Dave Douglas Music

Excellent for the start of ABC and 123 -

The ABC part is really a whole language reading lesson. Couple that with Dr. Suess's Hop on Pop and you can teach your kid to read.

The 123 part teaches beginning addition.

Very well done.

We've had this video for over 5 yrs. It is now making it's way into our 2nd son's video repetoire. My oldest absolutely loved Blue when he was 1 and 2 yo. These videos are helpful in that they teach thinking skills using fun songs and bright colors. It's no wonder that Blue's Clues is still in production all these years later.

I really love Blues Clues and so does my 4 year old son. He watches it every day on Playhouse Disney and he learned to count from this video. i highly reccommend it to anyone! ...

The title fooled me I bought this viseo. I bought it for my home daycare. I thought this would video to learn letters and begining count. This video is more advanced than that. It teachs words and begining math. It's a fun and well made video. It's jst not great for 18 to 2 1/2 yr olds. For that age group I'd suggest getting Sesame Street - 123 Count With Me, Sesame Street - The Great Numbers Game, Leap Frog - Letter Factory, & Sesame Street - The Alphabet Jungle Game

I've owned this album for years and I still come back to this piece as one of the best interpretations of the Resurrection symphony out there. It captures perfectly the dissonance that Mahler was trying to convey in this symphony in a striking, innovative way and I think he would have approved.

I've been a big Mahler fan since Bernstein's first recording (4th Symphony) as well as a knowledgeable follower of jazz. These pieces are grotesque caricatures of Mahler melodies and while I have not heard Caine's other depredations, after listening to this one I think I'll pass. If this is something released after a jam session that somehow was rescued from the cutting room floor, my apologies. But Mahler's melodies do not belong in a setting like this and who is Caine to try to improve on Mahler's orchestrations? Save your money.

it's not pure as in so many anally treated works of Mahler. admittedly i am not interested in listening to see if the sonority of the instruments is perfect to some pompous standard, and it's not but there is another dedication here and an unmeasurable energy. i love the youthfulness of this work.

I am a Mahler fan - and I don't like jazz! So I was rather nervous at listening to this first time around. But I found it simply stunning. The resurrection symphony slow movement, complete with screeching solo violin emulating a searingly distorted electric guitar was, in fact, profoundly moving. And the sheer musicianship of the performers, in the more sensitive sections earned my utmost respect. This album is shocking, unbearable, gripping, lighthearted, exciting, mocking, reverential, tender - everything Mahler was. Fantastic buy!

On his 1997 release Urlicht / Primal Light, Uri Caine took some of Gustav Mahler's most famous compositions, and, well, jazzed them up, with some of the most prominent musicians on the downtown New York scene, including Dave Douglas and Joey Baron.

What still surprises me about this beautiful album is just how faithful Caine is to Mahler. Unlike his later Goldberg Variations, this isn't Mahler deconstructed, it's Mahler revered, in a small group jazz (and at times, thanks to Don Byron , klezmer) setting. It makes perfect sense -- if some of the greatest jazz performances have come from mediocre show tunes, why not use symphonies and lieder as a starting point for improvisation?

I purchased this set originally for New Faces of 1952. Being a fan of most musicals of that era I was not disappointed. I found the original cast recordings to be excellent and a perfect introduction to Broadway Shows.

Such a disappointment! The sound quality is beyond poor on CD 1 and is followed closely by CD 4; the other CDs are okay. If you're into old Broadway songs, buy "Greatest Broadway Hits: Golden Greats" instead. The latter is listenable.

i would suggest buying the two newest cds and not buying this one at all because youll get better versions of basically the same songs

Relient K knows, or knew, how to put out extra content, the EP. The early EPs had songs from the full length albums, as well as some goodies, sometimes good, sometimes not so much. But the trend turns with Apathetic EP, all original content, nothing old.

The album starts off with two new studio songs, both are great, but are in a in-between style, not Five Score, but not "Mmhmm" either.

The next three songs are marvelous acoustic tracks. All of them are great in their own right. I might prefer the studio version to "Over Thinking" musically, but for the overall emotion to the song, this version works best.

