GA Russell

The Boston Patriots were my favorite team when I was a boy, and Lou Saban was their first head coach, for a year and a half, before Mike Holovak took over. He went on to coach so many teams, he may have coached where you live! From the AP and the LA Times: Lou Saban dies at 87; NFL coach and Yankees executive Associated Press Lou Saban appears in a 1963 file photo provided by the Buffalo Bills, where he was coaching at the time. His long and diverse career included stints with the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos. He was also president of the New York Yankees. Associated Press March 30, 2009 Lou Saban, who coached O.J. Simpson in the NFL and ran the New York Yankees for George Steinbrenner during a well-traveled career as a coach and administrator that spanned five decades, died today. He was 87. Saban died at his home in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., his wife, Joyce, said. He had heart problems for years and recently suffered a fall that required hospitalization, she said. Saban played football at Indiana University and for the Cleveland Browns of the NFL before embarking on a remarkable head coaching career that included stops with the Boston Patriots and the Buffalo Bills of the old American Football League and the NFL's Denver Broncos, along with college jobs at Miami, Army, Northwestern and Maryland. Saban, who as a coach was 95-99-7 in 16 seasons of pro football, also was president of the New York Yankees in 1981 and 1982 and coached high school football from 1987 to 1989. "He has been my friend and mentor for over 50 years and one of the people who helped shape my life," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. "Lou was tough and disciplined, and he earned all the respect and recognition that came his way. He spent a lifetime leading, teaching and inspiring, and took great satisfaction in making the lives around him better. This is a tremendous loss to me personally." Saban shared the last name of another prominent football coach, Alabama's Nick Saban. Joyce Saban said the two men might have been second cousins but the families weren't exactly sure whether they were related. Louis Henry Saban was born in Brookfield, Ill., on Oct. 13, 1921, and was a 1940 graduate of Lyons Township High School. After starring at Indiana, Saban played for the Browns from 1946 to 1949 and the next year accepted his first head-coaching position -- at the former Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland. In 1955, he took over at Northwestern for a year, then moved to Western Illinois until entering the pro ranks in 1960 to coach the Patriots of the newly formed AFL. From there, Saban went to the Bills in 1962 and guided them to AFL championships in 1964 and 1965, the only championships the Bills have ever won. After a stint with the Broncos, Saban returned to Buffalo. During his second stint with the Bills from 1972 to 1976, he oversaw O.J. Simpson's record-breaking, 2,003-yard rushing season in 1973. After quitting the Bills in midseason of 1976, Saban spent two years at the University of Miami, where he recruited future Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly. Saban became known for quickly changing jobs. He coached Army in 1979 and spent 19 days as athletic director at the University of Cincinnati. He went on to coach at high schools, colleges and in the Arena Football League. Saban spent the 1990s starting or rebuilding programs at schools including Nebraska's Peru State and New York's Canton Tech and Alfred State, where he left before the team played its first game. He coached Central Florida in 1983 and 1984. "I've coached at all levels, covered the gamut, and I've never really seen any difference," Saban said after being hired to coach Alfred in 1994. "My coaching techniques are pretty much the same, with some adjustments for what younger players can and can't do." Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Joyce Saban said the family would have a Mass at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in North Myrtle Beach on Saturday.

Lala: Various - The Very Best of Prestige Records, disc 2 Disc 2 is mostly organ music.

Happy Birthday 2009 jl!

Fly is a trio made up of Mark Turner on tenor and soprano sax, Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums. They have a new album out this week called Sky & Country. They will be touring the US throughout April: April 9 - 12 New York, NY Jazz Standard April 14 Ulster, NY SUNY-Ulster April 15 &16 Boston, MA Berklee April 17 Cambridge, MA Regattabar April 18 La Jolla, CA Athenaeum April 20 Oakland, CA Yoshi's April 21-22 Seattle, WA Jazz Alley April 24 Portland, OR Jimmy Mak's April 26 Arcata, CA Redwood Jazz Alliance There are nine tracks on the album, with Turner relaxed on all of them. For the first six, Ballard is a colorist. The tracks are good, but I felt that they would have been better with the addition of a piano or a guitar. Turner has an interesting sound on the soprano sax. Very clear and round tone. He plays very low notes, and I thought he was playing an alto. For the last three tracks, Ballard wakes up and provides some real rhythm. To my taste those tracks are by far the best of the cd. I like Grenadier a lot, and he doesn't disappoint here. In regard to the tour, I would say that if the venue is convenient and you haven't taken your wife out for drinks in a while, then I would certainly recommend going. I think the concert would be interesting and enjoyable. But if the venue is inconvenient and expensive, I don't think this group will provide the lasting memories that would justify the effort. It's a very good record, but it's not that big a deal when Ballard isn't propelling the group.

