Sep 05

A Tisket, A Tasket, Create A May Day Basket To Celebrate The Holiday

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For those who celebrate May Day, it’s all about the ding-dong-ditch - ringing a neighbour’s doorbell, leaving a basket of flowers or candy and then racing to hide. Kids love it and so do some shameless adults.

The May 1 holiday goes virtually unnoticed for many people in North America States but it’s a great opportunity to teach our children how to do nice things for other people.

May Day wasn’t always an obscure, secular holiday. A thousand years ago, the Celtic pagans of the British Isles celebrated it as a cherished holiday that marked the beginning of the growing season. Full Story

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Sep 05

African Artists Lure Collectors, Fail to Make Auction (Update1)

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Africa is the best-kept secret in the
contemporary-art market, traders say.

Works by the people and Romuald Hazoume have got sold
to U.S. and European museums and private aggregators for as much as
$450,000 at the October Gallery, London, and the Jack Shainman
Gallery, New York. At auction, neither creative person have fetched more
than $10,000, according to Artnet, which tracks showroom results.

”African fine art is still mainly a gallery-based market,” said
Elisabeth Lalouschek, artistic manager of the October Gallery. ”It have yet to go portion of the international auction bridge scene.”

Works by a twelve of the continent’s prima contemporary
artists are on show at the gallery to cooccur with publication of
”Angaza Afrika: African Art Now,” by Chris Spring, conservator of
the British Museum’s African galleries.

El Anatsui, a Ghanaian sculpturer whose wall hangings made out of
thousands of flattened metallic element bottle tops were lauded by critics at
last year’s Venezia Biennale, is represented by a new 12 foot-wide
”cloth” — as his plant are known — reserved at $300,000,
Lalouschek said.

The , Washington, and the , Paris, are among the museums that have got bought Elevation Anatsui
cloths, according to Spring.

”I have got quite a long waiting listing of buyers,” Lalouschek
said. ”I acquire e-mailed requests every day.”

Three photos of motorbike-riding gas-smugglers, issued
in an edition of six, by Benin-based Hazoume, are priced at 3,000
pounds ($5,900) each. In 2006, the British Museum paid the October
Gallery 100,000 lbs for Hazoume’s slave ship installation, ”La
Bouche du Roi,” made using more than than 300 achromatic plastic gas cans,
according to an yearly study published in 2007 by the Art Fund.

‘Big Stuff’

”It’s large material for the right names,” said Giles Peppiatt,
director of African fine art at the London-based auction house Bonhams. ”But trying to develop the auction bridge bridge marketplace for African
contemporary fine art is difficult work.” Gallery terms don’t
automatically interpret into high terms at auction, he said.

”There isn’t a big adequate stable of good artists, and
there just isn’t adequate money in Africa at the moment,” he said.

Africa have just four billionaires, according to Forbes
Magazine’s 2008 Rich List.

In January, the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York’s Chelsea
held a sell-out show of 13 bottle-top cloths by Elevation Anatsui, priced
at $125,000 to $450,000, said Claude Simard, co-owner of the
gallery.

”Nobody’s putting major plant by Elevation Anatsui up for
auction,” Simard said. ”It’s not like the marketplace for North American Indian or
Chinese art. Collectors purchase these plant because they love them,
not as an investment.”

Jumbo Work

El Anatsui volition bring forth a new fabric for Shainman, measuring
up to 30 ft wide, that will be exhibited at the Art Basle fair,
previewing on June 3, he said.

”The marketplace will develop eventually,” , the
world’s prima aggregator of African modern-day art, said in a
telephone interview. ”But it really have to come up from local
collectors, or if rich African Americans begin to purchase this
material, it could also go big.”

Pigozzi, who dwells in Switzerland, said he have amassed more
than 10,000 plant of African modern-day fine art over 20 years.

”Africa is the last topographic point the auction bridge houses haven’t got
their dentition into,” said the London-based dealer Toilet Martin,
director of the Gulf Art Fair, in a telephone set interview. ”The
galleries don’t desire to let go of plant by the top internationally
established name calling to the salerooms, and the people who purchase these
works don’t necessitate to be reassured by high auction bridge prices.”

( composes about the fine art marketplace for Bloomberg
News. Any sentiments expressed are his own.)

To reach the newsman on this story:
in Greater London at .

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Sep 05

Interview with Helen D Bailie, Author of \”The Azura Stones\”

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Today, John Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views is happy to be joined by Helen Of Troy Of Troy Bailie, who is here to speak about her new children’s book “The Azura Stones,” Bedside Books (2007), ISBN 9781589823747.

Helen Bailie was born in Brisbane, Australia. As a secondary school teacher, she always desired to transfuse a love of reading in her pupils as well as to assist them go womb-to-tomb scholars and readers. She have realized the important function instructors play in the lives of children as they turn and develop into immature adults, and she hoarded wealths the chances she have had to assist her pupils to develop good reading skills, to stand out in their chosen callings and to go productive members of society.

Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Helen. I understand “The Azura Stones” is an escapade some children have got during their school vacation. To begin, will you state us a small spot about Hayley and what do her an interesting chief character?

Helen: I have got portrayed my chief character, Hayley, as being the ultimate heroine-courageous, bold, echt and loyal; the individual in the novel who stays firm and strong in any situation. Hayley have a very positive mentality on life; she doesn’t dwell on the negatives when in a crisis. She have the enterprise and thrust to work through hard states of affairs and the strength to promote her friends when the going acquires tough. She basks new challenges and booms in scenes where she is faced with new jobs to tackle, though at the same time, is realistic and logical when making decisions. It is her strength, finding and loyalty that assists pulling her friends through the hard modern times they confront on their unsafe adventure.

Tyler: What is it that Hayley happens that gets the adventure?

Helen: At the oncoming of the novel, the reader larns that Hayley’s grandfather, a world-renowned archaeologist, have got died and that all of his military expedition diaries have vanished. His decease was very sudden, which do Hayley wonderment if he did in fact dice of natural causes. It is when she accidentally lurches across his last journal, something he had kept a secret from her and her parents, that she recognizes the significance of what he had discovered up on Silvertop Mountain and just how unsafe his last military expedition had been. This is the beginning of an escapade that she and her friends will never forget.

Tyler: Why makes Hayley include her friends in the escapade and what make they add to the story?

Helen: Hayley, Alex and Spence have got been friends since primary school. When an article entitled “Gold Establish in Niobe River” looks in the local newspaper, Hayley and her friends make up one’s mind to program a camping trip during their summertime break. While in the loft looking for camping gear wheel and prospecting pans, the children falter across Hayley’s grandfather’s diary outlining the military expedition he had been working on before he died. In his journal, he adverts that he establish the lost Native American civilisation he was searching for and have also discovered some very unusual looking rocks that this folk possessed. He died, though, before the rocks could be retrieved. The children recognize the importance and urgency of determination these stones, so they take substances into their ain custody and follow Hayley’s grandfather’s map in hunt of the Azura Stones.