"In Like a Lion (Always Winter)" is one of the greatest Relient K songs of all time. Although it's not a rock song, it's their best, I guess what you call balled. If you haven't heard the song, please do, you will be blown away. Why this song wasn't on the Music Inspired By The Chronicles Of Narnia album, I don't know. I think it was a MAJOR mistake by the people that produced the album. Because this song is better than that whole album, combined.

The last song is by Matt T's side band, Matt Theissen and the Earthquakes. The song is only OK, not anything to write home about. I also had a hard time getting the whole vibe of the song.

And for those of you who got the acoustic version of "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" it's a good version, but I think they took it down too much, which is probably why it was eventually cut.

Overall, the best EP by far, great find for fans, and the album contains many great songs. Only time will tell if another EP of theirs is made, this site only mentions a Christmas album coming out, but I hope they do an EP for Five Score. The Relient K EP is always the best middle album in Christian music, and probably music period. You don't have to agree, but it's my opinion, and I'm sticking with it.

So, I usually don't like EP albums, but since I like Relient K, I decided to try it.
I love this CD! All the songs are awesome.
I won't go into detail about each one, but my favorites on this album are "In like a Lion" and "the Truth".

If I could give it 6 stars, I would!

Also, I agree that you should check out their christmas album, "Deck the Halls, Bruise your Hand".
They also have a new christmas album coming out near the end of october (2007).
I'm getting it, and I recommend you look into it.


Anyways, Great album. Keep on rocking!

hey if you like acousics, you'll love this one. three of my favorite rk songs are redone in acoustics...be my escape...which to bury, us or the hatchet...and over thinking. there's one more acoustic...in like a lion. i love the acoustic versions. it really showcases their lyrics and melodic voices. i can't get enough of rk.

I liked their first 2 albums, but the third-- Two lefts don't make a right, but three do-- was disappointing... disappointingly secular. I liked relient k originally because they were punk and christian. You can find punk non-christian in every garage in suburbia, and the fact that they caved into making their music more secular really disappointed me.

I got this album because I heard them collaborate with John Reuben on his cd The Boy vs. the Cynic, and the song rocked. So I gave them another chance... and it turns out that I shouldn't have wasted my money.

They're okay as a punk band. Their songs sound a lot the same, all the time, so don't get this cd (or any of theirs) looking for originality. But the thing is, they're not good enough of a punk band to make me want to listen to them when they're not Christian anymore. When they went secular, they really became just like every other wanna-be punk band, and I stopped listening to them. When I was a fan I almost felt betrayed by their selling out of their beliefs. Now, I'm just disappointed.

Not your typical rehashed Ewald here. This young quintet plays commissions and does it with outstanding beauty and clarity. This is a musician's recording. No other quintet has this sound.

This eclectic CD is a must for fans of Elliott Goldenthal or John Cage. Additionally anyone who is plays in a brass qunintet or is intersted in brass quintet music should listen to this CD to expand their views of what a brass quintet can do in the comtemporary music landscape.

A distinct improvement over the previous Masada album (although this is pretty odd since both of them came from the same recording sessions in July of 1995), "vav" is a fine effort by Masada (John Zorn- alto sax, composer, Dave Douglas- trumpet, Greg Cohen- bass, Joey Baron- drums). The four piece improvises over pieces written using the "Jewish scales" with a jazz head structure to the pieces (i.e. intro-head-improv-head) and a unity in performance that is absolutely stunning. The strength of this band, moreso even than the superb material, is their near psychic interaction, and often times, it isn't the soloist who is the highlight during a solo, but rather the supporting voices. The band is also famous for point-counterpoint sort of improvisation with Zorn and Douglas improvising together.

