GA Russell

Guy, you're on the mark! The press release says so.

I believe that charities and political calls are exempt from the Do Not Call list.

"The Source" is the name of the band that Seim co-leads with trombonist Oyvind Braekke and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, both of whom appear on Sangam as well. I was sent press releases about each album, and the one for Sangam says that it was released in February, 2005. "Sangam" is a Sanskrit word meaning confluence or coming together, like three rivers. Sangam is Seim's second ECM release, the first being Different Rivers, which won the 2001 German Music Critics' Album of the Year award. A critic for the Guardian in Britain said that Seim's sound was like that of wooden flutes. I agree with that. Seim plays an intrument I have never seen before which is called a curved soprano sax. It looks like a tiny alto sax; and although its register is high, in Seim's hands its sound is smooth and rich rather than the snake charmer squeak that most soprano sax players create.

Berrigan and Vibes would know better than I do, but I'm under the impression that the Music Department managers of big box chain stores don't get to order CDs in anticipation of an expected boost from a local concert. I think the buying decisions are made at the corporate headquarters. I could be wrong. edit for typo

Happy Birthday!

The Source is the other of the two ECM sent me. I thought I would wait a week and absorb Sangam before I opened up The Source. Anyone like David who has heard one or both is welcome to chime in.

I listened to Sangam again today, and confirmed what I believed. It's perfect for a Sunday afternoon, but probably too mellow for me on a weekday.

Taylor Eigsti's Lucky To Be Me is the second of three albums Concord released April 4 to more than the usual amount of fanfare. Somehow I got the idea that Eigsti is a singer/pianist following in Harry Conner, Jr.'s, footsteps. This is not correct at all. Eigsti is a pianist only. Lucky To Be Me has twelve songs, five of them piano trio with Christian McBride on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. The songs are accessible to the jazz novice, but this is real jazz, not schlock aimed at people who don't like the real thing. The songs include jazz standards like Giant Steps, Love For Sale, Darn That Dream and Freedom Jazz Dance. As I recall, the press releases I received said that Eigsti is 21 years old. He looks like a clerk at Borders. I'm guessing that the market for this album would be the high school and college student who might be interested in starting to listen to jazz, but wants to relate to someone young, not his father's or grandfather's jazz heroes. When I was in high school and college, many of the acts trying to appeal to the masses were either Ramsey Lewis-type trios or organ combos, in both cases playing cover versions of rock and r&b hits of the day. Taylor Eigsti is better than that. As a pianist, he's not going to make anyone forget Bill Charlap. When he is too old to look like a Borders clerk I'm not sure what his future in the business will be. But for now, I think that this album would be an excellent gateway to jazz for the market I described above. I wouldn't recommend it for the people here, but I would recommend it as a gift for a young person you would like to introduce to jazz.

Concord released three albums April 4 with a pretty fair amount of publicity judging by the press releases I received. One of them was What Love Is by Erin Boheme. Boheme is a 19-year old singer. The album's pictures make her look like a kid who is trying to be sexy but comes off as being slutty. I didn't get around to opening it up until this week. It's better than I thought it would be. Boheme has a baby doll voice. If I may repeat myself, Steve Allen defined a jazz singer as one who either sings jazz or sings in front of a jazz band. Boheme does not sing jazz. On this album, the band plays jazz on half or more of the cuts. I suppose that the other tracks should be considered r&b. It's a good band, but not in anyway demanding of the listener. Particularly jazzy is the take on Tracy Chapman's Give Me One Reason. The band's lineup varies from song to song, and is piano, bass and drums sometimes accompanied by electric guitar, trumpet or saxophone. I can't think of another singer on the scene that Boheme reminds me of, so I suppose that this would be a good album to get for when you want to listen to someone different. It's not a five star album that I suggest that you rush out to get, but every song is one I would continue to listen to if it came on the radio.

David, the only blog I go to is Doug Ramsey's Rifftides. I recommend it. The url is long and complicated, but Google will take you right to it.

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!