Hayley, Alex and Spence are the best of friends, and at the beginning of the novel, the reader can see the loyalty, trust and the stopping point chemical bond they have got with one another. When Spence, though, is placed in a hard situation, he takes to manage it himself rather than confiding in his two friends. Throughout the novel, we see a alteration in Spence’s personality as he fights with the determination he have made and the quandary he have set himself in. This put option a strain on the friendly relationship and do for some interesting turns in the plot line that the reader will not expect.

Tyler: Helen, will you state us what exactly are the Azura Stones and why are they so of import to find?

Helen: The Azura Stones are unlike any rocks that have got been discovered before. Sapphire in coloring material with a strange, snowflake designing in the centre that freshnesses in the dark, they have got very particular places that the children are unaware of until partway through the novel.

A short letter left by Hayley’s grandfather foregrounds that other men-men portion of a ill-famed law-breaking gang-are aware that such as rocks be and they too are searching for the Azura Stones. The children recognize that lone Hayley’s grandfather’s diary throws the cardinal to where these rocks are located. The children are determined to follow the map Hayley’s grandfather left in his diary and happen the rocks before they fall into the incorrect hands.

Tyler: You mentioned that the rocks belonged to a lost Native American civilization. Volition you state us more than about this civilization, and why the rocks were of import to its people?

Helen: Archaeologists believe that the first Native Americans came to the Americas from Asia and settled in the sou’-west portion of the United States. The civilisation in my novel is based on the possibility that a little grouping separated and chose to dwell in the northwest mountain ranges. Over time, a fable developed amongst the encompassing Indian folks about a cryptic folk life in the Cascades. The fable told of unusual rocks that they possessed-stones truthful powerful that other folks were afraid to come in into their territory. The importance of these rocks and this folk are discussed in item throughout the novel.

Tyler: Volition you state us about the children’s journeying to attain the Azura Stones?

Helen: The children, who dwell in the fabricated town of Shastar Hills in American Capital State, have got to tramp up Silvertop Mountain, a inactive vent located in the Cascade Mountain Range. Being summertime, much of the versant is overgrown, making the tramp more hard than the children realize. The fact that the children have got taken substances into their ain custody by going alone into the Cascade Range heightens the suspense throughout the novel as the reader is left wondering about the possible dangers that prevarication ahead for them on their adventure.

Tyler: Why did you take to put the novel in American Capital State? Besides the town of Shastar Hills that you fictionalized, did you make a batch of other facets of the setting, or will people familiar with American Capital acknowledge the area?

Helen: I traveled through American Capital State on my last trip to the United States. There were so many beautiful countries that I visited that it became the inspiration for my novel. Even though most of the geographical locations in my novel are fictitious, I have got got got made mention to Lake Chelan, the Columbia River River, and Rattlesnake Flat (which I renamed Rattlesnake Plains in the novel) so people familiar with American Capital should be able to find where Shastar Hills would be located.

Tyler: What sorts of responses have you received so far from readers of “The Azura Stones”?

Helen: I have received first-class feedback so far from parents, instructors and children. The mark marketplace is 11-14 years, though I am pleased to state that I have got got got got received very positive feedback from many children as immature as 10 and as old as 16, so the plotline, word pictures and subjects I have developed throughout the novel have proven to be appealing to children and adolescents of varying ages.

Many parents and instructors experience that the subjects I have addressed in the novel do it an first-class piece of adolescent fiction. “Teachers and parents looking for ways to positively act upon striplings will happen tons of things to speak about in this book. This book is the gem that outshines all other gemstones in the jewellery box.”
- The Reading Bathtub ®

“A nail biting escapade ideal for children’s libraries.” - Middle West Book Review

I have got got got got received many letters and electronic mails from children both in the United States and in Commonwealth Of Australia that state that they establish “The Azura Stones” to be “an gratifying and exciting read,” “a antic suspense narrative with an piquant plot,” “a book that tin be enjoyed over and over again,” “a superb book with an first-class plot, great verbal descriptions and a shattering ending.”

I have included transcripts of other reappraisals and letters on my website.

Tyler: Helen, what gave you the thought to compose “The Azura Stones”?

Helen: Iodine have always loved to read and have affectionate memories of years spent as a kid reading classic escapade novels. I have got got got realized the importance of children developing good literacy accomplishments and that such as accomplishments make better significantly when a kid basks reading.

Throughout the old age that I have been a teacher, I have noticed a diminution in the figure of children who bask reading and, ultimately, a diminution in literacy skills. Many children look to fight with literacy, which impacts their enjoyment of reading. I wanted to compose a book that would be full of escapade and suspense, as well as written in a simpler style to assist promote more than children to desire to read and develop an enjoyment for reading. An electronic mail I received from one of my readers stated that my novel was the first book he had read in its entirety. This is great feedback for me, knowing that I have got helped a kid who at one clip disliked reading to begin developing an enjoyment for this fantastic pastime.

Tyler: Helen, to what make you impute this diminution in literacy and enjoyment in reading among children? What make you believe can be done to change this downward trend?

Helen: Reading to children from a very early age is very important. I retrieve when I was as immature as two, my female parent would read narratives to me every nighttime before going to bed. I could see the enjoyment she had for reading and throughout the years, this have been a large influence in my life and fuelled the reading desire in me. So, I believe that the more than clip spent with children reading and exposing them to the rich diverseness of fantastic escapades and phantasies in so many classic books volition assist them develop a love for reading and this will Pb to an improvement in their literacy skills.

Tyler: Helen, what were those escapade novels you read as a child? Which books or writers would you state were influences on your ain writing?

Helen: I have got got so many favorite novels which I have listed on my website, but these are my all-time favourite novels I enjoyed reading (and still bask reading):

“A Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne, “The Time Machine” by mercury Wells, “Treasure Island” by Henry Martin Robert Joe Louis Stevenson, “The Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann Wyss, “Watership Down” by Richard Adams, “Charlotte’s Web” by EB White, “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce, and “The Adventures of Private Detective Holmes” by Sir Chester A. Arthur Conan Doyle.

I love the rich imaginativenesses of both Jules Jules Jules Verne and mercury Wells. Their novels as well as my involvement in archeology and history have got got influenced my writing.

Tyler: Helen, would you state there is a subject to “The Azura Stones” or some significance you trust your readers will come up away with?

Helen: There are a figure of chief subjects that I have developed throughout the novel.

One of the chief subjects in my novel is friendship-how to handle your friends and what it intends to demo loyalty to your friends. Hayley is the best friend you would wish to have. Throughout the novel, the reader is exposed to the interactions between Hayley and her two friends, Alex and Spence, and the troubles they happen themselves in during their unsafe adventure. Hayley assists maintain the friendly relationship together, and at modern times when her friends are finding it hard to get by with one another’s weaknesses, she assists Alex and Spence to understand what it really intends to be a true friend.