Admittedly, the album starts off much like the other record from this session-- the first couple pieces are decent enough (opener "Debir" features some ferocious improvising from Zorn), but they aren't particularly memorable pieces. It isn't until the nearly soporific "Tiferet" that we get something really interesting-- a mellow piece with Douglas playing muted, it really grabs your attention for something that is so decidingly laid back in form. Similar in mood is the brilliant "Miktav"-- Zorn opens the piece with a keening line, and a sense of haunting and foreboding infuses the playing of all four musicians, particularly Douglas, who is just brilliant in his solo, showing an amazing sense of taste and technique.

But what this album has that the previous record was missing is a couple really great themes that clearly inspire the band-- drum feature "Nevalah" has a great skipping sound and a superb solo from Baron, but the spotlight is really stolen by Cohen, who manages clever interplay while maintaining a nearly hypnotic groove. Also of note is the album standout, "Nashon"-- featuring a fantastic circular theme and superb performances from all four band members (particularly Cohen), this is one of the real greats of the Masada catalog. Cohen continues his amazing playing on the cooled out "Avelut"-- a laid back piece where the bassist just never ceases his inventiveness (Zorn gets in quite a solo too).

There are better Masada pieces, but this is really a quite enjoyable effort. Recommended.

Even if I haven't heard all Masada's records, I can say Vol.6 is a great Jazz album. J. zorn (as), D. Douglas (t), G. Cohen (b), J. Baron (dr) fly from free or blues to klezmer, from Ornette Coleman's influences, to latin innuendos, with an amazing easyness. Zorn and Douglas build from paralel lines to to rich dialogs; Cohen's bass reminds me somme of the C. Haden's richest works for the Ornette's quartet; Baron's drums sound like Baron is dancing in joy. I really enjoy listening to this record first thing in the morning, not because it's easy listening, no, but because it's happy music in all its rich complexity. J.L.

My son doesn't care for Blue's room, but this DVD contains two bonus episodes - "Dress Up Day" and "Our Neighborhood Festival". The latter one has a spot with Marlee (Matlin) the librarian teaching us many new signs.

Besides Fred's Birthday, there's also an episode called "The Fairy Tale Ball"

This project is every mega-fan's wet dream: the chance to make a feature-length film about the subject of one's passion, only to override that subject with one's own ego. Claudia Heuermann is essentially the star of her little film. She relegates Zorn, his music, and the Downtown New York milieu to the sidelines so she can muse droningly about the art of filmmaking and how important she is to the process that's supposed to be happening here. Each time this film shows some potential to give us some depth -- through the music if not its evasive subject's own words -- it fails, drifting off to another of Heuermann's musings about film and, less often, Zorn. There are dozens of prime concert clips, interview fragments, and other teasers in this film, but they are simply left as that: teasers, reminding us briefly that the subject is supposed to be Zorn and not the director. Now someone needs to come along and *really* make a film about this misunderstood genius, Zorn.

I can't say I loved every second of this movie. I found the filmmaker and her narratives so irritating I wanted to shoot her by the end of the film. However, what she did manage to capture of John Zorn and his process is so fascinating I can't help but recommend it to ANYONE who is interested in making music, whether they can wrap their heads around his music or not. Sure, you have to put up with her drivel and her whining, but it's worth it in my opinion just to watch Zorn instructing an improvisational ensemble on the use of flash cards, directing an orchestra that includes a guy slurping and spitting water and another sawing the legs off chairs, and of course his strangely insightful if cryptic theories on music. As an artist and musician, I found it massively inspiring and I recommend it to all my like-minded friends, with the caveate that she's intolerable and they probably won't dig all the music right away...

The negative reviews of this documentary and its creator Claudia Heuermann are unfair. It's pretty obvious that John Zorn's decision to absent himself from the film-making process ("I hadn't spoken to Zorn for over a year," Heuermann says at one point) is at the heart of the documentary's problems. Without its subject's active participation, Heuermann seems to have had to fall back to a different, problematic approach to her film and its subject (that she was evidently passionate about and committed to) which ultimately leads to the issues that the other reviewers here so eloquently kvetch about.

