JohnJ

As it is a direct flight from Tokyo on United, Chicago would be great for me and I would seriously consider trying to attend. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Out of my meager collection of eight CD sets, I really like the Freddie Redd and am a little surprised nobody has mentioned it. My favourite is probably the Jackie Mclean though. I have bought all of my OOP Mosaic's at Disc Union stores in Tokyo, generally at less than the original price. I am surprised, and happy, that they continue to sell them so cheaply.

Tokyo anyone? Great chance to pick up all of those rare TOCJ's and JRVG's that you have spent years looking for. Nice cheap location too.

Should be LSU vs USC. Now there are effectively two national championship games.

Interesting article from today's IHT. Johnny Cash's legacy, on 3 CD's Neil Strauss NYT Friday, November 28, 2003 NEW YORK I'll play you one song," the record producer Rick Rubin said over the telephone. Two clicking sounds could be heard in the background. Then a voice, singing, came through the earpiece: "I never thought I needed help before/Thought that I could get by by myself." . The voice was Johnny Cash's, accompanied only by a softly strummed guitar, the song by Larry Gatlin. Cash's voice cracked and wavered with each word, at times falling out of tempo and tune as if fighting against extinguishment. Yet it continued, slow, determined, choking back emotion: "But now I know I just can't take it anymore/And with a humble heart on bended knee/I'm begging you please for help." . The song, Rubin said, was recorded two months after the death of Cash's wife, June, and two months before Cash's own death on Sept. 12 at 71. . It is one of 40 to 50 songs that Cash had recorded for "American V," the fifth CD in a 10-year collaboration between Cash and Rubin, who started his career producing the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. The disc is expected to be released next year. In the meantime a five-CD box set that includes 64 previously unreleased Cash recordings was released this week under the title "Cash Unearthed," a name that Cash helped select. . The CD includes collaborations with Joe Strummer, Carl Perkins, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Nick Cave and, in a moving version of the Cat Stevens song "Father and Son," Fiona Apple. The solo material ranges from bittersweet new tracks like "Singer of Songs" to stripped-down classic gospel and country, like an organ-enhanced "Big Iron" that rivals the Marty Robbins hit. . "Isn't it amazing that my father would pass away and such a body of work would come out?" said Cash's son, John Carter Cash. "It looks like a 30-year section of music, but it was all recorded in the last few years. And what's amazing is how much more there is." . In his last years, especially once he stopped touring in the late 1990's, Cash was constantly in the studio, recording as many as four songs a day. "I spoke to him when he was in the hospital when June passed away," Rubin said. "And he said: 'I'm not going to do all the things that people normally do when they lose their partner. I'm not going to go out and spend money or chase girls. I'm just going to work every day.'" . Cash was in a wheelchair and almost blind at the time, Rubin said. Yet his work ethic only grew stronger. He and Rubin had already recorded four of a projected 10 CD's, and Cash was scheduled to travel to Los Angeles to complete the fifth later in September. Even the box set was not a posthumous idea but a project that Cash, his son and Rubin had worked on together. . "He said that anytime he wasn't working, all he could do was think about June and he didn't want to be alive," Rubin said. "When he was working, there were people around, and there was music going on, and he was singing, and it was a reason to continue on. Because without that, there was none." . John Carter Cash said that for his father writing and recording songs were ways "to express his grief, his angst, his faith in God, everything." . The songs that came out of Johnny Cash's last decade add up to one of the most moving musical monologues delivered by a man to his maker. Even the extras on the box set hold up to any of the Grammy-winning single CD's Cash and Rubin released together, testifying to a body of work just as powerful as the first songs Cash recorded when he stepped into Sun Studio in the 1950's. Back then, Cash was a young rebel with a rolling basso profundo that rattled listeners with the intensity of a caged beast torn between domesticity and the wild. With his last recordings, the power comes from the resignation, vulnerability and honesty in Cash's voice as he reflects on his own mortality. . His version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt," for example, from "American IV," is much more stirring than the original; when a man in his 70's surveys the "empire of dust" that is his life, it has a much more palpable sense of regret than when a man in his 30's expresses the same sentiment. Even more direct, in a new recording of his lesser-known 1959 song "The Caretaker," Cash sings, "Who's gonna cry when old John dies?" . The New York Times

Just bought a used, but near mint, copy of the 6CD Chico Hamilton Mosaic for around $65. Not so much a great find, as a nice one, I always enjoy feeding my Mosaic addiction, especially when they are OOP.

