Full lineup for Aug. 26 JWP show

JWP has announced the full lineup for their Aug. 26 Korakuen Hall show. The already announced main event will have Azumi Hyuga defending her JWP Open Weight Title against Amazing Kong. The JWP vs Sendai girls battle appears to be a best of three matches. Round one will be Tojuki Leon vs Yurie Kaneko. Round two will be Commando Bolshoi & Kaori Yoneyama vs Sachiko & Chisako Kanari. This will be followed by a six girl tag match with Sachie Abe, KAZUKI & Kei'to' vs Toshie Uematsu, Manami Toyota & Hailey Hatred. Then a singles match with Kyoko Haruyama vs Ran YuYu. Round three of the JWP vs Sendai Girls battle will have Tsubasa Kuragaki, Arisa Nakajima & ASKA Ohki vs Meiko Satomura, Akari Okuda & Ayane Mizumura. In related news, Livedoor Sports reports that on the Sept. 8 Zepp Sendai show, Sendai Girls will give new ring names to all five trainees. Huh?

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Charles Mingus

Artist:Charles Mingus

Song:GG Train

Album:Mingus Ah Um

Legendary bass player Charles Mingus was one of the most talented yet enigmatic figures in jazz history. On one hand, his music reflected his upbringing in the racial jungle in the Watts area of Los Angeles. On the other hand, his music also reflected a deep respect for the black church and his idol Duke Ellington. In the mid 50s, Mingus had formed his Jazz Workshop collective and signed a recording contract with Columbia. Mingus Ah Um was his Columbia debut in 1959. It's probably a good starting point for beginners as it's more accessible but still satisfying for jazz fans. Musicians are John Handy, Shafi Hadi & Booker Ervin on sax, Jimmy Knepper & Willie Dennis on trombone, Horace Parlan on piano and Dannie Richmond on drums. Columbia released a remastered version on CD in 1999 with three bonus tracks and four tracks issued in unedited form for the first time. Of course there's a lot more to Charles Mingus' music but this is a good place to start. Here's Charles Mingus performing I'll Remember April July 1960.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-The Allman Brothers Band

Artist:The Allman Brothers Band

Song:Whipping Post

Album:20th Century Masters:The Millenium Collection:The Best Of The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers Band had potential to be one of the greatest rock bands in history. Unfortunately the tragic death of lead guitarist Duane Allman and then bassist Berry Oakley changed the direction of the group. At their best, the Allman Bros. mixed southern rock with other musical elements that influenced other bands. The base of the group were guitarist Duane Allman and his pianist/singer brother Gregg Allman along with Dicky Betts on guitar, Berry Oakley on bass and Butch Trucks & Johnny Lee Johnson on drums. The Allman brothers are from Macon, GA. Duane was a session guitarist in Muscle Shoals and was starting to get a reputation for his musicianship. In 1969, Otis Redding's former manager Phil Walden convinced Duane to give up sessions and form his own band. Walden started Capricorn Records and signed them. Whipping Post is from their 1969 debut and quickly became one of their most popular songs. They usually performed an extended version of the song live and a 22 minute version of Whipping Post is on the essential Live At Fillmore East. This budget comp is pretty good for beginners. It has the group's biggest hits. Sadly Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in Oct. 1971 and Berry Oakley died soon after. The Allman Brothers Band continued to be popular but Duane's fire was sorely missed. Neither Gregg or Dicky Betts had that and the group became a more traditional country rock band. At their best, the Allman Brothers Band were a fantastic band. Here they are performing Whipping Post in 1970.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-The Temptations

Artist:The Temptations

Song:Beauty Is Only Skin Deep

Album:Motown Legends:Just My Imagination

Beauty Is only Skin Deep is just one of a long series of hits by the legendary Temptations. Motown producers Norman Whitfield & Eddie Holland had already written the smash Ain't To Proud To Beg so they came back with this song. Holland was a great singer in his own right. He sounded like Jackie Wilson. So he knew how to get the best out of even someone as temperamental as David Ruffin. Ruffin delivers a great lead vocal. Beauty Is Only Skin Deep topped the R & B charts for five weeks and reached #3 on the pop charts in August 1966. It originally appeared on the 1966 Greatest Hits Vol. 1 comp. There are obviously tons of Temptations comps available. This Motown Legends comp is part of a series but I think The Ultimate Collection gives a more complete picture. Check out The Temptaions performing Beauty Is only Skin Deep in 1966.

