GA Russell

Clete Boyer died today of a massive stroke. He was 70. He was in town here just two or three weeks ago for an autograph session. When I was a boy I watched Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese every week, and almost every week they showed the Yankees game. Boyer was the third baseman. On a team of sluggers, he was the slick fielding singles hitter. It's funny. I hated the Yankees and always rooted against them until World Series time when I would root for them because I was an American League fan. But I don't have anything but positive memories of the Yankee players themselves. They all seemed to be class guys (at least until I read Joe Pepitone's autobiography). I'll post an obit when I see one tomorrow.

Thanks kh. I've put the Tolliver in my queue for next month.

Luis Parga was the pianist in that group, though Sergio led a similar trio during that time. Thanks TTK. I don't know Parga. I gather you like him?

I never thought I would be posting to the Anthony Braxton thread! Our local paper the Raleigh News & Observer each day lists celebrities' birthdays. I know I'm getting old as more and more of these celebrities are people younger than me whom I have never heard of. Most of the celebrities are Hollywood or young rock types, but today they listed Anthony Braxton, age 62! I thought he was older than that.

Walter Egan - The Last Stroll (Columbia DJ copy) 1980 Walt was a friend of mine in college. He had a hit you may remember called You are a Magnet, and I am Steel. The Very Best of The Classics IV (United Artists) 1975 compilation

I recognize Sebastiao Neto in the lower left. Is that Sergio Mendes in the lower right?

Today I opened up Cal Tjader Plugs In from my recent dccblowout.com Skye order. Steve Hoffman's name is nowhere to be found. I thought he remastered all of the Skye recordings for DCC, but I guess not.

Thanks for that informative post, Rooster. I suppose that the EWI (electonic wind instrument) that Michael Brecker used should be considered something like "the Varitone that caught on". I've never seen a picture of it. Now that Brecker has passed away, perhaps the EWI will fade away as well.

The Free Spirits (Cdn. Sparton/ABC mono) 1966? Kevin Ayers - Whatevershebringswesing (Br. Harvest) 1974? Gringo (Decca) 1971

The demand for a new ballpark/arena never stops, does it? Now it is Seattle. I can understand why so many people prefer college sports. Of course, the colleges are tax funded; but they're not threatening to move all the time! http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...Basketball/home Sonics owner losing hope of keeping team in Seattle Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City businessman who owns the SuperSonics says he is losing hope that a way will be found to keep the NBA team in Seattle. "I'm probably as pessimistic as I've been," Clay Bennett told The Oklahoman Tuesday. "Not to say I've lost complete hope. We'll evaluate thoroughly any potential lead, but we're out of ideas." Bennett said he has begun preliminary discussions with Oklahoma City and Kansas City about possible relocation. "My expectation and my belief is that if we leave Seattle, we're quite likely headed to Oklahoma City," Bennett said. "But that decision has to be made with appropriate due diligence. We have to do that work. Just can't proclaim we're moving here." He said that when he and his partners first bought the Seattle SuperSonics last summer, he would drive around the Puget Sound area marveling. "I couldn't get my hands around what good fortune, to have a team in that marketplace with a new facility," said Bennett. "I really thought we would get a deal done. An extraordinary opportunity. "But lately, I don't have those same feelings." Bennett said despite last week's news that the Sonics will pick second in the NBA draft, giving them either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, there has been no momentum on finding a way to build a new arena, which is the key to keeping the team in Seattle. "For now, without a building solution, it's our intent to play in Seattle and apply for relocation immediately after the (Oct. 31) deadline," Bennett said. The Oklahoma City group agreed to give Seattle until Oct. 31 to produce an arena deal.

