GA Russell

Happy Birthday 2009 Nate!

Happy Birthday 2009 mgraham333!

I know that people like me are not in the consideration of the majors. However, I too bought fewer cds in 2008. In fact, in 2008 I bought the fewest albums I have in 30 years or so. I quit Your Music. I bought from BMG only with Aggie's codes. But in my case it was because I didn't see much that appealled to me. I seem to recall the record companies crying the blues before (Was it in the late 70s?), and the problem then and now I think is that people didn't want what they were selling. I've said this before, but I'll say it again. The majors' business model calls for selling most of their albums to teenage boys, and many teenage boys nowadays would rather buy and spend their time with video games than with music. One point about jazz. I predict that more people will follow Sonny Rollins' and Dave Holland's route, which is to follow The Rolling Stones' route, and create their own record companies, using the majors as distributors. This model may be irrelevant to what the high schoolers buy, but I think we will see more of it for adult music. By taking the risk out of it for the majors, the cd's of adult artists should still be available for their market.

Happy Birthday 2009 Marty!

MG, I started my database in '87 on my new Atari 1040ST, and I still use that computer for that purpose! My records are inconsistent. All of my cds are listed, sometimes more than once in the case of box sets, and always more than once if I have more than one copy. When I receive a box set in the mail, I list each cd separately with a Roman numeral for each. I record the date that I listen to a cd for the first time ("open" it). Sometimes I will listen to an entire cd from a box set, and but often I will listen to only the first portion as it corresponds to the lp. In that case, I will make a second entry for that portion of the cd that I haven't listened to yet.

Here's my Top Ten list for 2008, ten new ones plus four oldies, listed in the order I got them. Carla Bley and the Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu Maynard Ferguson - A Message from Birdland (reissue) Nik Bartsch's Ronin - Holon James Carter - Present Tense Marcin Wasilewski - January Art Pepper - The Croyden Concert (vault) Norma Winstone - Distances Nicolas Bearde - Live at Yoshi's/A Salute to Lou Mathias Eick - The Door Carla Bley Big Band - Appearing Nightly Dave Holland - Pass It On Sonny Rollins - Road Shows, Vol. 1 Enrico Rava - The Pilgrim and the Stars (reissue) Stan Getz - Sweet Rain (reissue)

Amen! I just ordered Groovadelphia, three hours before the deadline! Happy New Year!

Here's Dan Ralph's 2008 CFL Year in Review. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...7883796-cp.html

Happy New Year, and thanks to all! I suppose that this is the one day of the year when the smilie is really appropriate!

Detour is widely regarded as the best film noir ever, so I really looked forward to seeing it when I picked up the DVD about a year ago. I didn't think it was as good as I had hoped, but it stuck with me, which I guess is the mark of a good picture. Ann Savage died Christmas Day. Here's some of her lengthy LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,7639041.story ...But Savage was best-known for director Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 B-movie "Detour," in which she played a woman ruthlessly blackmailing a stranger, played by Tom Neal. "It's actually a showcase role," Adamson said. "Neal and Savage really reversed the traditional male-female roles of the time. She's vicious and predatory . . . and he's very, very passive. It's very unusual for a '40s film to have a woman come on that strong."... She was eventually under contract at Columbia Pictures and started a career in a series of B movies, but she had little respect for much of the work. "They were mindless," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. "The actresses were just scenery. The stories all revolved around the male actors; they really had the choice roles. All the actresses had to do was to look lovely, since the dialogue was ridiculous." But "Detour," which she made for Producers Releasing Corp., was something different. The role, at first, gave her pause. "I had just come off a lot that kept me looking absolutely perfect," she said. "But Vera was not a pretty woman: She was maniacal. Edgar objected to my hair looking so neat and had the hairdresser run cold cream through it to make it streaky and stringy. He even made sure my face stayed dirty . . . and shiny." After the critical acclaim for "Detour," Savage had dreams of a real career as an actress. But it never happened...

She'll always be one of my favorites. Nostalgia? Maybe. And I think I have enough of her albums that I don't want any more. but I don't think I'll ever get tired of her first solo LP, called The Astrud Gilberto Album. PS - And her voice was unique, although there came along some copycats like Wanda de Sah. Some singers are great interpreters with questionable voices. I rate Astrud as a great voice with little or no interpretation skill.

Happy Birthday 2008 Tony!

