Chrome

... another vote for "Free for All." The liners notes say something like "This is Blakey's most energetic BN recording, and that says a lot considering his other discs" ... I think that's right on.

Spaulding's flute from Duke Pearson's Sweet Honey Bee .

Somehow, I never pictured you as a Kate Bush fan ... my wife loves her stuff, but Kate's a little too ... I don't know ... "ethereal"? for me.

Speaking of Flynn, anyone ever read his autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways? This guy had some kind of life ...

Regarding the disc itself, the music is pretty good, with MacLean and Hardman, but for me the highlight is that there's a brief discussion by Blakey on the disc, talking about his thoughts on the title tune, which is one of those pretty much all-percussion workouts. I found a cut-out of this disc at a used CD store years and years ago ...

Coincidentally, I'm listening to James Spaulding's "Brilliant Corners" CD, with Miller (and Wallace Roney, Ron Carter, Kenny Washington) ... I think his comments about: "A lot of today's musicians learn the rudiments of playing straightahead, think they've got it covered, become bored, and say, 'Let me try something else,'" Miller continued. "They develop a vision of expanding through different areas-reggae here, hip-hop there, blues here, soul there, classical music over hereand being able to function at a certain level within all those styles. Rather than try to do a lot of things pretty good, I have a vision more of spiraling down to a core understanding of the essence of what music is." is dead on, but also applies to the labels ... it's like they're bored with straightahead jazz, too.

Shelly Manne - Perk Up

"Accomplishing this feat with such minimal training and experience is analogous to winning the Boston Marathon after never having run more than ten miles." Yep, exactly the first analogy that came to my mind ...

Boston's 'JeterCenter?" Yanks fan wins 1-day naming rights for Boston arena Posted: Friday February 25, 2005 12:16PM; Updated: Friday February 25, 2005 3:10PM BOSTON (AP) -- The arena is in downtown Boston, the heart of Red Sox Nation. There couldn't be a bigger insult than to name it after the captain of the hated New York Yankees. But that's just what Manhattan lawyer Kerry Konrad aims to do next Tuesday after his $2,325 bid won an eBay auction giving him the one-day naming rights to the FleetCenter. Konrad's proposed name: the Derek Jeter Center, after the Yankee shortstop. His winning bid threw the FleetCenter brass into a dilemma. "I told him, 'I don't think we can approve that name,'" arena spokesman Jim Delaney said. He said he would talk it over Friday with FleetCenter president Richard Krezwick and a decision would be made by the end of the day. Arena officials have reserved the right to approve or reject any winning bid. The FleetCenter is home to the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins. The name became obsolete after Bank of America acquired FleetBoston Financial last year and the Charlotte, N.C., banking giant opted not to retain the naming rights. While the arena's owner, Delaware North Cos., searches for a new long-term partner, it has been offering one-day naming rights on eBay and donating the proceeds to charity. Past winners have included an online casino and a California man who named it for his wife as a Valentine's Day present. The names are posted on signs around the arena and on fleetcenter.com Konrad, a Harvard alum, had the high bid for the March 1 naming rights. His wife, Nina Webb, said it was part of a 20-year college rivalry with some Boston buddies. Delaney said Konrad has been understanding about their predicament, even suggesting that if his Boston friends match his winning bid, they can all settle on a 24-hour name for the arena. "That name may not be as bad as A-Rod," Delaney said, referring to Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriquez, "but it's still considered obscene."

