GA Russell

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.

I should have looked them up before I said anything. Yesterday I was at CD Universe and did look them up, and I saw that all four are available on CD, as well as the album by the first subsequent If group.

Happy Birthday!

If I remember right, Earl Turbinton was a New Orleans musician whom I met in the spring of '68. His brother Willie T led the jazz group on the piano. Prior to that, Willie T and the Souls had a hit r&b record with a song called Teasing You, which was re-recorded as Thank You John and became a staple of Carolina beach music.

Happy Birthday!

My favorites are his first three on Prestige - Soul Message Living Soul (available on the CD Spicy) Misty

I have Monk in France. It was included in a twofer entitled Two Hours with Thelonious, issued about 1969 when ABC owned the Riverside catalogue. No big deal, in my opinion. It's my least favorite Monk album. But then, his recordings with Charlie Rouse in the quartet are my least favorites.

One more vote for Thelonious In Action. It was my first Monk album, and still maybe my favorite, maybe because it was the first. The way I see it, I wouldn't have gone on to purchase many more Monk albums if the first one weren't any good. edit for typo

It's my bedtime, and I thought I would try something new for a midnight snack, so tonight for the first time in my life I had some Post Grape-Nuts. Eww! I know it's whole grain and good for you, but I can't understand why there has been a demand for it for almost a century. Next time for a change from my usual Uncle Sam, I'm going to go for that great European favorite Familia! Yum!

Get well soon!

I think that Indestructible will agree with me when I say that TO's best QB was Jeff Garcia in his prime!

It occurs to me that if Universal is going to distribute this, there's a good chance that BMG/Your Music will get it. My guess is May, four months after the street date.

I put on Carnegie Hall for the occasion.

Posts 38 and 39 of this thread: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...27290&st=30

I received a press release about Sonny, Please today. It says in part: Oct 9, 2006 — Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins has just released Sonny, Please—his first studio recording in five years—on his own Doxy label, and has signed a licensing agreement with Universal Classics & Jazz International for worldwide distribution and marketing of the CD... Universal Classics & Jazz International will release the CD digitally in America and Europe on November 21, with a traditional CD release date to follow on January 23, 2007... Rollins recorded Sonny, Please shortly after returning from a sold-out Japanese tour in November 2005. The CD captures his working band “at a good pitch,” as he puts it. “Anytime you do a string of performances, it tightens up the ensemble, and the band was playing well—very high-powered. Toward the end of the tour, the group really began to come together, and as a result I began to be able to play much more fluently.”... Rollins intends to use Doxy as a vehicle for releasing choice items from his extensive archives of live recordings... “Before any archival materials come out on Doxy, however, I’d first like to do a new studio or live recording,” says Rollins. “Both are possibilities. I would definitely like to do some more playing before releasing any archival stuff.”... ***** I'm surprised that they won't release the hard copy CD before Christmas.

Happy Birthday!

I read in the paper this morning that the Tigers lost 30 of their last 51 games. I don't think it's out of line to say that going 21-30 is backing in.

Completely by coincidence, last week I was rummaging for the first time in ages through a box of unread books, and I found The Black Dahlia in there. I had completely forgotten that I had bought it. The only Ellroy I have read is LA Confidential, which I enjoyed. So I'll pick up Dahlia soon. When White Jazz was new, Ellroy was visiting Atlanta on a book tour. I bought a copy of the casette audiotape of it for my brother-in-law for a Christmas present, and had Ellroy sign it for him. I don't know if my b-i-l ever listened to it!

I said much the same thing a few weeks back, and Chuck said he pitied me!

Congrats, guys!

Thanks for posting those pictures, Alexander. I thought that the book I grew up with was a reproduction of the original, but what I remember was very obviously an Indian boy.