Another chief subject is pick and consequence. The states of affairs the children happen themselves in significantly diagnostic tests their friendly relationship with one another. When faced with hard situations, they are forced to do picks that eventually take to consequences, either good or bad. Apart from affecting their friendship, their determinations ultimately put their lives in danger. There is some self-reflection throughout the novel between the children as they contemplate the determinations they have got made and the personal effects of these determinations on one other and others around them. I trust that readers will come up away with the conception that it is of import to believe about the effects before making decisions.

Tyler: Did you always desire to be a author of children’s books?

Helen: I have got always loved writing, though first and foremost, I always wanted to work in an business where I could assist children to stand out in their learning, to stand out in life and to break themselves as individuals, thus the ground I became a teacher. As an English teacher, I began writing short narratives and using these in the schoolroom to learn not only literacy accomplishments but also life skills. My pupils really enjoyed the narratives I read to them, so I decided to compose a full-length novel. The full process, from authorship the ms through to the concluding product, was a fantastic experience and I’m looking forward to continuing in my authorship career.

Tyler: Make you have got programs to compose any more than books?

Helen: I am currently working on a subsequence to “The Azura Stones” which should be in the supplies sometime adjacent year. I’ll maintain you posted on its progress.

Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Helen. Before we go, will you state us a small spot about your website (www.helenbailie.com) and what further information can be establish there about “The Azura Stones”?

Helen: I have got included an overview of my novel and an infusion of one of the chapters. I have got got also included reappraisals and other feedback I have received from parents, instructors and children.

Readers can see the “Frequently Asked Questions” subdivision to larn some information about my background and addition some tips on writing. Also, readers who purchase my novel direct from my website through the Publishers Direct Bookshop have got an chance to come in a fantastic competition with great awards to be won. Read all the inside information on my website!

Because of the involvement I have got got received from many teachers, I have also created some English resources to attach to my novel that I am making available for usage in the classroom. Teachers can electronic mail me directly for more than information.

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Sep 05

Double Cross by James Patterson - Book Review

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Patterson have a alone gift for making you experience all the joyousnesses and striving experienced by Cross, who is one of the best supporters of the suspense thriller genre. Reuniting fans with beloved, as well as, despised characters, while continuing to press the boundaries, Patterson radiances brighter than ever in this difficult hitting dual header!

Self-imposed retirement, a gorgeous new girlfriend and a quiet romanticist camping trip, what could possibly travel wrong? Well, when Alex Cross is around the reply is an unequivocal-anything and everything! Hot love affair is quickly cooled when Bree is ordered to go back to District of Columbia after the very populace homicide of celebrated writer Tess Olsen. Dubbed the Audience Killer, for his leaning for attention, this sociopath looks to have got no fearfulness of being discovered, growing more than brazen and chesty with each consecutive murder. He booms on the mass media attending his dastardly works afford him and enjoys in the terror his cutthroat Acts create. In the thick of the slaughter and chaos, Cross have a distressing phone call informing him Kyle Craig had escaped from the upper limit security prison house in Colorado, where he had been housed for the past four years. Prior to his incarceration, Craig had been a well-thought-of Federal Bureau of Investigation co-worker and a mastermind in his ain right. Craig was patient, resourceful and vicious, a formidable antagonist now methodically making his manner through the listing of those he deemed responsible for his imprisonment. Of course, Alex Cross was at the top of his list.

Two murderers, one seeking fame, the other set on revenge, yet they shared a common goal…the riddance of Detective Alex Cross. In this particularly well delivered novel, Patterson weaves an intricate, multi-layered plot, that moves seamlessly between opposing forces, while hurdling toward an unavoidable showdown. There are no twig-like stereotypes or bland settings, as Patterson show windows his unparalleled ability to make three dimensional fictional characters that are diabolical, yet very existent and disturbingly interesting. With his omniscient voice, tight narration and graphic detail, the reader is immersed in this carefully crafted, highly ingenious world, from the very first page. One of the most popular literary fictional characters of the century, Alex Cross is a difficult hitting, tough as nails detective, with an almost 6th sense ability to acquire inside a killer’s mind. But it his personal struggles, as a son, father and lover that go on to convey the fictional character off the page and into the bosom of the reader. Chock full of action, short, sharp chapters and a few teasers thrown in to wet your appetency for the adjacent installment - Double Cross is a dual shot of Patterson at his electrifying best!

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Sep 05

\”Note-able\” Versions of \”Prayer of the Children\”

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As many of you know - the song that I’m most known for is “Prayer of the Children.” Since I wrote it in a moment of frustration over the Yugoslavian civil war back in 1994, it has been sung by thousands of choirs worldwide. I thought I would start posting some of the more unique and moving versions. Today - I’m featuring renditions by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and a new group out of England - Paradisum.

Obviously - it’s a tremendous honor to have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing anything I might compose or arrange. I’ve been lucky enough to have arranged a few songs the last couple of years. They’ve been an icon in choral music for over a century. This version begins with the song “of Dreams” from “Lord of the Rings” (which I arranged for them) and features Ryan Tani - boy soprano and Daron Bradford on Penny Whistle. It then segues into a TTBB version of “Prayer.”

I like Paradisum’s version because it has a timelessness to it. Using a traditional British choir sound with counter-tenors down to basses, they have done an arrangement which really brings out the fragility of the song. I also enjoy the solo tenor starting and ending the piece.

[click here to hear Paradisum]

By the way, you’ll notice that Paradisum did not use the Croatian words “Dali cujete sve djecje molitve.” That’s just fine with me. In fact - I have been singing the last line in Arabic lately to remind the audience of the children in that part of the world that are suffering. I encourage other options and other languages as well.

Check the blog often as I hope to post more creative versions of my song “Prayer of the Children.”

Thanks to all for keeping the “prayer” going….Kurt

[Beginning in @20 days, you’ll be able to download different choir music sheet music of “Prayer of the Children” including the Tab Choir version, solo vocal/piano, duet, and a few others that I’m planning to arrange. www.kurtbestor.com]

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Sep 05

Paddy Wagon Rolls On: Harrington Rides Hot Putter, Outduels Garcia, Curtis to win PGA

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BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI – The trophy is bigger than him, but his heart is bigger than the trophy. Padraig Harrington, the 2008 PGA Champion looked like a Bulgarian weightlifter doing a “clean and jerk” as he thrust the squat, bulky Rodman Wanamaker Trophy awkwardly into the air with both hands. Nevertheless, as elated as he was after outdueling star-crossed Sergio Garcia and gallant Ben Curtis, today Harrington could probably have lifted his way to a medal in Beijing.

Harrington won his third career major with his putter. He ranked second in putting this week, averaging a measly 27 putts a round. Before the tournament started, Ian Poulter said, “whoever putts best this week will win,” and he was almost exactly right; Andres Romero took one less putt over four days. Over the thirty-six holes played today, Harrington went 25-26 to close the tournament.

