trane_fanatic

Just a little.

Read about this woman in BusinessWeek this month. I dunno, if you were on more than 400 first dates and think all of them were duds, maybe the problem is... you. Since this was back in 2005, I can only imagine how many she's had now. LOL! http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/conte...940206.htm?chan http://www.calgarysun.com/cgi-bin/publish....amp;s=lifestyle http://www.silverlininglimited.com/blackbo...ies_carissa.htm

Have been listening to Cracklin', the New Jazz/Prestige Roy Haynes date f/ Mr. Mathews & Booker Ervin

The CD layer is partially composed of THC.

Can't the same be said for 92.3% of all Mosaics?

The Rev. rocked the BET Awards the other night w/ a great set.

PM sent on the Criss.

The Complete Philips & PolyGram Recordings of Zamfir

The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings of Miles Davis (1985-1991) (Hey, Rhino tried seven years back, but I heard Prince objected to including his Miles collabos even though they are not mentioned in the bottom press release, so they scrapped it.) http://www.rhino.com/rzine/pressrelease.lasso?PRID=117

PM sent on: Ronald Shannon Jackson Red Warrior Philip Wilson Project Steel & Breath(w Laswell, Jonas Hellborg, Lester Bowie) Milford Graves Grand Unification

Farmer's Market. f/ a young Elvin & Mobe.

I can't read Chinese at all, but the first four middle characters in the center of the label, says " I want you here.." Will have to have somebody translate the rest. I have a small and rare collection of Chinese female jazz singers from the 30s through 50s on CD. Intriguing stuff. What do they sound like? Imagine Billie or Ella singing in Chinese. A lotta this is due to the Western influence on prewar-Shanghai where many of these singers originated from. A few years ago, I saw the Shanghai Peace Jazz Band (a bunch of old-timers playing swing) at a hotel and purchased a CD which I had them sign afterwards.

• There is a non-refundable $15 processing and handling fee included in your cost through www.Return2Forever.com, if a show is cancelled and your merchandise has NOT shipped. If your merchandise is shipped at the time of cancellation, there is a non-refundable $69 fee ($59 for processing/merch and $10 shipping). Whatta ripoff. LOL.

I dunno, at times, I can't believe this is really one of Wayne Shorter's projects. Some tracks heavily border on smooth jazz-lite. Heard all the raves, went to Tower back in the day and was surprised by how unappealing Heavy Weather was, at least, to these ears.

Yea, I know. They have at least two of those awesome packages on their website too. http://www.return2forever.com/index.cfm/pk...0167/pid/400145 The only question is: Do you want the "Forever VIP" Experience or the "Beyond Forever" Experience? That collectible plastic laminate is gonna fetch big bucks on eBay someday.

Why don't you just go to amazon.com or allmusic.com and listen to samples? Ah, I could always listen to muddy 30-second sound clips or get more informed opinions from the esteemed O-Board members here.

First secular album wi/o the late Willie Mitchell. Thoughts? Opinions? http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&s...jxfixzujld0e~T1

Hmm... guess I won't care much for them then. Are they any worse than Weather Report?

I am familiar, of course, with the names in the group (Corea, Clarke, L. White, Di Meola). But I've never heard any of their music collectively before. Just curious cuz they gotta tour which stops in Frisco on Wednesday and Thursday and tickets cost an arm and a leg. Never been too much into rock-jazz fusion besides the Miles stuff and a few Joe Henderson sides. http://www.return2forever.com/ FWIW, I hated Mahavishnu Orchestra or whatever they're called when I heard them. Can anybody school me?

