GA Russell

The Calgary Stampeders have signed Marc Boerigter for next year. After playing out his option with the Stamps, he played four years with Kansas City, and spent some time this year with both Green Bay and Indy. In his rookie year with KC he caught only twenty passes all year, but eight were TDs. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Cal...2431129-cp.html

Didn't Mozilla just recently release a new version of Firefox? If so, where do I get it?

Maybe it's just me, but I haven't felt like there has been a lot to offer in regard to new Christmas albums in the past five years. I think we were spoiled in the 90s when so much great Christmas music of the past was released for the first time on CD, plus the occasional CD from the likes of Wynton Marsalis or some compilations from the Young Lions. Last year I got Michael Franks' Christmas album from 2003 called Watching the Snow. It's a great one, if you don't mind that all of the songs are originals and secular. I'm looking forward to pulling that one out the day after Thanksgiving. Three years ago I reviewed a new release for AAJ called Jazz Yule Love. It was a Christmas compilation from the Mack Avenue label. As I recall, Stix Hooper, the label's a&r man and former Jazz Crusader, had each of the label's artists finish his recording session with a Christmas song. After a year or so of recording, Hooper had enough to issue a CD. It left me cold at the time. Part of the problem was that I opened it up fairly early in November and before I was in the mood to listen to Christmas music. But as Christmas albums go, this one was definitely not cheery. All of the songs were good taken out of context, but together the album was somewhat dreary. Last year Jazz Yule Love clicked for me, and I started to enjoy it more than I had in the past. This year, it's not an album I'll be listening to by itself, but I'll definitely include it in the mix when I am listening to more than one at a time. So now this year Mack Avenue has issued a new Christmas compilation entitled Jazz Yule Love II. I would give it four stars out of five. It is not dreary like the 2003 edition was, and the music is quite good. The two standouts for me are the first two cuts on the CD: trumpeter Sean Jones doing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and Gerald Wilson with an all star lineup in his orchestra doing Jingle Bells. Other artists include Bud Shank doing Let It Snow, Oscar Castro-Neves playing two classical pieces on accoustic guitar, a good vocalist I am unfamiliar with named Ilona Knopfler singing two standards, and a group called the Hot Club of Detroit (which borrows from the swing style of Django Reinhardt's group) making a jazz version of The Chipmonk Song. Oscar Brown, Jr., contributed the only original of the album in what I suppose was one of his final recordings. The album is 11 songs totalling 48 minutes. It won't be the best Christmas album of my collection, but I'm glad I have it, and it will suffice for my new Christmas album of the year.

Buyer beware. I got this today. It is a reissue of the Atlantic album The Beat of Brazil which was issued on CD by Collectables in 1999. It was released on Atlantic in the US in 1967, but the liner notes here say that the recordings were made in 1964. If you do not already have it, I can recommend it. It is a good album, but not hard core jazz. The above is not 100% accurate. Pure Bossa Nova has 14 tracks, two from 1962. The liner notes are not accurate, but it appears that four are from 1964 and an Atlantic album called The Swinger From Rio. The remaining eight are from 1967 and The Beat of Brazil. The causes of my confusion were the inaccuracies of the Pure Bossa Nova liner notes, the fact that The Beat of Brazil and The Swinger From Rio were included on the same Collectables disc, and that comparing the Atlantic/Collectables issues with Pure Bossa Nova is difficult because some of the titles are given in English on one but in Portugese on the other.

Here are the first two articles about the game, hot off the press: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gre...19/2429608.html http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Yes, but unfortunately you picked the wrong team! I remember fifteen years ago when the NFL went on strike the bookies recommended that their customers not bet on CFL games because they were too unpredictable! Speaking of Canadian league scoring...there were no single points (rouges) tonight!

Total points: 39. Nobody was under. Indestructible! was closest with 51. So he wins the prize. Congratulations Shane! I'm sure that everyone will be curious as to what CD you pick, so you might as well post your choice here. PM me your name and address, and I'll order it right away.

B.C. Lions 25....Montreal Alouettes 14 The Als fumbled on the Lions' 1 yard line with four minutes left in the game which pretty much sealed it for the Lions. Dave Dickinson was named the game's MVP, although he didn't have a great game. Paul McCallum was named the Canadian of the game with six field goals, tying the Grey Cup record.

After three the Lions lead 19-12. The Als O showed nothing in the first half, but came to life with six minutes left in the third and made a game of it. It often happens in the CFL that when a team dominates the first quarter and fails to put the other team away on the scoreboard, that team winds up losing. Tonight the Als got zero first downs in the first quarter. And now they have some momentum.

Since we now know that the kickoff will not be until 6:00 pm eastern, let's extend the deadline till then.

In what - the "songs" or the playing? The songs and Symphony Sid.

Blue Note s Three Decades of Jazz - 1959-1969, Volume 1 In 1969 Liberty issued six twofers of Blue Note compilations, two for each decade of the company.