As much of Oakland Hills’s frightening reputation as The Monster is built upon its treacherous greens, greens that rival Oakmont and Winged Foot for difficult undulations, that number is shocking. Harrington likely authored the greatest single putting effort Oakland Hills has seen in major competition by a winner. Facing pressure putt after pressure putt, Harrington was the ultimate gamer in the clutch, consistently rolling them home in front of Garcia, who missed his own crucial chances late.

Closing 66-66, Harrington brought The Monster to its knees better than Ben Hogan ever did. David felled Goliath with a slingshot, Dracula got a stake in the heart, Harrington slew The Monster with an Odyssey two-ball. Moreover, even Hogan never won the British Open and the PGA in the same year. With that, Harrington elevates himself into the company of Walter Hagen, Nick Price, and Tiger Woods. Moreover, Harrington becomes the first European to win the PGA in 78 years, (Tommy Armour was the last in 1930), and the only European to win back-to-back majors in the same year.

Harrington is a breakout star. After his second consecutive British Open win and a second consecutive major this week, he’s not just potential anymore, he is a formidable adversary. He’s unflappable, he’s precise - of course he’d be precise, he’s a Certified Public Accountant – and he has grit. He wasn’t intimidated by the stern challenges at Oakland Hills - greens so elusive, so well protected, so dangerous, they resemble a large mousetrap with a big piece of cheese just waiting to entice you, then fatally ensnare you.

But Harrington survived, indeed thrived in the crucible. He just looked back at Oakland Hills with a glance of Amazonian fierceness, like a cat stalking a rat, and willed himself to overcome any challenge. His determination rivals Woods and Mickelson. On the only day where 36 holes were played to close the PGA, his 66 here this morning included four consecutive birdies on some of the toughest holes on any major championship course, 13-16. Then he did it again, four-and-a-half hours later, shooting a second consecutive 32 on the back nine.

“I made an adjustment on the greens,” he explained earnestly. “They were softer because of the rain, and I was able to charge putts a little more and I started holing them.”

That’s an understatement. Harrington closed with three one-putts. He curled in a twelve-footer on sixteen to save par, which surged him into a tie with Garcia. Then on seventeen, he holed a ten-footer for birdie. When Garcia missed his five-foot try, Harrington had his first lead since the 3rd hole of the first round, (he opened the tournament birdie-birdie-birdie, missing a hole-in-one on the par-3 third hole by microns. His 4-iron approach rolled into the center of the cup, but struck the pin and caromed off, leaving him a tap-in putt). Finally, Harrington holed the 12-foot par putt on 18, getting up and down out of the rough from 145 yards away.

Garcia has no reason to hang his head. It took an alarming confluence of zany bad breaks to defeat him as well as the hottest putting streak of Harrington’s life. Sergio hit his 6-iron approach on 15 directly into the cup only to have it pop back out again and roll ten feet away. He missed the putt; it was a two shot swing. Worse still, he hit another 6-iron over the iconic hazard at Oakland Hills only to see it richochet off the bank back into the water. He grinded out a gutsy bogey, but Harrington drew even with him. “That’s the opportunity I was looking for,” Harrington said. That was the opening of the door.” Garcia then missed crucial putts at 17 and 18 to finish two behind.

An understandably testy Garcia did his best Phil-Mickelson-at-Winged-Foot imitation, keeping as brave a face on as he could, despite having to endure his second stunning defeat at a major at Harrington’s hands. After leading the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie after three rounds, Garcia collapsed, allowing Harrington to snatch the title after a playoff. “You know, when you give it your best, and the end result is not what you wish for, you know it’s hard, but you feel good, you feel like you gave it your best,” he explained as bravely as he could. He said he took away form the weekend, a lot of positive things. To shoot 69-68 on the last two days of a major on a course like this, I think it’s pretty positive.”

The story of the tournament is not complete without Ben Curtis, a seemingly forgotten man in the Tiger-Phil buzz and the rise of Harrington as a golf powerhouse, but one who inspires the fans not just by dressing in the local football team’s colors, but because he’s gracious, gritty and affable. Although his body language belied little disappointment, he was still candid and introspective. “I’ve got a huge confidence boost heading into the playoffs….your always on such an adrenaline rush out there, you try to take a deep breath and just try to enjoy the moment, because you never know how many opportunities you’re going to get like this,” he said, rallying a little and smiling. “Besides,” he added, giving a nod to the fans who buoyed him all weekend as he wore the Honolulu Blue of the Detroit Lions, “I felt a lot of support…Idefinitely love to play in the Midwest.”

He gave a nod to Harrington as well. “He’s won three of the last six. That’s Tiger-like.” He’s right. Harrington doesn’t just putt well, he has the most complete game in golf right now, more complete than more recognizable stars like Mickelson and Garcia, superstar players in their own right. Everyone feared the majors would be boring without Tiger Woods, but first Greg Norman threw away his cane, walker, and Ensure, and nearly won the British Open on his honeymoon. Then Harrington, the man with ice water in his veins fought another swashbuckling superstar in Garcia, and the most gracious and affable tour player in Curtis. He shot 32 on the back nine in consecutive rounds on the side of Oakland Hills that’s supposed to be much harder.

So it’ll be more John Smith’s Smooth for Harrington as a celebratory beverage, but this time the container is much larger than the Claret Jug. The Wanamaker Trophy is 30 inches high, 27 inches form handle to handle and weighs thirty pounds. Then maybe he’ll have some claret or some Bushmill’s Black. But after that, he’ll have one eye fixed firmly on the Masters. Last year, Harrington increased and honed his practice regimen to win that venerable tournament. He’s come close on several occasions, but he’s never gone into it having won the last two majors. With The Striped One eying a comeback at the same time, Major Championship Golf may finally have the long term mano-a-mano battle it has wanted for the last decade. Slante, Padraig. Bloody well done, laddie.

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Sep 05

The 2008 PGA Championship: No Tiger? No Problem!

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They came from Louisiana, Mississippi, Michigan, and Missouri. They cheered, they squealed, they urged their man to victory, they even carried little hand-made signs. They were fervent, passionate, and knowledgeable.

Who were they rooting for? Ben Curtis. How much did they love him? Enough to make a sign to proudly identify themselves to other fans and their man that they were “Ben’s Brigade.”

Meanwhile a gaggle of giggling girls laughed nervously behind their hands, shouted loudly as one, and squealed with delight as Aaron Baddeley walked by. You’d have thought they had just gotten tickets to a Dave Matthews concert at Red Rocks.

As Phil Mickelson rolled in his third consecutive birdie early in the final round of the 2008 PGA Championship, the crowd roared it’s approval. A couple of eager young children shouted, “Go Dill Pickleson!” The gallery laughed appreciatively.

As Camilo Villegas did his Spiderman act at the eighteenth green, the fans went into delirium. Then the intensity increased as he rolled in the putt, pumped his fist, and tipped his cap to the gallery.

Young and old, journalists and fans, casual fan and ardent golfer alike, the sentiment ran wild throughout Oakland Hills: No Tiger? No problem!

