GA Russell

As I understand it, when the industry talks about the North American market, it is talking about American teenagers. I have occasionally read passing references to the idea that there are more than a few teenage boys who spend their money on video games rather than music. The idea is that times have changed, and maybe music is not as important to teenagers as it has been since the days of Elvis. If that's true, then the industry has more to worry about than file sharing. I see on Drudge today that American Idol again this year got better Nielsen ratings than the Grammy Awards show. This is another indication that the record industry isn't offering acts that the American people want to listen to.

Offhand, the only boxes I'm sorry I didn't get when they were available are the Charles Brown, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis and the Maynard Ferguson. In every case, the sets were too big for my budget. Now the Selects are a different story. I'm going to be kicking myself when they go out of print!

I have listened to these quite a bit over the last year, and I find that I have listened to the Bill Evans the most; and that I like the Tony Bennett more than I did a year ago.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...8&hl=Lovers I was thinking about these the other day. A year ago I expected that the Blue Note series also released last year would be available at BMG/Your Music this time this year, but it didn't happen.

The Players Association announced its 2006 All-Star team today. I think more interesting than who made it were the players the press chose for their team who were slighted by their peers: Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray (league-high 5,000 yards passing), Winnipeg running back Charles Roberts (CFL-high 1,609 yards rushing), Eskimos receiver Jason Tucker, Lions offensive tackle Rob Murphy (CFL's top lineman award winner), cornerbacks Byron Park of Toronto (eight interceptions, four returned for TDs) and Coby Rhinehart of Calgary, Argos punter Noel Prefontaine (CFL-best 46.3-yard average) and Bombers kick returner Albert Johnson III (CFL-best 810 punt-return yards, fourth overall with 985 kickoff return yards). It looks like the press used the stats as the yardstick, and the players did not. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home edit for typo

I'm sorry to hear it. Their follow up album to The In Crowd, called Hang On Ramsey!, was my first jazz record.

I just noticed this thread about the JHS: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...amp;hl=Heritage My package arrived today. It looks like times have changed from what others' experience has been. Of my seven CDs, six appear to be brick and mortar editions, except for the JHS barcode. The Garner appears to be the straight brick and mortar edition. They appear to have been in their inventory for years. The Silver is the 1987 McMaster. The Getz/Gilberto is the one that was part of Verve's Desert Island Disc promotion of 2000. The Garner is a "Columbia Jazz Masterpiece" with the blue border. Let's look at the price. The total bill is $23.67. That comes to $3.38 each including shipping. Not bad. The shipping charge is $16.74 for the lot, with no indication of how it was calculated. I remember receiving my first package from BMG ten years ago. The initial offer was "Buy One, Get Unlimited Half Off". A friend who was a member told me that that was their worst price. I found over time that BMG would offer me lower prices, perhaps depending on how often I bought something. This package included a New Member catalogue. So I'm suspicious that it too is offering the club's worst prices. The catalogue offers 200 selections, with the majority priced at $8.49. The current offer is free shipping for orders over $29.00. A few that look interesting at that price are: The Jean-Luc Ponty Anthology - Le Voyage (2 CDs for $17.99) Charles Brown - These Blues Milt Jackson & John Coltrane - Bags & Trane Pete Fountain - Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans (2 CDs for $16.99) Sarah Vaughan - The Roulette Years Vols. 1 & 2 Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - Sing a Song of Basie Bud Shank and Laurindo Almeida - Brazilliance, Vol. 2 Buddy Rich - Keep the Customer Satisfied Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago Sonny Rollins DVD - Saxophone Colossus ($21.98) As stated above, I can listen to this batch for ten days (30 days for future orders) and then return them. I imagine that there are going to be people who burn a copy and then return everything. So I have to think that they will cut you off if you get in the habit of returning CDs. No credit (except this initial offering). Payment must be made in advance by check or credit card. My feeling is that $8.49 isn't a bad price for anything I actually want; but being used to Your Music's price for two years, if I'm going to take a flyer on something I'm not sure about, I won't be using the JHS to do it. On the other hand, the initial mailing stated that their selection of jazz CDs is larger than that of any other record club. So after I have had the opportunity to scour the website, I will have a better idea of to what extent I want what they have to offer. By the way, both the initial offer and the New Members catalogue were heavy with 50s Verve.

Here's an unusually good article that discusses the new salary cap. It breaks down how payrolls will probably be allotted among the players. Many more will receive over $100,000 than I had thought. Of course, maybe they have always been receiving that amount, and now for the first time their true salaries are seeing the light of day. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...606615-sun.html

LOL You guys beat me to it!

As I recall, Summers was a member of the Soft Machine very early on.

Fifteen years ago a friend of mine from work informed me that he was a semi-professional musician, a drummer, and that he had once played a gig with Junior Mance. He was really proud of that!

I wouldn't want to be married to Edie either.

Speaking of the devil. I hope someone of influence hears him.

In regard to "adult music", Sue Raney recorded some albums now owned by EMI (some released on CD in England) that I would like to hear.

