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I'm going to be mighty tempted by some of the new Conns this summer, especially Holiday for Skins. Generally, I have been pretty good (i.e. saving not spending money), though last week I bought Marvin Gaye's I Want You. Today I just splurged on a box set of Messiaen's recordings called Messiaen Edition, which is 18 CDs covering most of his output. Apparently this has Messiaen himself playing the definitive version of some organ works and his wife playing many of his solo piano pieces. Can't wait for it to arrive. I'd say that Messiaen and Shostakovich are my two favorite 20th C. composers (not counting Ellington or other jazz composers), and with this set I will be very well covered for both of them.

This strategy is one of the things that disgusts me about the modern NBA. If the best you can do is just go in and blatantly foul your opponent, then frankly you deserve to lose the game. When this started becoming common, you saw players sort of hanging their heads when following coach's orders, but now it's just part of the game. It drags things out and makes it an ugly game. I would definitely support a rule change to eliminate this -- probably giving the ball back to the fouled team in the last thirty seconds of a game when the foul is clearly intentional and not done in the course of defending a shot.

This story just gets worse and worse -- assuming it is true. All you can really say is that the apple didn't fall far from the tree and they all deserve long prison sentences. From CNN:

One of my favorite Greene novels. I also particularly liked Monsignor Quixote. i am half way through. i read our man in havana last year. any recommendations for my next greene? In addition to MQ, I would recommend The Third Man (if you haven't seen the film), The Quiet American and maybe Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party (a late novel). (I don't remember too much about Doctor Fischer other than it seemed inspired by and perhaps a bit overwhelmed by Dr. Strangelove.)

One of my favorite Greene novels. I also particularly liked Monsignor Quixote.

With the b-side "Fans are Deaf"?

I saw American Painters in Paris at the UK National Gallery. Before that I saw an interesting show called Melancholy curated by Jean Clair in Berlin. I really wanted to make the Cezanne show, but it wasn't in the cards.

I got a CD player in 1987 as I was heading off to college. It came with a Columbia jazz sampler. The first CD I bought was probably The Beatles' Help. First jazz CD was probably Mingus Ah Um and Brubeck's Take Five a bit after that. I was still buying tapes in those days, which is why I didn't get Monk's Genius of Modern Music 1 & 2 and Miles' Sketches of Spain earlier (before Mingus and Brubeck at any rate).

Managed to get to Amsterdam to see Andrew Hill at the Bimhuis this Friday. Originally was billed with Greg Tardy and Charles Tolliver, but Byron Wallen and Jason Yarde substituted for them. The line-up ANDREW HILL NEW QUINTET Byron Wallen-trumpet, Jason Yarde-tenor saxophone, clarinet, Andrew Hill-piano, John Hebert-bass, Eric McPherson-drums It was good angular music. I think mostly from Time Lines, though I am not certain about that. Generally, Andrew doesn't play that much and lets the horns dominate. There was one pretty good bowed solo by the bass player. I thought Andrew looked about the same as when I saw him three years back in Chicago. I managed to snap a shot or two on my cell phone, and if I can ever figure how to unload that, I will post it here. I had a great seat about three rows back. I made it through the first set and most of the second when I had to run to catch my train. I think he'll be back through England and Europe a little later in the summer.

The weirdness is over for another year. This was the first year I watched Eurovision, and it definitely lived up to and down to all my preconceptions. Half the songs are in English to get cross-over votes and the other half are defiantly native (with a bit of Riverdance or Abba thrown in as part of the routine). Most of my previous knowledge of Eurovision comes from the TV show Father Ted where he is chosen to go to Eurovision, since Ireland is sick of winning and paying to host the competition (apparently there is a bit of truth behind this joke, though this year they put forth a serious contender who was solid but not flashy enough). France was really dire, and came pretty close to scoring nil points (6 total maybe). And they were still ahead of Malta who scored 1. The UK entry was some dreadful hip-hoppy thing by a 40-year-old. The joke just didn't translate at all. But really, given the UK's unpopularity in Europe right now, there isn't much point in putting too much effort in. Eurovision is not a serious musical contest in any sense, but is decided mostly by the smaller countries voting in blocs. One of the best entries musically was a country song by the German group, but it didn't even finish in the top 10. Nonetheless, the runaway winner was definitely interesting - a heavy metal group from Finland that dresses up sort of like Gwar. Expect even more gimmicks next year. It really is weirdly compelling. Anyone else watch and have any thoughts?

