GA Russell

Is he a cockney? I thought he was doing an impression of Roddy McDowell!

Flurin, in the early 90s, somebody (and I think it was Muse Records) had what it called a "Final Vinyl" sale, in which it sold a large selection of Muse, Savoy and OJC LPs for five dollars each. This Art Farmer is one of the ones I picked up at that sale. I've always liked it. It's the sort of solid no-frills playing that I like about so much of 50s jazz, particularly from Prestige.

I'm glad you chose this! I have this music in the Clifford Brown Blue Note box. So this is a good reason for me to open it up and try the first CD.

The street signs at the corner of Grant and Green in San Francisco.

Doug Ramsey in his Rifftides blog quoted MC this week as saying that he has considered re-issuing the Roulette Maynard Ferguson Birdland album. I have been interested in that Mosaic box since it first came out, but the price for 10 CDs was too steep for me.

I listened to this again today, and I was struck by the influence of the Paul Bley trio circa 1967, both on the piano playing of Marcin Wasilewski and the drumming of Michal Miskiewicz.

I only have the OJC LP, which sounds fine to me.

I chose the internet as the most transformative, because my life would not be a whole lot different with a computer without the internet. I chose the cellphone as the most annoying for the reasons stated above. But it's the people who are annoying, not really the phone. If everyone turned off his phone except while using it, I don't think it would be all that annoying. Of course, people who use their cellphones in public places are pretty annoying, all right.

Yes, that's the Vol. 1 I was speaking of.

Flora means flower or vegetation, right? Shouldn't it be fora, the plural of forum?

My favorite Chet is Vol. 1 of the four volume Chet In Paris series - Barclay recordings from the mid-50s released by Universal as four separate CDs, not as a box. Volumes 2 and 3 are good as well. Vol. 4 is a collection of alternate takes. BMG/Your Music has a compilation of songs taken from these discs entitled Chet In Paris that I don't think is as good as Vol. 1. But the four volume set is now OOP, so if you can get the good music for $5.99, why not go for it? edit for typo

San Diego is a navy town, isn't it? I don't think too many of the locals are going to want to go see Army.

Bret, I see that on August 25 in his Rifftides blog, Doug Ramsey mentioned your work on the Mosaic pamphlet of the Maynard Ferguson box. Congratulations!

Here's an article from today's Financial Times about a new downloading service that will offer songs for free. Universal has come on board. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b194883e-36b2-11db...00779e2340.html Universal backs free music rival to iTunes By Joshua Chaffin and Aline van Duyn in New York Published: August 29 2006 05:02 | Last updated: August 29 2006 05:02 Universal Music, the world’s largest music company, is backing a start-up that will allow consumers to download songs for free. It will rely on advertising for its revenues, offering a different business model from that of Apple Computer’s popular iTunes music store. The move reflects music companies’ willingness to experiment as they try to capture some profit from the boom in digital distribution still dominated by illegal file-sharing networks. The service, SpiralFrog, represents a departure from Apple’s 99 cents-a-song business model and other legal download services which charge a subscription fee by being completely free. It is due to start up in December. A report released last month by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries revealed there were still 40 illegal downloads for every legal one. Although Apple’s iPod and its iTunes music download service has 80 per cent of the market for legally downloaded music, competition is expected to hot up in the run-up to Christmas. This year, the IFPI has predicted that 60m music players will be sold worldwide, many of them MP3 players not compatible with Apple’s services. As well as start-ups such as SpiralFrog, established companies are getting ready to flex their muscles. Microsoft is to launch Zune, which will offer music players and a music download store. MTV has launched Urge, a service that has downloadable music and music videos via subscription. “Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling,” said Robin Kent, SpiralFrog’s chief executive and the former head of the Universal McCann advertising agency. Mr Kent has held talks with labels Warner, EMI and Sony-BMG and hopes they will be lured by the surge in online advertising. Merrill Lynch last week raised its forecast for the sector’s growth, predicting it would expand by 35 per cent this year in non-US markets to $11.6bn (£6.1bn). US growth is expected to increase by nearly 30 per cent to $16bn. Perry Ellis, the fashion company, said it would advertise on SpiralFrog. Levi’s, Aeropostale, Benetton and others have expressed interest. “Our audience is into music and can be more easily reached on the web,” said Oscar Feldenkreis, president of Perry Ellis International. Other music services are looking to advertising for their revenues. The new Napster allows consumers to listen to up to five tracks for free while they view advertising. Meanwhile, video-sharing sites, such as YouTube, have held talks with music companies about showing music videos, which would then be supported by advertising. Mr Kent said his research revealed that young consumers would be willing to endure advertising as long as the brands and products were relevant to them. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006 9/07 edit subtitle

Topping it for Aggie.

B. Clugston, thanks for that link to the bio. Very informative. Last night in memoriam I listened to National Health's Playtime CD on Cuneiform. It was a 1979 concert not released till 2001, with Alan Gowen, John Greaves, Phil Miller, Pyle and a fellow I don't know named Alain Eckert. Within the past two weeks we have learned of the deaths of Moacir Santos, Maynard Ferguson and now Pip Pyle. I'm a bit stunned.

Happy Birthday!

If I were them, and stuck with CDs I wanted out the door, I would not lower the price below $2.99, but instead I would lower the number of discs needed to be purchased in order to obtain that price.

As I recall, and I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think he was also an early member of Gong, on the Camembert Electrique album.

Just a heads up that this comes out tomorrow. Those of you fans of Stanko who decide to pick this up...I hope that you will report back as to how this compares with the albums of his that you like - better, worse or average. I've pretty much made up my mind that there are songs here I would give five stars to, but I can't give the album more than four stars because of the lack of diversity among the songs.

My word, I'm sorry. I had quite a number of his records in the 70s. In those years I spent more time listening to Canterbury prog rock than to jazz, and he was a very major player. RIP

I too got it in the Concord sale, but I haven't opened it up yet. One track from the album is included in the 4 CD compilation The Contemporary Records Story, and it is one of my favorite tracks of the set. So I'm looking forward to this.

Happy Birthday!

I enjoy getting Best of's when I have no intention of picking up much of an artist, and the price is cheap. Getting a sampler of an artist from Your Music for $5.99 is a painless way to find out what he sounded like during the period he was with the label. I picked up a couple of Jazz Giants compilations from the Concord Blowout sale, and I'm sorry I didn't order more. I consider compilations to be promotional tools, and as a matter of principle I don't like to spend more than five dollars for one. But for what they are, I think they're great. Finally, as everybody knows, I'm a sucker for ballads compilations. My favorite is a four-CD set by EMI/Blue Note called 60 Jazz Classics For Lovers. Both Concord and Blue Note released a number for Valentine's Day this year. I got most of the Concords, and I hope to get some of the Blue Notes next year. Best of's and compilations are not works of art. They are often collections of a single mood. So when I am in the appropriate mood, they hit the spot. No need to swear off buying regular albums when you are picking up some inexpensive compilations.

Lon, on the cigar boards this is called "order disorder"!