Thanks goodness for CDs! When I started listening to jazz in the mid-60s, I NEVER saw a Bird record in the stores. I believe that they were all out of print. I have one Savoy studio CD and two Dial CDs. I have been meaning to get the 3 CD set of those from Your Music to complete my collection in that regard. A few years ago I bought the box of Savoy Live recordings which I enjoy, but not as much as the studio work. I have not listened to it all; I usually break out a new CD from that set every Jan. 1. So far I have found what seems like too much repetition in the Live box.

SOW, are you sure you want to make a move now? It looks to me like chances are excellent that prices will be much lower a year from now and even lower two years from now. I can understand how a TV fanatic wouldn't have the patience to wait, but considering your interest in music I would think that you would rather spend that kind of money on upgrading your stereo system rather than your television.

In the past couple of days I have listened to both of the Mort Weiss albums that we have discussed here as well as Disc 3 of the Buddy DeFranco Mosaic box. I was surprised to realize that although DeFranco is an extraordinary musician, I find Weiss's tone to be much more warm and pleasant.

In addition to the website cited above, Sirius satellite radio will carry the game on ch. 186. The kickoff will be 6:00 pm eastern time, with a pre-game radio show of at least a half an hour.

George Shearing, disc 2

My Your Music pick this month was Sergio Mendes - Pure Bossa Nova. It contained a card asking for feedback regarding Brazilian and world music. If you email them with the answers to the following questions, they will send you a t-shirt. Email: purebrazilmusic@gmail.com 1. Which is/are your favorite music store/s? 2. Which is your favorite online music store? 3. Which is your favorite magazine? 4. Complete name 5. Address 6. e-mail 7. Comments I told them that I wanted them to issue bossa nova that had not already been issued in the US on CD.

At this rate, anyone who picks Montreal will win without a tiebreaker needed if the Als win!

The CFL Awards were handed out last night. There are six categories. The East and the West have a nominee for each. Five of the Western nominees were BC Lions. All five won. Receiver Geroy Simon was named Most Outstanding Player. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gre...391490-sun.html

I've never heard +3; it's one of those I've been meaning to get around to. I have noticed that of all of Sonny's Milestones records of the 25 years before Silver City was released, it has received the most favorable comments. Often the comment was to say that it is the only one of that period worth getting.

Thanks for that summary, Guy. I guess in a nutshell Friedman could be described as an anti-inflationist, bucking the trend of Keynes and his followers.

I've listened to Sonny, Please quite a bit over the past ten days. Sonny plays forcefully, as he has done for the past 35 years, but not as much as he did ten years ago. I suppose it is a matter of age starting to catch up with him. The key to this album is guitarist Bobby Broom. He has a consistently cool, quiet and introspective style that reminds me of Jim Hall from the early '60s. He's good, but by himself not brilliant. However, the combination of Broom with Sonny makes this album worth listening to. Their sounds don't blend, but rather coexist. Very interesting. Of course, Sonny played with Jim Hall in the early '60s. But Sonny doesn't sound like he did then, so Sonny, Please doesn't sound like a rehash of The Bridge. Of the seven songs, one stands out. I agree with Doug Ramsey's opinion posted above that Remembering Tommy (written by Sonny) has what it takes to become a jazz standard. On the other hand, I don't like the title track, which is the first cut. I skip over it when I play the disc, and find that I enjoy the album much more without it. Although Sonny, Please would not be called a relaxed date, it is more so than what Sonny has done for more than ten years at least. I don't consider it as good as Without a Song (the 9/11 Concert), but it is different from that and any other album I can recall due to the sweet & sour nature of the combination of Sonny with Broom. For that reason I would recommend it not only to Sonny fans but also to those looking for something different to add to their collection.

The game will be played in Winnipeg this year. Winnipeg is normally quite cold after sunset this time of year, which is why the game is being played a week earlier than usual. But the area is enjoying a warm spell this week, and the temperature at kickoff is predicted to be 32 degrees. Speaking of kickoff, it is not clear to me whether the game starts at 5:00 pm eastern time, or the pre-game TV show starts then. In the past the kickoff has been at 6:00 pm eastern. Radio station The Team 1200 in Ottawa will carry the game and stream it on the internet using both the Windows Media Player and RealPlayer formats. Here is the link for Team 1200: http://www.team1200.com/listen-live/index.asp If you do not already have Windows Media Player or RealPlayer on your computer, I recommend that you download them well ahead of game time, so you won't miss any of the game. The downloading can be slow. It's always possible for there to be a streaming problem for the game. Last year all of the CFL stations were perfect, but this year I have often had a problem. You may want to consider as alternative sites: http://www.am770chqr.com/home/index.cfm http://www.620ckrm.com/ http://www.630ched.com/ http://www.900chml.com/

I received this press release yesterday from Concord: KURT ELLING SIGNS EXCLUSIVE RECORDING AGREEMENT WITH CONCORD RECORDS Concord Records is proud to announce that Grammy-nominated singer Kurt Elling has signed an exclusive recording contract with the company. His Concord debut is scheduled to be released in early 2007. ...