Adam

The Piano Blues & Boogie Woogie indeed looks like a must to me. Question regarding Chu Berry. Is this the first big Mosaic box that has "Selected" in the title? I wonder why not Complete? Chu Berry (7 CDs) Selected recordings from labels owned by Sony/BMG It's common practice when discussing major tenor saxophonists to mention both Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. However, there was yet another who brought a new voice to the jazz lexicon and whose influence was and is still deeply felt: Chu Berry. This new Mosaic set, due out in February, contains 177 selected tracks by this underappreciated artist. These performances span his formative years (including the classic Benny Carter-led Chocolate Dandies date for Parlophone in 1933) to his untimely death in an automobile crash in 1941.

Isn't adding a baby always a sign of jumping the shark? I also think sit-coms tend to have quality lives of about 5 years tops. They might have some good shows after that, but the fomula for the show (whatever it might be) is so established by season 5 or 6 that shows just write themselves, and there isn't any more of the bits of randomness or anarchy that makes shows work. i am always amazed by how different shows are in the first season, or their first trial run, from the rest of the series.

The reason I find this premise so distasteful is the assumption of the author and, obviously, others by their lists, to associate fame and celebrity with importance. Maybe some people ought to find out about the contributions of people like Benjamin Banaker, Garrett Morgan, Louis Lattimer, Hannibal, Elijah McCoy, Madam Walker, Nefertiti and other great queens and kings of Egypt, Timbuktu and other African nations, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Marcus Garvey, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Madam Walker, Marshall "Major" Taylor and too many more to list. All "the top 5 black people" aren't/were not entertainers, athletes and/or Americans. Just because you don't know their names doesn't mean that they have not profoundly impacted the world. "Black" I've read a few times in the past couple of days that after the release of the song "Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud", African-Americans in the USA basically started callings themselves "black" as oppposed to "Negro" or "colored." Or allowed themselves to be called "black." or no longer saw it as an insult. or some permutation thereof. First, for those of you who were around, do you remember it happening that way? Second, if it did, I would argue that that could be seen as Brown's biggest influence (or one of them) - allowing a people to redefine the language by which they refer to or define themselves. I would argue that he did so musically, and here is an instance of him perhaps doing it linguistically as well. Creating a new language (or languages) that a whole people use for self-definition - that's a pretty big deal. Obviously not a single-handed action, but what is?

Thanks for the photos, Clem! In this one, what is everyone looking at?

More important than a meaningless list: Is anyone going to the Apollo today to pay tribute?

Well, now Criterion is starting a "budget" line - sets of overlooked films by great directors (starting with early Bergman, pre "Seventh Seal" without the extras, and charging about $15 per disc. Here's their announcement, in their blog. http://www.criterionco.com/blog/2006_12_01...614051941207207 Personally, witha few exceptions, I buy DVDs only with special features or box sets. Single disc movie only I can rent. Criterions are probably half of what I own. Throw in the Werner Herzog boxes from Anchor Bay and from his website, some Kino boxes, Unseen Cinema, Noir boxes, and some music, and that almost covers it. Of course, I almost never get around to watching any of them.

What lousy news to wake to. RIP Godfather, King, and everything. Damn. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...-home-headlines Soul singer James Brown dies His influence on rap, disco and funk are indisputable. He had been hospitalized briefly with pneumonia. By Greg Bluestein, The Associated Press December 25, 2006 ATLANTA -- James Brown, the legendary singer known as the Godfather of Soul, has died, his agent said today. He was 73. Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia on Sunday at Emory Crawford Long Hospital and died around 1:45 a.m. today, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles A. Bobbit was by his side, he said. Copsidas said that Brown's family was being notified of his death and that the cause was still uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said. Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the last 50 years. A generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson, among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style. If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator. "James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told the Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close." His hit singles included such classics as "Out of Sight," "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Loud — I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride. "I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 Associated Press interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society." He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male). He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers. From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business. With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince. And rap stars of recent years overwhelmingly have borrowed his lyrics with a digital technique called sampling. Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90% of their music is me," he told the Associated Press in 2003. Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, he was abandoned as a 4-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets of Augusta, Ga., in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it. There he learned to wheel and deal. "I wanted to be somebody," Brown said. By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in Alto Reform School near Toccoa, Ga., for breaking into cars. While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B. In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, Please, Please" was in the R&B Top Ten. Though most of Brown's life was glitz and glitter, he was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his third wife, Adrienne. In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private restroom. Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and back to Georgia. The chase ended when police shot out the tires of his truck. Brown received a six-year prison sentence. He spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. After his release in 1991, Brown said he wanted to "try to straighten out" rock music. He was soon on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable TV viewers nationwide who watched the three-hour, pay-per-view concert at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state. Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery, the coroner said. He and his fourth wife — Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his backup singers — had a son, James Jr., now about 5.

Does anyone here have recollection of "The Defenders," from the early 1960s, with E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed (later of "the Brady Bunch")? Not repeated anywhere, not on DVD, but it was considered the best dramatic series of its time, years ahead of anything else in the issues it dealt with.

So although Spitzer recused himself, did you find out which guitarist he actually preferred?

That link has many things. Which one is it? Edit - Found it - Countdown to Guitarmageddon The Decemberists are quite good.

Where is there an indication of free shipping? A

I enjoyed it, but it's Braxton and not for all tastes.

He played last year at Iridium with about 12 musicians. It was a crowded stage!

I've listened to it a couple of times this week, after recent purchase. Right now it just seems more of the same with the previous album, and the previous album has a few more interesting songs on it, so I wouldn't classify it as an essential purchse.

I thought it would take hours. Last year I bought a different MP3 player. It is 20 gigs and it takes a good 4 hours to upload 20 gigs. It is a piece of crap. I was working for the company, Olympus, and got a good discount, so I went with it. Not worth it. Olympus got out of the digital music busniess. My recollection is the first big uploading of music took hours. But updating later on, in manual mode, didn't take very long for the few hundred songs that I might be deleting or adding. For each album I drag over, it loads on almost immediately.

I bookmarked an earlier thread where you laid out the track lists because I wanted to use it as a reference in anticipation of vols. 3 & 4. Having ordered vol. 2 from you and enjoying it so much, I was basically pre-sold on the remaining volumes. I may have to wait a few weeks before I can order them from you but I'm really looking forward to hearing both! Which thread is that?

That's more than one cut from 1951.

What's the track list on these (not that I won't buy them anyway)?

These days a PBS hour is 52:30 of the body of the show, then add a tease, host intro, credits. It also can vary by show and series.

I think the big hold up on Northern Exposure was the music licensing. I believe the music selections added up to very large sums for licensing, and some songs were ultimately replaced. As for Twin Peaks, heck, I still have them on VHS recorded off TV when the originally aired, commercials and all...

#6 Mulatu Astatke must be referring to Ethiopiques vol. 4. A great album, but not huge as jazz. Very hip & enjoyable. I own # 1 & 2 in their box sets. So if you count that, 6 out of 10. The Eddie Palmieri makes no sense at all.

What about the sound on those more recent Capitol Masters boxes vol 1 & 2? Tower had stacks of Vol. 2 for sale, and I never pulled the trigger.

I just bought this for 60% off yesterday at Tower. I'll try to post my thoughts soon.

And here's the link straight to his article on the records 1973-1990. He admits that he doesn't know the European scene well, and theer are many records from it that are missing. Lots of Hat Hut to start with. http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/20..._iversons_.html

up, hoping for a reply from Allen....