Tom Storer

That gets back to my question then - is it more ethical to link to a bootleg cd where the artists are not being paid royalties but someone is profiting (and these cds are often not budget priced) than to link to somewhere where you can download same recording for free. Note that I don't think that either is ethical particularly but I have some trouble with the logic. I think you have a point, DJ, but I guess something about bootleg CDs being physical objects offered for sale by actual (if shady) companies makes them grudgingly allowed as "discographical" whereas the exact same recordings transferred online are way off limits. They're every bit as illicit when downloaded, but unlike the bootleg CDs they are generating no unearned profit for anyone. It seems more logical to do it the other way around, BWTFDIK? As for copyright periods being longer in the US, that doesn't seem in itself like a good reason to shun certain European issues, such as the exemplary Classics or "Trésors du Jazz" series in France. After all, the board has an international membership. There are of course other issues that can come into play, such as reissues that steal other labels' recordings wholesale rather than doing their own mastering. But not all European reissues are by shoddy, unethical thieves.

She's so annoying, I'd be rude, too.

Listening to "The Scene" as I type. Sounds good so far! It's on eMusic.

I missed January and February, but made up for it in March with three concerts: Ari Hoenig (with Will Vinson, as; Danton Boller, b; Jonathan Kreisberg, g.) Baptiste Trotignon (with Thomas Bramerie, b; Franck Agulhon, d; Mark Turner, ts; Tom Harrell, flg) (see here) A double-header with Ron Carter's group (Stephen Scott, p; Payton Crossley, d; Rolando Morales-Matos, perc) and the Blue Note All Stars (Joe Lovano, ts; Stefano di Battista, as; Flavio Boltro, tpt; Jacky Terrasson, p; Ron Carter, b; Payton Crossley, d). In April I plan to see Kurt Rosenwinkel, with Aaron Parks, p; Ben Street, b; Ted Poor, d. In May, the Branford Marsalis Quartet.

I saw him at Lincoln Center with Paul Jeffrey on tenor, and it must have been the one here. It was part of the Newport in New York festival, so it was a summer concert. Early July would have been right. The concert was a triple bill: Oregon, Keith Jarrett with Redman, Haden, & Motian, and then Monk. I was excited to see Monk but my memories are more visual than anything. I was only 17 anyway.

Your local library needs your support! But seriously, why not simply move to a nice big city that has trouble-free Internet access? You can always move back a year later. Seems like a small price to pay for the opportunity to keep posting! Drop in when you can from the library or wherever. We'll be watching for you!

I have a Squeezebox but haven't managed to make it work. I had high hopes but it doesn't see my wireless connection. I think, and hope, that when I can find the time to devote to troubleshooting and workarounds, I'll be able to make it work. But I'm so annoyed that it doesn't "just work" that I am in a sort of long-term fit of spite about it and haven't really exerted myself to try to fix the problem. But anyway, Randy, the Squeezebox is supposed to allow you to play music either from Internet sources or from audio files stored on a hard disk and accessed through a wireless connection. On paper it looks marvelous, and I know that for many people it works fine, so take my own situation as an exception.

Got it. LTB it is, then.

Damn, sucks to be a NICU baby. Jim, remind me: what does LTB stand for?

I've been sleeping on this guy, despite having heard about him for several years. Bought "Kinsmen" yesterday, now I'm a believer! (cue Monkees) Great, great stuff. Now I'll have to get more.

So Brazilian Portuguese is closer to Portuguese Portuguese than Québec French is to French French?

I don't want to fart in church or anything, but a friend gave me the collected "Watchmen" to read before going to the movie. Not that I had had any intention of going to the movie, but he didn't know that. Anyway... it was a fun read. But, and here's the fart in church, although I am perfectly open to graphic novels, I just can't take costumed superheroes seriously. I mean, costumed superheroes? They're fine when you're 10 years old, but I really have trouble suspending my disbelief. It's sort of like science fiction but without the imaginative link with our real world that makes the best science fiction work. If you're going to produce something literary, something with nuanced characters and plot, themes of desire and ambition, memory and betrayal, solitude and society, violence, compromise and redemption... why not write a novel, or a graphic novel, without costumed superheroes? So that it's, you know, more real or something. I just don't get the fascination with costumed superheroes.

