Shrdlu

Now that sounds like a close shave! Someone find this man a razor!! Then there was the man who fell out of a 100 storey building. "So far, so good", he said as he passed the 50th floor window.

Odd idea for a thread, but here goes. I use the little black Remington battery shavers. They are so good that someone else bought the company! The thing about these is that they cost only about $10, yet have the same business end as the $60 "rechargeable" model. But you can make them rechargeable by simply using rechargeable batteries! So, they are a $60 value for only $10 (not that I'd pay $60). The replacement cutters and foils cost as much as a new shaver, so guess what I've been doing ... These are excellent shavers, and really do shave "as close as a blade", and I don't want my money back. Well, all good things come to an end. About two years ago, they discontinued this model, and its replacement is lousy. I bought as many old ones as I could find, and am now on my last one. When it wears out, I shall jump off the Empire State Building.

Crop rotation - that's a great parallel, Bev! I also get played out, or "listened out" on some tunes and albums. For example, I don't think I'd like to perform "Good Bait" or "Impressions" again. A lot has to do with one's memory. I happen to have a good memory for tunes and solos, and I don't like to hear a performance 50 times in a row. One set of work that I will probably not listen to again is that of Bird. When I first heard him, I devoured everything that I could find, and soon had all the Dial, Savoy and Verve items, plus tons of live tracks. It's all in memory, and, brilliant though it all is, I just don't need to hear it again. I am not recommending that YOU don't hear it, of course. Some players and albums have a special something about them that makes them sound enjoyable and fresh no matter how many times you play them. Red Garland has that for me (and for many others). Ralph Gleason once said that about Red's albums. A lot of Blue Note albums are also in that category. BN's catalog, though excellent of course, includes few "best ever jazz" albums, but the production and work that went into them makes them good for many listenings. "Silver's Serenade" is typical in this regard.

Thanks for the post, Soul Stream. It's very interesting. I recently dug out "Hootin' And Tootin'" and played it a lot - I then started a thread in appreciation, and found that I am not alone in liking that album. As it happens, I'm also re-listening to the Braith 2 CD set that Michael Cuscuna put out a few years back. When it arrived, it got lost in a pile of other things and only got a brief hearing. I didn't like it much at first. I found that John Patton's "Blue John" was a key to appreciating George's work, and really like that album (in its TOCJ version). Now, I've had a chance to go over George's own BN albums several times, and I think they are excellent. That two-horn sound (on some tracks) is an acquired taste, and is a little sour at first. If anyone has not yet got into those three BN albums, give them a try. The 2 CD set ought to be around - I think True Blue still has a few left. Or, there are TOCJs and (new) JRVGs. Please tell George that he has another admirer! P.S. At the risk of sounding like an old marm, may I say that some of these posts are extremely vulgar; this is uncalled for, and spoils what ought to be a pleasant discussion. Grow up, kiddies!

I don't think emails get through either. I sent a test one to myself which did not arrive. I don't have any pressing need for this facility, to be honest.

Thanks, Brownie. You mention Prestige. In the 60s, and, I think, into the 70s, you could order LPs direct from Prestige in North Bergen, New Jersey. (This was just as well, as I don't remember seeing many of them in the stores.) I remember the name Marcia Weinstock on one letter that I received from them, so this was very much a family operation. How different from today's system, with its Universals etc. It reminds me of a comment by Al Lion: "We don't hire nobody. It's just Frank and me."

Anyways .... Getting back to the original point, a list of upcoming RVGs, this list is now here, and my thanks to whoever it was who re-posted it - it's about 10 pages back and I've forgotten! I was wondering whether to dig deep and order the JRVG of "Goin' West", and this list has saved me the trouble, and money. (I would have ordered the JRVG if the domestic was going to be a McMaster Connoisseur rather than an RVG.) Obviously, the latest JRVGs will be sonically the same as the domestic ones, because they now include tracks that were not on the original LPs. (The Green one included, according to a reliable source.)

I felt this way, too. By the way, I have had emails from Michael. So have hundreds of others. I will name-drop now: I once met Eddie Condon, and I still have the autograph, which says, "Hooray for you, Shrdlu!".

I found one anomoly!

How about Red Trumpet's price for "Goin' West" - in the thirties!! (Dusty's seems to have run out of it.)

I enjoyed "Reach Out", too, and it even got the TOCJ treatment.

Silvertone! I love it! I remember a stylus that would play mono and stereo in about 1962. I converted our mono player to stereo after I noticed that there were three wires in the tone arm. With both channels sharing the ground wire, I replaced the mono cartridge with a stereo one. The output from one channel was hooked up to an old radio, which became just an amp (with speaker). It was all very primitive, and I'm sure that the weight of the tone arm was now far too great, but it worked and it was all that we could afford at the time. My first stereo LP was "Time Out". A collection of friends came around and we all listened to this with great excitement.

