These Are a Few of My Favorite....Charts

Jack Bowers

Senior Contributor since 1997

A former newspaper writer / editor who has been writing about big-band Jazz for more than fifteen years.

Recent articles (1,749 total)

Published: October 1, 2010

Artists currently appearing on the Jazzed Media label include Holman, Gibbs, Phil Woods, Bill Charlap, Brian Lynch, Hubert Laws, Marvin Stamm,Bill Mays, Carl Saunders, Don Menza, Christian Jacob, Scott Whitfield, Andy Martin, Lanny Morgan, Bobby Shew, Irene Kral, Bob Lark, Jeff and John Clayton, Lorraine Feather, Jim McNeely, Mel Martin, Frank Tiberi and Matt Wilson.

I'm Doing Fine; the Computer, Not So Good

Before departing, a word about August's physical problems, and that word is "gone," hopefully for a long time to come. On the other hand, the computer died early in September and was replaced by another, the bugs in which haven't yet been squashed. The old computer, whose monitor insisted on "going to sleep" every twenty minutes, was placed in the hands of Best Buy's widely ballyhooed Geek Squad who said they'd quickly found the problem and would have the computer in apple-pie order in a day or two at most. That was on September 14. On Saturday, September 18, the Geeks admitted the diagnosis was wrong, said they couldn't solve the problem and suggested that I buy a new computer, which I did that very day, authorizing them to transfer data from the old computer's hard drive to the newer one, a procedure, I was told, that would take two to three days at most. When I phoned five days later (September 22) to see how things were going, I was told that the data transfer hadn't been completed but that I should have the computer back that evening (Wednesday) or early Thursday morning. I visited Best Buy on Wednesday evening (Betty had some business there) and was told that Thursday afternoon seemed a more likely target. When I phoned Thursday evening (having heard nothing from the Geeks), I was assured that the data transfer would positively be completed by Friday morning. I called again at 10:30 a.m. Friday, and after the usual interminable wait, was told that the data transfer was "almost" complete. "Give us another hour or so and she'll be ready to go." I gave them more than that, arriving at Best Buy around two o'clock Friday afternoon. "Well, we just need ten or fifteen more minutes to wrap things up," quoth the Geeks. I left the store around 3:30 that afternoon, old and new computers in hand, eleven days after entrusting them to the Geek Squad. The moral, I suppose, is that one can take any estimated time quoted to repair a computer (or complete a simple data transfer) and multiply it by about three, especially when dealing with the over-praised Geek Squad.

Postscript: The computer worked fine all day Saturday, long enough for me to write this column. Sunday morning (today), I couldn't get it to start; no more than a black screen. So back it went to Best Buy, where one of the Geeks, Kyle, somehow got it up and running and changed the settings so the computer and monitor won't shut off automatically after twenty or so minutes (should have done that in the first place). Needless to say, I hope that's my last visit to the Geeks for a while. So far, so good . . .

And that's it for now. Until next time, keep swinging!

New and Noteworthy

1. Les Hooper Band, Live at Typhoon (Hooperman Records)
2. Stan Kenton, This Is an Orchestra! (Tantara)
3. Allen Carter Big Band, Gifts (no label)
4. Des Moines Big Band, Landmark (No Label)
5. Timucua Jazz Orchestra, Live at Timucua (Timucua Arts Foundation)
6. Howard University Jazz Ensemble, Bright Moments (HUJE Jazz)
7. Michael Treni, Turnaround (Bell Production)
8. Riverside Community College, A Minor Case of the Blues (Sea Breeze Vista)
9. Makoto Ozone / No Name Horses, Jungle (Verve Japan)
10. Fred Hess Big Band, Hold On (Dazzle Records)
11. David Berger Jazz Orchestra, Sing Me a Love Song (Such Sweet Thunder)
12. Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, The Ikaros Suite (Sittel)
13. Fredonia Jazz Ensemble, Still Kickin' (FJE)
14. Waco Jazz Orchestra, Untitled (WJO)
15. John Dankworth Orchestra, At the Newport Jazz Festival, 1959 (Harkit)