GA Russell

Thanks to Aggie's codes, I've just pulled the trigger on these four: Various Artists - Cafe Jazz (Savoy bebop) Manu Katche - Neighbourhood (I thiink it was sidewinder who strongly recommended this.) Horace Silver - Horace-Scope (has Nica's Dream on it) Return to Forever - Light as a Feather (I've heard it's good.)

Maybe it was F8E2 - I tried F8E1 through 4, and two of 'em worked. Try again, Nojjy! Thanks Aggie and Noj! Now there's no excuse for everyone not to get the two March AotW's!

Noj, I bet you didn't know that Groove Holmes' recording with Gerald Wilson was the first jazz organ with big band recording. I had thought that the first was a Jimmy Smith with Oliver Nelson effort, but I was wrong. I got Super Soul a couple of years ago, and didn't think that it was all that great. I didn't think much effort was put into the arrangements. But I guess at eMusic's prices you can't complain!

I'm going to be away on business next week, so I thought I would jump the gun and start the discussion tonight. Two things struck me about this album. The first was how much the band sounded like Buddy Rich's PJ band. Very brassy. This was recorded in June of 1959, and Rich's first PJ album was recorded in September of 1966. Do you notice how many different arrangers there are on this album? Slide Hampton did two standards and an original, Willie Maiden did two, Benny Golson two, and one each by Marty Paich, Don Sebesky and Jimmy Giuffre. I compared that to Rich's first PJ album, and saw that Oliver Nelson did the majority of those. So I wonder if Rich asked Nelson to give him a sound like Maynard's. The second thing I noticed here was Freddie Dunlop. I'm not particularly familiar with Dunlop's work with Monk (or much of Monk's Columbia recordings for that matter), but Dunlop plays here in a much more showy manner than what I expected. In fact, I would say that Maynard and Dunlop are the two stars of the band. Maynard was famous for his ability to hit the high notes, but I don't think that what he does here in that regard comes off particularly well. His mid-range playing is much more articulate and pleasant to listen to IMO. It's interesting that Joe Zawinul got the gig with Maynard just a month after arriving in the US. I wonder if the band's Mosaic box constitutes Joe's first American recordings. edit - You know I mean Frankie Dunlop!

Thanks, Larry. I too thought it was pronounced with a short e. As I recall, Victor Feldman played piano and vibes/marimbas professionally as an adult, and as a child he played drums professionally.

I want to give you a heads up now that the AotW for the last two weeks of March will be Miles' soundtrack to Ascenseur pour l'echafaud. We have had two threads about this album, but both of them have been about the number of tracks or sound quality of a particular re-issue - not about the music itself. http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;hl=Ascenseur http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;hl=Ascenseur It is available from BMG/Your Music, and from Amazon (Use the board link!) for $11.98. http://www.amazon.com/Ascenseur-Pour-l%C3%...5797&sr=8-2

Availability of The Very Best Of The Searchers is limited, and it may no longer be available on its shipping date of 05/07. If you would like to purchase this item while it is in stock, please add it to your Shopping Cart and buy it now.

