J Larsen

McCoy Tyner. Jimmy Smith. Larry Young. Albert Ayler. Miles Davis. Chet Baker. Ornette Coleman (especially when he's playing a plastic horn!). I guess it wouldn't be fair to name vocalists.

Thanks for all the replies. I've gathered two things from the responses: 1) People have had mixed responses to this material and 2) I have some hunting to do!

The last few pages of Ted Gioia's book West Coast Jazz have me itching big-time to hear any live recordings of Paul Bley's quintet with Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Billy Higgins and Charlie Haden live at the Hillcrest Club from 1958. Does anyone know if any of these recordings are available as bootlegs or "grey-market" releases? Thanks.

I have a theory that the folks at AMG vote on album ratings while leaving the review to, say, the album's biggest fan. I say this because often an album will have just two or three stars, yet will be heralded in the review as one of the artist's/group's best. For an example, click here: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&u...l=Ad7xvadskv8w6

Thanks Lon. I only have two or three shows myself, but that looks like a great site. Maybe it will even be good for shaking the rust off my French! (Actually, I think rust is all there ever was of my French...)

That's a bargain. I've had to pay a lot more than that to get in to the Iridium in the past.

Sorry, haven't heard them, but thanks for the heads up! Any word on the cost? Iridium can be pretty pricey.

Amazon still says they'll ship one this week (although I did order it a couple weeks ago...) They do have several used copies, but I'm holding out to see if they come through with a new one. I've had many bad experiences with the Amazon Marketplace. I'm sure I'll get a hold of a copy one way or another. If all else fails, I can probably find it at City Lights when I go back to SF.

Well, "Jazz on the Barbary Coast" has been a bit tough to track down, but I've been reading Gioia's book and I'm really enjoying it. It's very well written and there's a ton of stuff in there I didn't know. For instance, the apartment in which I grew up is located just about ten blocks up the street from the former location of The Blackhawk. I never knew what block that club was on. Thanks for the recommendations!

Does anyone else NOT like CYE? To me it's like if Seinfeld were centered around George, except with George as a much more moral character. Trouble is, George's amorality is what made him funny in the first place. This show gets a big from me.

That's the one I was thinking of - thanks!

JSngry, how complete of a picture does "It's About That Time" paint of the "lost quintet"? I might have to spend more time with that set, as I'm afraid to admit that it underwhelmed me on my first couple of listens and has been shelved since.

Found a cool baseball-related link today. It shows every uniform for every team by year. http://baseballhalloffame.com/exhibits/onl...se.htm#database One thing I didn't want to know that I learned on this site was that the 1916 Giants wore plaid. Check it out:

NL teams are 136-114 in interleague games, for a winning percentage of .544.

You know Chris, in a way you and I should be glad most people don't buy macs. It's for exactly that reason that these worms and viruses are designed to attack PCs. There's no sense in writing these programs to attack machines that account for less than two percent of the market. We don't have to worry about most "spyware" for the same reason.

Well, when I was teaching at the university it was almost a little too effective...

I hear that. I think I look younger at 28 than I did at 17. In high school I was the one everyone would get to go to the liquor store, because I'd almost never get carded. Last year, some of my college students assumed I was a freshman when I first walked into the room.

I'm flying out for the series with the Braves in a few weeks. I'll be around the following weekend for the series against the Marlins. If they throw Wilis at us, I'll check that out too. I agree that the Giants are tops in the NL, but the BoSox and Yanks worry me if we face them in October. Their starting eights just crush ours, and their rotations match up pretty well, too. BTW, Greg, you look about half as old as I had imagined.

I'd go with Barton Fink. Blood Simple was somewhat flawed, but a classic nonetheless, for the final "through the wall" shooting scene if nothing else.

I loved the Bad Brains. I think I still have all the original records, including the first 7". I'm not a punk/hardcore fan in general by any means, but there was something special about that band.

If you look at the stats, Mondesi is on pace to hit something like six or seven more HR (and throw two more tantrums) than Delluci for the rest of the year. Seems like the DBack's paid a lot for six or seven HR... Edited to correct factual mistatement...

Has anyone mentioned "The Sot-Weed Factor"? If so, I second him!

Hey Berigan - You're a Reds fan? Do you think you guys have one more OF with a functioning bat that we (the Giants) can borrow for the rest of the year? Jose Cruz Jr. is pretty depressing to watch at the plate. If you're looking for a stomach ache, go to his ESPN player page, click "splits", and scroll down to the bottom of the page where they show his numbers with RISP.

Well, the Giants turned Moss into Ponson. That's got to be a good thing. Giants fans were starting to call Moss "the blunder from down under". I was starting to call him something I won't share with the rest of you, but think of all your favorite curse words, put them together in a long string and you'll come close. We still need a bat at 1B or RF, though. We've got one or two too many "all glove no bat" guys.

Did you know tht was the tallest skyscraper in the world when it was built? Evidently they had trouble getting tenants at first because people were afraid it would collapse.