She's performing at Yoshi's Oakland this Thursday. Heard one of her tracks on a jazz radio show last night. Not bad at all. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../PKKO10UG7L.DTL Bassist Esperanza Spalding: Hope fulfilled Lee Hildebrand Sunday, June 8, 2008 Esperanza Spalding found high school quite boring. One day while cutting class, Spalding, then 15, wandered into an empty band room, spotted an upright bass and, on a whim, began plucking it. The experience changed her life. "If you never played a bass before and you pick it up and play a note, it's like the vibration just trips you out," recalls Spalding, who at age 23 is the most talked-about young jazz bassist on the planet. "If you've never done it, it's like, wow. It's so low. The vibration travels through your body, and you hear it in your head. The first thing I did on the bass was I put my head on it and played a note. I just heard the sound of the instrument, and that's what I fell in love with - that sound." Not only has Spalding's ability to improvise bass lines while at the same time singing - in English, Spanish and Portuguese - been turning many heads of late, but her thrift-store-chic attire prompted the Boston Globe to name her one of the 25 most stylish Bostonians of 2007. She now resides in Jersey City, N.J., but remains on the faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston. She was hired as an instructor by the prestigious school after her graduation two years ago, becoming the second-youngest person, after her friend Pat Metheny, to serve in that capacity. She is on sabbatical to promote her first domestically released CD, "Esperanza," on the Heads Up International label. Her auburn hair in a bushy Afro, Spalding wears a brown-and-white dress made of recycled cloth for a one-song performance at a San Francisco hotel as part of the 2008 National Association of Recording Merchandisers Convention. Joined by pianist Leo Genovese and drummer Otis Brown, up-and-comer Spalding begins her segment of the Tuesday morning showcase as scheduled, at exactly 9:58 a.m. Six and a half minutes later, after she finishes singing and playing "Precious," a lilting yet rhythmically adventurous self-penned love song from her CD, the audience of 800, including representatives of such firms as Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon and iTunes, roars in stunned approval. Jazz, throughout its history, has had its share of singing pianists and singing guitarists, but upright bassists of note who've sung while playing can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Slam Stewart, Major Holly, Red Mitchell, Jay Leonhart and now Spalding. Doing so, she says, isn't all that easy. "The energy it takes to split your brain to be a lead instrument (vocalist) and an accompanying instrument (bassist) is tricky," the Portland-born musician says after her convention performance. "With my group, even though we do sing set melodies, there's still a whole lot of improvisation in the vocal part. It's like I'm leading the band in one direction with the voice and then in another direction with the bass." Spalding, who dropped out of high school at 16 but eventually earned a GED, insists that she's not trying to show off by doing so many different things - playing bass, singing in three languages and sometimes utilizing odd time signatures. On "Esperanza," for instance, she plays "Body and Soul" in 5/4 and sings in Spanish. "I don't try to do anything that isn't natural for me," says Spalding, who played classical violin as a child. "If I can do those things and they fit, why not? They evolved bit by bit along with what the music called for. First, someone asked me to sing in the band, and I said, 'OK. Let's try that.' From learning the tunes, the singing and playing in jazz came together. And as I evolved as a musician, I started hearing more influences from music that had Spanish as a main language and Portuguese as a main language, music that had bass more in the forefront, music that had scatting. All the things kind of cultivated into my sound. "I can see where a listener might say, 'Wow, there's so many things going on here; it's such a mishmash of different sounds and colors and styles.' But I think that the music is sincere enough and unique enough that you'll hear my heart in it. I came to the music out of love, just to play the bass, so when you know you're going to be doing it for a real long time, you know that you don't have to prove anything. I know that I'm 23. As a jazz musician, this is like infancy, so I'll be the last person to say, 'Yeah, I'm doing some stuff. Check this out.' It's not like that at all. It's a really long, long road, so there's nothing to prove. It'll speak for itself." Spalding's music has an international flair. Pianist Genovese is Argentine, and her guitarist, Ricardo Vogt, is Brazilian. Drummer Brown is from New Jersey. Spalding's management company, Montuno Productions, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, also represents Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club. Her first CD, "Junjo," was released two years ago by the Ayva label, also in Barcelona. Since the release of "Esperanza" last month, the bassist has been busy touring the United States and Europe with her group. Spalding, who has worked in groups led by vocalist Patti Austin and saxophonist Joe Lovano, is hoping, however, that her days as a side person are not entirely behind her. "Anybody who's really challenging as a musician and kind enough to invite me to play with them, I'll try to do it as much as I can," she says. "It's a pleasure to just be free on the bass and just focus all my energy on functioning as a bass player. It's more fun in a way, because I can totally concentrate on playing bass. I feel spoiled when I get to do that."

Had an excellent buying experience w/ Brad on eBay. Forgot to leave feedback for him during the open period there, so guess I'll say it here.