Pretty nice article by Mike Zwerin. MJQ and a fountain of youth Mike Zwerin IHT Wednesday, November 19, 2003 PARIS The bassist Percy Heath, who turned 80 this year and is the sole survivor of the celebrated Modern Jazz Quartet, was in Paris to appear at the club New Morning with his all-star brothers, the saxophonist Jimmy and the drummer Albert (Tootie) Heath, both in their 70's. Making music can be a fountain of youth. . Percy lives in Montauk Point on the tip of Long Island, New York, a good place for a cultivated bass player to go bass fishing - and a place to which news travels slowly. He was completely unaware of the recent release of a new four-CD compilation box titled: "The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige and Pablo Recordings," on which the critic Nat Hentoff explains: "The MJQ combined centuries of the blues with the knowledge of how careful form can make improvisation more meaningful - the blending of four individuals into a whole that expresses each one." Heath would like to ask the record company to send him a copy. . Along with "Bags' Groove," the closest thing the MJQ had to a hit was John Lewis's "Django," a soulful ode to Gypsy music. Summing up the MJQ in general, the combination on "Django" of structure and Milt (Bags) Jackson's straight-ahead vibraphone improvisations over a quiet, baroque groove redefined jazz music. "If we didn't play 'Django' in a concert," Heath said, "we risked getting stoned. I mean in the thrown-at sense." . Although he had studied violin as a child, Heath did not touch a bass fiddle until after his discharge from the Tuskegee Airmen. A television movie about this elite black World War II air force squadron starred Laurence Fishburne. Heath recalled the squadron with pride: "Black people were not supposed to be smart enough to fly airplanes. There were a lot of folks against opening that flight school, and it only happened after Eleanor Roosevelt went down there and flew with one of the pilots, just like in the movie." Heath flew P-47's and P-51's, but by that time, "the war was over and I did not have to kill anybody." . In 1946, 23 years old, still wearing his lieutenant's bars and his wings, his separation pay in his pocket, Heath proudly bought drinks for the guys in the band in the Downbeat club back home in Philadelphia. He had made up his mind to learn the bass fiddle and he told Ray Brown about it, and Brown taught him some basic fingering. (Heath later studied with Charles Mingus.) He was a natural, and a year and half later, Heath became the Downbeat club's house bassist. . In 1949, after backing up Clifford Brown, Howard McGhee and others, Heath and his girlfriend, June, moved to New York when they discovered that they could not get a marriage license in Pennsylvania. "There I was an officer and a gentleman," he said, with irony: "And they were trying to tell me I couldn't marry a white girl." They have three grown sons now, and Heath joked: "June's basically been waiting for me to come home for 53 years." . The problem was he had two families. The MJQ remained together off and on for 43 years. Only Duke Ellington's orchestra lasted longer. . In 1951 the Milt Jackson Quartet - with Heath, Lewis and Kenny Clarke (soon replaced by Connie Kay) - was driving home to New York after performing in some sad and disagreeable outlying club. All four of them - they were big men - were squeezed into Jackson's tired old gilded Cadillac, which they had named the "golden dragon." Lewis said he was weary of this kind of life and of the same old head-solos-head rhythm section format that went with it. He wanted to form a band that would be like a chamber group with four independent contrapuntal lines going simultaneously and be accepted in theaters and concert halls where jazz had never before been heard. The Modern Jazz Quartet was named then and there in the golden dragon. . Lewis's arrangements were often based on classical elements, and what came to be known as "chamber jazz" would lead to so-called Third Stream jazz. The introduction to the MJQ's version of "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" quotes Bach's "Musical Offering." Jackson often complained about "all that Bach stuff." So did the writer Ralph Ellison, who objected to the quartet's "funereal posturings." A British critic was "not intrigued by the borrowing of 15th-century skeletal Italian Renaissance forms." . In 1974, after the MJQ had been together for 22 years, a frustrated Jackson decided to go out on his own. According to Heath, Bags was the kind of musician who "just wanted to count off and play the blues." Jackson was blamed for breaking up the band - although there would later be a number of reunions. He even received threatening phone calls. This was serious music. . Heath recalled: "In clubs, we used to sneak up on them by starting out with a soft ballad medley to get the people to stop talking and rattling their glasses. If they continued to make noise, we played even softer. By the time they were ready to listen, we could play our good stuff. . "The music was so good for so long. I remember standing there between Milt Jackson and John Lewis and wondering if I should really be getting paid for having this much fun. There will never be another Milt Jackson. I wonder if he ever realized that maybe it was 'that Bach stuff' that made the music so special." . In 2003, Heath is still playing "Django." Only now he gets to play the melody. . International Herald Tribune < < Back to Start of Article PARIS The bassist Percy Heath, who turned 80 this year and is the sole survivor of the celebrated Modern Jazz Quartet, was in Paris to appear at the club New Morning with his all-star brothers, the saxophonist Jimmy and the drummer Albert (Tootie) Heath, both in their 70's. Making music can be a fountain of youth. . Percy lives in Montauk Point on the tip of Long Island, New York, a good place for a cultivated bass player to go bass fishing - and a place to which news travels slowly. He was completely unaware of the recent release of a new four-CD compilation box titled: "The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige and Pablo Recordings," on which the critic Nat Hentoff explains: "The MJQ combined centuries of the blues with the knowledge of how careful form can make improvisation more meaningful - the blending of four individuals into a whole that expresses each one." Heath would like to ask the record company to send him a copy. . Along with "Bags' Groove," the closest thing the MJQ had to a hit was John Lewis's "Django," a soulful ode to Gypsy music. Summing up the MJQ in general, the combination on "Django" of structure and Milt (Bags) Jackson's straight-ahead vibraphone improvisations over a quiet, baroque groove redefined jazz music. "If we didn't play 'Django' in a concert," Heath said, "we risked getting stoned. I mean in the thrown-at sense." . Although he had studied violin as a child, Heath did not touch a bass fiddle until after his discharge from the Tuskegee Airmen. A television movie about this elite black World War II air force squadron starred Laurence Fishburne. Heath recalled the squadron with pride: "Black people were not supposed to be smart enough to fly airplanes. There were a lot of folks against opening that flight school, and it only happened after Eleanor Roosevelt went down there and flew with one of the pilots, just like in the movie." Heath flew P-47's and P-51's, but by that time, "the war was over and I did not have to kill anybody." . In 1946, 23 years old, still wearing his lieutenant's bars and his wings, his separation pay in his pocket, Heath proudly bought drinks for the guys in the band in the Downbeat club back home in Philadelphia. He had made up his mind to learn the bass fiddle and he told Ray Brown about it, and Brown taught him some basic fingering. (Heath later studied with Charles Mingus.) He was a natural, and a year and half later, Heath became the Downbeat club's house bassist. . In 1949, after backing up Clifford Brown, Howard McGhee and others, Heath and his girlfriend, June, moved to New York when they discovered that they could not get a marriage license in Pennsylvania. "There I was an officer and a gentleman," he said, with irony: "And they were trying to tell me I couldn't marry a white girl." They have three grown sons now, and Heath joked: "June's basically been waiting for me to come home for 53 years." . The problem was he had two families. The MJQ remained together off and on for 43 years. Only Duke Ellington's orchestra lasted longer. . In 1951 the Milt Jackson Quartet - with Heath, Lewis and Kenny Clarke (soon replaced by Connie Kay) - was driving home to New York after performing in some sad and disagreeable outlying club. All four of them - they were big men - were squeezed into Jackson's tired old gilded Cadillac, which they had named the "golden dragon." Lewis said he was weary of this kind of life and of the same old head-solos-head rhythm section format that went with it. He wanted to form a band that would be like a chamber group with four independent contrapuntal lines going simultaneously and be accepted in theaters and concert halls where jazz had never before been heard. The Modern Jazz Quartet was named then and there in the golden dragon. . Lewis's arrangements were often based on classical elements, and what came to be known as "chamber jazz" would lead to so-called Third Stream jazz. The introduction to the MJQ's version of "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" quotes Bach's "Musical Offering." Jackson often complained about "all that Bach stuff." So did the writer Ralph Ellison, who objected to the quartet's "funereal posturings." A British critic was "not intrigued by the borrowing of 15th-century skeletal Italian Renaissance forms." . In 1974, after the MJQ had been together for 22 years, a frustrated Jackson decided to go out on his own. According to Heath, Bags was the kind of musician who "just wanted to count off and play the blues." Jackson was blamed for breaking up the band - although there would later be a number of reunions. He even received threatening phone calls. This was serious music. . Heath recalled: "In clubs, we used to sneak up on them by starting out with a soft ballad medley to get the people to stop talking and rattling their glasses. If they continued to make noise, we played even softer. By the time they were ready to listen, we could play our good stuff. . "The music was so good for so long. I remember standing there between Milt Jackson and John Lewis and wondering if I should really be getting paid for having this much fun. There will never be another Milt Jackson. I wonder if he ever realized that maybe it was 'that Bach stuff' that made the music so special." . In 2003, Heath is still playing "Django." Only