Impossible? Unthinkable? Blasphemy? Guess again. Although Woods is undoubtedly the TOUR’s rock star and top draw, there are plenty of fascinating stories, plenty of sublimely talented players, and plenty of great role models for our golf heroes come Sundays, and the fans have spoken: we want to see more of them.

There’s plenty that the PGA and golf in general can be proud of and market. Both the TOUR and the networks do the game a disservice by making the game about one man. Yes, he brings in a little more money. But the PGA TOUR was flush with cash long before Woods. And with careful, thoughtful stewardship, the money will continue to roll in after Woods sails off into the sunset in a yacht called Privacy.

When that happens, golf will not die, linger on life support, or even lose stature simply because one great player hangs up his spikes. It survived the retirement of Harry Vardon, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, and every other golfer in recorded history. At the end of the day, Woods is just a man, but golf is an institution. Just ask the fans.

“So what that the top of the tree isn’t here?” asked Craig Rhett of St. Louis, Missouri rhetorically. “The other branches are just as interesting. Look at Harrington. We overlooked him even though he won the British last year, and he’s shown he has staying power as well as a personality.”

Harrington is a breakout star. With his second consecutive British Open win, he’s not just potential anymore, he is a formidable adversary. He’s unflappable, he’s precise - of course he’d be precise, he’s a Certified Public Accountant – and he has grit. He looks at that 11th green at Oakland Hills - a green so elusive, so well protected, so dangerous, it resembles a large mousetrap with a big piece of cheese just waiting to entice you, then fatally ensnare you.

But Harrington gives it a glance of Amazonian fierceness, like a cat stalking a rat, and wills himself to overcome any challenge. His 66 here this morning included four consecutive birdies on some of the toughest holes on any major championship course.

“I made an adjustment on the greens,” he explained earnestly. “They were softer because of the rain, and I was able to charge putts a little more and I started holing them.” But he doesn’t just put well, he has the most complete game in golf right now, more complete than more recognizable stars like Mickelson and Garcia, superstar players in their own right.

“There are plenty of great stars besides Tiger,” said Andy Page of Bloomfield Township thoughtfully. “I’m a young guy, but in attitude, I try to be old school.” (I love it when a 21-year-old wants to be old school, there’s hope for society yet) “There’s something great about watching a former major winner who’s been struggling, but then then wins to rejuvenate his career,” Page stated energetically. “David Toms is terrific to watch and so is Ben Curtis. Toms is everyone’s favorite partner at the Ryder Cup because he’s the quintessential teammate, and Ben is just a great down to earth kid we all can identify with. It’d be great to watch them win more majors and grow good careers into Hall of Fame careers.”

“People say his winning the British was a fluke, but then he won twice more,” (the Booz Allen and the 84 Lumber), said Kyle Warren, also of Bloomfield Township. “I love rooting for the underdog – especially when they play against Tiger. Tiger has a great effect on golf – he’s been part of making it cool to younger people and more mainstream, but golf has grown along side him and for other reasons, not just because of him.”

That’s right,” agreed Page. “There used to be a stigma to being on the varsity golf team in school, but now it’s just as cool as other sports, just as respected. And it’s not just Tiger making the game attractive to younger people, it’s the new crew like Baddeley and Villegas. Besides the old guard, it’s good for the game for new people to win. “Only Tiger” is boring. There are so many great stories we’re waiting to hear about, but never get to see when it’s all tiger all the time.”

“These guys are all great,” echoed Shane Langston of Jackson, Mississippi. “When Tiger’s out of the equation, we get to see the other guys. Look at big hitter J.B. Holmes or that wonderfully goofy Boo Weekley, or some of these other young guys that have terrific game and good attitudes. Ben Curtis coming back is a great story.”

He brings up another great point. People root for players for many different reasons other than they just win. Sometimes, like Langston, folks root for local heroes. “Boo and David Toms are southern boys. People want to see and cheer for their local heroes.

Sometimes the reasons are more…interesting…as well. “I’m rooting for Baddeley!” chirped Rebecca from Mississippi. “He’s got the cutest buns.”

While the sentiment is a little lowest common denominator, the point is important: good looking single guys interest the fans. Moreover, local favorites draw, and altruistic, sportsmanlike attitudes draw. Look at the fans who love Ben Curtis. They proudly displayed “Ben’s brigade” buttons not because he’s a star, but because he sets a good example, is a role model and, as such, makes the whole game look good. Never one to give in to the blubbery arms of the soft life, Ben’s workman-like, lunch pail work ethic resonates with the everyman. So what that you can put his entire life on the back of a postcard? He’s still an inspiration. Zach Johnson is cut from the same cloth.

Dan Jenkins once said that it’s amazing how much grace and class we can attach to major winners, but with Curtis, and Zach, grace and class come to them naturally. They always remind us of the old adage, “measure up your worth and not your wealth,” and both we as fans and the game are richer for it. We need to see more of them, not more of the same.

“No Tiger is a nice break,” said Langston. “We needed this. Golf needed this. I love Tiger too, but every second.”

Other fans disagreed. “No way!” exclaimed one woman in a leg brace. “I’m heartbroken. I love Tiger so much, I tore my ACL,” she quipped impishly.

Even so, journalists, players and fans agree. “No matter how you cut it, there is more to this game than Tiger Woods” said one venerable journalist.

Moreover, Woody Austin said earlier this week, “I think it was said best during the British open telecast. The guy is the best player in the game, he does win a lot, but he doesn’t win them all. So just because he wasn’t here doesn’t mean that the tournament should be less or that he was going to win.”

Ian Poulter agreed, “It certainly didn’t take anything away form the Open Championship.”

Still, there are those fans out there that disagree, like Dave Kagels of Clinton Township. “Tiger is the face golf right now. He’s not bigger than the game and we should be careful not to tell people he is, but he’s earned the respect of competitors, fans, and media with his dedication and competitiveness. Tiger made the rest of the players to rethink their approach to practice, njhutrition, and winning attitude. When he leaves, golf will be fine.”

“Nevertheless, he’s just one guy,” retorted John Street of North Dakota, “and someone else will come along to take his place – new era, new guy, it goes full circle.” The circle may be expanding. This morning, there’s seven cameras around Padraig Harrington, who fired a 66, and is well in contention.

Without Tiger, we’re seeing so much more golf and so many more golfers. If Woods were here, we’d be watching him arrive at the course, hit on the range, see a special biopic, watch replays of his other majors, go to commercial, return from commercial to watch Woods hitting a shot, Woods eating a banana, Woods throwing away the peel, fans fighting for the peel, Woods talking to “Stevie,” Woods drinking a Gatorade, Woods mumbling to himself, Woods blowing his nose, Woods backing off a shot, Woods glaring at a cameraman, Woods hitting another shot, cut to commercial. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Woods, Woods, and more Woods: when he shoots 68 we see all 68 shots. When he shoots 74 we see all 74.