Here's a follow-up. Many more players have applied for aid than they expected. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home 35 ex-NFL players qualify for dementia-Alzheimer's assistance Associated Press NEW YORK — Gene Upshaw was taken aback when he first saw the list of retired NFL players applying for financial help under a new program to help those with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. "I played with or against quite a few of these guys," the executive director of the NFL players' union said Wednesday. "I knew one or two were having problems, but I never knew the extent." Upshaw, a Hall of Fame guard for the Oakland Raiders from 1968-82, is one of four people being honored Thursday night by the Alzheimer's Association of New York for helping start the "88" plan. It provides up to $88,000 from the NFL and the union to help with the care of players afflicted with dementia or related brain problems. Since the plan took effect Feb. 1, 35 retired players have been approved for aid, with 19 more applications pending. That's up from 21 players two months ago, when the league and union were still trying to go beyond what Upshaw called "word of mouth" in identifying players. Now the identification is being done through the Bert Bell retirement fund, which handles pensions for more than 9,000 retired players, with the money coming from a trust fund administered by the league and union. So far, according to the NFL, 103 potential candidates for aid have been identified. There are 54 applications, and no one has been turned down. The applications of 19 players who have not yet been certified are to be reviewed. But it's still hard to know many ex-players need help. "A lot of people are embarrassed to talk about it or to acknowledge they have a problem," says Dan Rooney, the Pittsburgh Steelers owner and a member of the NFL committee that oversees the plan. "They can have lucid moments when they think things are going all right." The plan is part of the labor contract agreed upon in March 2006 by the league and union and is administered by Upshaw and Harold Henderson, an NFL senior vice president. The "88" is the number of Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, one of the first former players who qualified. His wife, Sylvia, was instrumental in persuading Upshaw and former commissioner Paul Tagliabue to include aid for dementia in the new contract. NFL and union officials say the correlation between NFL players and Alzheimer's is anecdotal rather than scientific, and experts in the field agree. But the heightened interest in the subject follows the death of Andre Waters, who committed suicide last November at 44. Reports concluded he had brain damage that resulted from multiple concussions during 12 years as an NFL safety. In addition, The Boston Globe and The New York Times reported in February that 34-year-old Ted Johnson, who spent 10 years as a linebacker with the New England Patriots, shows early signs of Alzheimer's. Activists view the NFL/NFLPA program as a landmark. "This is the first union and industry program of its kind and it's the first that recognizes the burden the disease puts on families," said Lou-Ellen Barkan, president and chief executive of the New York Alzheimer's Association. On Thursday, that group will honor Upshaw and Henderson as well as Sylvia Mackey and Dr. Eleanor Perfetto, wife of Ralph Wenzel, the only other former player who has been publicly identified as part of the program. Under the program, players can receive up to $50,000 a year for home care and up to $88,000 if they are institutionalized. Barkan said that's part of an ignored part of the burden of Alzheimer's — those with dementia or Alzheimer's need full-time care, and spouses or children must quit jobs to give full-time care. "Something like this allows them to hire help," Barkan said. "It allows them to keep jobs without the burden of also being a full-time caregiver. Those involved with the program say they can't demonstrate clearly that dementia among football players correlates with football. "I'll leave it for the doctors to decide that," Upshaw says. "A lot of the guys we're talking about are pretty much up in age, so it's hard to know why they have the problem." Barkan agrees but notes: "Just from what doctors tell us, there is a strong correlation from multiple concussions and the onset of problems."

I was a season ticket holder of the Philadelphia (and Baltimore) Stars of the USFL all three years. My friends and I always had a ball at the games. The best game I have ever attended (of any sport) was a 1983 playoff game between the Stars and the Chicago Blitz, who as I recall were coached by George Allen. Anyway, I thought you sports fans would like to read this: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home Cuban looking at possibility of a new football league Associated Press and Canadian Press Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is part of a group considering formation of a football league that would compete with the NFL for players drafted after the second round. The league, still very much in the preliminary stage, would play its games on Friday nights. The NFL does not play then because of the potential conflict with high school football. "It's a pretty simple concept," Cuban said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "We think there is more demand for pro football than supply." The proposal was first disclosed by The New York Times on its website, which said it was the idea of Bill Hambrecht, a Wall Street investor who was a minority partner in the Oakland Invaders of the USFL, which played in the spring from 1983 to '85. Sharon Smith, a spokeswoman for Hambrecht and Company, had no comment and said Hambrecht was travelling and unavailable to talk about the idea. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said he was aware of the proposed league, but had no further comment. Cuban believes the salary cap makes it easier to compete financially with the NFL because of the salary imbalance that leaves lower-level players with lower salaries. That would allow the new league to fill its rosters with players taken lower than the second round, as well as late NFL cuts and free agents who escape the NFL draft. That could have an impact on the CFL, which routinely targets NFL cuts and players bypassed in the NFL draft to continue playing football in Canada. A big selling point for the Canadian league is its longstanding working agreement with the NFL, which give players entering the option year of their CFL deals a window to sign on with clubs south of the border. That not only gives many players released by NFL clubs a second option, but literally a second chance at returning to an NFL team after a brief detour to Canada. Then again, many late NFL draft picks — most notably Tom Brady, a former sixth-round selection of the New England Patriots — have become stars. "That's not to say it will be easy. It won't," Cuban wrote. "We still have to cover quite a bit of ground and have a lot of milestones to hit. "That said, if we can get the right owners I obviously think we can make this work." There have been numerous leagues that have tried to compete with the NFL and a few that actually played games, starting with the AFL, which began in 1960 and fully merged with the NFL a decade later. It included such current franchises as New England, Oakland, Kansas City, San Diego, Buffalo, the New York Jets and Denver. More recently came the World Football League in the early 1970s, which raided the NFL for such stars as Larry Csonka. Then came the USFL, which played in the spring before folding after receiving only US$3 in an antitrust "victory" over the NFL. The USFL featured such future Hall of Famers as Jim Kelly, Reggie White and Steve Young, but lost millions trying to compete for players. It also had internal struggles among a majority of owners who wanted to stay in the spring, and the best known among them, Donald Trump, who wanted to move to the fall and try to force a merger with the NFL. The most recent pro football league was the XFL, founded by the World Wrestling Federation and televised by NBC. The XFL lasted just three months in the spring of 2001 and was best known for a player named Rod Smart, called "He Hate Me," who later played as a return man and backup running back in the NFL. So far, the proposed new league is in its infancy and Cuban is the only potential owner for what the founders hope will be an eight-team league.