The Temptations
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Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Jimi Hendrix

Artist:Jimi Hendrix

Song:Fire

Album:Experience Hendrix:The Best Of Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix was so good for the few years he was around that even a throwaway song like Fire still holds up well today. It's obviously not even the strongest song on the 1967 Are You Experienced album with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. Hendrix has one of his great trademark solos here. This Experience Hendrix comp is probably the best one disc comp available and a good introduction to beginners. There's so much Hendrix on CD and a lot of it isn't compiled very well. It's difficult to know what to get. Start with this. Jimi Hendrix is the place to start if you want to learn about rock guitarists. Here's Jimi Hendrix performing Fire at Woodstock.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Ella Fitzgerald

Artist:Ella Fitzgerald

Song:Perdido

Album:First Lady Of Song

Because Ella Fitzgerald was so famous, people tend to forget that given the opportunity, she could jam with her voice better than most fellow musicians could jam with their instruments. And most guys knew that and that's why they loved working with her. This version of Perdido illustrates that. This 3CD box set First Lady Of Song covers Ella's recordings on Verve from 1949-66. Perdido is from one of Norman Granz' Jazz At The Philharmonic all star bands. This was recorded in Tokyo Nov. 1953. You can get these recordings on a 2CD set called J.A.T.P. In Tokyo. It really is an all star band. You have Ella Fitzgerald on vocals, Roy Eldridge & Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Bill Harris on trombone, Willie Smith & Benny Carter on alto sax, Ben Webster & Flip Phillips on tenor sax, Oscar Peterson on piano, Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass and J.C. Heard on drums. Though Perdido is the first track on First Lady Of Song, it was actually the closing number in the J.A.T.P. concert. It doesn't get much better than this. Here's Ella Fitzgerald performing Angel Eyes in 1957.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Mandisa

Artist:Mandisa

Song:Only The World

Album:True Beauty

I'm sure it won't surprise most when I say I don't care for American Idol mainly because it's a popularity contest. Even the producers of the show get annoyed about that. But occasionally a decent singer emerges from the wreckage. Mandisa was on American Idol and has an opportunity to make inroads in the Christian market. She was born Mandisa Lynn Hundley Oct. 2, 1976 in Citrus Heights, CA. She earned a bachelor's degree in music at Fisk University in Tennessee and worked the Christian background vocal circuit in Nashville before Idol. There were two things that sealed her fate on Idol. She's heavy and she made anti-gay comments when she performed Mary Mary's Shackles on the show. A lot of Idol contestants sign with the production company's label but Mandisa has signed with EMI owned Sparrow Records. That's their Contemporary Christian label and they also have EMI Gospel. So it's pretty clear how the record company plans to sell her. Only The World was her first single and it did pretty well on the Billboard chart for a CCM song. The song was written & produced by Sam Mizell of the CCM group 33Miles. She also works a lot with veteran CCM producer Shaun Shankel. Her CD True Beauty was released on July 31. She has potential in the CCM & gospel market. This song sounds good but they may be trying too hard to turn her into a pop star. Here's Mandisa performing Only The World on Regis & Kelly.

mandisa only the world
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Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Daryl Coley

Artist:Daryl Coley

Song:When Sunday Comes

Album:Compositions:A Decade Of Songs

Daryl Coley is a gospel singer and he had some success in the 90s. He was born in Berkeley, CA and grew up in Oakland. He grew up playing piano in church and naturally gravitated to the Hawkins family. He joined The Edwin Hawkins Singers as a keyboard player in 1977. Coley worked for James Cleveland as an arranger in 1983. He signed with Sparrow Records in 1990. He had some success in the gospel market until he went to Verity in 2000. His most recent CD is the live recording Praise & Worship in 2006. This comp was released by Sparrow after he left for Verity. When Sunday Comes is an excellent song that is actually from the CD Bible Stories by Donald Lawrence & The Tri City Singers. Coley gives a great performance. Daryl Coley is someone who probably needs to update his sound to get back on the gospel charts. But he might be happy with his fanbase and may not do that. Here's Daryl Coley with Donald Lawrence & The Tri City Singers performing When Sunday Comes in 1995.

