GA Russell

Hamilton de Holanda Quintet - Brasilianos This is more like it! After those last two guitar albums, I was afraid that Adventure Music had lost its way. I thought that I would play them from time to time, but I never do. The others from this label I still listen to quite a bit. I've been listening to Brasilianos a lot the past week, both in the car and at night before I go to bed. It's uptempo, interesting music. It's another mandolin album. The other instruments of the quintet are acoustic guitar, electric bass, drums and harmonica. De Holanda wrote all of the songs except two. The group is tight, and the runs on the mandolin are fast and furious. Like the other albums from this label, the music doesn't have a blues base, so I can imagine that Stanley Crouch would say that it's not jazz. Whatever, it's good. I would rank this behind Brazil Duets and the Moacir Santos, but I'm sure that I'll be listening to this one regularly for the rest of the year.

felser, I'm glad you started this thread. I hadn't thought about Teddy Charles in years. I ordered his New Directions CD in the Concord sale, and I'm enjoying it. It includes the tracks I got in college.

I've been listening to the Sonny Rollins the most by far. It's my favorite. Speaking of the Milestone Profiles series, Doug Ramsey posted on his Rifftides blog August 7 that he will write the liner notes of the Thelonious Monk disc of an upcoming Riverside Profiles series. I'm looking forward to those discs.

Here's the link to my thread on the Monk/Coltrane Riversides: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...0&hl=Riversides

When I was a boy my favorite football team was the Boston Patriots. But it took a lot out of it for me when they changed their name to New England, and they pretty much killed my interest when they changed their uniform and team color from red to blue. It's like a different team now. (Of course, in one sense it is a different team - they're winning!) I don't pay much attention to any sport now except that I try to listen to all of the Canadian league games that I can on the internet. Not only are the ballgames exciting, but with only eight teams the league and the players are easy to keep track of. I stayed up late last September and listened on the internet to the broadcast of the Australian rules football Grand Final. What a game! The best game of any sport I have ever heard on the radio. Other than that, I root for the Red Sox. But with the players changing so often with free agency, I don't think it's as much fun to try to keep up with the baseball teams. With the Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup, I listened to all of the games of the finals. I was a season ticket holder of the New England Whalers in 1972, and I saw so many games I've been hockeyed out ever since. I was a season ticket holder of the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL. The best game of any sport I have ever attended was a playoff game between the Stars and the Chicago Blitz. Lots of fun times going to the Stars games. For college sports I root for Georgetown and Pitt. I'm pretty sure that Pitt's football games will be on Sirius this year, so maybe I will listen to them each week.

Oh no! I ordered that one too. Haven't heard it yet.

1969, freshman year of college. I mail ordered two LPs directly from Prestige. The first was Ezz-Thetic with Lee Konitz and Billy Bauer. Side Two was Teddy Charles. The second was Trumpet Giants, with tracks by Miles, Dizzy and Fats Navarro.

I got on the mailing lists when I reviewed albums for AAJ, before I started posting here. By the way, if anyone is really interested in getting free albums, I recommend that he do what I did and review albums for AAJ. I haven't been in contact with Mike Ricci for a while, but my last impression was that he is always looking for volunteers to review albums. Mike drowned me with CDs. I receive far fewer now.

The difference as I see it is that the guy who posted about Wayman Tisdale has not established any credibility. This was his first post. If someone who had often contributed to music-related threads posted the same thing, I wouldn't find his comment on Tisdale objectionable even though I don't like what little of Tisdale's music I've heard. Same feeling if the musician in question were avant garde.

Well, I am aware that there are plenty of people who disagree with my tastes, but this is news to me that my integrity would be questioned. Most of my reviews are positive because I like most of the albums I am sent. My contacts know that I like mainstream jazz, mostly of the 50s and 60s variety, as well as new music that fits the bill. I have received unsolicited albums that I don't like, most often by people I have never heard of, and I don't see any point in giving a bad review to an album by someone who most likely isn't going to make another one. So I never post about such an album. Right off the bat, I can think of four albums I have panned here: Neenna Freelon's Portrait of a Lady (nominated for a Grammy) on Concord, Disc #4 (the bonus disc) of the Miles First Quintet box on Prestige, and the two recent guitar albums on Adventure Music. (By the way, I got a new Adventure Music album that's great. I'll try to post about it this weekend.) But for the most part I think we should all focus on what we like, and make recommendations which fairly describe the album so that those who might be interested will have a notion of what they are getting before they plunk down their money. Last week I posted a review of the new Nels Cline album New Monastery, which I like a lot because it reminds me of the music of the 70s I listened to so much of the time back then. akanalog suggested that I was spamming the board. That's an attack on my character, and it's uncalled for. My album reviews often get 100 views in the first 24 hours, and typically die with about 500 views. Apparently there are folks who are interested in what my take on an album is. I don't think anyone swears by my opinion. I think most of us here are interested in everybody's takes on their new albums. Reading record reviews is fun. If you don't like my reviews, don't read them! That's easy enough. But I don't come here to be with negative people. I don't think anyone does. I come here to share the joy I get from jazz. I enjoy reading when others have joy to share with me.

akanalog, this needs to be said, and I'm saying this as a friend. It's not healthy to always maintain a negative attitude and always piss on people's threads like you do. Have you talked to a doctor about your moods? It may be that you have inherited a chemical imbalance or mood disorder, and maybe you should be taking medicine for it. In addition to whatever you learn from a visit to the doctor, I suggest that you make a deliberate effort to break this non-stop negativity. I suggest that you make a habit of every week starting a thread in the Recommendations Forum, and recommend an album you have recently picked up. Make a habit of the effort to say something positive. Peace.

