GA Russell

My skepticism of corporations prohibits my expecting them to realease OOPs for download. I do foresee the day when once something is available for download, it will remain so even after the CD goes OOP.

That vibrating razor sounds dangerous to me. I won't be the first to try it! This week I started using Caswell-Massey Almond Lather Shave Cream. It's a brushless cream. I got it for Christmas a few years ago and forgot about it, so I'm opening it up now. It's extravagant, but it does a good job of lubricating, and smells great!

Jim, we had seen on another thread that Art Blakey wasn't recording during this same time frame. I guess that many of the older guys had pretty much run out of steam and needed a respite by the late sixties. I also think they weren't getting the positive feedback from the public in the 60s. These guys had spend decades doing their thing and being well-received for it, and with the sixties came not only a new generation that never had any interest in jazz, but also a middle-aged generation which quit buying what it had bought in the 50s. That's my take.

Thanks Mike! Where are you finding your discography?

In '67 I went to Al Hirt's club on Bourbon Street to see Mongo Santamaria. One guy in the band impressed me, and he went on to become famous - Hubert Laws. Shortly thereafter, I went to a jam session at a parish/grammar school gymnasium featuring Roland Kirk, backed up by local musicians including Ellis Marsalis and Alvin Batiste.

I'm jealous! Count Basie played a dance at my college during I think the '69-'70 school year. I didn't go, and of course now I regret it. Did he record for Solid State then? I believe that I once saw a '69 recording of his on the Groove Merchant label. Anyway, I have looked but am unaware of any albums currently available which were recorded by Basie at that time. Any suggestions?

Jim, I like your phrase "today's non-smooth-jazz-listener-friendly". I wish all the labels would do more of it. Blue Note recently finished first (Record Label of the Year) in the Jazz Times 2003 Readers Poll. When it comes to reissues, I would rank Blue Note behind only Fantasy. When it comes to new recordings, I would rank them first. Any disagreements welcome! For many years so many items of the EMI catalogue were unavailable. During the past ten years so much has been made available, if only for a little while. I think Blue Note is a cause for celebration! Wouldn't you love to see Atlantic's catalogue given similar treatment?

Well, that was feminine!

I like him too. About 1969 I had an album he made with Eric Kloss on Prestige whose title I forget. I hope Fantasy re-releases their Kloss/Martino sessions. A girl I went to college with knew him from his days playing in a club in Louisville. She told me that he developed quite a following there.

Since you have already been listening to jazz for five years, I highly recommend Sweet Rain, if you can get your hands on a copy. You may have to settle for a used copy.

I remember sometime in the 70s Henny Youngman released an album, I think on RCA, which had two or three grooves per side. You never knew what jokes you were going to hear.

Has anyone obtained and reissued Pausa's material? I'm thinking of two Laurel Masse albums. Much of the Pausa I'm familiar with were reissues leased from EMI, so that's all lhistory now.

Since 1993, I have opened up a new (for me) Julie London album every January 1 to start the new year off right! This year's album is The End of the World. It came on a CD with Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfaast, and I may listen to that one soon too. My favorite too is Julie Is Her Name. Vol 2 with Howard Roberts and Red Mitchell isn't bad either.

I think that all of us who ever made the mistake of buying corfam shoes will vote for Cannonball's Something Cool!

I was pacing during the overtime of that Panthers game, and I don't even care about the NFL!

Remember Bosco and Cookie cartoons? I watched them as a toddler. As I recall, their music was Duke Ellington or someone strongly influenced by him.

Tom, this may be of no help to you, but (since no one else has responded) here goes. What you need is the 1987 CD of Houseparty, all of which was recorded 8/25/57, and includes the songs: JOS What Is This Thing Called Love Just Friends Cherokee Blues After All

It was 1966, my sophomore year in high school. I had already owned Al Hirt and Tijuana Brass records. In January I bought a 45 of a local jazz trio, the Ronnie Kole Trio - Batman's Theme b/w Narum's Blues. In March I bought a 45 of Dave Brubeck's Take Five b/w Blue Rondo a la Turk. In June I bought my first jazz album, the Ramsey Lewis Trio's Hang On Ramsey, which included both Hang On Sloopy and A Hard Day's Night. The next month I got Ray Bryant's Gotta Travel On, like Lewis on Cadet. Apparently my local jazz station had a good supply of Cadet records. It was in October that I got my first hard core jazz album, Richard "Groove" Holmes' Soul Message. I had to go downtown (New Orleans) to buy that, because the distributor of my local shop didn't handle Prestige. I got it because I wanted Misty, which had been a hit that summer.

I read A False Spring many years ago when it was maybe two years old, and I still remember the story about his telephone conversation with his old girlfriend. I recommend Bill Veeck's Veeck As In Wreck.

Chris, as I recall, the article I read was in this past Wednesday's Raleigh News & Observer. The article was about the iPod's dirty secret guy, as referred to in the link posted above. This morning's USA Today has an article about this new iPod on page 2B, and says that the new replacement battery costs $99, not fifty like I recalled.

I read this past week that the iPod's rechargeable battery dies after eighteen months (maybe that's heavy usage), and could not be replaced. Apple has introduced a replaceable battery for fifty bucks, I think.

Pro baseball was almost killed by betting scandals. It wasn't just the 1919 World Series. Bill Veeck in his second book discussed finding documentation indicating that the 1918 World Series was fixes too. A great player named Hal Chase was widely believed to throw games. He's not in the Hall of Fame. Berrigan, when the scandal broke I read that as manager Rose only bet on the Reds to win, but there was one starting pitcher (I've forgotten the name - presumably his worst starter.) he never bet on. The issue about gambling is not one of morality or good citizenship. It's that if the public loses confidence in the integrity of the matches, the whole operation is out of business. In my view, no compromise may be tolerated. To keep Rose out of the Hall is not to deny his accomplishments, but rather to recognize that his actions called into question the integrity of the games he managed.

Didn't Stan Getz's Cafe Montmartre get good reviews?

First time since Paul Dietzel! Hooray! Although I have believed since the Nebraska debacle that the BCS should be limited to conference champs, I think the Stoops made on good point on last night's show. He said that a requirement like that is something that should be decided before the season begins, not now.

I think scottb got it exactly right. I would change the system by simply adding a rule that requires a team to win its conference championship in order to play in a BCS bowl game. That would open the games up to other conferences, and would eliminate the national champ controversies we've had recently.