GA Russell

Happy birthday!

Yesterday Doug Ramsey posted his review of Sonny, Please on his Rifftides blog: Sonny Rollins, Sonny, Please (Doxy). A canny balance between new compositions and show tunes he loved in his youth. The great tenor saxophonist proves that since 2001's Without a Song, and following the loss of his wife two years ago, his strength, imagination and intensity are undiminished. Steady work together has finely attuned Rollins and his five bandmates. His solos, laced with allusions and quotes, are notably cheerful. Stephen Foster is on his mind. "Oh! Susannah" pops up on two tracks, and he summons "Old Folks at Home" on another. Of the new pieces, his tribute to Tommy Flanagan, "Remembering Tommy," should have the staying power to become a jazz standard. With this release on his own label, Rollins joins the ranks of musicians taking their business affairs into their own hands. Universal will distribute Sonny, Please as a digital download in November and a CD in January, but now it is available in both forms only through Rollins's web site.

I'm far from the Coltrane expert here, but my first thought is the Concord/Fantasy box of live recordings from European concerts.

Happy Birthday!

Slo mo replay indicates the correct call was made. I'm surprised they showed it! It was late and I was ready for bed, so I just turned it off, figuring that they wouldn't want to cause controversy and decrease their ratings for the rest of the Series.

On the last play of tonight's game, I thought the guy sliding into second was safe.

I remember like it was yesterday Tony Kubek getting hit in the Adam's Apple by the ball in the seventh game of the '60 World Series. After that the players seemed like people, not icons.

I don't see any AFL ballparks listed. As I remember, the Oilers played mostly in Jepperson Stadium, didn't they?