I'll second the Coltrane - Vanguard sessions plus: Clifford Jordan - Night of the Mark VII Blakey - Paris Jam Session Jimmy Smith - Root Down Basie - Live at the Royal Roost Fathead Newman - Blue Head Dinah Washington - Dinah Jams

Historic Muscle Shoals studio closes Thursday, February 24, 2005 Posted: 9:29 AM EST (1429 GMT) NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, the Alabama facility where artists including the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bob Seger recorded classic songs, has closed. The studio, owned since 1985 by indie blues label Malaco Records, closed last month; a film production company is in the final stages of purchasing the building. Musicians Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett and Roger Hawkins, known collectively as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, founded Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield, Alabama, in 1969. A Rolling Stones session at Muscle Shoals featuring sideman Jim Dickinson, who played on the Stones' "Wild Horses," is featured in the film "Gimme Shelter," which documents the band's tumultuous 1969 U.S. tour. Cher named an album "3614 Jackson Highway," after the studio's address. In 1978, the facility moved to a 31,000 square-foot building, also in Sheffield. Malaco Records principal Wolf Stephenson explained that he and his partners were more interested in acquiring Muscle Shoals Sound Publishing, a catalog that includes "Old Time Rock & Roll" and "Torn Between Two Lovers," than the recording studio. "To be quite frank with you," Stephenson told Billboard, "the only reason we bought the studio was, the banks we were dealing with wouldn't loan us the money on the publishing company; they didn't have any idea what it was. It was just a stack of paper to them." The two-room facility was used extensively by Malaco artists, Stephenson added, but the last four years saw a sharp decline in outside projects. "When computer and hard-disk recording really got cheap and better at the same time, it just knocked the socks off a lot of studios, (Muscle Shoals) included. It was just a very difficult thing to compete with." Muscle Shoals was put up for sale on Internet auction site eBay in 2004. The asking price of $650,000, which included the building, property and equipment, yielded no serious offers, Stephenson said. The studio's two Neve consoles have been sold to studios in Detroit and Los Angeles.

Oh ... I thought this was a Bush thread.

There's this interesting/kitschy disc called something like "Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits" with a bunch of indie-types doing cartoon songs ... Ramones do the Spider-Man theme, Juliana Hatfield/Tanya Donnelly () do "Josie and the Pussycats," etc. and Mary Lou Lord/Semisonic do "Sugar, Sugar" in a way that's pretty catchy.

Speaking of ... You're the top, you're Mahatma Gandhi You're the top! you're Napoleon brandy

From www.freestanlely.com: PRESS RELEASE! For Immediate Release: Wednesday January 19, 2005 Free Stanley legal opinion backs call for a Stanley cup challenge in 2005 Free Stanley, the Edmonton-based movement to restore the Stanley Cup Challenge, has received a legal opinion that could pave the way for Stanley Cup playoffs - even if the NHL season is cancelled. According to Roderick C. Payne Jr., a partner in the law firm Hustwick Wetsch Moffat & McCrae, the current trustees have independent control of the cup - not any league, the NHL included. The original conditions, as set out by Lord Stanley, stated the cup was to remain a challenge cup and not become the property of any team even if won more than once. In addition, Lord Stanley stated that in case of any doubt as to the right of any club to claim possession, the cup would be awarded by the trustees as they might think right, their decision being absolute. The legal opinion, obtained by Free Stanley, indicates the current trustees are duty-bound to award the cup each year. Lord Stanley is quoted as stating: "I am willing to give a cup that shall be annually held by the winning club of the Dominion." And finally, the 1947 agreement where trustees purportedly delegated authority over the Stanley Cup to the NHL, is, in the opinion of Roderick Payne, invalid: The simple fact the trustees sought to relieve themselves of the duty of custody as to who should compete for the Stanley Cup is not, in our view, sufficient to suggest the NHL has control over the trophy. The trustees were not entitled to delegate their powers and discretion in such matters and the agreement is not valid at law. Moreover, the present trustees have a duty, in our view, to seek to set aside the agreement and restore the terms of the trust. Free Stanley now calls on all hockey fans to vote on our website poll and help the trustees fulfill their duties. Restore the Challenge! vote here Download the 13-page legal opinion in PDF format - click here Requires Adobe reader For more information, call Tom Thurston (780-453-9105).