Chuck, I won't say anything about Baja, I'll let TTK tell you what he thinks!

Judging by this group, I would say that the titles most in demand will be anything recently announced to be going out of print!

The Austrians are also hardcore limited government types, aren't they? That school of thought that says the markets will take care of themselves if we just eliminate government from the equation. Which is true, I suppose, as far as it goes. It might leave large swaths of us in ruin, but oh well. paps, Austiran economics does not consider justice (which to me as a Catholic is a fatal flaw), unless you want to believe that whatever the market decides is just. What the Austrians are correct about, in my view, is analyzing and predicting: If you do ABC, then XYZ will result. For example, I believe that the public should be aware of the interviews on CNN and Fox with Ron Paul and Peter Schiff because I believe their predictions are the best available. You can see them on YouTube. In their analyses, the Austrians don't tweek the proposals of the Keynesians, they say that the Keynesians' proposals are going in the wrong direction and will make things worse. They also say that it was the Keynesians who got us into this mess in the first place. That is why they want to abolish the Fed, not change Fed policy. (I know, the Fed was established in 1913 and Keynes came along later, so Keynesianism and private central banking are not identical.) By the way, in response to your original point, it's good that you agree that the Austrian analysis is, as you say, "true". I believe that the govt should start with Austrian economics and then make exceptions to the policy to ensure justice. (At present [and for many decades] the govt has based its policies on erroneous thinking, Keynesianism.) For example, slavery exists in the Sudan and I believe Uganda. Suppose a Sudanese capitalist suggests to Nike that with slave labor he can make shoes just as good the ones currently made for paltry wages by the Chinese for less and pass the savings on to Nike. The Austrians would analyze the proposal and tell you if it is correct. The Austrians would not deny its accuracy because of the repugnance of slavery. It would be for the govt to (in my view) place an embargo on goods made by slaves. But that would be a justice decision, not an economic one. For another example closer to home, the Pope in the Gay Nineties was Pope Leo. He wrote an encyclical in 1891 called Rerum Novarum which is the basis for Catholic social teaching. He details three wages: 1) the living wage - what a young bachelor right out of school needs to support himself, with expenses such as a very small apartment, transportation to work, food and clothing, etc. 2) the family wage - what the husband and father needs to support himself, his wife and his children, including buying a home. 3) the just wage - the family wage plus a little more to enjoy life and save up for a better life. Now in America today, there are many people who make less than a living wage. I haven't seen a figure on it. The federal govt used to keep track of what a living wage was in various parts of the country, but that practice was stopped during the Reagan administration. But we know that the govt said a couple of weeks ago that 31 million are now on food stamps, and the food stamp program is for people with jobs who don't make enough to feed themselves. Now in my opinion, this is an unjust situation. I believe that the minimum wage should be the living wage. I believe that if a businessman cannot afford to pay his employees enough to live on, he shouldn't be in that business. For example, in this area of North Carolina, a McDonald's franchise (just the franchise, not the building) costs $2.5 million. So having borrowed to purchase the franchise at that price, the franchise owners hire Mexicans and blacks and occassionally teenagers at less than a living wage. I believe that if the minimum wage were a living wage, the franchisee could still successfully operate a McDonald's, but the franchise would probably be worth less than $2.5 million. Ot to put it another way, if the antebellum plantation owners had said that they couldn't grow cotton without slaves and still make ends meet, they were told, in effect, "Then get out of the cotton business". All this is to say that in my view the current situation in America is grossly unjust, but this unjustice is a result of govt policy allowing for the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few capitalists rather than a result of Austrian economic analysis. (By the way, we Americans are given only two choices - capitalism, which is the concentration of wealth and the means of production in the hands of the few capitalists [in America today, one percent of the people own more wealth than ninety percent combined.]; and socialism, which is the concentration of wealth and the means of production in the hands of the govt and its few leaders. The more I read about distributism, which was an idea promoted during the Depression by GK Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc, the more I like it. Distributism calls for widespread ownership of land in particular, and corporations/factories so that we do not have the concentration of ownership.)