Here's the latest: http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainme...=22&sp=true LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin has more than just a stalled merger with XM Satellite on his mind. He's also wondering what it's going to cost to keep his star talker, Howard Stern, on board. "Great content costs money," Karmazin reminded analysts Tuesday during a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings. "If Howard is on the call and listening, if he would like to extend his deal at less money, we would be interested in that," Karmazin told the analysts. "But from my history with him, I don't think that is apt to happen." Stern costs Sirius $500 million for five years, and he's in his third year already. Add to that the billions Sirius spent on rights to the NFL, NBA, NASCAR and other content, not to mention the building and launching of expensive satellites, and its easy to see why Sirius wants so desperately to merge with XM, though regulators have yet to approve that plan. In fact, the termination date for the merger deal is Saturday, though Karmazin said Tuesday that he expects the boards of both companies to meet before then to extend the deadline. XM will no doubt update analysts Thursday when it reports financial results. Karmazin was once optimistic that the merger would be complete at the end of 2007, even while referring to it on occasion as "an uphill battle." Not only has Karmazin's timetable been thrashed, but the one-year anniversary of the deal struck on February 19, 2007, also has passed, a significant milestone given that more than 200 mergers have been completed since then, each taking an average 110 days to complete. Still, the bureaucrats aren't in any hurry. In fact, 10 months into the process, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asked the Justice Department not to "rush through" an approval, if there is to be one. "We wait by our telephone," Karmazin said Tuesday. "But we really have not heard anything from them. It has been more radio silence than anything else." Even if the DOJ approves, the Federal Communications Commission must also bless the merger. Karmazin also said that confusion about the merger among consumers is having a negative impact on retail sales, though Sirius posted better-than-expected quarterly results Tuesday. The company added 654,000 new subscribers to 8.3 million on its way to losing $166.2 million, compared with a loss of $245.6 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 29% to $249.8 million. Sirius posted a full-year net loss of $565.3 million; the year earlier it lost $1.1 billion. Sirius and XM together have burned through billions in the past decade, and merging the companies, by some estimates, would save them an equal amount over the next several years. Many observers seem to think there's not much of a reason to reject the planned merger, though that hasn't stopped Wall Street from hammering the stock prices as if deal approval were a long shot. Since February 20, 2007, Sirius shares have fallen 22% to $3.05, while XM shares have sunk 15% to $13.13. Regulators presumably have been considering for more than a year now the question of whether a merger of the only two satellite radio firms in the nation would constitute a monopoly that would harm consumers. But most observers seem to have come to the conclusion long ago that the answer is no, considering that sat radio is used mostly in vehicles where competing devices like free radio, iPod docks and CD players are also options, as are DVD players. Soon, the Internet and satellite television will become mainstream attractions in cars, as well. Anyone blocking the deal on the grounds that merging the two companies would stifle competition "may as well lay on the ground and become fossil fuel for that kind of dinosaur thinking," Motley Fool senior analyst Rick Munarriz said. Munarriz, like others, worries that two competing satellite radio services can't survive. If they don't merge, Munarriz predicts, "one or the other will fail, and that will give the victor the monopoly it wanted." Munarriz suggests that investors buy shares of XM and Sirius because the stocks will pop when the merger is approved. "Obviously it's a gamble to get in at this point, but the uncertainty is also discounting the shares," he said. Steve Birenberg of Northlake Capital also advises buying the stocks, but he says to sell them once the deal is approved and buyers rush in. "I don't think that satellite radio will ever be the pervasive technology for in-car entertainment based on the current subscription model," he said. One particularly bearish analyst, Mark Wienkes, said recently that it is "increasingly unlikely" that regulators will block the deal, though he wouldn't buy either stock, merger or no merger. "Our outlook for satellite radio is cautious given our view of unrealistic cash flow expectations," he said. Karmazin touted several positive outcomes if the merger were approved, including a la carte programming and cheaper prices for consumers. Plus, the company and its shareholders will benefit from increased advertising revenue. Sirius only sells about $35 million a year in ads, an anemic amount considering it features dozens of channels with advertising, including two with Howard Stern. "We ought to be doing a better job in selling Howard," Karmazin said Tuesday. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Sorry, aloc. I didn't see that you beat me to it! http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=40054