Marian Anderson honored with a stamp and jazz standards The American singer gets her due in the Black Heritage series THOMAS PATTERSON | STATESMAN JOURNAL Mike Koenig of the Grand Vines house band packs his bass after a performance Thursday at Salem's main post office. A stamp honoring singer Marian Anderson was unveiled as part of the U.S. Postal Service's Black History Month celebration. The Grand Vines band performed jazz standards written by African-American artists. DAN DE CARBONEL Statesman Journal February 18, 2005 Postal customers took a little longer than usual to pick up their mail and send packages Thursday at the Salem Main Post Office. It wasn't because of long lines. Rather, it was an opportunity to help honor a trailblazing American singer and civil-rights pioneer. Postal officials unveiled the new Marian Anderson commemorative stamp, the latest in the U.S. Postal Service's Black Heritage series. Marian Anderson, a classical singer whose career helped spur the civil-rights movement, took her place among previous honorees Harriet Tubman, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson. Jazz standards including "Ain't Misbehavin' " and "God Bless the Child" entertained postal customers not accustomed to live music at the post office. Ellen Hinrichs of Turner had friend Roz Jackson of Salem drive her to the post office just to witness the event. "I love to do things that are unusual," said Hinrichs, a Big Apple transplant. "It's just really neat and reminds me of New York." Turner Postmaster Prince Richardson, a trailblazer himself being just the second African-American postmaster in Oregon, said Anderson never let obstacles get in her way. She also served as an example of never giving up, Richardson said, a theme touched on by speaker Dave Bowen, a former outstanding track athlete at the University of Oregon who also attended Willamette University. "She exemplified an attitude of "I can, I will, I won't quit," Richardson said. "She showed that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it." Tamara Burleson, a local music educator at Kids & Music, wanted her 3-year-old daughter, Elisabeth, to hear some live jazz. "It's a great chance to expose her to music," she said. Salem Postmaster Sara Lovendahl said she expects more stamp-unveiling events in the future. "This helps educate the public about those we honor on our stamps," she said. "And we want to show the public we're part of the community."

Has anyone picked up the Jack Wilson "Easterly Winds" disc? It's a pretty nice late '60s kind of disc with a pretty funny photo inside ... the one showing all the players on the session ... what is going on w/Bob Cranshaw and Billy Higgins? Looks like they were having a fine ol' time ...

Richard Williams plays a fantastic rendition of "Rainbow" on his "New Horn in Town" CD ...

Let's see, we've done women, Jewish and now blind jazz musicians ... I wonder what group is next!

I've been a fan since first stumbling upon "Life in Hell" years and years ago ...

If she was a guy, they probably would have ...

In keeping with the Valentine's Day theme ... Report: Letourneau to wed former pupil April 16 wedding date set Monday, February 14, 2005 Posted: 12:53 PM EST (1753 GMT) SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Mary Kay Letourneau plans to marry the former sixth-grade pupil with whom she had two children, months after her release from prison for raping him, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, citing an online bridal registry. Letourneau, 43, and Vili Fualaau, 22, set a wedding date of April 16, according to their registry at a department store. Letourneau served 7 1/2 years on a 1997 conviction for raping Fualaau, who has said in the past that he hoped to wed his former teacher. "It's been long overdue," Noel Soriano, a friend of the couple, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a story published Monday. "It's going to be fabulous, seeing them get hitched finally." A lawyer for Fualaau and a friend of Letourneau did not immediately return calls Monday seeking further comment. Letourneau was a 34-year-old married mother of four when she began a sexual relationship with her then-12-year-old elementary school student in 1996. She was pregnant with Fualaau's first child when she was arrested in 1997 and ordered to serve a six-month sentence for second-degree child rape. One month after she was released, Letourneau was caught having sex with Fualaau in her car. She pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of child rape, and gave birth to the couple's second daughter while serving her 7 1/2-year sentence. Fualaau's mother is raising their two daughters, aged 6 and 7. Shortly after Letourneau was released from prison last August, the pair successfully petitioned a judge to lift a no-contact order that had barred them from seeing each other. Soriano said Fualaau proposed last fall, but the couple has been trying to keep wedding details a secret. Details are yet to be completed, but plans call for their daughters to be flower girls, he said. "They have gone through a lot," Soriano said. "That they lasted this long proves how strong their love is."