I imagine many people have this material already, but BBC Radio 3 will be airing a recording of Miles in Rotterdam on May 26 11:30 PM (GMT). I didn't get the full details, but the group includes Wayne Shorter, Jack DeJohnette and Chick Corea. Unlike most of the Jazz on 3 shows, this is not going to be available for 7 days after airing. You have to listen to it live. Fortunately, it will be available for internet streaming on the day, and probably will be available to listeners outside the UK. Eric

Finished Soldier's Art book 8 of Powell's Dance to the Music of Time. Overall it is a really interesting read, though occasionally Powell is a bit too proud of the structure/plotting of the books. This comes up in book 8 when two people are killed in the London Blitz. One who went to a party and one who stayed home. It is just a bit too much like the joke about the man who bumps into death in Bagdad and tries to outrun death, only to have death catch up with him in Samarra. The overplotting is even stronger in The Kindly Ones where one section ends with Nick's childhood figuratively coming to an end with the announcement of WWI, and the book ending with the beginning of WWI and Nick's decision to become a soldier at a relatively advanced age. Still, I like the series as a whole and should wrap it up in another couple of months. I just started a really interesting novel about life in Occupied France called Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. It's quite a work of art, somewhat overshadowed by the back-story that only 2 parts were completed before the author was taken away to the Nazi internment camps where she died. The book was saved by her young daughter who thought it was simply a diary and didn't have the heart to read it until 10 years or so ago.

Like most game shows of the 1990s/2000s, this has been imported from the UK. I saw it once in a hotel in Dublin. I thought it was dumb. Can't imagine the US version is any better.

That's very good news. I wonder if there is any push to get a US distributor, since as was pointed out last year, most of these are very good CDs and some are by quite well known musicians.

I wish I had realized that Collier was available, since I recently paid a bit more than I wanted for Deep Dark Blue Centre, which fairly recently went OOP. Inspired by your post, I went looking for it, and it is on emusic (under Graham Collier Septet). (It's a nice album and only 6 tracks. Also, Day of the Dead looks really promising.) It turns out that most if not all of the whatmusic catalogue has been added. But I don't feel too, too bad, since it was added in late Jan. Anyway, there are some excellent CDs from this label, some very hard to come by, and I will try to download the ones I am missing over the next few months.

HubTones just maybe, but would you really hang Somethin' Else on the wall? The cover is so plain.

I guess I don't really consider NUR as a public station in that way, other than they have a slice of public airwaves. They are a university station, and part of the requirement for the DJs retaining their cred is to focus on the avante garde. This works pretty well when there are "mainstream jazz" outlets on the radio for them to separate themselves from, not so well when they have all collapsed in Chicago. I haven't heard the station out of DuPage, but most of the jazz you can hear on Chicago stations is smooth jazz. I am really disappointed in WBEZ's direction, which seems to be a real betrayal of their audience (like we really need talk radio 24 hours a day) and I guarantee I won't pledge them again unless they put jazz back on.

I was always a little interested in jazz and had a small collection of Mingus, Monk, Miles Davis and a few other CDs. Then seven or so years ago, it was like a switch was turned on and I started building a jazz collection (in a somewhat unhealthy way like a chemical addiction). This board has turned me on to a number of new artists, particularly Latin Jazz/Hard Bossa that I wouldn't have known about. It has also convinced me to get a few Mosaics I was on the fence about (like J.J. Johnson). But the Board can't take all the blame, since I was living in the same city as Jazz Record Mart and Dusty Groove and spent crazy money there before I ever found this place. Still, I'd say it's probably responsible for a 50% increase in my jazz buying, especially when there are links to particularly good sales. If I hear enough people praise a CD, I'm interested and will probably eventually obtain it. I have slowed down considerably in the last year, partly due to finances (and international shipping rates) and partly to listen more to the collection I have now.

Whoops - spoke too soon. It looks like all three are on emusic and I have a few downloads left. If I could only get one of the three this month, which should it be? Thanks.

I don't have any of these albums unfortunately, but I do have the great 2 CD set of O'Farrill on Verve called Cuban Blues. I think I read this is being slated for removal from the catalogue, but it is currently in print. There is also a Lonehill version of the Verve tracks, but I would certainly recommend buying Cuban Blues instead. I don't think I'll be able to obtain any of the CDs in the trilogy -- in the next few weeks at any rate.

This probably is a better movie than the one than Oliver Stone is working on, but I will pass on any and all fictional films about 9/11 or United 93 precisely because they are in the realm of entertainment. I was in Manhattan during 9/11 with clients that worked in the WTC, and I have no interest in watching fictional re-enactments, period.

I do hope he pulls it together. I never thought I would manage to see him play live, but he came through Chicago last year in a guest role. Definitely a not to be missed experience.

From CNN.com I guess he died doing what he loved. Anyway, I think the odds that the county will face a lawsuit are particularly good. But what really seems odd/unreasonable and even tragic is why the rescue workers didn't have a defibrillator or didn't use one at any rate.

Listened to JJJ disks 1-4 last week (really loved Misterioso on Disk 4) and am listening to 5-7 this week.

Very funny. (I wonder if these guys have ambitions greater than getting picked up by an ad agency.)