now he gets to play the melody. . International Herald Tribune PARIS The bassist Percy Heath, who turned 80 this year and is the sole survivor of the celebrated Modern Jazz Quartet, was in Paris to appear at the club New Morning with his all-star brothers, the saxophonist Jimmy and the drummer Albert (Tootie) Heath, both in their 70's. Making music can be a fountain of youth. . Percy lives in Montauk Point on the tip of Long Island, New York, a good place for a cultivated bass player to go bass fishing - and a place to which news travels slowly. He was completely unaware of the recent release of a new four-CD compilation box titled: "The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige and Pablo Recordings," on which the critic Nat Hentoff explains: "The MJQ combined centuries of the blues with the knowledge of how careful form can make improvisation more meaningful - the blending of four individuals into a whole that expresses each one." Heath would like to ask the record company to send him a copy. . Along with "Bags' Groove," the closest thing the MJQ had to a hit was John Lewis's "Django," a soulful ode to Gypsy music. Summing up the MJQ in general, the combination on "Django" of structure and Milt (Bags) Jackson's straight-ahead vibraphone improvisations over a quiet, baroque groove redefined jazz music. "If we didn't play 'Django' in a concert," Heath said, "we risked getting stoned. I mean in the thrown-at sense." . Although he had studied violin as a child, Heath did not touch a bass fiddle until after his discharge from the Tuskegee Airmen. A television movie about this elite black World War II air force squadron starred Laurence Fishburne. Heath recalled the squadron with pride: "Black people were not supposed to be smart enough to fly airplanes. There were a lot of folks against opening that flight school, and it only happened after Eleanor Roosevelt went down there and flew with one of the pilots, just like in the movie." Heath flew P-47's and P-51's, but by that time, "the war was over and I did not have to kill anybody." . In 1946, 23 years old, still wearing his lieutenant's bars and his wings, his separation pay in his pocket, Heath proudly bought drinks for the guys in the band in the Downbeat club back home in Philadelphia. He had made up his mind to learn the bass fiddle and he told Ray Brown about it, and Brown taught him some basic fingering. (Heath later studied with Charles Mingus.) He was a natural, and a year and half later, Heath became the Downbeat club's house bassist. . In 1949, after backing up Clifford Brown, Howard McGhee and others, Heath and his girlfriend, June, moved to New York when they discovered that they could not get a marriage license in Pennsylvania. "There I was an officer and a gentleman," he said, with irony: "And they were trying to tell me I couldn't marry a white girl." They have three grown sons now, and Heath joked: "June's basically been waiting for me to come home for 53 years." . The problem was he had two families. The MJQ remained together off and on for 43 years. Only Duke Ellington's orchestra lasted longer. . In 1951 the Milt Jackson Quartet - with Heath, Lewis and Kenny Clarke (soon replaced by Connie Kay) - was driving home to New York after performing in some sad and disagreeable outlying club. All four of them - they were big men - were squeezed into Jackson's tired old gilded Cadillac, which they had named the "golden dragon." Lewis said he was weary of this kind of life and of the same old head-solos-head rhythm section format that went with it. He wanted to form a band that would be like a chamber group with four independent contrapuntal lines going simultaneously and be accepted in theaters and concert halls where jazz had never before been heard. The Modern Jazz Quartet was named then and there in the golden dragon. . Lewis's arrangements were often based on classical elements, and what came to be known as "chamber jazz" would lead to so-called Third Stream jazz. The introduction to the MJQ's version of "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" quotes Bach's "Musical Offering." Jackson often complained about "all that Bach stuff." So did the writer Ralph Ellison, who objected to the quartet's "funereal posturings." A British critic was "not intrigued by the borrowing of 15th-century skeletal Italian Renaissance forms." . In 1974, after the MJQ had been together for 22 years, a frustrated Jackson decided to go out on his own. According to Heath, Bags was the kind of musician who "just wanted to count off and play the blues." Jackson was blamed for breaking up the band - although there would later be a number of reunions. He even received threatening phone calls. This was serious music. . Heath recalled: "In clubs, we used to sneak up on them by starting out with a soft ballad medley to get the people to stop talking and rattling their glasses. If they continued to make noise, we played even softer. By the time they were ready to listen, we could play our good stuff. . "The music was so good for so long. I remember standing there between Milt Jackson and John Lewis and wondering if I should really be getting paid for having this much fun. There will never be another Milt Jackson. I wonder if he ever realized that maybe it was 'that Bach stuff' that made the music so special." . In 2003, Heath is still playing "Django." Only now he gets to play the