T.D.

What Lon said. I bought a few Proper Boxes (Daedalus Books & Music has been selling them in the US for a long time), wasn't overly impressed, and now avoid them.

Agreed, nice disc. Funny coincidence: I just picked up the very same CD on eBay, received it late last week! Bishop's trio disc (Prestige? don't recall offhand), which I got in Concord's blow-out last summer, has also gotten a lot of playing time.

Remember the (semi-old) NFL Films feature that focused on Hank Stram on the sidelines during the Chiefs' Super Bowl rout of the Vikings? It was hilarious. Hank absolutely knew he had it totally wired, and was strutting up and down the sideline like he owned the world. I think that was the last pre-merger SB. I never followed basketball as closely as other sports, but I found the ABA-NBA cultural clash more pronounced than the AFL-NFL one. And (IIRC) the AFL was mostly backed by Lamar Hunt who, though a maverick in some sense, I can't really view as "anti-establishment"...

The AP newswire story had an interesting item: Afterward [postgame], with the record crowd of 68,810 silenced and a terrific season wrecked, Tomlinson went after an unidentified Patriots player. Did anyone see that incident? I missed it. Poor Marty S...he might not be back next year. On Friday, the NY Post printed a funny line about the "Schottenheimerlich Maneuver".

I'm astounded that you would recognize my avatar!... Did you recognize it immediately or did it take some time? I likely got the pic from chessbase, but I don't remember. Pillsbury was one of my heroes. I'm a chess enthusiast (frequently visit Chessbase site, for instance), and recognized it right away. Played chess as a kid, and took it back up in middle age as a hobby. Pillsbury was a remarkable figure.

Conn, looks like you copied my picks this week. Check the time stamps. You've got one bada$$ avatar, btw (Hastings 1895!).

Happy birthday, Morty! I'm a big fan of Feldman's piano music, and enthusiastically second the Goldstein rec. Purchased it from Forced Exposure some years ago. "Triadic Memories" is coupled with Cage's "1^5", and I generally like Cage's "number pieces" (while stopping short of recommending them for the "general public"...). [Disclaimer: I don't usually spring for multiple recordings of works.] Also suggest "Palais de Mari" and "For Bunita Marcus" (I own the Hildegard Kleeb discs on Hat Art, and haven't found it necessary to look for alternatives).

My 1/7 queue selection (Johnny Griffin "The Congregation") shipped a couple of days ago, and I was billed $6.99 + tax. Website has been showing that price for me since 1/1. I've never had any problems with late or damaged shipments, though their packaging for multidisc shipments seems weird: the boxes have always had manually scotch-taped tears/seams.

To keep track of our picks, TD, you have to go back to the first page of this thread. We just edit out the previous week's picks and update them for this week. Thanks, Conn. Didn't mean to copy your picks; picking outright winners, the 3 TD+ spread games were automatic, and I have Parcells loyalties from NYG days.

[Round 1]: Indy, Dallas, Philly, NE. [Round 2]: Ravens, Saints, Bears, Pats. [Conference Champs]: Bears, Colts Super Bowl: Colts. Doing this early, but might as well play it safe...

For the record, I like Ms. Giambarini's vocals. I hadn't noticed that she was packing anything. What do you mean? Uh, the rather, er, buxom cover photo? [Disclaimer: Although I very rarely buy vocal CDs, I like the little I've heard of Ms. Gambarini, and have considered purchasing the disc in question.]

Excellent, thanks for the info. I think I'll preorder. I see the label also has a Roland Hanna CD "coming soon"!

Sam Jones "Down Home" on Riverside was a nice session, with larger ensembles, on which I like Zawinul's playing. Cannonball listed as producer but didn't play. Louis Hayes not on drums, surprisingly.

I bought this just before the $39->$44 price increase. You won't go wrong. The Gerald Wilson and Frank Strazzeri sessions are real finds. I enjoy the folk music session (which is problematical for some), and Harold Land is in great form there. Lots of Land in the box, if you're a fan...

