DukeCity

I also like the cameo appearance of Dave Sanborn on "contra" alto sax!

Ahh, the mysterious 2nd tenor on the grassy knoll...

Uncovered Heart (and KW's other Sunnyside titles) are available at emusic.com, as is the Maybeck solo record.

Excellent clip! Of course, then I got sucked into the YouTube vortex and watched Coltrane play Green Dolphin with Wynton, PC, and Jimmy Cobb. And so on, and so on...

I dig Ella, but this one doesn't really work for me. Yeah, it's later Ella and she's not in her prime, but it's mostly just the the when-worlds-collide feeling I get with Ella singing over an electric rhythm section. I'm confident that it could've worked with an acoustic rhythm section, or a different singer over this one. But the electric piano and bass just highlight the fact that Ella isn't/wasn't really a 1980's kinda gal. And it doesn't help that Zoot and CT sound equally out of place in that setting. Toots sound fine in that whole reverb-drenched thing. No dis on choosing this as AOTW, and I'm glad that some here enjoy this one. Hell, I hadn't even heard this one until it was mentioned here, so I'm glad it came up. Now I know...

Fred Thompson Barney Frank Betty McCollum

That's hilarious! I saw a story where a woman had been trying to get her husband and kids to pick up after themselves. After several warnings, she made good on her promise to pick up thier clothes, backpacks, briefcases, etc. and sell them on eBay (or was it Craigslist?). She did indeed see their stuff, and then donated the money to the charity of thier choice. Six kids....

Sorry for your loss, Mark. Sounds like Moose was a great pet!

OK, I'll contribute... I'm a fan. I have some of the Old Testament, but tend to gravitate to stuff from the late '50s. I really like "Chairman of the Board" with some of those Thad Jones charts.

I've never heard anyone with their EWI thing more together than Michael Brecker. The technique for playing EWI is just different enough from saxophone that it really is like learning a new instrument. Brecker invested a ton of time to develop phenomenal EWI technique. Also, as with keyboard synths, a huge part of the whole thing is getting sounds together. In the mid-'80s when Brecker was first getting into the EWI, he hooked up with a programmer named Judd Miller. Judd helped him get sounds together, as well as helping Brecker get a whole rig of sequencers and effects. Here's a later performance to check out. Maybe not your cup of tea musically, but damn impressive:

Happy Birthday, SS! Hope you had a great one!

It looks/sounds like there's a woodblock (most likely plastic) mounted between two of the drums. There was another one mounted between some drums on the right-hand side of his set up as well. Pretty fancy work!

I'm by no means an expert in this area, but over the last several years I've written a stack of arrangements for the college marching band where I teach. Our band does more half-time/entertainment oriented stuff, so they're playing Earth, Wind & Fire and Motown and "classic rock" stuff. But from hanging out with those guys a little I've learned a tiny bit about that whole world. In DCI (Drum Corp Intl.) there are groups like the ones linked to in this thread, that are stretching the idea of marching band to make it a "performance art". The Star of Indiana eventually evolved into a group called which is a touring theatrical stage show. Groups like the Cavaliers are doing Bartok, etc., but there are also groups like the Blue Devils from Concord, CA favor a higher/faster/louder approach doing jazz oriented shows (think Buddy Rich big band meets Don Ellis meets Pat Metheny Group with some girls twirling rifles). Of course, all of this is dependent on getting participants and fans from the ranks of high school marching bands. The high school equivalent of DCI is BOA (Bands of America), and the bands that are highly competetive in that arena (and you know it's not good music unless in can stand up in competition) model their shows after their favorite drum corps. Directors, arrangers and drill writers/visual designers spend their summers checking out DCI competitions to get ideas. Often, high schools will hire specialists to design shows for them, and those designers may very well be also employed by DCI groups. High school bands in the upper eschelons of this thing will spend well into six figures each year to design a show and take that show to several competitions to prepare for BOA competition. As for how the DCI groups evlolved, I think things shifted a lot when they changed the instruments being used. For many years the "bugles" used were strange hybrid instruments with only one or two valves. They could play more melodically than true, valve-less bugles, but they could not play fully chromatic music that trumpets and french horns can play. Several years ago DCI decided to allow three-vavle instruments, which now allows them to play fully chromatic stuff (Bartok). So, there you have it...

"I even call my girlfriend "Man"..."

But does the clarinet? You betcha! Hogarth was working in the first half of the 18th century, and that is about the time that the clarinet was developed (from a recorder-like instrument called the chalumeau).

Yes, the earlier films (before they had a kid; a classic symptom of "Jumping the Shark") were a little more fun, as Nick and Nora partied non-stop.

Me either but Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw must be the reason. Could be. I was thinking maybe a reference to Klezmer music...

Just now watching "Song of the Thin Man" from 1947. Nick and Nora Charles are hanging out with Keenan Wynn, who is playing a jazz musician with lots of hipster lingo. Keenan's character is talking to a clarinet player and refers to the guy's horn as a "Jew Flute." Never heard that one before...

Slim Whitman (Sold Millions in Europe!!!) Slim Gaillard Slim Pickens

From our good friends at Wikipedia: Evaporative coolers (also called air, swamp, or desert coolers) are cooling devices which use simple evaporation of water in air. They differ from refrigeration or absorption air conditioning, which use the vapor-compression or absorption refrigeration cycles. In the U.S., small-scale evaporative coolers are called swamp coolers by some users due to the humid air conditions produced. The name sump cooler is also used. Air washers and wet cooling towers utilize the same principles as evaporative coolers, but are optimized for purposes other than air cooling. Evaporative cooling is especially well suited for climates where the air is hot and humidity is low. For example, in the U.S., the western/mountain states are good locations, with swamp coolers very prevalent in cities like Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Phoenix, where sufficient water is available; in Australia, evaporative air conditioning is popular in Perth. In dry climates, the installation and operating cost of an evaporative cooler can be much lower than refigerative air conditioning, often by 80% or so. But evaporative cooling and vapor-compression air conditioning are sometimes used in combination to yield optimal performance. Some evaporative coolers may also serve as humidifiers in the heating season.

We're entering our monsoon season, with lots of afternoon rain showers. Nice, because we can always use a little more water, but a drag because the increased humidity renders the evaporative cooling system in our house (the "swamp cooler") completely useless. It's enough to spark our annual debate about possibly converting to refrigerated air...

I had always heard that "Walter Carlos" was her slave name; a way for the white establishment to keep her down. When she converted to Islam she took her rightful name of "Wendy Carlos." ... and she announced this development right after pummeling Sonny Liston to garner the heavyweight championship.

Years ago, when North Texas State University (NTSU) became the University of North Texas (UNT), there were lots of jokes about whether the campus radio station KNTU would change its call letters. Who knew it would have been possible?

Kind of reminds me of how people used to "sell" their Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards tickets on eBay. The tickets were transferrable, but not to be sold (either by SWA's or eBay's policies, or both). So people would be auctioning a "Plain White Envelope" or "SWA Drink Coupons" and if you were the winner of the auction you would receive two SWA tickets as a "free gift".

Jay Leno Kay Ballard Bea Arthur