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This follows up on the idea that the major labels will move their emphasis from CDs to publishing, as discussed in the New York Times article the other day. http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSWEN845420070530 Viacom to sell Famous Music to Sony/ATV Wed May 30, 2007 9:48AM EDT By Yinka Adegoke NEW YORK (Reuters) - Viacom Inc. (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research (VIA.N: Quote, Profile, Research said on Wednesday it will sell its Famous Music publishing unit to Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The total value of the deal is $400 million, including $370 million in cash and debt of $30 million, according to a source familiar with the talks. Famous Music's catalogue of over 125,000 songs and sound cues includes music by Eminem and Shakira as well as movie soundtracks from "The Godfather" and "Mission Impossible." Famous was founded originally as a unit to publish songs from movies. The deal is the first major move by recently appointed Sony/ATV Chief Executive Martin Bandier, the former head of EMI Music Publishing who left EMI earlier this year. As part of the deal, Sony/ATV will be entering the production music business through the Famous Extreme division. Sony/ATV is jointly owned by Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research (SNE.N: Quote, Profile, Research and pop star Michael Jackson. Its catalogue includes songs by The Beatles, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. "The depth and breadth of the catalogue is what truly makes it great," said Bandier in a statement. Music publishing has become one of the more coveted segments of the music industry as recorded music has been severely hit by piracy and the transition from physical sales to digital music files. Publishing is less vulnerable to the vagaries of music retailing as it generates revenue by licensing songs to a variety of sources, including television, advertising, radio and live performance. Earlier this month, French media giant Vivendi SA's (VIV.PA: Quote, Profile, Research Universal Music Publishing Group unit became the world's largest music publisher after it bought BMG Music Publishing in a $2.19 billion deal. Other music companies have also said they intend to expand their publishing catalogues.

Happy Birthday Pete!

I bought a couple of copies of Jazz Magazine in '67, and I noticed that the difference between it and Downbeat was that Jazz had a much more positive attitude toward the Impulse! label, and didn't mind dissing "Leonard the Feather". So it doesn't surprise me that Shepp placed so high.

I believe that Coryell deserves to be in the Downbeat Hall of Fame. He was the first to combine jazz with rock with his group The Free Spirits, whose album Out of Sight and Sound (ABC 593) was produced by Bob Thiele, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, and had liner notes by Nat Hentoff. I have the LP in my hand, and I don't see a date, but I'm pretty sure it was recorded in 1965 or '66 at the latest. Bob Moses was the group's drummer. From there, Coryell went on to Chico Hamilton's group, and then recorded with Gary Burton. He was on the cover of the first Downbeat I ever purchased, in the summer of '67. I don't think any of his albums I have are perfect, but I recommend Offering on Vanguard as well as Barefoot Boy on Flying Dutchman. Both feature Steve Marcus. I also strongly recommend the Marcus album he is on called Count's Rock Band.