What they said. This album has huge nostalgia value for me, since Hamp's version of "My Romance", which I heard on a compilation disc some years ago, was instrumental in turning me into a jazz (and piano trio) enthusiast. "Spanish Steps" is now my favorite cut, though. Sound-wise, I believe the remastering claim, as several cuts had previously appeared on 1201 Music "Hip Jazz-Bop" compilations, and I find the "remastered" sound a little better. There is a bit of distortion in places, however, so it's not perfect. For a long time, cybermusicsurplus.com (discount branch of Allegro distributors) was liquidating titles on the "1201 Music" label, including "Blues for Bud". Might be worth checking if you're looking for the disc. I paid something like $4 (20% off promotion from a base of $5).

Maybe the 1981 Uptown A Little Pleasure (CD on Reservoir) session with Flanagan. J.R. plays soprano on three of the tunes.

Ok, not worded so well...Apart from the big 2006 DL stay, Sheffield has constantly been playing through minor, nagging injuries during his Yankee tenure. And he does have a chronically bad knee IIRC (for which he took "flaxseed oil" or something ). Maybe the switch to DH will ease wear and tear, and he'll play 140-150 games for a couple of years. OTOH, maybe the aging process will continue and his playing time will fall off. I lean to the latter, particularly with a steroid-implicated player, but time will tell. I still think the Yankees got an OK return on the trade. They prefer Abreu in the OF, probably want to develop Cabrera, Giambi (who seems totally untradeable) will be shifting to full-time DH, and they didn't want to deal with a bench-riding Sheffield. I had a far-out theory that the NYY would try and trade Matsui to the Mariners or Dodgers, in hopes that the Japanese fan appeal would bring back some pitching. Doesn't seem to be playing out.

38, injured all the time, and a toxic clubhouse presence. I hope his professed good relationship with Leyland holds up...To Sheffield's credit (I'm not a big fan, to put it mildly), he does hustle and play hurt. I think the Yankees were so happy not to have to pay any of Sheff's 2007 salary (didn't the Tigers spring for a new 3-year deal?) that they were willing to go for quantity over quality, arms-wise. Not too bad a deal for the NYY IMO. Yanks would have released him if they didn't fear the Bosox stepping up (the one-year $13MM sign-and-trade ruse was crafted solely to avoid Boston). Even if Sheffield has a good year in 2007, the prospect of him fuming on the Tiger bench in 2009, at 40, isn't pretty!

Disc received, many thanks.

One thing about Caiman on Amazon, they've established a useful positive feedback benchmark. I've had one rocky experience, and Caiman is the subject of numerous complaints and rants on Internet forums, yet they consistently have 90% positive feedback. Based on this, I only consider buying from sellers with over (preferably well over) 95%. There are a number of large CD sellers on Amazon with feedback ratings, and presumably business practices, similar to Caiman.

I ordered a few items from Caiman via Amazon Marketplace, with no particular problems. Then I bought an item from Caiman's eBay store, via "Buy it Now". They charged my credit card, didn't have the item, and it took over a month, and a lot of hassles, to get a refund. I stopped buying from them after that. I might use them again (Amazon, not eBay) if they had an outstanding price on a non-exotic item, but the situation hasn't yet arisen.

PM sent on Cowell.

Bill Evans Conversations With Myself. Not sure how I'll react to the overdubbed material, but as a Sonny Clark fan I want to hear NYC's No Lark.

just a guess: what about live at the tender trap from that discography No, it's a Storyville release, listed in the discography as "Date: July 2, 1988 Location: Jazzhus Slukefter, Copenhagen, Denmark Label: Storyville J. R. Monterose (ldr), J. R. Monterose (ts), Hod O'Brien (p), Guffy Pallesen (b), Jesper Elen (d)" The album misspells J.R.'s surname as "Montrose", which may have caused problems with databases. Amazon.com also has a page: "Montrose" T.T.T.

I saw a used "Silver and ..." (forget which one) LP at a record store a while back. I'll check back over the weekend. If they still have it, and it's "...Brass", I'll send you some info.