As we go to press Harrington and Garcia are waging an epic duel, a reprise of their donnybrook at Carnoustie. All Oakland Hills is abuzz with the story. First Garcia gets a horrible carom into the water on 16 and everyone writes him off for dead. But then he gets up and down form the deck of a sinking ship, and hits an “anything you can do I can do better” iron approach to the par-3 17th which has yielded just 13 birdies in the last three rounds.

Guess what? Harrington made his first. That hole just shrunk to the size of a thimble, and Sergio missed. Now they go to eighteen with the title on the line. Who could ask for anything more? The fans sure loved it.

Sure Tiger’s talent is transcendent. Sure Tiger is re-writing record books. But golf was been great for centuries before Earl Woods ever met Kutilda, and golf will be golf long after Sam Alexis retires from the LPGA. With great people like Curtis, Jim Furyk, Justin Rose, and Zach Johnson, with young guns blazing away fearlessly like Baddeley and Watson, with colorful, affable quote machines like Boo Weekley and Anthony, and with gritty, bold champions like Padraig and Sergio, you know what?

Golf will be just fine. In fact, it’ll be as great as it ever was.

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Sep 05

Monster’s Claws Trimmed, Players Making Moves at PGA Championship

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BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI – Here’s four words I’ll bet you never thought you’d hear uttered joyfully on a golf course: Thank goodness, it rained.

To be precise, it poured. It rained bricks and bats. The lightning crashed and the thunder rolled. Two holes opened up in the roof of the media tent, sending journalists scrambling like rabbits for plastic bags to protect their laptops as water seeped in steadily. Players and caddies grabbed players’ bags and equipment and scattered like sheep for the nearest refuge, and a phalanx of PGA of America officials mobilized and passed out ponchos and tarps.

It’s the best thing that could have happened to this tournament

For two full days, The Monster mashed the field. To be exact, it wallpapered the clubhouse walls with the players, and it did it so thoroughly, so completely, there were no lumps and all the stripes were perfectly vertical from ceiling to floor. Nobody does that any more, not even the real class decorators.

Barely a dozen players shot under par rounds the first two days. Only one man, J.B. Holmes, was under par after thirty-six holes. Not a single club professional out of the twenty who started the tournament made the cut. The playing conditions generated so many uniform scathing comments from players and pundits alike, Oakland Hills’ officials realized they had a problem.

Last night, they cut some of the shaggy rough and, more importantly, watered the greens. It was the right decision. Before today’s deluge hit, Andres Romero tied the competitive course record with a 5-under 65 and Camilo Villegas was working on a 4-under 66 with four holes to play. Fredrik Jacobson, Graeme McDowell, and Prayad Marksaeng were all 3-under for the day well into their rounds and had climbed back into contention at 3-over, just four off the lead.

Then a torrid all-day rain raced through the area. It subsided momentarily, and the players were sent to the practice range in an attempt to outrace both the next storm and darkness. Ten minutes later, they were called back as another storm out of the pages of the Book of the Apocalypse roared like a lion in the sky. Grab a Snickers, you’re not going anywhere.

Still, everyone agrees, we needed this; something had to give. The course was right on the edge of a Shinnecock Hills-like debacle. Players were totally on the defensive, playing not to make bogey and lose, rather than playing golf and trying to win. The naked truth is…that’s boring. The U.S. Open learned that lesson, made an adjustment, and, with the rough graded so that the penalty incurred equaled how far you hit it off line, players had room for some birdies, which meant there were roars at the U.S. Open for the first time in ages.

Now the PGA Championship, struggling to shed its image as the least venerable of the four majors, faces the same dilemma. Part of its makeover has been the selection of former U.S. Open venues such as Baltusrol, Southern Hills, and Oakland Hills, courses they hoped would dispel the image that the PGA was just a harder version of an ordinary PGA TOUR stop.

“The usual setup for the U.S. PGA is more like a tough U.S. tour event,” began the reigning two-time consecutive British Open champion Padraig Harrington. “This year and the last couple years, it’s gotten more like a traditional U.S. Open type test. It’s nearly more a U.S. Open than the U.S. Open at the moment, if that makes sense. It’s like they switched the two of them around this year” he finished tartly.

Ron Whitten said the same thing in his preview piece in Golf World. He predicted +5 as a winning score, a whole four strokes more than the present highest score to par of 1-over. Had the rain not come and had the tournament officials not seen the writing on the wall, he might have been right. In the fifty years the event has been played in stroke-play format, the winner has finished over par only four times, and not since 1976 when Dave Stockton finished 1-over.

“The golf course changed dramatically from Wednesday to Thursday and even more dramatically from yesterday morning to today,” said Jim Furyk. “There were a lot of holes where birdie wasn’t even in the cards - maybe half of them. You look at 18. I hit two great shots and I still needed a little bit of luck with my 5-iron kind of for the ball to bounce off the collar for a 5-footer. It hangs up in the rough and I’d be lucky to make a par. That’s probably not what you want in a setup.”

Asked if it was unfair, the normally chatty Furyk was unusually laconic. “This is the golf course we were dealt.”

For Furyk, that’s an epic tirade. He’s intelligent, conversant, candid, but most of all pleasant. It’s one thing for a prickly player – for instance Robert Allenby – to rap some knuckles. He said, they took an okay golf course and turned it into a load of crap.” But if you are normally looking for an intemperate tongue lashing, you’d do better to ask a graven image rather than Furyk. That may be why the issue has merit.

Lorne Rubenstein, Canada’s pre-eminent golf writer provided this excellent analysis:

“Ross wanted the course to have width so that players could work their way into the fascinating greens by playing angles and to be able to use the slopes in and around them. Instead, the fairways are so narrow, and the rough so high, that the course tests only accuracy off the tee and the ability to hit high shots into the greens. The lack of width and the endless rough are far more insulting to Ross’s design than the course’s length.

It’s easy to see how the course should play. The rough to the right of the 12th hole, for example, is full of humps and bumps. It should be fairway, not a stifling mane of high rough. Ross meant for the ground contours to matter, not to be covered by rough that looks like a hairpiece alongside every fairway and around every green.”

The same is true on the par-4 15th. There is supposed to be fairway to the right of the centerline fairway bunker. That’s the play for members and short hitters. With rough there, that option is eliminated. The course suffers because corridors of play that Donald Ross intended players to employ have vanished like a rabbit in a conjuring trick. The team of Championship Tournament Director Ryan Cannon and PGA managing director of tournaments Kerry Haigh effectively put the players in a green, grassy straightjacket.

Inexplicably, then they went further, they fluffed the rough. They combed it back towards the player so balls would sink deeper. Blaming the players and caddies who “walk around the greens in the rough” and “their golf bags are laid down,” Haigh said the result was “at the end of any day, all the rough is basically lying flat.”