Lineup for Aug. 28 & 29 SUN shows

Pro Wrestling SUN held a press conference Thursday to announce the lineups for the two shows at the end of August. I guess it would be more accurate to describe it as a post mortem. The four of them sat there and talked about getting clobbered on Sunday's show. Nanae Takahashi said she didn't see Jamie Dee coming but she's looking to the future, without the title of course. The others had similar remarks. SUN President Nakamura posted on the SUN blog that the girls had to travel from a Saturday Zero-One Max show in Tohoku and may not have been at their best. Uh huh.

There will be no Jamie Dee on either of these shows but Amazing Kong will be there. The first show is Aug. 28 at the Nakaku Sportscenter in Nagoya City. The main event will be Nanae Takahashi & Hikaru vs Aja Kong & Amazing Kong. Also announced was Shuu Shibutani vs Kyoko Kimura and Kayoko Haruyama vs Natsuki*Taiyo. The Aug. 29 show will be at Shin-kiba 1st Ring. The main event is a SUN vs REM tag match. REM will e represented by Toshie Uematsu & Amazing Kong. I assume Nanae Takahashi is one of the opponents but it appears Nakamura forgot to fill that in properly. It's not the first time. Other matches include Hikaru & Atsuko Emoto vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Kimura, Saki Maemura vs Azumi Hyuga and Yumiko Hotta vs Shuu Shibutani. I wonder if Hyuga will get involved in the main event. I'm sure all will be revealed at a future press conference.

Women to debut on Aug. 19 GCM show

We're seeing more of the men's MMA companies in Japan adding women to their shows. Obviously they can see that DEEP is getting great results with very entertaining fights. GCM Demolition will have a womens match for the very first time on their Aug. 19 Differ Ariake show. GCM used to have a womens promotion Cross Section but it closed a couple of years ago. It will be Naoko Ohmuro (pictured in pink) vs Fukuko Hamada. Both are Smackgirl veterans. Ohmuro's record is 7-5-1 and her last fight was a loss to Mai on the May 19 Smackgirl show. She has lost to Hisae Watanabe & Satoko Shinashi twice each. Hamada is 4-0 and her last win was over Akemi Morihara at the Apr. 28 Smackgirl show.

Smackgirl has added two Next Cinderella Tournament finals to their Sept. 6 Korakuen Hall show. Maho Muranami & Madoka Ebihara will fight in the finals of the Flyweight tournament and V1 & Emi Tomimatsu will fight in the Lightweight tournament. Of course the main event has Yuka Tsuji defending her Smackgirl Lightweight Championship against Michele Tavares.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs

Artist:Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs

Song:Stay

Album:Dirty Dancing

In retrospect, the one thing the Dirty Dancing soundtrack was good for was resurrecting interest in long forgotten oldies. And this was one of the shortest chart hits ever. Maurice Williams was born Apr. 26, 1938 in Lancaster, SC. He grew up singing in church and formed the doo wop group The Royal Charms in 1953. His big break came in 1956 when Nashville DJ Ernie Young, also owner of Excello Records, liked Williams' song Little Darlin'. This song would eventually be a huge hit for The Diamonds though Williams originally recorded it as The Gladiolas. That made Williams a lot of money as Young didn't try to rip him off. Williams decided not to re-sign with Excello and eventually sent a demo of the song Stay to Al Silver of Herald Records. The song was recorded and was a #1 hit in 1960. Subsequently Williams never matched that success but Stay has been covered by many artists over the years and the 1987 Dirty Dancing soundtrack sold it to a new generation. Stay turns up on a lot of various artists comps. Maurice Williams continues to tour the oldies circuit today and here he is singing Stay on one of those PBS doo wop specials.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Arturo Sandoval

Artist:Arturo Sandoval

Song:Cherokee

Album:I Remember Clifford

Cuban music has amassed a significant following in North America over the last decade. Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is one of Cuba's best jazz musicians. He was born Nov. 6, 1949 in Artemisa, Cuba. He took up classical trumpet at age 12. In the 70s he formed the legendary jazz group Irakere with Paquito D'Rivera & Chucho Valdes. Sandoval met Dizzy Gillespie in 1977. Gillespie became his mentor and took Sandoval on tour with the United Nations Orchestra. Sandoval left Irakere in 1981 and like D'Rivera & Valdes, defected to the US in 1990 and settled in Florida. He recorded several CDs on GRP Records including this 1992 tribute to Clifford Brown. Sandoval is best when he plays straight ahead jazz and that's what he does on this. Musicians are Kenny Kirkland on piano, Charnett Moffett on bass, Kenny Washington on drums and Ernie Watts on sax. Andy Garcia played Sandoval in the 2000 HBO biopic For Love Or Country and of course Sandoval scored the film. His most recent CD on Telarc Records titled Rumba Palace was released in May. Arturo Sandoval is an excellent trumpeter and he's worth checking out. Here's Arturo Sandoval performing Cherokee with Randy Brecker, Chuck Findlay, Byron Stripling and the GRP All Star Big Band in 1992.