This is a bass/drums duet recorded when OP and Max where waiting for Sonny to arrive - it was added to Roach's "Deeds Not Words" OJC reissue. Duh - I made my own burn of the complete session ... So they put the same bonus track on 2 different Keepnews Collection remasters - Freedom Suite & Deeds, Not Words. Brilliant!

....and of course the added benefit, you'll never have to "upgrade" any of this material again. Unlike the rest of us. I've always thought for a box set that came out in 1991, the sound on the U.S. domestic version of the box was not shabby at all. Glad I got it for cheap in the Great Concord Blowout Sale of 2006.

PMed ya on: Freddie Hubbard BLUE SPIRITS (Blue Note RVG)

http://www.ktvu.com/news/16335377/detail.html Bay Area Says Farewell To A Broadcasting Legend POSTED: 10:31 pm PDT May 19, 2008 UPDATED: 8:05 am PDT May 21, 2008 OAKLAND, Calif. -- While Dennis Richmond's extraordinary 40-year career at KTVU has been the focus of several reports during the past week, one story that hasn't been told looks at the many obstacles he had to overcome and how his success has inspired others. It was an era of campus sit-ins at UC Berkeley and civil rights protests on Bay Area streets that sometimes boiled over into violence. It also a time during which those delivering the news each night did not always reflect the look of those caught up in the turmoil. That would soon change. In 1969, a young reporter came back to Oakland after a summer in journalism school at Columbia University in New York. Dennis Richmond was on the cusp of launching a Bay Area career that would span 40 years. Retired KTVU chief news photographer Bill Moore was the first African-American cameraman hired by a local news station. He reported for his first day work on the same day as Richmond: April 29th, 1968. "To the black community, he was hope. They could turn on and they could see there was someone who could identify with us. There was someone who was a result of why affirmative action worked," explains Moore. Their hiring was the result of a landmark federal court decision mandating that television stations reflect their local communities. At the time, Moore says African-American journalists often met with hostility while trying to cover stories. "Once, Dennis and I approached San Quentin in a news car with markings on it. We both had big hair back then. And as they asked us for credentials they pointed weapons at us. That is what it was like in the early days," remembers Moore. UC Berkeley sociology professor and former Black Panther Harry Edwards remembers that Richmond stood out so much there were suspicions that he was working for the FBI. "I remember the first time that I saw him out covering a Black Panther party rally. He was truly a phenomena at that time, because there weren't a lot of black reporters out there. So he stood out in the crowd," recalls Edwards. Edwards says Richmond worked hard to earn respect. "I think that everybody involved in the movement at that time came to understand him as a journalist, and came to trust in the authenticity and integrity of what he would put on the air," says Edwards, Belva Davis became the first female African-American television reporter in the western United States in 1966. She is also married to Bill Moore. She says she pushed Richmond into applying for the journalism program at Columbia University. She says that training set him on his path to becoming a presence at the anchor desk for the Channel Two News. "I think it made some people more comfortable in dealing across racial lines because they could see here was a no-nonsense straight shooter," says Davis. "Good looking too!" Davis says Richmond's legacy lies in his no-frills delivery. "He sticks with giving me the facts of the story. And in a way that is without emotion that would make me sway my opinion one way or another. And I don't think that they are, as they say, turning them out like Dennis anymore," says Davis. Which isn't to say that they aren't trying. Up-and-coming broadcast journalists at San Francisco State University are taking some of their cues from veteran journalists like Dennis. "He's a bit of a role model. I would say so, because he's been around. He's been through the changes of technology," says SFSU journalism student Sundeep Dosanjh. Bay Area Black Journalists Association member Bob Butler agrees, "I think when they see Dennis, he's always been there. They take it for granted. [They think] 'Yeah, I can do what he did' without realizing what he had to go through to get there." Even non-journalists say the news anchor has affected their professional development. Ansara Johnson says Richmond inspired him to become a spokesman for the IRS. "There weren’t that many African Americans on television period, so it was really a belssing to see him out there doing that and to do it for so long," says Johnson. It's a legacy that those who know Dennis Richmond say will go on long after the lights go down on his final broadcast.