I don't know much about the details, but there are substantial differences in accent and vocabulary. I believe it's similar to the France/Québec divide in French. After all, the Portuguese started colonizing South America in what, the 15th century? So there's been a good long time for parallel development to occur.

There's nothing to be alarmed about, Larry. It's the same phenomenon as Elvis impersonators, only more middle-brow.

Thanks for that nice article, Mark! One of Flanagan's quips that I liked: he'd play a Charlie Parker tune, then look out at the audience and say, "That was bebop. You know bebop, right? It's the music from before the Beatles... and after the Beatles." A memorable concert I saw in Paris was a tribute to Coltrane, probably X years after his birth or death, don't remember... Flanagan, don't recall the bassist, Jimmy Cobb, and on tenor, George Coleman and James Moody. It was a fabulous concert, with Flanagan reminiscing about Coltrane in between tunes. ("That was John's tune 'Cousin Mary.' He named it after his cousin, Mary.") John Litwack and I used to go see him with his trio when they passed through Paris. Total class. I have a copy of "Sunset and the Mockingbird" signed by Flanagan, Washington and Nash!

Jim, check out http://www.dailymotion.com/redhotjazz. This Ken McPherson person has good stuff.

I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask my question: does anybody know how to grab excerpts of video in AVI format from a DVD? People seem to do this all the time in order to post said excerpts on YouTube but I haven't a clue what software they use or anything.

French-speakers such as those in Belgium pronounce it jasPAR, but they also pronounce his first name buhBEE. So you can either go the francophone route and say buhBEE jasPAR, or else you can pretend you're an English speaker and say BOBby JASpar. (Even with English stress, you ought to say Jaspar and not Jasper.) And as BillF notes, that's a soft J in French.

He's back! Check out the upcoming shows list on the MySpace page of French pianist Baptiste Trotignon: Turner will be playing three concerts with him, along with Tom Harrell, in March. I'll be seeing them at the New Morning in Paris on March 10. Another concert with Trotignon is scheduled in France in May. Trotignon has a new album out on Naive Records called "Share," with Turner, Harrell, Matt Penman on bass, and Eric Harland or Otis Brown III on drums. They're touring (with French bass & drums) in support of the album.

- Baptiste Trotignon, "Share": Trotignon, piano; Matt Penman, bass; Eric Harland or Otis Brown III, drums; on certain tracks: Mark Turner, tenor sax; Tom Harrell, flugelhorn. - Joshua Redman, "Compass": Redman with two bassists (Larry Grenadier and Reuben Rogers) and two drummers (Brian Blade and Gregory Hutchinson). They go from trio tracks to quartet tracks (one drummer, two bassists) to quintet tracks with everybody. I thought I'd go mainstream and see what's up. Both are very nice records on first listen.

One way to reduce the deficit.

Jarrett and his bloody solo concerts. Stay in the barn, Keith. I once wrote a review of a Jarrett solo concert recording.

Whenever I read a Grisham book I appreciate the fact that he's a skilled writer. His prose is deft and relatively graceful. That's not at all true of many best-seller authors (Dan Brown being only the most egregious of a bad lot). That said, the content is not always memorable. I'm reading Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" right now--now there's a real writer, with imagination and originality as well as serious chops.

Are you employed at SAP? Yes, as of last year when they swallowed up the company I've been at for the last ten years. This is one of those maddening situations: we saved their bacon and simultaneously endangered their stock. Our company, that SAP bought, buoyed SAP's 2008 turnover significantly. Without the acquisition they would have had a much worse year in terms of sales. However, since we had been operating with a lower profit margin than SAP's (which is very high), the acquisition mechanically lowered SAP's margin--which is bad for the stock price. That and the present crisis triggered the layoffs.

Getting laid off is tough news in the best of times. I wish all the best to those of you who are out of work. My employer has announced 3000 layoffs worldwide in the coming year; no one knows where the axe will all. Fingers crossed.