Heuermann's 'Sabbath In Paradise' (1997) is an interesting and accomplished investigation into the beginnings of the NYC Radical Jewish Culture scene. With informed, thoughtful input from Anthony Coleman (the movement's intellectual powerhouse for my money), Andy Statman and Marc Ribot, among others, it proves that Heuermann is a talented director with the vision to work in an area of contemporary music that requires documenting in an intelligent way, such is it's highly-conceptual basis.

This is still interesting though. Good footage of Zorn's various projects, game piece rehearsal footage, Naked City stuff, Masada stuff, some classical stuff and a bit of Zorn sounding off about Germany. Perhaps Heuermann could have gone to Zorn's peers for the insight that Zorn was not able/willing to give her (sadly, as his contributions to the extra documentary on the 'Sabbath In Paradise' DVD are entertaining and interesting enough) but she didn't.

So, flawed and a missed opportunity, yes - but I really don't believe the vehement criticism here is justified or even directed in the right direction. It's OK, and it's all that's out there. And Zorn is such a unique character that surely any attempt to 'capture' or explain him is doomed to failure.

Claudia Heuermann's "A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: Twelve Stories About John Zorn" is not quite what it seems. Expectations ran high, a documentary about John Zorn, the man who rarely grants interviews and when he does, seems to say everything and not say anything at all, whose music jumps genre to genre in a matter of seconds, captivates some, horrifies others, and has a strange sway over its fan.

What Heuermann did though was quite a bit different-- she told the story about her trying to make the movie, about her relationship with Zorn, from the moment she first discovered him (a friend playing her Naked City's "Torture Garden") to her meeting him for the first time, travelling to New York and deciding to make a movie about Zorn. It's really a piece abuot self-discovery, about learning to be one's "own parent".

Along the way, we get snippets of interviews with Zorn, brilliant statements, footage of rehearsals, recording sessions, remastering of "The Big Gundown" and live performances from Naked City, Painkiller, Masada, Bar Kokhba, Emergency, and "Rituals". We also get a brief explanation of game pieces and a picture of a frustrated artist who can't stop looking, who views music as problem solving, and who does it not for listeners, but for himself and the musicians.

This is the second time I've watched this-- the first time was when it first came out, and I was still in the process of discovering Zorn's work through a chance encounter at an independent movie theater (Naked City was the house music before the show, and somehow I knew who it was). Three months and a dozen or so Zorn CDs later and this came out to guide my way, to help put the pieces together.

A year after that and my Zorn collection is bordering on obscene and the piece still holds weight. It still is entertaining, and yeah, its not a lot of revelatory stuff, but it's a worthwhile viewing. Truth to be told, in many ways, the piece gave validity to my own view on my choice of career and my great passions. And I keep thinking that maybe when my coworkers ask why I'm making the four hour trip to New York City yet again to see some obscure musician who they've never heard of (and who if they did hear, they'd probably dislike), maybe in those situations I should let them borrow this and certainly Heuermann's experience isn't really that much different from mine. Isn't that powerful enough to merit a recommendation to someone else?

If you're just learning about Zorn, get this, it's critical. If you're already initiated, you probably already have it. It's got its flaw, but invariably, it's a deeply personal expression, how could it not? Either way, it's a fun film to watch. Recommended.

I hesitate to call this film a documentary, for it seems to serve the mystique of John Zorn rather than circumvent it (or move through it) to examine the work of a man who has broke open a whole new way of composing music. Even more than serving the mystique (done through endless misses between the film maker and her subject matter and only brief glimpses of music being made), the film ultimately seems to serve the film maker to muse upon the process of creating films...but hardly in any way that provides insight.

There are interesting, brief glimpses into Zorn putting together a game piece performance, for example, but I came out of this feeling that I had been given some opportunity to glimpse some of the people behind the music, but no further understanding of the music or the artist behind the music than what I have devised through my own listening and through articles I've read talking about noise as well. Obviously, this film wants to examine the music more than the man, but I think it did it very poorly, with only brief peeks at Zorn's various styles and some interesting blurbs from Zorn himself, but more I felt that I just watched someone trying to make a documentary about Zorn and generally failed, so she decided to put herself in the movie to fill it out some.

A lost opportunity.