Jim Barr

James Leland Barr (born February 10, 1948) is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the San Francisco Giants (1971–1978, 1982–1983) and California Angels (1979–1980). He is perhaps best known for setting a record for consecutive batters retired (41, later tied by Bobby Jenks in 2007, and then broken by Mark Buehrle on July 28, 2009 and again by Yusmeiro Petit on August 28, 2014). Barr remains the only pitcher to retire as many as 41 consecutive batters in the course of only two games; his streak began in the third inning of a complete-game win and extended through the seventh inning of another complete-game win (Beurhle's streak included his perfect game and the starts before and after, while the streaks of Jenks and Petit included a number of relief appearances).

Barr attended the University of Southern California (USC), where his teammates included Dave Kingman, and helped lead their baseball team to a pair of NCAA championships in 1968 and 1970. He graduated from USC in 1970 with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. After previously being drafted five times (by the California Angels, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Minnesota Twins), he was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the third round of the 1970 amateur draft (Secondary Phase) and signed with the club that summer.

Get the Blessing

Get the Blessing (previously known as The Blessing) are a jazz rock quartet based in Bristol, England, active since 2000. They were formed when Jim Barr (bass) and Clive Deamer (drums), the rhythm section from the trip hop group Portishead, teamed up with Jake McMurchie (saxophone) and Pete Judge (trumpet) over their mutual appreciation of Ornette Coleman. To date, they have released five albums, their debut All is Yes won best album at the 2008 BBC Jazz Awards. Their most recent album, Astronautilus, was released in 2015.

Music style

The group have been widely received as part of a new generation of groups that blend jazz and rock, which also includes Esbjörn Svensson Trio,Led Bib,Polar Bear, and Acoustic Ladyland. The music is mainly instrumental, although there have been guest singers (specifically Tammy Payne on "The Unnameable" and "Music Style Product"), and Deamer has sung a vocal version of "Bugs in Amber", entitled "Moot", live.

Reception

Their live performances have been described as "Technically audacious, mysterious and droll, the Blessing also provided an evening of instrumental entertainment that was unfailingly tuneful and readily accessible." Also as "coupl[ing] hard-hitting, high-volume rock with wailing jazz-horn choruses. The group's flat-out drive, fiery virtuosity and strong, anthemic tunes certainly grabbed the audience". The Guardian newspaper recently said "the spirit of John Coltrane sometimes seemed to hover over the ensuing horn laments and full-on free thrashes alike, and the handclapping Pentopia unlocked all of the gifted Deamer's capacity for subtle variation on metronomically spellbinding grooves."