Here is an article from two months ago that I just found tonight. I have somewhat recently mentioned that teenagers I know are more interested in video games than in pop music. I feel that that fact could be a reason for the decline in sales of music aimed at teenagers. That is not mentioned in this article, but it fits right in with it. http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insi..._cd_im_jus.html March 21, 2007 Music CD, I'm just not that into you Aaron Pressman There's a fascinating if flawed story in the WSJ today about the decline in sales of music CDs. There's much to and fro about what's behind the drop. The industry as always wants to blame piracy. Critics want to blame poor quality of product, bad marketing tactics and digital rights restricting technologies. There's even some far-sighted commentary about changing business models. But this article, and similar ones you've no doubt read a thousand times in recent years over declines in music sales and movie attendance, miss the boat. And it's a pretty big and obvious boat at that. There are only so many hours in a day for each of us -- the consumers of entertainment -- to consume entertainment. Various new forms of entertainment that catch on have to displace some of the time we spent on our former diversions. While CD sales are down, the number of households with DVD players more than tripled over the past five years to 84 million and sales of DVDs rose to 1.1 billion from 313 million in 2001. Does anyone really think that consumers could buy 800 million more DVDs, worth $10 billion or more, without cutting back on some other entertainment spending? Similarly, the number of households with broadband Internet connections almost quadrupled to over 36 million. At $30 a month, that's another $9 billion a year right there. The number of households with access to video on demand hit 24 million in 2005, ten times the 2001 level. And now Internet video is just starting up (Ironically, there's a review in another section of the WSJ today touting Apple's new Apple TV device to bring video and music purchased and downloaded from the Internet to your TV). For investors, the lesson is that it's tough to buck the odds. Established players almost always fail to adapt to change. It's the nature of a free market. Today's WSJ story about music sales reminded me of the accelerating drop in old-fashioned film sales that Kodak has experienced over the past few years. So you won't be surprised to learn that if you look at the five-year stock market performance of the 130 or so sub-industry sectors tracked by Morningstar, radio, film and TV producers, broadcast TV, advertising and media conglomerates are five of the 12 worst performers, the very worst. Here's the context: The S&P 500 averaged a 6% annual gain over the past five years, the small-cap Russell 2000 rose 12% a year and even the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index climbed 5% annually. Meanwhile investors in media conglomerates saw their stocks rise less than 3% a year, in advertising just 2% and in TV broadcasters less than 0.3% annually. Owners of film and TV producers lost 1% annually and radio investors burned down the house losing an average of 9% a year over the past five years. Ouch. Ironically, given all the complaining that the Motion Picture Association of America does about piracy, my entire "it's just that simple" thesis is spelled out in the back pages of very informative research report that the group issued on the state of the 2005 U.S. entertainment industry. If you flip near the back to page 51, you'll see a table of how many hours a year the average consumer "spends" on various forms of commercial entertainment. In the four years from 2001 to 2005, overall time spent on these pursuits rose to 3,482 hours per person from 3,356 hours, about a 4% increase. But that didn't benefit all forms of entertainment equally. Here's a table I've created from the MPAA report showing the change in hours per person spent by activity: Cable and satellite TV +125 Consumer Internet +52 Home video +29 Broadcast and satellite radio +26 Wireless content +15 Video games +12 Consumer books 0 Movies (at the theater) -1 Consumer magazines -3 Daily newspapers -14 Recorded music -50 Broadcast TV -65 You get the same picture when you look at the average dollars spent by entertainment consumers (from a chart on page 53). Overall spending per person rose to $890.77 a year from $675.35, a healthy 32% increase. Spending on television (cable, video on demand etc) plus home video (DVDs) soaked up more than half of the total increase. Throw in Internet spending and you've accounted for 90%. No surprise then that spending on newspapers and recorded music actually declined.

Hey, you're right John! I'm so used to CDs coming out on Tuesdays that I didn't think it through. Today is Tuesday, isn't it?

That's today!

Today I opened up Gabor Szabo's Spellbinder, which was my Your Music queue selection from a few months back. It's pretty good, but not great. Szabo's records had a unique sound, and I think he is more valuable for that reason than for what Spellbinder alone has to offer.

I've been listening to Trompeta Toccata for a week now. I enjoy it, but much prefer Quiet Kenny. Perhaps this reflects my preference for Prestige over Blue Note. I think Joe Henderson is the star of Trompeta.

NS, Soul Message is one of my two favorites. Hope you enjoy it!

Gaya and Deodato - Love, Strings and Jobim (Warner Bros. mono) 1966? Bud Shank with Clare Fischer - Brasamba (Pacific Jazz) 1981 reissue Cannonball Adderley - Cannonball's Bossa Nova (Landmark) 1962, 1985 reissue Paul Jones Sings Songs from the Film "Privilege" (Capitol) 1966?

Signor Mobley retired last week. It's a real housecleaning for the Eskimos. He didn't want to play for another team. Do you think he has a chance to be elected to the Hall of Fame? http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Edm...4208175-cp.html ***** Training camps open next week, so I suppose that it is time to close this Hot Stove League thread and start a new one for the season. Let's go here to continue the discussion: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=34428