GA Russell

I grew up with Sandie Shaw's 1964 version of that song. Hers is the definitive version in my book. Being from New Orleans, I grew up with Irma Thomas's version. Kai Winding's is news to me. Another Stones hit whose original I grew up with but is now forgotten is It's All Over Now, which was done by The Valentinos. I long thought that At Last was Etta James' song, but I heard a version (can't remember who) from the 40s on Sirius a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Birthday!

It's May 5 once again, and I am going to play my two most recent Tjader acquisitions, Latin Kick and Monterey Concerts.

By the way, did Alexander Hawkins use to post under a different board name? I think he had 1,000 posts the first time I noticed him.

Happy Birthday!

Moose, you missed out! The AFL's games were much more exciting than the NFL's, but I noticed a dropoff when the two leagues merged their player draft before the '67 season. In fairness to the NFL, it was (and still is) my opinion that the AFL's TV announcers, like Charlie Jones, Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman, were much better than the NFL's CBS guys, who were pretty boring. It was the AFL games (on ABC) that originated the use of what was called the "isolated camera". That was Roone Arlidge's idea. It was the video replay (a new invention starting in '62) that focused on a wide receiver, and showed him running his route and catching the ball. CBS called its video the "instant replay", and just showed the play with pretty much all 22 guys. By the way, I read a book about the AFL last year called Going Long, and it said something that I didn't know - The AFL on a pro rata basis signed just as many first round draft picks as the NFL did. Of course there were 14 NFL teams and only 8 AFL teams, so the NFL signed more.

Trumpeter Arve Henricksen has recorded on a number of ECM albums, including two by Trygve Seim, The Source and Sangam. He has a new album coming out this week called Cartography. Here's the album's lineup: Arve Henriksen: trumpets, voice, field recordings Jan Bang: live sampling, beats, dictaphone, programming Audun Kleive: percussion David Sylvian: voice, samples, programming Helge Sunde: string arrangements, programming Eivind Aarset: guitars Lars Danielsson: double-bass Erik Honoré: synthesizer, samples Arnaud Mercier: treatments Trio Mediaeval: voice sample Vérène Andronikof: vocals Vytas Sonndeckis: vocal arrangement (collective personnel) Thirty years ago this music would have been called experimental. After so much time I don't know if people would still use that term today. It is very atmospheric in the ECM sense. There's a lot of synthesizer. Two tracks include prose readings which I could do without, but other than that I like this album. I can see it generating more sales than most ECM issues, but I don't see its sales challenging the likes of Jarrett, DeJohnette and such. Henricksen will be touring the US next month. So far, these dates have been lined up: June 15th and 17th in Washington DC June 19th in Rochester, NY June 22nd - New York, NY

Here's more of the AP obit which I found today. I remember it was said (by the Democrats in the press) after he got into politics that Kemp had showered with more blacks than most Republicans had shaken hands with! By the way, it was the Calgary Stampeders whom Kemp played for in the Canadian league. I think he was a backup for one season. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090503/D97UKOP81.html Kemp led Buffalo to the 1964 and 1965 AFL Championships, and won the league's most valuable player award in 1965. He co-founded the AFL Players Association in 1964 and was elected president of the union for five terms. When he retired from football in 1969, Kemp had enough support in blue-collar Buffalo and its suburbs to win an open congressional seat. In 11 seasons, he sustained a dozen concussions, two broken ankles and a crushed hand - which Kemp insisted a doctor permanently set in a passing position so that he could continue to play. "Pro football gave me a good perspective," he was quoted as saying. "When I entered the political arena, I had already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded, and hung in effigy." NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said "Kemp was an extraordinary American leader who became a trusted colleague and exceptional friend to countless NFL owners, team personnel and commissioners after his MVP playing career with the Buffalo Bills." Kemp was born in California to Christian Scientist parents. He worked on the loading docks of his father's trucking company as a boy before majoring in physical education at Occidental College, where he led the nation's small colleges in passing. He became a Presbyterian after marrying his college sweetheart, Joanne Main. The couple had four children, including two sons who played professional football. He joined with a son and son-in-law to form a Washington strategic consulting firm, Kemp Partners, after leaving office. Through his political life, Kemp's positions spanned the social spectrum: He opposed abortion and supported school prayer, yet appealed to liberals with his outreach toward minorities and compassion for the poor. He pushed for immigration reform to include a guest-worker program and status for the illegal immigrants already here.