Daß ist ausgezeichnet!

I wonder if this affects the CD mastering process.

What a huge percentage difference between the prices of the stereo and mono LPs in 1959! Most of my LP purchasing was from about 1962 onward, and, as far as I can recall, there was by then no difference in price between mono and stereo. (This was perhaps just as well, as by then, the fake stereo LPs were a serious hazard to one's health. I still can't listen to "Milestones" without remembering the terrible version that I heard on a bad LP.) I do remember the Impulse LPs costing about $1.00 more than most others in the 60s, but their gatefold covers were very attractive, and, of course, the music was generally terrific.

Chaney, I get excellent coffee with the kettle and filter-holder method, and it doesn't suffer from standing on a hotplate that way. That Capresso machine sounds good. I am tired of having to replace heating elements. By the way, there is an excellent, affordable (ground) coffee called Hill and Brooks. I've only seen it in Dixie, especially Alabama. It's sad that it isn't more widely known. (Not to be confused with Hills Bros battery acid coffee!) Up in le Canada, we always liked Nabob (ground) coffee. When on the road, I always find the coffee good at the Waffle House.

The weak link in the chain is that, unlike other countries, America still honors the older bills. It has to, as there are millions in circulation all over the world. At least it is much better than the Europeans losing all their currencies (and autonomy) to the blasted euro. I was delighted to see that the Swedes, and, earlier, the Danes, had the wisdom to say a clear NO to the euro. But we all know that the politicians will keep coming back at them until they are badgered into saying yes. This happened with the Irish, who said NO to further expansion of the European Union. This answer was not acceptable to the powers, who made them vote again. Real democracy, eh what?

Dan, you might find this translation website handy http://www.systranbox.com/systran/box You can copy and paste paragraphs into the box and it gives reasonable results. I find that their translations need a bit of fine tuning, but it is a handy tool and it saves a lot of hunting on my keyboard for umlauts, circumflex accents etc.

JS, that "Chamber Music" cover is one of the ones that I have (see my initial post), and it was used for real mono LPs as well as the fake stereo version (which my first copy was - I sent it back to the retailer). The mono LP was Argo, and the fake stereo was Chess. And yes, that is the cover of my Epic LP. It's the only one that I have seen. It is a stupid, irrelevant cover that is more suited to a car wax label, and the liner notes, such as they are, are garbage. Most of the back is devoted to a listing of other Epic LPs, few of which are of interest to jazz collectors. Argo and Epic sure did not have the class of Blue Note when it came to both cover art and liner notes. Oh, for a Leonard Feather or a Nat Hentoff. One copy of the Argo LP came with a loose sheet, listing other Argo LPs.

I wonder why they don't keep these and the "Blue Note Works" CDs always in print. They could achieve this by pressing a good number of them upfront. It is clear that there is a lot of interest in them.

On the subject of playing records at the wrong speed (and I do remember the chipmunks!), we used to play a 45 of Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" at 78, which improved it no end!

My latest automatic machine has a thermal carafe, too, which is a great idea that I had not seen before I got this one. The main problem with all electric makers is that limescale builds up on the heating elements, even if you clean them out with citric acid, and they burn out. I have replaced several heating elements myself, but the parts cost nearly as much as a new machine. Most times these days, I just boil some water in a kettle and pour it through one of those conical Melitta filter paper holders directly into a cup. I have a single cup size, and also a large contrabass size in Eb (with apologies to Gerard Hoffnung). It gives more flavor if you pour just a little water through, then wait, and then pour the rest through. My current favorite coffee is Costco's "San Francisco Bay" beans. I also have a Krups espresso chemistry set to intimidate vistors.

I don't understand why you are puzzled, Alfred. Rudy engineered the LPs that Mosaic issued (but did not do the recording sessions). Of course, Rudy used to master the LPs for Blue Note etc.

I remember Midge Pike visiting Jo'burg when I was there. My musical buddies knew him. Also, the name Maurice Gavronsky rings a bell. A drummer with whom I frequently played, Joe Latronico, spoke of him. Joe was a very close buddy, and a fine drummer, who could emulate Elvin very well, which suited me as I was into Trane a lot. Joe had to play dreadful gigs with a Greek band in order to make a living. Most of the corner stores were run by Greeks, and they liked to party late at night. They would dance to those difficult time signatures like 18/4 and toss plates onto the floor!

Thanks, YMB. That's ironic, as Universal has never reissued the "Chamber Music" LP, which must be the most important Argo album, historically. I don't think they have reissued the "Live At The Pershing" album, either - the 1958 one with the famous version of "Poinciana" with Vernell on drums (not to be confused with the earlier Columbia version with the guitar trio, which was the model for the version on George Braith's "Two Souls In One" album).