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080...-0-is-dead.html Five hundred top members of the music business gathered today in New York to hear that "music 1.0 is dead." Ted Cohen, a former EMI exec who used the phrase, opened the Digital Music Forum East by pleading with the industry to be wildly creative with new business models but not to "be desperate" during this transitional period. But what is music transitioning to? No one seemed quite sure, except to say that it won't look much like the music business of the last several decades. Consider the statements that were made today without controversy: DRM on purchased music is dead A utility pricing model or flat-rate fee for music might be the way to go Ad-supported streaming music sites like iMeem are legitimate players Indie music accounts for upwards of 30 percent of music sales Napster isn't losing $70 million per quarter (and is breaking even) The music business is a bastion of creativity and experimentation Only a few years ago, none of those statements would have been true, but perhaps none is more striking than the last. Panelists from every sector of the digital media marketplace were in agreement that the major labels, under the pressure of eroding profits, have been forced to become experimental in their business dealings and to do deals that would have been deemed too risky only months before. Just within the last year, we've seen an array of experiments that include ad-supported streaming, "album cards" from labels like Sony BMG, and allowing Amazon to offer MP3s from all four majors. Some labels even allow user-generated content to make use of their music in return for a revenue share from sites like YouTube—unthinkable a few years ago to a business wedded to control over its music and marketing. YouTube's Glenn Otis Brown says that the labels now have less of a "standoff mentality" and are ready to deal. That innovation has been paying off. Interscope now rakes in 40 percent of its total revenues from digital sales, while Sony BMG makes 30 percent (in the US), but this hasn't been nearly enough to offset the loss in revenue from plummeting CD sales. While the majors once held all the cards when it came to licensing music (and they used their power to negotiate revenue splits on the order of 85/15), they aren't quite so powerful any more. In fact, several audience members and panelists even questioned whether major music labels brought much to the table besides their back catalogs. Who needs a label? Ted Mico, the head of digital strategy at Interscope, defended the majors by saying that "anyone who has spent an hour or a day listening to demos understands the labels' place in the food chain"; that is, labels provide both filtering and then marketing of music. Without their help, promising artists would be lost in a sea of noise and would be almost impossible for music lovers to discover. This attitude was deconstructed during the very next panel, where the CEO of social music recommendation site iLike pointed out that labels, in fact, don't actually need to spend their time listening to demos; customers have already done it for them. Social networking sites like MySpace show that it works. Do music labels still need expensive A&R staff when they can simply listen to works of any band with over 50,000 MySpace friends? The message, in other words, was "Music 2.0, welcome to Web 2.0." The contrast between these two ways of looking at the world—one rooted in a more elitist and expensive model, the other open to the "wisdom of crowds" and its democratic ideals—underscored a broader theme that emerged from the first day of the conference: the music business is a complicated place. Internecine warfare was the order of the day, so much so that the disagreements from one panel of music luminaries drew an impassioned plea for the infighting to end. David Del Beccaro, the president of Music Choice, laid out a clear case for change and for labels to focus more on building long-term partners than on short-term advances and profits, but he sees the music industry's fundamental transformation as taking ten to twenty years to complete. In a business changing this quickly, that could mean death. Greg Scholl, boss of indie label The Orchard, pointed out that the music business is not just four companies, and that indie music's market share is now approaching one-third... and it's growing. Indies have also been more open, historically, to experiments such as selling music without DRM. If the major labels take more than a decade to turn the ship around, they risk running a ghost ship with little in its cargo hold but a valuable back catalog. The indies could instead become the place for fresh new music and even for established artists who want more control (we saw that last year with Paul McCartney, John Fogerty, and James Taylor, for instance). [That's Concord, folks.] But no one quite knows how it will all shake out at this point. As Sony BMG's Thomas Hesse put it, "the next big thing is a dozen things." That's a scary thought to labels that pursued only one thing—the sale of recorded music on pieces of plastic—for decades.