If you liked that, "Live at Montreux" is available through BMG ...

What's In Popeye's Pipe? By Dana Larsen, Cannabis Culture. Posted February 8, 2005. The world's most famous sailor-man may be tooting more than just spinach in his pipe. Popeye is one of the world's most well-known and beloved animated characters. Since his creation, the pipe-puffing Popeye has become a global phenomenon, with millions of kids heartily munching on spinach in the hopes that it will make them as strong as the legendary sailor-man. Yet is the spinach which gives Popeye his super-strength really a metaphor for another magical herb? Have children around the world been adoring a hero who is really a heavy consumer of the forbidden weed – marijuana? The evidence is circumstantial, but it is there, and when added together it presents a compelling picture that, for many readers at least, Popeye's strength-giving spinach is meant as a clear metaphor for the miraculous powers of marijuana. Comic Creation Popeye has gone through many different writers and artists since he was first created in 1929 by cartoonist Elzie Segar. Popeye was originally introduced as a minor character in Segar's ongoing comic strip, Thimble Theatre. For 10 years Segar had been chronicling the adventures of Olive Oyl, her brother Castor, and her fiance Ham Gravy. At the start of one new adventure, Castor and Ham were to embark on an overseas voyage, and so they went to the docks and hired a sailor named Popeye. Soon Popeye had become a major part of the Thimble Theatre cast, and within a year Ham Gravy was written out of the strip as Popeye replaced him as Olive's sweetheart. Wimpy was added to the cast three years later, and baby Swee'pea four years after that. At first there was no explanation for Popeye's amazing strength. But within a few years Popeye's reliance on spinach was entrenched in the strip, and the basis of some ongoing jokes. By the time of the animated cartoons, decades after Segar's death, the spinach had become an essential part of every plot, with Popeye's consumption of the magic herb signaling a swift end to his foes. The original comic by Segar was much more complex and nuanced than the later animated shorts. Segar introduced many strange and wonderful characters into Popeye's world, including the malicious Sea Hag, whose enchanted flute enables her to fly and do magic; the wealthy Mr. Vanripple, whose beautiful daughter June rivals Olive for Popeye' affections; the disturbing Alice the Goon who speaks only in squiggles; and the mighty Toar, whose monstrous strength challenges even Popeye's. Segar's storylines were full of adult humor, including Toar having a crush on Popeye, calling him "hot stuff" and kissing him on the head. Popeye's ongoing adventures included founding his own island nation called Spinachovia, and becoming "dictipator" over a country made up only of men. Spinach = Marijuana So from these seemingly innocent beginnings, what evidence is there that Popeye is actually a stoner? During the 1920s and '30s, the era when Popeye was created, "spinach" was a very common code word for marijuana. One classic example is "The Spinach Song," recorded in 1938 by the popular jazz band Julia Lee and Her Boyfriends. Performed for years in clubs thick with cannabis smoke, along with other Julia Lee hits like "Sweet Marijuana," the popular song used spinach as an obvious metaphor for pot. In addition, anti-marijuana propaganda of the time claimed that marijuana use induced super-strength. Overblown media reports proclaimed that pot smokers became extraordinarily strong, and even immune to bullets. So tying in Popeye's mighty strength with his sucking back some spinach would have seemed like an obvious cannabis connection at the time. Further, as a "sailor-man," Popeye would be expected to be familiar with exotic herbs from distant locales. Indeed, sailors were among the first to introduce marijuana to American culture, bringing the herb back with them from their voyages overseas. Segar did make other, more explicit drug references in his comic strip. One ongoing 1934 plotline had Vanripple's gold mine facing corrupt, thieving workers. Popeye discovers that the mine manager is feeding his men berries from a bush whose roots are soaked in a nasty drug. Consuming the drugged berries removes human conscience, making people more violent and willing to commit crime. Popeye falls under the influence of the laced berries and becomes surly and mean, striking out