Cherokee - Sandoval-Brecker-Findley-Stripling
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Noriyo Tateno injured

LLPW announced today that veteran wrestler Noriyo Tateno has been hospitalized with abdominal bleeding and will not be on the Aug. 11 Shirakawa show. Tateno was taken to the hospital after her match on the July 29 Kobe University show. LLPW will have their 15th anniversary show on Aug. 31 at Korakuen Hall. It isn't known yet if Tateno will be back for that show. Of course long time fans know Tateno as one half of the legendary 80s tag team Jumping Bomb Angels. She has worked for LLPW since 1994. Matches scheduled for the Aug. 11 show are Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs Eiger & Sayuri Okino, Takako Inoue & Jaguar Yokota vs Yumiko Hotta & Arisa Nakajima, Obacchi Iizuka vs Kaori Yoneyama, Ayako Sato vs Tomoko Morii and Francoise vs Bolshoi Kid.

Kyle Busch to Joe Gibbs Racing

Nothing's been officially announced yet but Associated Press reported yesterday that Kyle Busch (pictured) will drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Nothing can be kept secret anymore and this answers the major question of the NASCAR Silly Season. Kyle will drive the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota. Current driver JJ Yeley is reported to be going to Wood Brothers JTG Racing to drive the #21 Ford currently driven by Bill Elliott. It's well known that JGR isn't happy with Yeley. Toyota? That's the other rumour. Supposedly JGR will switch from Chevy to Toyota next season. Meanwhile Marty Gaunt has left as manager of Red Bull Racing and they may switch from Toyota to Chevy. I don't know when Kyle's move will be announced but it doesn't matter. We all know anyway.

The other big announcement yesterday is the partnership between Ray Evernham & George Gillett Jr. is now official. The company is now called Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Gillett owns the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL. The deal is very similar to the partnership formed earlier this year by Jack Roush & John Henry of the Boston Red Sox. There is speculation that Dodge is willing to give up the primary sponsorship of the #9 & #19 and Budweiser wants to sponsor Kasey Kahne. And Evernham announced today that Patrick Carpentier will replace Scott Riggs in the #10 at this Sunday's race at the Watkins Glen road course. So it appears that Carpentier's performance in the Montreal Busch Series race could get him significant NASCAR seat time.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Muddy Waters

Artist:Muddy Waters

Song:Mannish Boy

Album:The Chess Box

If you're going to talk about Chicago Blues, you're going to have to start with Muddy Waters. He was born McKinley Morganfield Apr. 4, 1915 in Rolling Fork, MS. He was discovered in 1941 on one of musicologist Alan Lomax's trips to the Misissippi Delta and moved to Chicago in 1943. With his band The Headhunters, he was probably the top blues artist in Chicago in the 50s. This 3CD Chess Box covers his recordings from 1947-72. 1955's Mannish Boy is one of Waters' best and was based on Willie Dixon's Hoochie Coochie Man. It was an answer to Bo Diddley's I'm A Man. Musicians are Little Walter on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Otis Spann on piano, Big Crawford on bass and Elgin Evans on drums. Waters plays slide guitar and growls out the vocals. Mannish Boy is a standard that has been covered by many rock acts. Like a lot of blues artists, Muddy Waters faded in the late 60s but returned stronger than ever in the late 70s until his death on Apr. 30, 1983 at age 68. Muddy Waters was one of the all time greats of modern music. Here's Muddy Waters performing Mannish Boy in Chicago in 1981.

MIKU wins DEEP Lightweight Title

DEEP's Aug. 4 Korakuen Hall show drew 1983 fans. Hisae Watanabe defended her DEEP Lightweight Title against MIKU in the semi main event. Watanabe's reputation over the last couple of years has been that she has tremendous striking power but vulnerable on the ground. The loss to the Korean in February damaged her reputation to the point that this match was a must win. She has to do more than look good. So that was the setup for this fight. And MIKU has a chance to make a name for herself.