Legendary Pittsburgh broadcaster Myron Cope has died. I remember once in the 70s when I lived there calling him up on his talk show, and we discussed the Canadian league! Here's his AP obit: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home Myron Cope dies at 79 Associated Press February 27, 2008 at 3:07 PM EST PITTSBURGH — Myron Cope, the screechy-voiced announcer whose colorful catch phrases and twirling Terrible Towel became symbols of the Pittsburgh Steelers during an unrivaled 35 seasons in the broadcast booth, has died. He was 79. Cope died Wednesday morning at a nursing home in Mount Lebanon, a Pittsburgh suburb, Joe Gordon, a former Steelers executive and a longtime friend of Cope's, told The Associated Press. Cope had been treated for respiratory problems and heart failure in recent months, Gordon said. Cope's tenure from 1970-2004 as the color analyst on the Steelers' radio network is the longest in NFL history for a broadcaster with a single team and led to his induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2005. "His memorable voice and unique broadcasting style became synonymous with Steelers football," Steelers president Art Rooney II said Wednesday. "They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery and no Pittsburgh broadcaster was impersonated more than Myron." Pittsburgh Steelers broadcaster Myron Cope works the Steelers game against the New York Jets at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh in this Dec. 12, 2004 file photo. (Keith B. Srakocic/AP) Beyond Pittsburgh's three rivers, Cope is best known for the yellow cloth twirled by fans as a good luck charm at Steelers games since the mid-1970s. The towel is arguably the best-known fan symbol of any major pro sports team, has raised millions of dollars for charity and is displayed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "His creation of The Terrible Towel has developed into a worldwide symbol that is synonymous with Steelers football," Steelers chairman Dan Rooney said Wednesday. "You were part of the team," Dan Rooney told Cope in 2005. "The Terrible Towel many times got us over the goal line." Even after retiring, Cope — a sports talk show host for 23 years — continued to appear in numerous radio, TV and print ads, emblematic of a local popularity that sometimes surpassed that of the stars he covered. An announcer by accident, Cope spent the first half as his professional career as one of the nation's most widely read freelance sports writers, writing for Sports Illustrated and the Saturday Evening Post on subjects that included Muhammad Ali, Howard Cosell and Roberto Clemente. He was hired by the Steelers at age 40, several years after he began doing TV sports commentary on the whim of a station manager, mostly to help increase attention and attendance as the Steelers moved into Three Rivers Stadium. "I think he always thought of himself as a writer first and sort of an entertainer second and wound up having a lot of fun with the entertainment side of it," Art Rooney said at a news conference Wednesday. Neither the Steelers nor Cope had any idea how much impact he would make on a five-time Super Bowl champion franchise that, within two years of his hiring, would begin a string of home sellouts that continues to this day. "Myron brought Steelers football closer to the fans than any other one person," Art Rooney said. "He just made the fans feel a part of it." Cope became so popular that the Steelers didn't try to replace his unique perspective and top-of-the-lungs vocal histrionics when he retired, instead downsizing from a three-man announcing team to a two-man booth. "He doesn't play, he doesn't put on a pair of pads, but he's revered probably as much or more in Pittsburgh than Franco (Harris), all the guys," running back Jerome Bettis said. "Everybody probably remembers Myron more than the greatest players, and that's an incredible compliment." Cope and a rookie quarterback named Terry Bradshaw made their Steelers debuts on Sept. 20, 1970. Just as Pirates fans once did with longtime broadcaster Bob Prince, Steelers fans began tuning in to hear what wacky stunt or colorful phrase Cope would come up with next. With a voice beyond imitation — a falsetto shrill that could pierce even the din of a touchdown celebration — Cope was a man of many words, some not in any dictionary. To Cope, an exceptional play rated a "Yoi!" A coach's doublespeak was "garganzola." The despised rival to the north was always the Cleve Brownies, never the Cleveland Browns. He gave four-time Super Bowl champion coach Chuck Noll the only nickname that ever stuck, the Emperor Chaz. For years, he laughed off the downriver and often downtrodden Cincinnati Bengals as the Bungles, though never with a malice or nastiness that would create longstanding anger. "I guess sometimes in the football business we all take ourselves too seriously and Myron never let anybody do that, so he had that knack for sort of reminding us of what business we were in," Art Rooney said. Many visiting players who, perhaps upset by what Cope had uttered during a broadcast, could only laugh when confronted by a 5-foot-4 man they often dwarfed by more than a foot. During the years, it seemed every Steelers player or employee could tell an offbeat or humorous story about Cope. He once jammed tight end Dave Smith, fully dressed in uniform and pads, into a cab for a hectic ride to the airport after Smith missed the team bus for an interview. He talked a then-retired Frank Sinatra into attending a 1972 practice in San Diego to make him an honorary general in Franco Harris' Italian Army fan club. He took a wintertime river swim in 1977 to celebrate an unexpected win, and was sick for days. Cope's biggest regret was not being on the air during perhaps the most famous play in NFL history — Franco Harris' famed Immaculate Reception against Oakland in 1972, during the first postseason win in Steelers history. Cope was on the field to grab guests for his postgame show when Harris, on what seemingly was the last play of the Steelers' season, grabbed the soaring rebound of a tipped Terry Bradshaw pass after it deflected off either the Raiders' Jack Tatum or the Steelers' Frenchy Fuqua and scored a game-winning 60-yard touchdown. As a result, play-by-play man Jack Fleming's voice is the only one heard on what has been countless replays over the years. "He ran straight to me in the corner, and I'm yelling, 'C'mon Franco, c'mon on!,"' said Cope, who, acting on a fan's advice, tagged the play "The Immaculate Reception" during a TV commentary that night. Remarkably, Cope worked with only two play-by-play announcers, Fleming and Bill Hillgrove, and two head coaches, Noll and Bill Cowher, during his 35 seasons. Cope began having health problems shortly before his retirement, and they continued after he left the booth. They included several bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis — he smoked throughout his career — a concussion and a leg problem that took months to properly diagnose. He also said he had a cancerous growth removed from his throat. "Wherever I go, people sincerely ask me how my health is and almost always, they say 'Myron, you've given me so much joy over the years,"' said Cope, who also found the time to write five sports books, none specifically about the Steelers. "People also tell me it's the end of an era, that there will never be an announcer who lasts this long again with a team." Among those longtime listeners was a Pittsburgh high school star turned NFL player turned Steelers coach — Bill Cowher. "My dad would listen to his talk show and I would think, 'Why would you listen to that?"' Cowher said. "Then I found myself listening to that. I (did) my show with him, and he makes ME feel young." Funeral arrangements were not immediately available. Art Rooney said the team might plan some sort of tribute in the future but prefers to let Cope's family grieve privately for now.

