GA Russell

I didn't see that. Details, please. Mind-boggling... ← Jim, I watched NBC at 9:00 o'clock and ABC at 10:00 o'clock last night, and I can't say for certain which of the two shows it was on. I think it was the NBC Dateline. Anyway, a water company from I think he said Minnesota offered to donate the water and was refused, so he found a private agency, I don't believe the Red Cross I think it was someone else, who would accept it. So he was happy to report that the water was on its way to New Orleans. I just don't understand govt policy here. If Home Depot wants to donate supplies for rebuilding, why would the govt reject such an offer? Maybe there is paperwork involved that I don't know about, but it would seem to me that the govt should be prepared to be offered in-kind donations, and that if the govt has made the decision to accept only cash then it should already know which private relief organization will accept such in-kind donations, rather than requiring every donor to do the investigative work of determing who will accept it.

Chris, I have to disagree with you and maybe for the first time agree with Dan Gould. I don't get cable TV and can't say what they were reporting on, but I have been watching as much of NBC and ABC as I could, and they reported only on the Super Dome, never mentioning the Convention Center until the day that Brown said he had just learned about it.

When it comes to the management abilities of its civic and government leaders, New Orleans is the most pathetic American big city I'm aware of. White or black, doesn't matter. The old money, for example, is the most pathetic in leadership that I am aware of. I lived through Hurricane Betsy in '65. Everybody knew that New Orleans was vulnerable, but nobody cared. The leadership of the city rejected the Boy Scout motto of Be Prepared about everything. The infrasturcture is terrible, with the pot holes in the streets a disgrace. Now why FEMA and Homeland Seccurity are so slow, I don't know, but it doesn't surprise me that no one in the New Orleans govt informed FEMA that thousands of people are at the Convention Center. It doesn't surprise me that New Orleans policemen are quitting rather than doing their job. At least the Mayor stayed in the city. When the going gets tough in New Orleans, the civic leaders leave for Mandeville or somewhere. The emigration of the old money has been going on for decades. I saw last night that a bottled water company wanted to donate its product, and FEMA refused, saying it only wanted cash donations. What sense does that make? Perhaps one good thing that will come of this is that more people will prepare for a disaster, as they did for Y2K. The idea of stocking bottled water shouldn't seem funny to anyone anymore. By the way, I'm surprised that the thousands of people at the Super Dome stayed as calm as they did. It was 90+ degrees, no food or water, and probably worst of all, no information regarding what was going on. THE TV liked to show those who would lose their temper and express their dissatisfaction, but I noticed that such people weren't leading a crowd of followers. Nearly everyone was calmly suffering. By the way, I also noticed how many people, both TV reporters and hurricane victims, mentioned prayer. When times are tough, people aren't reluctant to mention their belief in God.

Thanks for this. Very informative. Most of what I have seen on TV has been of the Ninth Ward, which is old and poor, mostly black. Also particularly low-lying. Because of disease concerns from the sweage in the water, I imagine that those old homes will have to be razed. I have here an email from a high school classmate which concerns the middle class suburb of Metairie: the East Bank of Jefferson Parish has fared better than Orleans-- the pumps in Jefferson are almost all working and water is being cleared . The area around the Metairie Road to Labarre Road railroad tracks still has several feet of water. They will not let anyone back into Jefferson Parish until at least 6 AM Labor Day morning--and that is not for certain. No one anywhere has lights or running water. There is no gasoline available around New Orleans for up to 70 miles. There was a report just on that Salvation Army and Red Cross people have reached Causeway and I-10 and officials are using that as a staging area for rescues ( helos are landing on the Interstate roadways). One of my three sons at Jesuit contacted Fr. Fitzgerald via email in Grand Coteau. Brother Dardis, Fr. Hermes and three or four other Jesuits were in the Jesuit residence at school. They estimated 13 feet of water in the building and Gym. They were going to try to get out of there somehow today and evacuate the city. They had about a week's worth of food and water. No word as to their success in getting out today. Needless to say, the school year is uncertain. On a personal note, my neighborhood in Old Metairie is supposedly OK, but my medical office in St. Bernard is under 8 to 12 feet of water and will likely be so for a few weeks. So much for work........ I grew up in New Orleans, in Lakeview where Minew now lives. It has been 35 years since I've lived there, so I don't talk about it much. I visted there for a job interview in December, and it was like being in an episode of The Twilight Zone - the streets were all the same but the buildings were different. Although the past six months have been difficult, I know that I should be grateful to the Lord today that I did not get the job.

Our lowest priced sation, a BP, went from $2.52 to $2.95 last night.

I have very little pre-bop jazz. I recently bought three Duke CDs which raised my total to four. From the poll I gather I have a lot of company, although they are not showing their faces! I am enjoying what I have, and will probably get more sometime, maybe the 1956 Newport.

Blue Note Monk and Mulligan with Baker. Still have them all.

My database says 85. I had no idea it was so many. But that is counting a five-CD box as five CDs.

Jim, on vinyl I have a 2-LP set from MCA from the mid-80s entitled The Hi-Lo's Collection, and on CD I have the Varese Sarabande CD from '96 entitled Nice Work If You Can Get It.

Jim, I have The Hi-Lo's Spotlite sides on both LP and CD. Great music! However, The Hi-Lo's aren't recording anymore.

Abraham, because he had a lot of descendants (issues).

Sidewinder, yes I saw that. Thats a great deal, about $9.50 per CD. For the past few years EMI in Britain and Collector's Choice in the US have been issueing 2 LPs on 1 CD of the Freshman, and I have picked up four albums that way. So I think the only 50s albums I don't have are the first, Voices in Modern, which has relatively recently been issued on CD for the first time, and In Person, which I don't believe has been made available on CD except for the Mosaic box. About 1990 I wrote Mosaic a long letter with my suggestions regarding sets they should issue, and one of my ideas was The Four Freshmen. I was glad to see them take me up on it, but by the time they did I already had almost everything in the box.