With 25,000 people every day, I can’t imagine only 312 guys necessitating the combing of every fairway cask toward the tee in the interests of “fairness” and “consistent lies.” This is a recent procedure usually done at B-level tour stops to to0ughen up the layout so 36-under doesn’t win the tournament. As Haigh said, “I think in many events, not just ours, but many events implement where you try to stand the grass back up…they basically rake it back up so it’s playable and consistent.”

It’s one thing to do that at Royal Milwaukee for the John Deere Classic, it’s another thing altogether to do it to Oakland Hills at a major championship. It’s bad enough the players have to face the monster. It’s bad enough they turned the Pinehurst of the Midwest into a noose. Now they have to face a Monster with brass knuckles in one hand and a roll of quarters in the other.

For this weekend, the problem is solved, With the course softened, we’ll finally see scores more akin to a PGA Championship and less reminiscent of a U.S. Open. Much of the Monster’s fangs will be dulled, particularly on the greens where iron shots can now be controlled, and where the slightly slower green speeds mean players can be aggressive, both on approaches and while putting.

[Author’s Note: as we go to press, Ben Curtis and Henrik Stenson each put the finishing touches on 68s for scores of 2-under and 1-under respectively, and Padraig Harrington fired a sparkling 66 to climb to 1-over with Sergio Garcia and Charlie Wi. J.B. Holmes fired a 70 to join Henson at 1-under.

To their credit, the PGA of America seems happy with this and posted a note saying the course is playing a full two strokes easier than it did on days one and two, from roughly 75, to about 73.]

But the issue remains going forward. When you set up a golf course to be a center-line, single option, long, hot grind - when it comes to the reception form players, fans, and pundits - cold winds blow and hot water runs deep, because at a major championship of American golf, instead of fostering an atmosphere where the players are encouraged to play creatively and aggressively, they are instead handicapped; forced them into a boring, dictatorial, learned-by-heart dirge - “hit it here, then hit it here, then scrape a par.” Although we are told by broadcasters in stentorian tones that “this is the way a major should be,” there is a groundswell surging among rank and file golf fans that the time has come to dispel that myth and improve major tournaments at he U.S. Open at the same time.

While some people mindlessly parrot the tired and misguided opinion that the U.S. Open – and even other majors – need to be excruciatingly difficult to truly test the games of the contestants, at one of the flagship events of American sports – wouldn’t it fair to expect more birdies, not less? Do you think more birdies would be less exciting? No, majors have evolved from a hard test of golf become a cheerless grind; hard for hard’s sake with no rhyme or reason other than to make sure no one breaks par. We care more about the winning score than the winning player…and it doesn’t have to be this way.

Fans pay green money to see the greatest magicians in the game provide downright celestial play on the grandest stage the game has to offer. Instead, for some cockamamie reason, at the flagship events in the entire golf world, we seek to suppress scoring? Some people say that, “for one week I’d like to see the pros struggle like me,” but why at the height of the sport? We don’t raise the hoop, broaden the paint, and call more traveling and ticky-tack fouls in the NCAA Championship game, do we? We don’t suddenly move the mound closer, the bases further away, and the foul poles closer together at the World Series, do we? We don’t stop calling pass interference and narrow the football field so that no one scores 55 points in a Super Bowl ever again, do we? Of course we don’t.

Yet in golf, people are actually getting less excitement for their dollar than at any other major sporting event all because people don’t question the ridiculous mantra of “harder is better.” This should not be the case the sport’s showcase events, the height of the season, and the celebration of crowning a king. At the Super bowl, World Series and other sporting championships we are watching players succeed and ascend to the pinnacle because they are able to show us the talent that made them beat everyone else in the first place. But in golf, we get to watch them play the USGA’s obstacle course and survive to be last man standing. 0-0 ties condemned soccer to the life of a red-headed step-child in America and unless we change this zany policy, people will find golf just as boring, if they don’t already.

To paraphrase Russell Crowe in Gladiator, if you want to grow the game, “this is not it. This is not it!” If I want to watch guys stub chips, shoot 82 and three-jack all day, I’ll bring my camcorder along next time my lunkhead golf buddies play on the weekend. See how many hits that gets on YouTube.

“When you trick up the course, you get weird winners” observed veteran sportswriter Art Spander. “It’s become an incredible grind and it rewards guys like Simpson and Janzen.” Hey Art, don’t forget Andy North and Steve Jones and Cyril Walker.

Before the rain came, this tournament was not about how many birdies you got – its how many bogeys you avoided. How exciting is that? All the movement is downward with only a little percolation as players bob to the top like corks before taking on water again, sinking deeper and deeper of the dark country of the leaderboard’s netherworld. By day’s end, the second-round scoring average of this PGA Championship, a bloated 74.85, was the highest all year on tour relative to par. Over those two days, seventeen and eighteen yielded a total of three birdies combined.

“I think there should be some tough holes, but I don’t think it should be, ‘I hit a perfect shot and made double-bogey,’” agreed Holmes, a two-time PGA Tour winner. “You’ve got long rough on every hole, is the frustrating part. When it’s completely unfair on some holes, no, a major shouldn’t be like that.”

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Sep 05

Miles Davis - \”Bitches Brew\” [Remastered] (1970) @320

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Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in June of 1970 on Columbia Records. Recording sessions took place at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio over the course of three days in August of 1969. The album continued Davis’ experimentation of electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album. With the use of these instruments, such as the electric piano and guitar, Davis rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style.

Often cited as one of Davis’ best-selling albums and masterpieces, Bitches Brew marked a turning point in modern jazz. Upon release, it received mixed criticism from fans and critics, alike, due to the album’s unconventional style and revolutionary sound. Later on, Bitches Brew gained recognition as one of jazz’s greatest albums and a progenitor of the jazz rock genre, as well as a major influence on rock and funk musicians.

In February 1969, Davis recorded In a Silent Way, a bold step into ambient funk and electric futurism that inspired the trumpeter to go further out at the sessions for Bitches Brew that August. Davis wanted, he said, “the best damn rock & roll band in the world,” to connect jazz with the forward motion of Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. Davis’ band was superbad (Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, etc.). But the word fusion was never big enough to describe the visceral thrill of these explosive studio explorations and the pioneering tape-edit wizardry of producer Teo Macero, arguably the original Chemical Brother.

No artist has ever reinvented themselves quite so much as Miles Davis. By 1969 he had already upended jazz by championing modal jazz (and in the process recording Kind of Blue which is almost universally acknowledged as the greatest jazz album of all time). By 1969 he was ready to upend it again, and his previous album In A Silent Way had already given hints of what was to come with its increasing shift from an acoustic to an electric sound.

Recording sessions:

As was Davis’s practice, he called musicians to the recording studio on very short notice. A few pieces on Bitches Brew were rehearsed before the recording sessions, but other times the musicians had little or no idea what they were to record. Once in the recording studio, the players were typically given only a few instructions: a tempo count, a few chords or a hint of melody, and suggestions as to mood or tone. Davis liked to work this way; he thought it forced musicians to pay close attention to one another, to their own performances, or to Davis’s cues, which could change at any moment. On the quieter moments of “Bitches Brew”, for example, Davis’s voice is audible, giving instructions to the musicians: snapping his fingers to indicate tempo, or, in his distinctive whisper, saying, “Keep it tight” or telling individuals when to solo.