Guy started a thread the other day called "Get Used to It", which discusses European music and whether it swings. You can see it here: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=28450 The thread deals tangentially with Trygve Seim, but since most of the discussion is not about him, I thought I would start a new thread. ECM sent me his two most recent releases this week, and I have listened to the one from 2004 called Sangam. Apparently Seim is enjoying a promotional push from his label. I enjoy Sangam, but I'm not sure how much of it is jazz. The first half of the album does not appear to contain any improvisation. I would call this 21st Century third stream. Seim plays the tenor and soprano sax. The band is nine people, plus a string section and two trombones on one four-part suite. This suite is the jazziest part of the album. There is no piano or bass, but there is an accordion and a cello, with drums. The other six members are horns, including a french horn and a tuba. It is very tranquil music, relaxing and soothing, maybe too much so for some people. I wouldn't play it while driving a car for fear of falling asleep at the wheel. I can definitely recommend Sangam to those here who enjoy classical music. edit for typo 8/22 edit title and sub-title

Yes, they understand that if I don't like something I'm going to pan it. But my contacts know what I like and usually don't send me stuff that I'm going to pan.

I've been thinking about getting Hip Parade. Playing the Field was my first Mark Murphy album. I got it in '69, after seeing him sing a song from Midnight Mood on the Steve Allen Show. I had the pleasure of chatting with him in '82, and he told me that he always sang like he did on Rah, but that Decca and Capitol didn't know what to do with him.

Happy Belated!

I've been thinking of getting something along these lines for my travels. May I assume they don't weigh much?

Guys, I said I would be away for a few days this week! Give me a chance to respond! I used to review CDs for AAJ, and I got on the mailing lists of a number of labels, mostly small, some big like Fantasy and Concord. They know that I no longer review for AAJ, but they send me things from time to time to talk about here. Now on to the record...I've had the chance to listen to it for the past two days, and I like it. But I should tell you that it doesn't remind me of the little Andrew Hill I know. I have Point of Departure which has never done much for me but I listen to it a couple of times a year. I know that many of us here are big Andrew Hill fans, and those who are may recognize all the songs on this album and enjoy the different takes on the melodies. But maybe not. As I say, this doesn't remind me of Andrew Hill and the Blue Note sound. This reminds me of what Fred Frith was doing thirty years ago with people like Henry Cow, The Art Bears and Slapp Happy. I was a big Fred Frith fan back in the day, and I saw him in concert with Skeleton Crew with Zina Parkin in Atlanta back in '85. So if you don't like Fred Frith, I don't think you are going to like this Nels Cline either. But since so many here are such big fans of Andrew Hill, I recommend you give it a listen to see what Cline has done to the music.

In August of '73 I drove across the country from New Jersey to San Francisco with a buddy. When in Los Angeles we stopped at the Tower on the Sunset Strip. I had never seen such a place. I remember buying Mark Murphy's first Muse LP, Bridging a Gap, which was new at the time.

I received in the mail today an advance copy of the new album by guitarist Nels Cline called New Monastery, which is Cline's interpretation of the music of Andrew Hill. The band is: Bobby Bradford, cornet Ben Goldberg, clarinets Andrea Parkins, accordion Devin Hoff, contrabass Scott Amendola, drums Nels Cline, guitar Alex Cline, percussion The songs are: McNeill Island/Pumpkin Not Sa No Sa No Doubt/11/8/Dance With Death Yokada Yokada/The Rumproller Dedication Reconciliation/New Monastery Compulsion You will note that the band doesn't include a piano! I haven't listened to it yet. I'm going to be spending the week on the road, so I'll plan to give it plenty of listens in the car and the motel room, and I'll report when I get back next weekend. This is on the Cryptogramophone label, so I expect that it will be available from eMusic, as well as CD Universe at a pre-order price. The relase date is set for Sept. 26.

I learned today that Jeff Gauthier is the owner of the Cryptogramophone label.

I placed my order, #5756, very late Friday July 14. My Fedex tracking website says that the shipment is due to arrive August 9. That's a long wait. But at least I know that it is on its way. It left San Leandro August 2 and Sacramento yesterday.

Happy Birthday Lon! Open up a good new CD for the day!

RIP. I remember two hits from my high school days - My Little Red Book and 7 + 7 Is. I had one of their albums, I think the third. Was that Forever Changes? I'll have to dig it out if I can find it. Love was a good band, willing to experiment.

Why the heck are you doing that when you could be over at conn's house using his computer? I wish I could spend some time with friends! I spent all last week in Chicago. I've been working all day and night. Can't wait to get home. Like Chuck said, everybody makes choices and pays the price.

I've been on the road since Sunday the 23rd. Today I'm outside Toledo, Ohio, using the computer in the hotel lobby. I received today the email from Concord that my order had been shipped. Everything included. Since I've been away all this time, the delay hasn't bothered me a bit. I expect to return on Friday. Hope it's there by then.