I grew up with The Four Freshmen in my house. When I was little, my older sister had two of their albums, Five Trombones and Voices in Love. Then in high school there was no escaping The Beach Boys, who put the Freshmen harmonies over a rock beat. (In fact, I remember bringing home a re-release of the Freshmen's Best Of album back in '74, and my roommate asked, "Who is this group? They sound just like The Beach Boys."(!!)) In '77 I was delighted to find a re-release of their second album Freshmen Favorites. In the mid-80s I found that Pausa had re-issues many of their 50s Capitol albums, and I picked up the four that I could. But I found that unfortunately the group did not age well. I picked up a re-issue of their '69 Liberty album In a Class By Themselves, and it wasn't very good. About that time, I saw them on TV on a PBS show, and they weren't very good at all. About 1990 I saw them in concert at a club in Atlanta. By that time the group was lead singer Bob Flanagan and three young guys. It was a real treat to see Flanagan and to meet him afterwards as he worked the crowd, but the other three guys were pretty weak. In '93 I bought their Christmas album Freshmas, and it was awful. I never listen to it. So I came to the conclusion that the Four Freshman were a thing of the past. Flanagan retired in 1992. Imagine my surprise when I saw in 2000 that they won the Downbeat Readers Poll for Vocal Group of the Year. There was a comment by the editor indicating that Downbeat had exchanged correspondence with the Four Freshman fan club, apparently suggesting that they were stuffing the ballot box. And I can imagine the fan club replying that all the votes were legitimate, and it wasn't up to the editors to disqualify the group because they didn't like them. Last January I received an email from someone I didn't know who had seen something I wrote about the Freshmen at AAJ, telling me of the group's new album In Session, and how the group was maybe the best lineup ever. I figured that the writer was a fan club fanatic, and didn't take it seriously. Then just a few weeks ago I saw Doug Ramsey on his Rifftides blog say some kind words about the album, so I decided to give it a try. I respect Ramsey's opinion a great deal. I'm glad I did. It turns out that my correspondent from January was right. In Session is a great album, and the current lineup may indeed be the best the group has ever been. The album has eleven songs, nine of which are standards, and of the two new to me one is by Michel Legrand. My favorite is You've Changed, but It's All Right With Me, Skylark, If I Only Had a Brain, Early Autumn, Something Gotta Give, September Song and If I Had You are all great. The selection is a good mix between uptempo and ballads. The group plays its own instruments - trumpet, guitar, bass and drums, with a little trombone and piano thrown in. For a vocal group, they are surprisingly good on their instruments. I don't know how widely the album is distributed. It was issued by the fan club, not a record label. I have found it for twenty bucks at Amazon and the www.fourfreshmen.com website. Highly recommended, and a very pleasant surprise!

Of the older sets, the Gerald Wilson box. Of the newer sets, the Johnny Richards Select. Of the future sets, the McCoy Tyner Select.

The worst town I've lived in for that sort of thing was Atlanta. I suppose these are the same jerks who loudly speak on their cell phones in public places.

I've been listening to this one for the past five weeks, and I want to add my name to the list of those who recommend it. Although it's Gibbs' record and he gets the most time to shine, to me it would be completely different without Joey DeFrancesco. His organ provides the basic sound of the recording. And he's great! This is my first Eric Alexander record, and I'm not sure that I'm impressed. I don't think his work here would justify my running out to buy one of his albums. The guitarist Dan Faehnle is a new name to me. He seems to be competent enough. He isn't given much solo time, but what he does he does well. The pieces are consistently uptempo, so the CD is not the sort of music to relax by that I prefer, but for what it is I think it is well done.

Regarding Verve, I can imagine that Getz/Gilberto has outsold Jazz Samba over the long run, but Jazz Samba was #1 on the LP charts for a while, so it was very big at its time. Regarding Prestige, Misty was a huge 45, but the album sales would have been split between Soul Message and the album Misty. My bet is that over the long run Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet is their biggest selling album.

I know my eyesight is getting worse, but I've looked everywhere on the internet and don't see this listed anywhere (including Jazzmatazz, Concord or Fantasy). Where did you hear about it? ← JPF, see this thread: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...topic=21336&hl=

Big Al, I second your nominations! I don't know if there were too many albums to fit on three CDs, but how about Cal Tjader with Vince Guaraldi?

Tenderly! Great guitar with supporting organ.

My favorite labels of 50s jazz are Prestige and Riverside, so I have been fortunate that Fantasy has chosen to re-issue and keep in print so many great albums. I hope Concord will continue to keep it all in print. I would also like to see Concord issue entire sessions that have been split over two or more albums, and order the tracks in recording order.

Due out October 4: The Red Garland Quintet with John Coltrane is getting the Prestige Profile treatment. It will be a single CD plus a "unique bonus disc". I have no idea what the bonus disc might be.

I'm surprised by the coolness toward van Gelder I see here, because I never see it on the threads about the Blue Note RVGs. There must be some interest, though, because this thread has over 540 views in less than two days! I'm looking forward to the Miles Quintet release. I have the four LPs, and I assume that this release will have the songs in recorded order, which I would like to hear. I wonder if Concord will allow the OJCs of the albums it has remastered to go out of print. It wouldn't surprise me. Why keep on pressing the old?

Elsa is my favorite of the Evans cannon. I have it on both Riverside and Verve.

I remember reading that quote! I always think of it when I see a photo of Rollins with his Mohican.