Davis composed most of the music on the album. The two important exceptions were the complex “Pharaoh’s Dance” (composed by Joe Zawinul) and the ballad “Sanctuary” (composed by Wayne Shorter). The latter had been recorded as a fairly straightforward ballad early in 1968, but was given a radically different interpretation on Bitches Brew. It begins with Davis and Chick Corea improvising on the standard “I Fall in Love too Easily” before Davis plays the “Sanctuary” theme. Then, not unlike Davis’s recording of Shorter’s “Nefertiti” two years earlier, the horns repeat the melody over and over while the rhythm section builds up the intensity. The issued “Sanctuary” is actually two consecutive takes of the piece.

Despite his reputation as a “cool”, melodic improviser, much of Davis’s playing on this album is aggressive and explosive, often playing fast runs and venturing into the upper register of the trumpet. His closing solo on “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” is particularly noteworthy in this regard. Davis did not perform on the short piece “John McLaughlin”.

I can’t really explain what Bitches Brew is all about without a bit of historical context. This was 1969 when experimentation in music was at its height. In Britain Pink Floyd were popularising psychedelia and King Crimson were about to release In The Court of the Crimson King and invent progressive rock. In America Davis, ever the restless genius and unable to stand still musically was looking for something more radical and dramatic still. Supplementing his band up to no less than 3 keyboard players and a bass clarinet, and surrounding himself as ever with musicians of the highest caliber he went into the studio for 3 days to record a double album of 6 densely layered tracks.

So what came out? Well, easy listening this ain’t and I certainly wouldn’t recommend this as an introduction to Jazz or to Miles Davis (Kind of Blue does very nicely for both of those - you might as well start with the best!). The first disc consists of 2 side length tracks, “Pharoah’s Dance” and “Bitches Brew”, both over 20 minutes. They’re both wild cocktails of smoky improvisational jazz. Pharoah’s Dance is famous for having no less than 19 edits within it, some as short as 1 second long, and really marks the start of using the studio and the editing booth as an instrument in its own right. I actually can’t describe either of these tracks well as each time you listen to them they sound different: there’s little structure to hang on to and a mellow groove can quickly dissolve into shards of dissonance with Davis’s distinctive trumpet shrieking over the top.

The second disc of the album is somewhat more relaxed. “Spanish Key” actually stays on the same groove for nearly 17 minutes (but certainly isn’t boring for it). This is followed by “John McLaughlin” (yep, the track is named after the famous jazz guitarist) and “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”, a menacing track that can almost sound like Led Zeppelin in parts. Finally comes “Sanctuary”, a soft sad and superb close with Davis’s trumpet at its most plaintive.

The effects of Bitches Brew were revolutionary. Davis had merged rock and jazz, inventing what we now call fusion (perhaps I should say remerged - after all Rock is a 50’s ofshoot of Jazz). Extraordinarily for such an experimental album it was one of Davis’s biggest sellers and also won him a Grammy. It’s influence still permeates todays music. Thom Yorke from Radiohead admits that previous to recording their masterwork OK Computer, Bitches Brew had been lodged almost permanently in his CD player. After its release in 1970, jazz, rock, and the whole of music would never be the same.

Miles Davis

Track Listing:

CD 1
1 - Pharaoh’s Dance (19:57)
2 - Bitches Brew (26:59)

CD 2
1 - Spanish Key (17:26)
2 - John Mclaughlin (4:43)
3 - Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (14:02)
4 - Sanctuary (10:53)

Personnel:

* Miles Davis - trumpet
* Wayne Shorter - soprano saxophone
* Bennie Maupin - bass clarinet
* Chick Corea - electric piano (solo on “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down”)
* John McLaughlin - guitar
* Dave Holland - bass
* Harvey Brooks - electric bass
* Lenny White - drum set
* Jack DeJohnette - drum set
* Billy Cobham - drum set
* Don Alias - congas, drum set
* Airto Moreira - percussion
* Juma Santos (credited as “Jim Riley”) - shaker, congas
* Larry Young - electric piano on “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” “John McLaughlin” “Spanish Key” and “Pharaoh’s Dance”
* Joe Zawinul - electric piano on “Bitches Brew” “Sanctuary” “Spanish Key” and “Pharaoh’s Dance”

*Includes full cover and booklet scan*

Enjoy!
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Sep 05

Casiopea – Made In Melbourne [1993](flac) Fusion -NMR-

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Casiopea – Made In Melbourne

Someone asked for Casiopea, here’s one for you…later i will post; Casiopea – Perfet Live II

Casiopea ,was a Japanese jazz fusion band that was formed in 1976 by guitarist Issei Noro and bassist Tetsuo Sakurai. In 1977, keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya and drummer Takashi Sasaki joined the group. The group debuted with the album Casiopea in 1979, featuring Randy Brecker and Michael Brecker as guest musicians. In 1980, Takashi was replaced by Akira Jimbo. Casiopea has released over 30 albums to date in both Japan and the United States.

Some of Casiopea’s most famous tracks include Asayake, Galactic Funk and Eyes of The Mind. Galactic Funk first featured in their 1981 album “Crosspoint” which had around 10 different versions recorded both live and in studio.

Casiopea has been countlessly regarded as “similar” to the British band Level 42. Also, Casiopea has played live with various artists such as Level 42, The Square and Sync DNA (Hiroyuki Noritake).

The album Eyes of the Mind was released in the United States in 1981. They then released the album Mint Jams in 1982, followed by Four by Four the same year, which was a collaborative album with some members of Fourplay, including Lee Ritenour, Harvey Mason, Nathan East and Don Grusin. Their first overseas concert was held in the United Kingdom in 1983. The group has toured Europe, South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

In 1989, Akira Jimbo and Tetsuo Sakurai left the band following several years of musical differences. They later formed their own duo-band, Jimsaku. For their replacement, Casiopea chose Yoshihiro Naruse (bass) and Masaaki Hiyama (drums).

In 1993, the group once again changed its members. Noriaki Kumagai came to replace Masaaki. Then in 1997, Akira returned to Casiopea, this time as a part-time member, recording more albums and again contributing some of the compositions.

In 2006, Issei Noro, the group’s leader, decided to freeze all activities of the band until further notice.

Tracks;
1. Fightman 5:05
2. Passionate Voltage
3:09 3. Final Chance 3:52
4. New History 4:48
5. Once in a Blue Moon 6:15
6. Time Stream 4:22
7. The March at Metro 4:54
8. Akappachi-ism 3:53
9. The Bass Greetings 6:17
10. The Sky 4:05
11. Top Wind 4:38
12. Messengers 3:48


Content; Flac (separate), cue, log, scans


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