at his friends and allies. Yet he still manages to get five gallons of "myrtholene," a joy-inducing drug which he pours over the plant's roots. The new berries produce delirious happiness, and as Popeye says, "When a man's happy he jus' couldn't do nothin' wrong." Pot References Segar died in 1938, and the strip was taken over by others in the following decades. As the Popeye character was re-interpreted by others in print, animation and film, other indicators of a marijuana subtext have continued to pop up. For example, in many of the animated Popeye cartoons from the 1960s, Popeye is explicitly shown sucking the power-giving spinach through his pipe. Further, in the comics and cartoons made during the '60s, Popeye had a dog named Birdseed. Surely the writers who named Popeye's dog during this "flower power" era were aware that cannabis was in fact America's number one source of birdseed until it was banned? Another slightly different drug reference occurs in the 1954 cartoon, Greek Mirthology. In the cartoon, Popeye tells his nephews the story of his ancestor, Hercules. Hercules, who looks just like Popeye, is shown sniffing white garlic to gain his super strength. By the end of the cartoon Hercules has discovered spinach and switches over to it. Is this a metaphor for the benefits of cannabis over cocaine or snuff? Another animated film shows Popeye carefully tending a crop of spinach plants reminiscent of a cannabis patch. He carefully takes cuttings, dips them into rooting gel and plants them in his outdoor garden. He even gives each plant a special feeding mix from a baby bottle. Pot growers worldwide would recognize the unique way that Popeye cares for his sacred crop. I Yam What I Yam Some have commented on the parallel between Popeye's famous phrase, "I yam what I yam," and the statement, "I am that I am," made by God to Moses in the Old Testament. In the story, God speaks to Moses through a magical burning bush, which was not consumed by the fire. Many different people and faiths, including Rastafarians and various early Christian sects, have believed that the biblical burning bush is a reference to the cannabis plant. So in this context, the use of phrase, "I yam what I yam," can be seen as a reference to Popeye's use of the burning cannabis bush, which creates his higher awareness of the self-reflective nature of the Godhead. Pure Bolivian Spinach The only Popeye strip to ever explicitly refer to the pot/spinach connection was published in the 1980s by illustrator Bobby London. The comic showed Popeye and Wimpy picking up a load of "pure Bolivian spinach." London did the syndicated Popeye daily strip for King Features from 1986 to 1992, and was known for putting adult, controversial themes into his work. He had previously worked on the short-lived comic book Air Pirates, which showed Mickey and Minnie Mouse having sex, getting high and smuggling drugs. London was eventually fired from Popeye for writing an allegorical satire about the abortion issue. No new Popeye strips are now being written; those running in daily newspapers are all repeats. Popeye Mythology Whether Popeye 's many pot references are intentional or not, some see amazing depths and layers of meaning within the Popeye saga. An author and online artist named Michaelm provides the following analysis: "Popeye characterizes the natural cycle going back through the ages to the ancient mariners ... books, ibles, logs, maps, pennants, sails, ropes, paints, varnishes, lamp oil and sealants were all derived from hemp. Bluto represents the greedy toxic corporations, dependent industries and landowners. "Both characters try to swoon the premier oil source, Olive Oyl. Bluto begins to understand Popeye is too competitive so he decides to eliminate him. He chains Popeye down, captures Olive Oyl, and approaches the point of rape. But in the end Popeye manages to suck the 'spinach' through his pipe, grows strong with hemp, breaks free and defeats the evil corporations, saving her from industrial pollution and oppression. "Relieved and happy, she gives herself back to the natural cycle, then Popeye smiles, winks and toots his pipe." While this is likely reading far more into the strip than any of its creators ever intended, it is an excellent example of the iconic status that Popeye has achieved among some quarters of the cannabis community. Dana Larsen is the editor of Cannabis Culture, which is based in Vancouver B.C.

Hell yeah! (That's Little Milton Campbell!)