Jane Wyatt died Friday at 96. She was another celebrity I thought had already left us. I didn't realize that she had appeared in so many famous movies with so many famous leading men. I knew her only from Father Knows Best. Here's her AP obituary: 'Father Knows Best' Actress Wyatt Dies By BOB THOMAS (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press October 22, 2006 8:03 PM EDT LOS ANGELES - Jane Wyatt, the lovely, serene actress who for six years on "Father Knows Best" was one of TV's favorite moms, has died, her son Christopher Ward said Sunday. She was 96. Wyatt died Friday in her sleep of natural causes at her Bel-Air home, according to publicist Meg McDonald. She experienced health problems since suffering a stroke at 85, but her mind was sharp until her death, her son said. Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and '40s, notably as Ronald Colman's lover in 1937's "Lost Horizon." But it was her years as Robert Young's TV wife, Margaret Anderson, on "Father Knows Best" that brought the actress her lasting fame. She appeared in 207 half-hour episodes from 1954 to 1960 and won three Emmys as best actress in a dramatic series in the years 1958 to 1960. The show began as a radio sitcom in 1949; it moved to television in 1954. "Being a family show, we all had to stick around," she once said. "Even though each show was centered on one of the five members of the family, I always had to be there to deliver such lines as `Eat your dinner, dear,' or `How did you do in school today?' We got along fine, but after the first few years, it's really difficult to have to face the same people day after day." The Anderson children were played by Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin, and all grew up on the show. In later years critics claimed that shows like "Father Knows Best" and "Ozzie and Harriet" presented a glossy, unreal view of the American family. In defense, Wyatt commented in 1966: "We tried to preserve the tradition that every show had something to say. The children were complicated personally, not just kids. We weren't just five Pollyannas." It was a tribute to the popularity of the show that after its run ended, it continued in reruns on CBS and ABC for three years in primetime, a TV rarity. The show came to an end because Young, who had also played the father in the radio version, had enough. Wyatt remarked in 1965 that she was tired, too. "The first year was pure joy," she said. "The second year was when the problems set in. We licked them, and the third year was smooth going. Fatigue began to set in during the fourth year. We got through the fifth year because we all thought it would be the last. The sixth? Pure hell." The role wasn't the only time in her 60 years in films and TV that Wyatt was cast as the warm, compassionate wife and mother. She even played Mr. Spock's mom in the original "Star Trek" series and the feature "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." She got her start in films in the mid-'30s, appearing in "One More River," "Great Expectations," "We're Only Human" and "The Luckiest Girl in the World." When Frank Capra chose her to play the Shangri-la beauty in "Lost Horizon," her reputation was made. Moviegoers were entranced by the scene - chaste by today's standards - in which Colman sees her swimming nude in a mountain lake. Never a star, Wyatt enjoyed career longevity with her reliable portrayals of genteel, understanding women. Among the notable films: "Buckskin Frontier" (with Richard Dix), "None But the Lonely Heart" (Cary Grant), "Boomerang" (Dana Andrews), "Gentleman's Agreement" (Gregory Peck), "Pitfall" (Dick Powell), "No Minor Vices" (Dana Andrews), "Canadian Pacific" (Randolph Scott), "My Blue Heaven" (Betty Grable, Dan Dailey) and "Criminal Lawyer" (Pat O'Brien). "Father Knows Best" enjoyed such lasting popularity in reruns and people's memories that the cast returned years later for two reunion movies. She also remained active on other projects, such as "Amityville: The Horror Goes On" in 1989, and in charity work. When Young died in 1998, Wyatt paid tribute to him as "simply one of the finest people to grace our industry." "Though we never socialized off the set, we were together every day for six years, and during that time he never pulled rank (and) always treated his on-screen family with the same affection and courtesy he showed his loved ones in his private life," she said. Wyatt was born in Campgaw, N.J., into a wealthy family in 1910, according to McDonald, her publicist. Her father, an investment banker, came from an old-line New York family, as did her mother, who wrote drama reviews. They gave their daughter a genteel upbringing, with her schooling at the fashionable Miss Chapin's school and Barnard College. She left college after two years to apprentice at the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, Mass. For two years she alternated between Berkshire and Broadway, appearing with Charles Laughton, Louis Calhern and Osgood Perkins. While acting with Lillian Gish in "Joyous Season" in 1934, she got a contract offer from Universal Pictures. She agreed, on condition she could spend half each year in the theater. During college, Wyatt attended a party at Hyde Park, N.Y., given by the sons of Franklin D. Roosevelt. There she met a Harvard student, Edgar Ward. In 1935 she married Ward, then a businessman, in Santa Fe, N.M. Ward is survived by sons Christopher, of Piedmont, California and Michael of Los Angeles; three grandchildren Nicholas, Andrew and Laura; and five great grandchildren.

I lived in Atlanta twenty years ago, and there were no avant garde concerts there that I was aware of.

Most of my favorites have been mentioned... Stablemates Tenderly Nancy with the Laughing Face Since I Fell for You Donna Lee Empty Faces Anybody else remember seeing Pete Barbuti play Tenderly on the broom?

Looks great, Mark! Hope you find the time to post more.

I received word today that Sonny, Please "will be available thru all digital stores, including eMusic."

Berrigan, Mays played years after he should have retired. The playoffs did not begin until 1969, when he was already at the end of the line. In terms of the World Series, do not forget his catch of the Vic Wertz fly in 1954!

Soul Stream, glad to have helped! I'll tell Chuck and akanalog what you said!

Montg, since you're looking for West Coast suggestions, I recommend that you get Duane Tatro's Jazz For Moderns from the Concord blowout sale before it's too late. The other two West Coast albums I think are superlative are Shelly Manne's The West Coast Sound on Contemporary and Shorty Rogers' Short Stops on RCA Bluebird. The Rogers is oop, but has been available from Amazon sellers. And let's not forget one of my favorites, a best seller: Henry Mancini's Music From Peter Gunn on RCA Victor, available from Your Music.

Sounds great, CJ! Hope you enjoy it all! One thing that I learned from my time writing reviews for AAJ was the huge amount of mediocre music being made. I came to respect Blue Note in particular (and the other majors to the extent that they are still active in new recordings) for separating the wheat from the chaff.

