Daniel A

Yesterday, I happened to learn about a person I had never heard of. Obviously, that is not the case for all of you, since I can see that have been threads on him in the past. But in the case you have not heard of him, would you ever believe that there could exist someone who is barely of retirement age with the following achievements (according to his imdb bio): - did two albums for the Pacific Jazz label in the 60s - performed piano concerts by Bartok, Beethoven and others with several symphony orchestras - starred in episodes of Star Trek, Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco and many other TV series of the 60s/70s - created a musical instrument that has since been used in countless movie soundtracks (Star Trek, Alien etc) - played piano on the Frank Sinatra version of 'New York, New York' - Played synth on many Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire albums, as well as on Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' - produced the first DVD in the world outside of Japan as well as the first IMAX DVD, the first 3D DVD and the first interactive movie DVD ... and, as the crown jewel of his career, has released several albums with the perfect-pitch pooches Top Dog, performing beloved classics like this one: Well, here he is: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402137/bio

Yeah, that's the one. One side is mis-centered, the other one not, so I have had to use a round file to make the center hole oblong to be able to play both sides without "wow". Not my only 70s Blue Note with this problem.

I've also got the original, but it is off-center...

I suppose that there is no need for such a distinction for most people. Although, I'd say that in some jurisdictions the difference might have some implications. There was a joke back when I was in law school that it was not illegal to murder someone. It would just have legal consequences.

Well, to me IKEA is mainly about flat packages, the contents of which will require additional craftsmanship to be usable. The finished product can still be very stylish. 🙂

You might want to look at it as the soundtrack equivalent of an IKEA product. Sans the meatballs in the in-store restaurant.

I listened to roughly half of it on Spotify. I think it holds up for repeated listens. Several tracks with Ian Underwood on acoustic piano that are nice. He lays down some good voicings. Since I don't have a booklet I can't check who it is, but someone is playing very jazzy double bass on those tracks.

No problem. Couldn't resist using some myself, so i am not complaining. 🙂

I am flattered, but I realize I was not clear, and there is no real reason to be impressed. Sorry for that. I have heard needle drops of several tracks from the other releases (they are available in a thread on the Hoffman forum). I did not know any of the issues and the controversy around the series when I got my copy, but came to that thread only when I started to google around after hearing these issues on the Etcetera album. I realize many people are either not sensitive to this issue or think that the positive aspects of these remasters - there are several - are more important. It is just that I think it stands out in a negative way, and what's more, I have hardly encountered flutter to this extent on any other reissues, recent or older.

If you are sensitive to pitch variations, these reissues are not for you. Just about all releases with piano on them suffer from audible flutter to varying degrees. The "official" explanation from Blue Note/Kevin Gray is that the master tapes have aged. This is very disconcerting, since there seemed to be no problems of this kind only a few years ago. I got only one title, Etcetera, which was a nice remaster but had occasional warble in the piano (and this title is apparently one of the least affected ones). I am sensitive to this kind of issue and will not get other releases. Luckily, everything is already out there in good sound on many other releases.

Downloads seem already very outdated. For ten years now, it has seemed as if there will eventually be no other option than streaming. I know many members here would never want to move away from the physical product. But most of us are altrady adapting to the reality of the "disposable" digital world. Let's compare to the internet as a whole, or for instance this very forum. There is a lot that we like here, old threads, information etc, but most of us have probably not even considered trying to back it up on DVD-ROMs, or whatever physical solution that would be most appropriate (hard drives are curiously often not regarded as "physical" enough ). We just hope it won't suddenly be gone one day, but if it would, we would learn to live with that. Most younger people look at music in the same way; they trust it will always be there for them, without the need for private, physical copies wasting their limited space. Since the physical product does no longer dictate the format of the musical work of art - artists are releasing single tracks or collections/concerts that could be longer or shorter than 40/80 minutes playing time - the "album" is mostly a thing of the past.

Yes, but, 4 Men With Beards is an American company: https://www.discogs.com/label/36605-4-Men-With-Beards FWIW, Speakers Corner claim to master their releases from original tapes by arrangement with copyright holders Universal, Sony or Warner. https://pure-analogue.com/magnetic-tape/ They also have several reissues of material that is clearly not in the public domain.

I agree that they are good, but actually much prefer Oblique because of the darker undertones, that Chambers seems to be more hard-driving and the looser feel of the improvisation. But how do you feel about Total Eclipse compared to these two? To me, Total Eclipse is really an excellent album that has a lot of atmosphere as well. It does not have that "dark" quality of Oblique, but it has everything else. To hear early Chick Corea, Harold Land and Hutcherson together with Joe Chambers and Reggie Johnson in the rhythm section - I think it is magic.

As I remember it, it was one box (Andrew Hill?) used as a drawing board for the kids in the backseat of the car. Then, suddenly, the box was gone.

I am not an "audiophile" (according to my own definition of the word; a person with extreme expectations/requirements on sound reproduction) and I have a couple of Blue Notes on vinyl (Liberty and UA repressings, Kings, Toshibas and the odd Plastylite original). I own very few "audiophile" type reissues and I have never returned an LP. Even so, I was disappointed with the Tone Poet reissue. The mastering was fine, but the vinyl was not flat (looked like a 70s pressing from a bad batch) and the piano sound had a warble unrelated to the non-flat surface. Given the number of reports of the problems with the piano on other titles - and which is not present on other recent remasterings of the same material - I refuse to buy the explanation that it's about tape wear. I used to play around with tapes and tape machines in the 90s, and this - to me - sounds like a tape machine problem. I don't know the terminology, but I associate it with capstan or motor problems.