Lala: Various - The Very Best of Prestige Records, disc 1 This is a new 2-CD compilation celebrating Prestige's 60th anniversary.

I talk about the Austrian economists not because I agree with everything they suggest, but because nobody else around here talks about them. Moose, your article reminds me that one of the things I have always (since 1974 in my case) liked about the Austrians is their total rejection of the "It can't happen here" syndrome.

Lala: Sue Raney - All By Myself

Lala: Brownie: The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown, disc 2 ***** With Lala, if you want to hear an album more than once, you have to purchase it, usually for 80 cents, often less for jazz albums. So far I have purchased: Stan Getz - Sweet Rain Cal Tjader - Monterey Concerts Wayne Shorter - Schizophrenia Cannonball Adderley with Bossa Rio (Sergio Mendes) - Cannonball's Bossa Nova

Lala: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road

Tonight I've been listening to the last half of disc 4 of Coltrane's European Concerts box (which I mentioned earlier). Over to the right of the screen there is a box which lists "Albums you might like". The first one is The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Sonny Rollins. Good, I've already found that one. The next is The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown. Good, I've alrady found that one too. Then comes Dave Koz - Greatest Hits!!!! I don't know what the computer is thinking. Dave Koz has a lot of fans, but I can't imagine any of them liking Coltrane, and vice versa.

My understanding of the term genius is that, rather than being smarter than everyone else, it involves having a unique perspective or vision, and having one or more original ideas. So I would say that when it comes to the interpreting of a standard (or a song people other than the composer would want to play), jazz up through 1970 had a pretty fair number of geniuses. I suppose after 1970 the unique ideas were coming mostly from people who wanted to create their own sounds (and wrote their own songs) rather than interpret the songs of others. Since a number here have mentioned Lester Young and his game-changing method of playing his instrument, I would suggest that Jimmy Smith was a genius too. He created the hip stops on the organ, and invented a whole school of jazz.

See you on Judgment Day, Ptah!

Edmonton's Shannon Garrett retired yesterday. He had a solid career. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Edm...878576-sun.html ***** Burke Dales played out his option, and considered signing with the Bombers, but has decided to re-up with the Stamps. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Cal...878411-sun.html

Bill, I have no idea, and don't know how one would go about finding out, except to just recommend it to your friend and let him try.

I will be receiving Gary Burton's Passengers and Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition. I'll wait till Easter morning, and enjoy them then.

The Tigers are receiving flak because their home opener will be on Good Friday between noon and three. It's really hard to believe how out of touch the Commissioner's office could be. http://sports.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/...tsBaseball/home

Thanks for your suggestions and the links, guys! I have sent my contact this list, and she will go down and pick the first two that are in print: Mike Nock - Ondas Dave Holland - Conference of the Birds Jack DeJohnette - Special Edition Chick Corea - Return to Forever Pat Metheny - As Falls Wichita Gary Burton - Passengers Pat Metheny - Bright Size Life Gary Burton - Times Square I'm surprised that nobody mentioned what I think is my favorite ECM, Gary Burton's Real Life Hits.

Well, we're all getting older, but I never would have guessed that that was Gary Burton. I met him once in 1985, and I guess that that is so many years ago that I shouldn't expect people to look the same.

Lala: John Coltrane - Live Trane - The European Tours, disc 4

Lala: Lee Morgan - Cornbread

I have the opportunity to get two cd's from ECM's entire catalogue of 1200 titles. I know that many, perhaps most, of you are more familiar with the ECM catalogue than I am, and I would appreciate your suggestions. So let's narrow it down. I would prefer: a) songs that Jon Hendricks could write lyrics to if he wanted to. b) a band with a full complement of musicians, including bass and drums. I have enough Keith Jarrett to last me the next three or four years. Twenty years ago I got a couple of Gary Burton's that I like a great deal. Maybe a Chick Corea. Maybe a Pat Metheny. Maybe Carla Bley. Any ideas?

Lala: Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder I have had the title track for forty years on countless compilations. I'm sick of it. But this is the first time I have heard the album, and I enjoy it. I had no idea it sounds so much like Horace Silver.