges' call, that made him famous. http://www.latimes.com/news/la-mew-bobby-thomson18-20100818,0,7687136.story

I remember well watching Saturday morning cartoons when I was two and three years old. Remember Bosco and Cookie, the monkeys? My recollection is that the music for those cartoons was Ellington jungle music. I still think of Bosco and Cookie when I hear Ellington of that era.

Calgary Stampeders 56....Edmonton Eskimos 15 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=/cfl/news/AJN4334735.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/stamps-trounce-struggling-esks/article1673909/ The Eskimos were unusually inept, with enough unforced errors to lose the game against anybody. The Eskimos have a bye this coming week, so they will have time to decide whom to fire next.

As I was listening to the game last night, an idea occurred to me. This is not a prediction, just a thought. We are almost halfway through the season, and it is possible that for the first time ever an Eastern team will cross over and play in the Western playoffs.

Sounds like a great opportunity, Dan!

Toronto Argonauts 37....Montreal Alouettes 22 http://64.246.64.33/...aspx?id=4334524 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/young-argos-stun-als/article1673343/ Great game if you were rooting for the Argos. They never trailed. I would have to say that this is the biggest upset of the season so far. Both teams are now tied for first in the East at 5-2. Both teams are 5-0 when they score first, and 0-2 when they don't. Ben Cahoon passed Darren Flutie into second place on the career passes caught list. The Als won the stats battle, gaining over 500 yards. But the Als defense gave up a lot of big plays. Cleo Lemons almost scored a TD on a flea flicker! Ryan Christian set an Argo team record by returning a kickoff 110 yards for a TD. Terry Greer had the old record at 109 yards.

It appears that the Argos have put bios of every player on Wikipedia! Here's the page for Alex Buzbee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Buzbee

Happy Birthday 2010 Soul Stream!

Saskatchewan Roughriders 37....British Columbia Lions 13 http://scoreboards.canoe.ca/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=canoe&page=CFL/scores/final/W856.htm No surprise with this score. ***** Remember OJ Santiago with Atlanta? After being out of pro football since 2007, he is making a comeback with the Als. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/als-santiago-excited-to-play-in-toronto/article1671564/ ***** Hamilton Tiger-Cats 39....Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=/cfl/news/AJN4334350.htm The Ticats dominated throughout, with the Bombers scoring a meaningless TD at the end to make the score look decent. Buck Pierce came back from injury to start for the Bombers, but he left because of another injury. Marcus Thigpen scored the Ticats' first TD on a rushing play, and thus became the first player in league history (They started keeping stats in '52 in the West and '54 in the East.) to score a TD five different ways in one season. ***** As a result of the Hamilton City Council this week voting to situate the proposed stadium in a location unacceptable to Bob Young, the police are now investigating a death threat against the mayor! http://www.900chml.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocalGeneral/Story.aspx?ID=1264881

I remember 30 years ago there was a tape of bloopers frequently advertised on TV; ie, "World Cup soccer".

Have a great time! You might find electronics there cheap, such as eBook readers. I didn't object to Nixon going to China. I just objected to him coming back!

Jeff Garcia has signed to play with the new Omaha UFL team. (I see that Daunte Culpepper will play for the Sacramento team.) http://www.footballnewsnow.com/2010/jeff-garcia-joins-ufls-omaha-nighthawks/

Happy Birthday kinuta!

Gregg Xenakes Week 7 picks http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=/cfl/news/AJN4333636.htm ***** David Naylor Week 7 picks http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/week-7-cfl-picks/article1669957/

Here are this past weekend's games: Montreal Alouettes 30.... Saskatchewan Roughriders 26 http://scoreboards.c...cap.aspx?id=852 I find that the Als have provided the greatest number of boring games over the past several years. They got off to a big lead and I thought the game was over. But Sask spent the entire game clawing back, closing to within two late in the game. ***** Toronto Argonauts 29....Edmonton Eskimos 28 http://scoreboards.c...cap.aspx?id=853 Another game in which one team got a big lead, and the other clawed its way back. In this case, the Eskimos scored a TD to take the lead, but the Argos took it back. On the last play of the game, Ricky Ray threw a 49-yard bomb, and the Eskimos then started lateralling the ball. Apparently no one had the presence of mind to realize that, being down on the Toronto 25, he should punt the ball through the end zone and tie the game, thus sending it into overtime. ***** Hamilton Tiger-Cats 29....Winnipeg Blue Bombers 22 http://scoreboards.c...cap.aspx?id=854 Good game between two bad teams. Alexis Serna missed to makeable FGs and was cut today. The Bombers have signed ex-Rider Louie Sakoda. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=330080 ***** Calgary Stampeders 27....British Columbia Lions 22 http://scoreboards.c...cap.aspx?id=855 Travis Lulay shows a lot of promise, but IMO he's just to green to be expected to lead the Lions to victory. Jarious Jackson played the fourth quarter and proved that he is healthy, so he will start this week. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=329994 The Lions today cut Derick Armstrong. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=330132 ***** Matt Flowers West report http://www.sportsnet.../AJN4333011.htm ***** Matt Flowers East report http://64.246.64.33/...aspx?id=4333384

Happy Birthday Mark!

I'll get to this past weekend's games soon, but first this bulletin: It looks like the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will move to Quebec City. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/ticats-pull-out-of-stadium-debate/article1667147/

Not enough! I'll have to ask for one for my birthday! By the way, Chuck. Whatever you are doing certainly is working considering your success in getting the Von Freeman played on Sirius XM and promoted in Amazon emails. But have you ever considered using Terri Hinte as your publicist? She's supposed to be the best.