Happy Birthday Michel!

Happy Birthday Noj!

Appropos, the Eskimos cut Omarr Morgan and Rob Brown today. I don't expect them to have difficulty finding a job elsewhere if they are willing to play for what they are offered. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Edm...4878442-cp.html

I'm not sure what this means for the future of music, but I suspect that it means something. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/02..._in_the_us.html 20 million in one day is a lot!

Bev, no Roninettes! My linkage of Holon with Hatfield's first album is based primarily upon the similarities of the electric basses' interaction with the keyboards. I consider the Hatfield album to be superior, but I enjoy Holon in part because I haven't heard anything like it for thirty years! edit for typo

World, I should have mentioned that Hatfield used electric instruments, while Ronin uses acoustic (except bass). So it's possible for one to like one group and not the other for that reason. But if you like Holon, I bet you will like Hatfield's first album even more.

Welcome back TJ!

Stan Getz - the Roost box, disc 2

Let's distinguish the origin of the music from the origin of the marketing. In 1985 there was a disc jockey in Atlanta named Russ Davis who had a popular show in the evening called "Jazz Flavors". I knew people who thought they were listening to jazz with this stuff. A year or so later, he took what I assumed to be a better-paying job in New York. I always figured that his success in New York paved the way for stations around the country to adopt the format. I don't believe I ever heard the phrase "smooth jazz" until after he moved to New York.

Eagle Day has died. I had his bubble gum card in 1964. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home PS - Here's a better obituary. I didn't know that he was the Redskins' punter in '60 and '61. The Redskins were the worst team in the league then, and I never saw them on TV. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...4871109-cp.html

I believe the first Impulse! album of the second generation was one by Henry Butler, which as I recall was self-titled (but maybe not), circa 1986. Universal had Diana Krall first on GRP. They moved her to Impulse in 1996 for her All For You album. I'm guessing it was about two years later that they moved her to Verve. As I recall, Horace Silver's The Hardbop Grandpop album was issued on Impulse! His 1999 followup Jazz Has a Sense of Humor was issued on Verve. So I'm guessing that the Impulse! label was dropped in 1999 in favor of Verve. I'm not aware of anything being issued on Impulse! since then. Obviously, someone with a discography would know, and make my recollections and speculations moot.

The first that comes to mind was a Herbie Mann gig at the Cellar Door in early 1969. In the band were Steve Marcus, Roy Ayers, Sonny Sharock, Miroslav Vitous and Bruno Carr! edit for grammar

TTK, you may find of interest this thread on the Adventure Music label: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;hl=Adventure I particularly recommend the Moacir Santos album Choros & Alegria mentioned in post #2 of that thread.

Jazztropic, you can get Swings Shubert Alley from the Jazz Heritage Society for 99 cents plus shipping when you join. No further obligation, you can quit after a couple of months.