I had wanted to hear the Mulligan/Baker recordings ever since I first became interested in jazz, but I don't believe that I ever once saw the records in the stores. I assume they were all out of print. So I jumped at the chance to order this (as well as the Blue Note Monk) when I received my first Mosaic catalogue in 1988. I loved it from the get go, but over time it didn't wear as well as other music has for me. I rarely play it now. Maybe I'll dig the set out when I dig out my Christmas LPs. It's fun music for sure.

Happy Birthday Chris!

In March of '04 Concord released a two-CD set called The Best of the Concord Years. I hadn't heard any of his Concord work till I got that set. Tjader recorded six albums for Concord. Asuming that the tracks selected really are the best of those six LPs, I would say that his work for Concord was not as good as that of his first Fantasy stint, Verve and Skye. I've only heard one album from his second Fantasy stint, Tambu, which I like; but I can't make a generalization based on one album.

Guy, you're making me laugh!

Jim, I suspect our disagreement lies not in the music, but in what/who is considered a Joey D fanatic!

I've already told the Mort Weiss story here: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...96&hl=Weiss In 2003 Weiss recorded two sessions with Joey DeFrancesco. Weiss says that these were the first ever recordings of an organ with clarinet. I recall that Buddy DeFranco did a little with Sonny Clark on the organ, but Weiss makes his point. The first session he released on his own label as Mort Weiss Meets Joey DeFrancesco. Concord put a stop to that, and required that he pull off the market all of the copies already distributed to the stores. Concord agreed to allow for the album to be released as The Mort Weiss Quartet . This second album was to have been called The Joey DeFrancesco Trio featuring Mort Weiss. I can imagine that Concord blew a gasket when they found that out. Concord refused permission for this second album to be released. Three years later they relented, provided that neither DeFrancesco's name nor image be used to promote the CD. So DeFrancesco's name is not to be found on the front cover or the tray card. Instead, the front cover reads: FEATURING A VERY SPECIAL GUEST: The Finest Jazz Organist In The World Concord Recording Artist...You Guessed It. It's Him on Hammond B3 However, once you open up the wrapper, Joey D's name is everywhere. The liner notes are all about Weiss's dealings with Concord. DeFrancesco's name is not only listed among the personnel in the liner notes, but is also imprinted on the CD itself. Now let's get to the music. The B3 and Me is a Joey D album. Weiss takes a solo on every song, as DeFrancesco does, but it is the organ which dominates the proceedings. Absolutely nothing revolutionary here. Just a good cooking session. There are 9 songs, 2 jazz standards and 7 popular standards (one of which called Love Letters I am unfamiliar with), totalling 67:33. The guitarist Craig Ebner and the drummer Byron Landham are both from Philly. I gather that they were members of DeFrancesco's group at the time. I think Weiss's playing is better here than on the Meets Sam Most album. But let's be candid - Weiss is good, with a good sound; but he is not a five star musician, and he is never going to win the Down Beat poll for best clarinetist. I think that Soul Stream, The Magnificent Goldberg, soulstation1 and all of the others here who enjoy soul jazz and organ combos would enjoy this disc. For Joey D fanatics it's essential. On the other hand, those who are lukewarm toward organ combos other than Organissimo and those who don't enjoy the clarinet could live without this.

And now I see that the A's fired their manager Ken Macha. I don't understand the idea of calling for the heads of people like Torre and Macha after they lose in the playoffs. Either making the playoffs is good, a big deal, or it's not. Apparently it's not. You guys who pay attention to baseball may disagree, but "in my day" anything could happen in a short series in baseball. When there were no divisions and no playoffs, the two first place teams were both champions, and to lose the World Series was no dishonor.

The Toronto Globe & Mail is reporting that Piniella will manage the Cubs. Announcement to be made tomorrow.