melody. . International Herald Tribune PARIS The bassist Percy Heath, who turned 80 this year and is the sole survivor of the celebrated Modern Jazz Quartet, was in Paris to appear at the club New Morning with his all-star brothers, the saxophonist Jimmy and the drummer Albert (Tootie) Heath, both in their 70's. Making music can be a fountain of youth. . Percy lives in Montauk Point on the tip of Long Island, New York, a good place for a cultivated bass player to go bass fishing - and a place to which news travels slowly. He was completely unaware of the recent release of a new four-CD compilation box titled: "The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige and Pablo Recordings," on which the critic Nat Hentoff explains: "The MJQ combined centuries of the blues with the knowledge of how careful form can make improvisation more meaningful - the blending of four individuals into a whole that expresses each one." Heath would like to ask the record company to send him a copy. . Along with "Bags' Groove," the closest thing the MJQ had to a hit was John Lewis's "Django," a soulful ode to Gypsy music. Summing up the MJQ in general, the combination on "Django" of structure and Milt (Bags) Jackson's straight-ahead vibraphone improvisations over a quiet, baroque groove redefined jazz music. "If we didn't play 'Django' in a concert," Heath said, "we risked getting stoned. I mean in the thrown-at sense." . Although he had studied violin as a child, Heath did not touch a bass fiddle until after his discharge from the Tuskegee Airmen. A television movie about this elite black World War II air force squadron starred Laurence Fishburne. Heath recalled the squadron with pride: "Black people were not supposed to be smart enough to fly airplanes. There were a lot of folks against opening that flight school, and it only happened after Eleanor Roosevelt went down there and flew with one of the pilots, just like in the movie." Heath flew P-47's and P-51's, but by that time, "the war was over and I did not have to kill anybody." . In 1946, 23 years old, still wearing his lieutenant's bars and his wings, his separation pay in his pocket, Heath proudly bought drinks for the guys in the band in the Downbeat club back home in Philadelphia. He had made up his mind to learn the bass fiddle and he told Ray Brown about it, and Brown taught him some basic fingering. (Heath later studied with Charles Mingus.) He was a natural, and a year and half later, Heath became the Downbeat club's house bassist. . In 1949, after backing up Clifford Brown, Howard McGhee and others, Heath and his girlfriend, June, moved to New York when they discovered that they could not get a marriage license in Pennsylvania. "There I was an officer and a gentleman," he said, with irony: "And they were trying to tell me I couldn't marry a white girl." They have three grown sons now, and Heath joked: "June's basically been waiting for me to come home for 53 years." . The problem was he had two families. The MJQ remained together off and on for 43 years. Only Duke Ellington's orchestra lasted longer. . In 1951 the Milt Jackson Quartet - with Heath, Lewis and Kenny Clarke (soon replaced by Connie Kay) - was driving home to New York after performing in some sad and disagreeable outlying club. All four of them - they were big men - were squeezed into Jackson's tired old gilded Cadillac, which they had named the "golden dragon." Lewis said he was weary of this kind of life and of the same old head-solos-head rhythm section format that went with it. He wanted to form a band that would be like a chamber group with four independent contrapuntal lines going simultaneously and be accepted in theaters and concert halls where jazz had never before been heard. The Modern Jazz Quartet was named then and there in the golden dragon. . Lewis's arrangements were often based on classical elements, and what came to be known as "chamber jazz" would lead to so-called Third Stream jazz. The introduction to the MJQ's version of "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" quotes Bach's "Musical Offering." Jackson often complained about "all that Bach stuff." So did the writer Ralph Ellison, who objected to the quartet's "funereal posturings." A British critic was "not intrigued by the borrowing of 15th-century skeletal Italian Renaissance forms." . In 1974, after the MJQ had been together for 22 years, a frustrated Jackson decided to go out on his own. According to Heath, Bags was the kind of musician who "just wanted to count off and play the blues." Jackson was blamed for breaking up the band - although there would later be a number of reunions. He even received threatening phone calls. This was serious music. . Heath recalled: "In clubs, we used to sneak up on them by starting out with a soft ballad medley to get the people to stop talking and rattling their glasses. If they continued to make noise, we played even softer. By the time they were ready to listen, we could play our good stuff. . "The music was so good for so long. I remember standing there between Milt Jackson and John Lewis and wondering if I should really be getting paid for having this much fun. There will never be another Milt Jackson. I wonder if he ever realized that maybe it was 'that Bach stuff' that made the music so special." . In 2003, Heath is still playing "Django." Only now he gets to play the melody. . International Herald Tribune