Schottenheimer fired by Chargers president Associated Press SAN DIEGO — Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer was fired Monday night in a shocking move by team president Dean Spanos, who cited a "dysfunctional situation" between the coach and general manager A.J. Smith. Less than a month after San Diego's NFL-best 14-2 season was wrecked in a playoff loss to New England, Spanos cited the exodus of both coordinators and other assistants in firing Schottenheimer, who had a year left on his contact. "The process of dealing with these coaching changes convinced me that we simply could not move forward with such dysfunction between our head coach and general manager," Spanos said in a statement. "In short, this entire process over the last month convinced me beyond any doubt that I had to act to change this untenable situation." The firing was first reported by ESPN. Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips was hired as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday, following offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and two other assistants out of town for better jobs. Although Schottenheimer said last week that change was inevitable, Smith sounded concerned, saying, "Both in the same year — Wow." Tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski became Cleveland's offensive coordinator, and linebackers coach Greg Manusky was hired as San Francisco's defensive coordinator. Running backs coach Clarence Shelmon, who's never been a coordinator, was promoted to replace Cameron. Shelmon accepted only a one-year contract due to Schottenheimer's lame-duck status. Schottenheimer declined the team's offer of a $4.5 million, one-year extension through 2008, which came with a club-option $1 million buyout. Schottenheimer has been at odds with Smith since the 2005 season, apparently over personnel decisions by the GM.

Three years ago I reviewed for AAJ an album by Tim Collins, a vibist who was a recent graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. The album was a tape of his senior recital. Great stuff! (Available at CDBaby.) Last May Collins recorded an album with a 28 year old keyboard player named Matthias Bublath. Bublath received his Bachelor's from Berklee and his Master's from Manhattan. He has studied with Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen and Dave Liebman among others. In 1999 he gave a solo recital at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 2002 he received the Charles Mingus Award for composition. Late last year I received an email from Bublath saying that Collins had recommended that he contact me to offer a copy of his new CD for review. I'm always happy to hear what the young cats based in New York City are doing, so I agreed. The album is just called Matthias Bublath Band. There are ten tracks, totalling 56 minutes. Nine of the ten songs are originals. The tenth is The Girl From Ipanema. None of the songs sound like each other. Bublath shows imagination in his composing. The first five are by what is called the "Piano Trio" (with bass and drums). One is with an electric piano, and has a good Les McCann circa 1970 feeling. Ipanema is played without bounce, and with different chords from what Jobim wrote (which makes it interesting), but the melody is played straight. Bublath is not particularly light fingered, and reminds me a little of Taylor Eigsti. I find with the Piano Trio that his compositions are more appealling than his playing. The second five are by the "Hammond B3 Band" (with trumpet, vibes and drums). These are a cut above the first five. Bublath is an excellent organist. None of the five cuts are greasy; this is mainstream 21st century jazz. Trumpeter Takuya Kuroda stands out here. I feel that vibist Tim Collins is underutilized on four of the tracks, but on the best track of the CD he is allowed to stretch out. The five organ tracks make the album worth hearing. The CD is available from CDBaby and Bublath's website http://www.matthiasbublath.com The website also has clips to listen to. If you are interested in young players who sell their ware at CDBaby (And if you're not, what are you doing at the Organissimo website?), I can recommend this!

I use a folding chair at my computer. I spend more time in my La-Z-Boy recliner, listening to music, reading and smoking cigars!

This won two Grammy's tonight: for Instrumental Arrangement and Jazz Instrumental Album. As I said above, this isn't a bad album, but I wouldn't have given it any awards either.

Coffee is my favorite flavor, and my favorite (not too weak like most of them, but not too strong either) is the house brand put out by Publix, a supermarket chain based in Florida that has expanded into Georgia and I believe other Southern states.

The Roughriders cut Kerry Joseph's salary from $350,000. to $225,000. today. They had inherited his contract from the Ottawa Renegades. I don't dislike the guy, but I think that he is the most overrated player in the league. He always throws the ball into the ground. He is a halfback who can throw, not a quarterback who can run. Last year the Riders' payroll was $4.7 million, and this year the salary cap is $4.05 million; so a change had to be made. The salary cap only covers the players, and does not include the coaches. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home ***** Ticats QB Jason Maas has had surgery on his throwing shoulder. I guess that confirms that he was injured all year. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/200...578607-sun.html

Happy Birthday!

Amen! Once upon a time this may have been reasonable. But now with coaches making millions of dollars I think it is unconscionable.

I'm not very excited about anything in my queue this month. That's why I invited the group to choose my next selection in the Horace Silver thread. In fact, I'm more excited about the seven I ordered from the Jazz Heritage Society (see that thread) than anything in my queue. I have decided to bump to the top Donald Fagen - The Nightfly. I got the LP of this over twenty years ago. It's been packed away for a long time. I made a cassette copy to listen to in the car, but I have had a CD player in the car for the past two years. This is one of the few rock albums I've liked since I was in school, if you can call it rock. I'll look forward to playing the CD.

I've been waiting for an Ahmad Jamal box ever since the first deal with Universal. I hope it won't be too big.

Thanks for posting that mjzee! What is the news organization that was taken from?