DTMX

Live in Cuba is not the catchiest title in the world, but you've got to love the name of the band.

My favorite John McLaughlin group line-up was the one that did Birds of Fire. Band photo, left to right: Jerry Goodman, Jan Hammer, John McLaughlin, Rick Laird, Billy Cobham.

From Allmusic.com: Prior to Inspiration, Sam Rivers hadn't recorded for a major label in nearly 20 years, and he hadn't cut a studio session in two decades. That doesn't mean he was inactive; he was teaching, playing, and giving concerts but never recording. Aware that many of Rivers' big-band compositions — not only his recent material, but some earlier works as well — had never been given the proper treatment, saxophonist Steve Coleman helped arrange a recording contract with BMG, with the end result being the astonishing Inspiration album. The compositions on Inspiration are as old as 1968's "Beatrice" and as new as 1995's "Solace" (incidentally, both of those pieces are tributes to his wife Beatrice, who also provides half of the name of the featured big band, the Rivbea All-Star Orchestra). Remarkably, all of the compositions not only sound fresh, they sound visionary — still ahead of their time. It's not only because the stellar musicians give vibrant, unpredictable performances, although that undeniably helps; Rivers' writing is the real key. His writing for big band is utterly original, blending big-band, bop, and avant-garde traditions together in unique, surprising ways. The dissonance never sounds irritating — it sounds melodic — and the complex themes are strangely inviting. Similarly, Rivers' playing is robust, swinging between intense bursts of sound and beautiful lyricism, and sometimes combining it all at once. His 16 colleagues — including such luminaries as Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Chico Freeman, and Ray Anderson — follow suit, delivering wonderfully shaded, invigorating performances. Inspiration truly is a revelation, proving not only that Rivers retains all his creative power at the age of 75, but that avant-garde jazz can be as inviting as any other style without sacrificing any of its depth or daring. — Stephen Thomas Sam Rivers - Flute, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Producer Ray Anderson - Trombone Steve Coleman - Sax (Alto), Producer, Mixing Chico Freeman - Sax (Tenor) Greg Osby - Sax (Alto) Bob Stewart - Tuba Gary Thomas - Sax (Tenor) Baikida Carroll - Trumpet Ralph Alessi - Trumpet Art Baron - Trombone Joseph Bowie - Trombone Anthony Cole - Drums Doug Mathews - Bass James Zollar - Trumpet Ravi Best - Trumpet Joe Daley - Sax (Baritone) Also, there's a follow-up release, recorded at the same session, called Culmination.

I wonder how much weed went into coming up with this concept? Simple mathematics: Bong + Matrix DVD = Space Elevator.

Schifrin has a nice Piano Trio (piano, violin, cello - not piano, bass, drums) on Naxos records. There's an even better Gunther Schuller trio on the same recording.

On the bench? Hasn't this guy ever heard of the employee breakroom?

I thought all judges liked to pound the gavel now and then.

The only boot knockin' I do these days is at Payless Shoes.

I hereby nominate this one for post of the year! I don't want to throw cold water on anybody, but you do know that this is a Steven Wright quote, don't you? I knew I'd heard it somewhere before - just didn't know where. And here I thought the only Wright I remembered was "You can't have everything. Where would you keep it?" Steven Wright was great as the radio announcer in "Reservoir Dogs".

For the past several months, I've been playing a CD as I drop off to sleep in the hopes that I'll improve my ear for music or at least drown out the tinnitus that keeps me awake. If I die in my sleep the last thing I'll hear will probably be Brahms' String Quintets or Sextets, or Dvorak's String Quartets or Quintets.

I don't want to hear anything. I want to die peacefully, in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers.

Three Blind Mice, Volume 2

Three Blind Mice, Volume 1

It doesn't mention that the 10th of the 10 escapes occured during the filming of the rap video or that the officials denied for almost 24 hours that the video was being filmed in the first place. Top jail officials didn't know about the video at the time but the underlings felt they had the liberty to do something like this with no fear of reprisal. The Fulton County Sherriff, Jackie Barrett is under investigation for investing $7 million of county money in some sort of Floridian pyramid scheme - only $2 million has been recovered. The elected officials of Fulton County and the surrounding metro region are just a bunch of whores - getting paid and laid is all they're there for. PS: The officials couldn't find the woman that walked out of custody that night. A citizen called in a tip for where to pick her up. PPS: This same week, a security guard saw a criminal driving her stolen car (store videotapes show the criminal stealing the car a couple of days earlier) and she confronted, shot and killed him. That's the amount of faith people have in the Atlanta police force - if you want something done, do it yourself.

Got a kick out of this list. Thanks. There some similar smartassity in a review I did of an Earle Brown recording on CRI on Amazon somewhere.

Went to high school with a kid named Yoo Suk Kim, brother of Won Sok. If you're in Singapore, stop by and visit Professor Chew Shit Fun and chew the fat, shoot the shit, whatever.

I write the occasional Amazon review while I'm listening through headphones at work; at least then I can feel like I accomplished something by the end of the day. I try to review the recordings that don't have any or many reviews. I also only review the recordings I really like so most of my reviews are 5 stars - I could give some 1 stars reviews but Kenny Geez has so many 5 star reviews that my 1 star review wouldn't pull the average down enough to make it worth my bile. My reviews and my Listmania lists.

The last name wasn't Cumstein was it?