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 2. Secular Humanism (92%) 3. Liberal Quakers (91%) 4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (89%) 5. Neo-Pagan (71%) Interesting, it seems as though my results are much the same as the rest.

I have the CD 'Poet of the Blues' which I really like. I would appreciate it if anyone could advise how the Tangerine and Atlantic sides compare with that material. Thanks.

I picked up the 4CD Mercury set used for around $20.00 at Disc Union in Tokyo. I saw another copy for the same price a few months ago. If anyone is interested, I will look out for this set.

I love the 'Complete Mercury Recordings' box. Probably not easy to find these days though.

Currently working my way through 'Sinatra in Hollywood', the 6CD Box released last year. Essential stuff for the true Sinatraphile.

Sheldonm, I have ordered from Amazon U.K. to Japan, they usually take around two weeks. As you are probably aware, they deduct V.A.T. of 17.5% from the price when you order from outside Europe.

In Japan credit cards are not really credit cards at all as the full amount is automatically deducted from your bank account on a fixed day in the month following the transaction. Both Visa/MasterCard and Amex insist on this and I actually prefer it. No room for any of the problems mentioned above and no interest (as long as you have enough money in your account of course).

Brownie, my first recommendation would be that your son go to Shibuya which is central and easy to reach. If it is new CD's you are looking for, Both HMV and Tower have their main branches there which are huge and have a very good jazz selection by western standards. For used CD's Disc Union have a very good jazz selection in their Shibuya store and the main Recofan is also in Shibuya. If it is primarily used and OOP CD's you are after then Ochanomizu is the best area with the best jazz Disc Union. Anyway, if you would like more information please let me know. Also, if you son would like to contact me when he is here I would be happy to give him more detailed instruction on where to go.

As far as I know, none of Don Pullen's Blue Note recordings with the George Adams Quartet are currently available. I would like to see "Breakthrough" released as a Conn.

Kenny, you must have been happy to see England beat the Springboks on Saturday. I was delighted. Then again, I don't suppose you are too fond of the English team either. As a transplanted Englishman in Tokyo who enjoys Soccer and Rugby and also follows all of the major American team sports, the list of teams I dislike would be a very long one.

Well, it's been a while since I was last there Chuck. Also, a favorite of mine is Horace Silver's tribute to my home city, "Tokyo Blues".

"One Night in Bangkok". Anyone who has been there will know why.

Anybody else own or heard a CD called ''Les Enfants Du Velvet" which consists of six French Velvet Underground covers. They concentrate on the softer, more melodic side of the Velvets's and there is something rather magical about these versions in French.

I don't own any and I live in Japan! I prefer regular CD cases and do own quite a few TOCJ's, most of which I bought used in the $5-7 range. I really like the sound on these.

Thanks jazzbo, perhaps I should just wait until I find the US version at a good price. Still tempted though.

Thanks Aggie87. I'll definitely check out at least one of the Zweitausendeins.

I saw the 7 CD Japanese version of this set, which I believe was released in 1992, at a pretty reasonable price in a used CD store and was wondering how this compared with the later 8 CD US version. Presumably the US version has more music, is this correct? Also, being later, does the US version have better sound? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I will be there for three days at the end of this month and wondered if anybody had any recommendations for CD stores or live venues. Also, any thoughts on restaurants and sightseeing would be welcome. Many thanks in advance.