Lala: Ernie Wilkins - The Big New Band of the 60's

In 1961, living in Seattle we got the San Diego Charger games on TV, so I got to see Jackie Kemp run Sid Gillman's offense every week. Great games! The next year he broke his thumb, and the Chargers put him on the wrong (non-recallable) injured list. The Bills claimed him for $100, and he went on to lead the Bills to AFL championships, and then on to Congress. Some of the most exciting games I have seen were between the Bills and the Boston Patriots in the 1963-65 period. Here's his AP obituary: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518721,00.html AP Jack Kemp, a former quarterback, congressman and one-time vice-presidential nominee, has died. WASHINGTON — Jack Kemp, the ex-football star, congressman, one-time Republican vice-presidential nominee and self-described "bleeding-heart conservative" died Saturday. His spokeswoman Bona Park and longtime friend and former campaign adviser Edwin J. Feulner confirmed that Kemp died after a lengthy illness. Kemp had announced in January 2009 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He said he was undergoing tests but gave no other detail. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Kemp "one of the nation's most distinguished public servants, Jack was a powerful voice in American politics for more than four decades." Kemp, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, represented western New York for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House of Representatives for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988. Eight years later, after serving a term as President George H.W. Bush's housing secretary, he made it onto the national ticket as Bob Dole's running-mate. With that loss, the Republican bowed out of political office, but not out of politics. In speaking engagements and a syndicated column, he continued to advocate for the tax reform and supply-side policies — the idea that the more taxes are cut the more the economy will grow — that he pioneered. Kemp's rapid and wordy style made the enthusiastic speaker with the neatly side-parted white hair a favorite on the lecture circuit, and a millionaire. (His style didn't win over everyone. In his memoirs, former Vice President Dan Quayle wrote that at Cabinet meetings, Bush would be irked by Kemp's habit of going off on tangents and not making "any discernible point.") Kemp also signed on with numerous educational and corporate boards and charitable organizations, including National Football League Charities, which kept him connected to his football roots. Kemp was a 17th round 1957 NFL draft pick by the Detroit Lions but was cut before the season began. After being released by three more NFL teams and the Canadian Football League over the next three years, he joined the American Football League's Los Angeles Chargers as a free agent in 1960. Two years later he landed with the Buffalo Bills, who got him at the bargain basement price of $100.

The CFL's draft was today. http://sports.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/...lobeSports/home

Thanks Moose!

Today I was driving south on I-95 below I-40 about 2:50 pm, and I was passed by a large bus that had on its side "The United States of America" and a seal which appeared to me to be the Presidential seal. On the back of the bus it said "Motorcoach One". This was immediately followed by a large bus with the word "Winn" painted on its side and back. For the secret service agents, maybe?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Happy Birthday!

As I recall, Mark Murphy's first and third Muse albums, Bridging a Gap and Sings, include organ. Prior to that, his second Riverside album from I think '63 called That's How I Love the Blues has organ.

I've never owned a Pontiac, but I did have an Oldsmobile for a few years.

I'm 18 minutes late, but Happy Birthday Mark!

I "bought" a couple of albums this weekend: yesterday, Cal Tjader's Latin Kick; and today, Charles Tolliver's Emperor March.

Happy Birthday Aggie!

Happy Birthday Ubu!

Right on! That was my first Chet Baker album, which I got when I was a freshman in college. It was called Comin' On with the Chet Baker Quintet, and was the third issued of the five in the series.

I'm sure that I've posted this before, so not to beat a dead horse, but my recollection is this: What I call "jazz-rock" is the playing of jazz with a rock beat. That was the creation of Larry Coryell. (And I think that he should be in the Downbet Hall of fame because of it.) The first jazz rock record that I'm aware of was the self-titled album by Coryell's band The Free Spirits on ABC from I think 1966. It is a rock album by musicians who are obviously jazz fans. Then Coryell recorded with Chico Hamilton and Gary Burton. He then recorded (released in '68 and early '69) two albums with Steve Marcus - Tomorrow Never Knows and Count's Rock Band. At the time of the two Marcus albums, in England Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg formed Manfred Mann Chapter III and issued two albums, and Dick Morrisey formed If and issued four albums by that band's original lineup. Soft Machine made its name touring with Jimi Hendrix in '68, and developed rapidly from a rock band to a jazz band. Their friends from the Wilde Flowers Canterbury group formed Caravan, which hit it big (relatively speaking) with their second and third albums from '70 and '71, If I Could Do It All Over Again, and In the Land of Grey and Pink. Those two albums put the Canterbury scene into gear. Meanwhile, back in the States, Randy Brecker had left BS&T and formed Dreams with brother Michael. BS&T was founded by Al Kooper, who was inspired by listening to the horns on an album by The Buckinghams. It was BS&T's first album that was first called "jazz rock" to my knowledge, but that may have been more due to the Columbia Records publicity department than musical developments. Anyway, as you can see from all of this, jazz rock was white music because rock was white music. Prog rock was also white music. Fusion was often black music, and was not based upon the rock beat that kids of the 60s did the jerk to (That's a dance, for some of you youngsters.).