From the font of wisdom that is Fark.com: Is it ok if I keep referring to her as Skankerly McDirtysnatch? ------ The name Esther is derived from the Persian name Satarah, meaning "star". What's the Persian name for "Has been?" BTW, does she still have the British accent? Esther, you are from Michigan, for Christ sake! ------ Is it ok if I keep referring to her as Skankerly McDirtysnatch? Well if you want to be respectful of her wishes, you will call her Esther McDirtysnatch. ------ Fred Sanford: "Esther, you're so ugly I'm going to stamp your face in dough and make gorilla cookies." ------ Calling her Irrelevant would be more accurate. ------ How cool will it sound to ask your friends if they're going to the Esther concert? ------ Considering how well her career is going lately, Madonna is soon going to be known as "Who?"

If Madonna wants to take on a name that means something, she should try that term of endearment that's all the rage in Colorado.

One of our engineers was ultra-rightwing conspiracy theorist who had developed a local rep for calling local talk radio shows and venting on-air. He was also very paranoid and was against whales because he felt they were liberal (no, I don't know why, and yes, he really said that). This was in the late 80's, about the time that Yasir Arafat and the PLO declared its intention of forming an Arab state of Palestine - and he had voiced his opposition to this on the radio, the office, and anywhere he could find an audience. We worked in a lab that had a door that opened to the area behind the building. One day while he was working in the lab I walked in behind him, looked out the door and remarked what beautiful day it was - then slipped an obstruction into the lock to keep the door from automatically locking. I don't even think he knew I was there. So I go to work and after a while the president of the company pulls the outside door open (not enough to reveal himself), yells "ALLAH AKBAR! ALLAH AKBAR!", and rolls a dud grenade into the lab, slamming the door behind him. Conspiracy Guy slowly looks up, looks around the room, sees the grenade, and bolts for the door and he's gone. He may have kicked over the stool he was sitting on, I don't remember. We have a good chuckle, then we go looking for him. Found him in the smoking area, puffing furiously. "You okay?" "Yeah." "You ran out of there pretty fast." "Yeah." "Didn't you think it was it was pretty implausible that Islamic fundamentalists would be tossing grenades in an officepark in the middle of suburbia?" "Well - I've got a lot of enemies out there." That was in 1988/89 - I don't know how that prank would go over today. Probably all the engineers in the room would have been running for the door. He was ahead of his time.

About 17 years ago I was working for a small company of about 25 people. There was a manager ('Jay') who was constantly complaining about how he didn't get any respect and that the company couldn't get along without him, etc... One day his director came around taking up donations for Jay's birthday gift - a stripper. The money flowed, as did the ideas. What we ended up doing was having the stripper come in as a job applicant for Jay's department. Allegedly, she was being sent down from corporate headquarters for a courtesy interview before being laid off. While Jay was complaining about having to interview someone for a job that didn't exist, we (the engineers) set up the interview environment. First, we halved the size of the conference room by extending one of those flexible floor-to-ceiling screens across the room. On our side of the screen we set up a TV and VCR; on the other side we put a live video camera in a pile of audio/video equipment that was normally in the room. We piled stuff on the conference table so that they would be forced to sit in camera range - we knew Jay would not check out the room before the interview and would just drop his sadsack ass in the first available chair. When the "applicant" came in we took her boombox (aka tape player) and whisked it to the conference room, setting it under the table near the second available chair. We also gave her a fake resume and letter of recommendation. Then we scattered. Jay was summoned, introductions made, and they went into the conference room, closing the door behind them. The rest of the company (except the receptionist) went to the TV side of the conference room (different door) so we could see and hear Jay doing his interview. The first thing Jay does is start complaining about how late he worked the night before, how early he comes in, how his director doesn't appreciate him, how the company couldn't survive without him - pure comedy gold. The whole rest of the company was on the other side of the screen stifling our laughter. Jay kept complaining. Then he starts complaining about how his wife and children don't respect him and how he does so much for them and they don't appreciate it, etc... Then he tells the "applicant" that he's not sure if her qualifications would be suitable for his department. She says something like "maybe this will change your mind". She pulls out the boombox, hits 'play', and starts taking her clothes off. Jay just freezes in his chair - he looked like an agoraphobe on a roller coaster. Eventually she ends up sitting in his lap, singing to him or something, and he was just frozen in pure possum panic - not moving, speaking, or breathing. We were dying on the other side of the screen - we couldn't laugh or we'd blow our cover so everyone was doubled over and crying. I told Jay's director, "Go around, go around" and he ran out our door, down the hallway, composed himself, and opened the other conference room door. "Sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to - WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!!!". Jay yelled "I didn't do anything! I swear!". Then we pulled back the curtain and yelled 'SURPRISE!" I thought he was going to have a stroke or something. After a while, we got him calmed down, had some birthday cake, and gave the videotape we'd made to his wife. She loved it. That was one of the greatest days of my life.

Check out Spaulding's Blues Nexus - he's got a version of Mobley's "Soul Station" that just burns.

Damn. I've lived in Georgia my entire life, grew up listening to Ray Charles, and only last night did I try sounding out the chords to Georgia On My Mind on the piano. Couldn't quite get it so I went out and bought the sheet music this afternoon, came home, turned on the TV and heard the news. Damn. David "Fathead" Newman related a story once to the effect that in 1964 when he told Ray Charles that he was leaving his band to go solo Ray Charles told him "You sure? You do know I'm booked through 2000, don't you?". Or something like that.

Just found out about this one yesterday, it's already on its way.