John Byrne was the lead singer of Count Five and the composer of Psychotic Reaction. Here's an interesting obit from the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,3451708.story John Byrne 'Psychotic Reaction' writer John Byrne, 61, a rock 'n' roll musician who wrote and sang "Psychotic Reaction," the only hit of the San Jose garage band Count Five, died Dec. 15 of kidney and liver failure at the Regional Medical Center of San Jose, his daughter Tina said. with its distinctive fuzz guitar and harmonica riff echoing the sound of the Yardbirds, reached No. 5 on the Billboard charts in 1966. It has been immortalized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of 500 songs that shaped rock music. Byrne, who was born Nov. 16, 1947, in Dublin, immigrated to the United States at age 14, joining an older brother living in San Jose. Count Five (sometimes referred to as Count V) was formed in 1964 in San Jose. Byrne, who played rhythm guitar and sang, joined lead guitarist John Michalski, bassist Roy Chaney, drummer Craig Atkinson and Ken Ellner, who also sang and played the harmonica. The band released its debut album, also called "Psychotic Reaction," in 1966. A few singles followed, but the group never repeated the singular success of "Psychotic Reaction." Byrne returned to his studies at San Jose State University and became an accountant, later working as a manager of a Montgomery Ward store in Northern California. But he never quit playing music, his daughter said. "Maybe I made some mistakes," Byrne told the San Jose Mercury News in 2002 when the band had a revival. "I was determined to get through college. Maybe I was wrong, but I'm glad I'm an educated man. At least when people talk to me, they know I'm not an idiot."

For a while there, Delaney & Bonnie were really big. I can't say that I was impressed until I learned that he was a member of The Shindogs! In 1971 I saw Roberta Flack perform Superstar. This was a year or two before she hit it big nationally, and about the same time period before The Carpenters had a hit with it. Here's his LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,3451708.story Delaney Bramlett; songwriter who wrote 'Let It Rain' December 28, 2008 Delaney Bramlett, 69, a singer, songwriter and producer who penned classic rock songs such as "Let It Rain" and worked with musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton, died Saturday at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles as a result of complications from gallbladder surgery, his wife Susan Lanier-Bramlett said. Born in Mississippi in 1939, Bramlett came to Los Angeles in the 1960s and played guitar in the house band for the TV pop show "Shindig". With his then-wife Bonnie Lynn he formed the short-lived Southern blues-rock band Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The band toured as the opening act for Blind Faith, the supergroup that featured British guitarist Clapton. After Bramlett and his first wife divorced in the early '70s, they parted professionally as well, and he faded from the spotlight. During his career, Bramlett performed, co-wrote or recorded with stars such as Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Dave Mason, Billy Preston, J.J. Cale, the Everly Brothers and Mac Davis. He also produced artists including Etta James and Elvin Bishop. He is perhaps best known for standards such as "Superstar," co-written with Leon Russell, which has been recorded by many artists, most recently by Sonic Youth in a version featured on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of the movie "Juno." Bramlett also co-wrote "Let It Rain" with Clapton, who also recorded it, and "Never Ending Song of Love," which was recorded by more than 100 artists including Ray Charles, George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Bramlett recently released an album, "A New Kind of Blues," on independent label Magnolia Gold Records.

Here's an article from today's Chicago Tribune about the last guy in America to wholesale VHS tapes. He thinks that this has been the format's last Christmas. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...,0,492307.story

Happy Birthday Alexander!

Here's a good, but very brief, review of the league's year. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...860556-sun.html

HG, it occurs to me that you originally asked if the Rollins set has the original artwork. The fact is that I don't remember the original artwork, so I can't say for sure.

How are you guys logging in? I am still getting a blank screen. I emailed YourMusic's contact dept. to ask for help.

Didn't know about this one...are they sleeved with the original artwork? I always like the RCA Sonny Rollins album covers. Mine is still on its way, but I believe the answer is yes, like mini-LPs. My Rollins and Byrds boxes arrived yesterday, the day after Christmas, and I can confirm that they are mini-LPs. Three of the five Rollins discs include bonus tracks.

Happy Birthday jmjk! Like Jack Benny, you're pushing forty!

Here's her AP obit from the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,4702522.story

Didn't know about this one...are they sleeved with the original artwork? I always like the RCA Sonny Rollins album covers. Mine is still on its way, but I believe the answer is yes, like mini-LPs.

Quite a bit. First and foremost, an album of Christmas carols by Donald Ryan, whom you may have heard of. There is a plant in York, PA, which still has a steam whistle. Every Christmas at midnight, this guy plays Christmas carols on it for fifteen minutes, and the whole town can hear it. It's quite extraordinary, and comical too! One of a kind in the world! The new album Beautiful Memory by vocalist Bill Henderson. He's another old (81) black guy with one foot in the grave who can still sing, like Ed Reed. I'm looking forward to that one. Three boxes: Sonny Rollins - The Freelance Years Sonny Rollins - Original Album Classics (five RCA albums) The Byrds - Original Album Classics (their first five Columbia albums) Special thanks to my new best friend Alec, who got me the Freelance box; and my other two new best friends, sidewinder, who let us know about the Original Album Classics series, and Chuck, who let us know where to find them cheap!

I've been getting a blank screen, not only from the website address, but also from the email I received yesterday (that said, Click here to order 80% off).