The bout was scheduled for two five minute rounds. MIKU throws a straight right when the bell rings and then takes Watanabe down. Watanabe seems perplexed. MIKU hits a combination and takes Watanabe down again. She mounts Watanabe from the side but Watanabe avoids MIKU's sleeper attempt. MIKU ends the round with more strikes. Striking is supposed to be Watanabe's forte but she's getting beaten in her own game. This continues in round two. MIKU counters a Watanabe high kick with a straight right. She takes her down and mounts her again. Watanabe is unable to escape but MIKU can't finish her off either. MIKU wins the DEEP Lightweight Title by unanimous decision. She said afterwards her strategy was to be aggressive with a fighter known for her aggression. It worked. Will Watanabe get a rematch? I suspect she'll get one more chance.

Michiko Ohmukai announces retirement

The Ladies Ring Festival was Aug. 4 at Shin-kiba 1st Ring with 380 fans in attendance. This was to promote the publication of the joshi puroresu magazine Ladies Ring. The big news is that Michiko Ohmukai announced she will retire on Dec. 9. She will marry a musician named Mr. M the day before her retirement. She says he's the first man she's ever loved more than wrestling. Ohmukai had her 15th anniversary show last January. There were rumours of her retirement a couple of years ago. Ohmukai trained in LLPW but is probably best remembered for her days in ARSION. In recent years she almost seemed like she was sleepwalking through matches but she was a very good performer in her better days.

Another announcement was that retired A To Z wrestler Kana announced her return to joshi. She retired due to sickness in Mar. 2006. She has a real job as a graphic designer. She says she hopes to return in a couple of months. The show itself had an overabundance of silliness. Fuuka defeated Io & Bi in a sumo match in three seconds. Then they had some sort of death match between Kyoko Kimura & Bullfight Sora. It was played for laughs as the two had a milk drinking contest before the match. Kimura won the match.

There was a Battle Princess battle royal. Hanako Kobayashi won over Misaki Ohata with a Fisherman suplex at 13:43. Others in the match included. ASKA Ohki, Francoise, Aya Yuki, Nagisa Nozaki, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Ayako Sato, Makoto, Cherry, Io & Bi. Then there was a tag match determined by fan voting. Michiko Ohmukai & Yuu Yamagata defeated Sachie Abe & Toshie Uematsu when Ohmukai used a B3 Bomb on Abe. The main event was Azumi Hyuga, Fuuka & Arisa Nakajima over Yoshiko Tamura, Shuu Shibutani & Aoi Kizuki when Hyuga used the Michinoku Driver on Shibutani at 24:08.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Dion

Artist:Dion

Song:Runaround Sue

Album:Runaround Sue

By the time Runaround Sue came out in 1961, the teen idol look became important in selling music to kids. But Dion DiMucci came by his music honestly on streetcorners in the Bronx. He was born July 19, 1938 in New York City. Like a lot of doo wop groups, Dion & The Belmonts got their start singing on streetcorners. The group was signed by Laurie Records and Teenager In Love was a big hit in 1959. Dion went solo in 1960. This was fueled by the stardom of teen idols like the very untalented Fabian and Dion had the teen idol look. Runaround Sue was a number one pop hit in 1961. Dion wrote the song and it wasn't much different from any of his Belmonts songs. The album Runaround Sue has been released on CD by Collectibles. He had a couple more hits on Laurie and then moved to Columbia. He had a hit with Ruby Baby in 1964 but things went downhill from there. He got hooked on heroin. He kicked the habit and reinvented himself as an earnest singer songwriter with the hit Abraham, Martin & John in 1968. He signed with Warner Bros. in 1970 but that didn't go well. Then he went born again and recorded for the religious label Word. Dion continues to perform his old songs on the oldies tour and he does record occasionally, most recently the CD Bronx Blue in 2005. Dion's music from the doo wop era holds up a lot better than one might think. Here's Dion performing Runaround Sue in the 1961 film Twist Around The Clock.

Jamie Dee wins AWA title

Pro Wrestling SUN had a wild show on Aug. 5 at Shinjuku FACE. Adding Aja Kong to REM will no doubt pay off in the long term. She's simply one of the greatest heels in the history of the wrestling business and can add a lot to making the SUN good girls miserable. It also appears that Fuuka will be a regular on SUN shows. That doesn't really balance. Also, SUN president Nakamura still seems to subscribe to the theory that when it comes to gaijins, bigger is better. Jamie Dee was at a press conference on Friday. She's bigger than Nanae Takahashi so very intimidating. But she needs a lot of work in the ring and as the Afrika 55 experiment illustrated, that can sometimes backfire.

The show started with a mixed tag match, Toshie Uematsu & THE*ZEST vs Saki Maemura & El Braza. Maemura was also scheduled to team with Hikaru against Aja Kong & Kyoko Kimura later on. So REM had a plan and it worked perfectly. So while Maemura & El Braza won the match when El Braza used the Lightning Strike on THE*ZEST at 11:36, Uematsu clobbered Maemura with a chain. Maemura was injured badly enough that she probably shouldn't have tried to return later. Meanwhile, Fuuka got her revenge on Natsuki*Taiyo for the New Year's Eve loss. Natsuki hurt her arm outside the ring when slammed into a chair. Back in the ring Fuuka took advantage of that and applied a cross arm breaker. The ref stopped the match at 9:11. After the match, Uematsu comes out and extends an invitation to Fuuka to join REM. Of course Fuuka turned her down. You know what will happen next.

Next is Hikaru & Saki Maemura vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Kimura. Aja brings a barbed wire bat and Kimura brings a chain. They take advantage of Maemura's weakened state and demolish her with a chain lariat at 4:44. They continue to beat on Hikaru & Maemura. Hikaru demanded the match be restarted and she gets a new partner. Natsuki*Taiyo was injured in the last match. Who comes out? Fuuka of course. That must have had REM shaking in their boots. Not surprisingly, Aja & Kimura clobber both of them. Aja throws Fuuka out of the ring and nails her with a chair. In the ring, they stuff Hikaru in a bag and beat her with the barbed wire bat. When Hikaru emerges from the bag, her face is a crimson mask. They nail Fuuka with a DDT and then Kimura's soccer kick finishes Hikaru at 10:14. Afterwards, Hikaru apologizes to Fuuka and vows revenge on REM. It looks like Fuuka will be a regular part of this angle.

Now it's time for the main event. Nanae Takahashi starts out by saying that Jamie Dee is a man. Well, she is a big girl. They're selling her as Amazing Kong's assassin. The start of the match is supposed to demonstrate Jamie's strength. After an exchange of chops, Jamie power bombs Takahashi into the corner. Takahashi applies a headlock but Jamie throws her off. Then Takahashi can't lift her for a brainbuster. Meanwhile, Hikaru & Toshie Uematsu start fighting outside the ring. Takahashi gets distracted. While going up to the top rope for her Nanarack, Jamie grabs her arms and hits the Last Ride power bomb. Two choke slams and Jamie Dee is your new AWA World Womens Champion at 15:57. Aja Kong came out to raise Jamie's hand in victory and said she plans to reunite the Double Kongs at the Aug. 28 & 29 shows. Backstage, Nanae Takahashi put Jamie Dee over as more powerful than either Amazing Kong or Afrika 55. Uh huh. She's mystified by the day's events and her plans to wrestle Azumi Hyuga are off. The return of Amazing Kong should be very interesting because of course she wants the title. And there's no honour among heels. And what about Wesna?

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Benny Carter

Artist:Benny Carter

Song:June In January

Album:3, 4, 5:The Verve Small Group Sessions

Sax legend Benny Carter's career spanned seven decades. He was born Aug. 8, 1907 in New York City. He made his recording debut in 1927 and was part of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra in 1930-31. He had his own band in 1932 and then moved to Europe in 1935. He moved to Los Angeles in 1943 and was a regular on Norman Granz' Jazz At The Philharmonic series in the 50s. The mid 50s is the period this comp comes from. Carter made several LPs on Granz' Norgran label. Some of them were only released in Japan. That appears to be true for this version of June In January with Teddy Wilson on piano and Jo Jones on drums. So this comp is a pretty good document of Carter's recordings from the 50s. Benny Carter remained an active musician into the 90s and died on July 12, 2003 at age 95. Here's Benny Carter with Coleman Hawkins, Teddy Wilson & Louis Bellson performing Blue Lue at one of the JATP concerts from the 60s.