fent99

Me too! Think being the son of the owner might have had more to do with it than your choice of listening.... However discovering Fripp in the 80s didn't help me with the ladies then and is unlikely to still.

I've definitely let some stuff go, the collector in me would have liked to keep, some to you guys... Mostly though I take solace in the fact that I have more music lying around than I may ever listen to all of again. I've become much less sentimental about the physical things and ultimately easy come easy go!

There is lots of rubbish talked about Hi Fi and its an obsession in itself. No disrespect to anyone here and if I had the money, one of the first things I'd buy would be better hifi, but the difference between speaker wires beyond a certain point is in such tiny increments I'd go for cheapest decent wire that does the job. Years ago I moved house and left a bunch of stuff in storage. Of course first thing unpacked was the stereo and was gutted to find that speaker wire was in storage 100 miles away. Being a practical sort of guy, the only long enough piece of wire I had available was a long piece of flex from an old hoover. I duly cut it up and used it to connect my speakers as an interim measure. (Who needs to hoover anyhow...). Didn't initially think it sounded that good but when I replaced it with the good stuff, I couldn't tell the difference and any worries about the sound were more to do with the room and positioning than what was connecting everything up. Anyhow I'd rather obsess about records I've never heard or alternate takes missing from my latest reissue... More seriously, a decent budget amp or receiver would be first on my list, and new might be nearer $200-300. Something you'd be happy with for a while since my main Rotel is nearly 30 years old and still sounds fine... Used is fine but best if its local and you can hear it working... Same with speakers, You can get excellent speakers really reasonable on craigslist gumtree whatever but the best speakers in my house came from freecycle and I picked them up for nothing from a lady who couldn't wait to get hese ugly brown B&W speakers out of the living room since they didn't match anything else...

Thanks Mike I'll just do that. It was definitely soul notes I passed on, maybe the others were with the string quartet, definitely not Strata East ...

Upping this since I have a question... There is some 'interesting' discussion above but a few recs for things I haven't heard and must look for. I have more of Max on others recordings than things under his own name. I was looking through some old photos I found a couple I'd taken of Max playing at HMV in New York in the early 90s. Not great photos but a great memory. A superlative demonstration of musical drumming with minimal kit and maybe the best drummer playing solo I've ever seen. Looked like he was promoting To The Max which made me order a copy. In pretty good condition for the price it came with no notes included. Anyone have this? Am I missing anything interesting in the liner notes? Really enjoying the varied ensembles. Remember looking at the soul note M'Boom albums years ago and not buying them since it thought I might not like. Think I was wrong...

I remember picking up Larkin's book of jazz criticism years ago and looking through the index to read bits on the people I liked and not liking what I found I put the book back on the bookshelf. My tastes have changed in the intervening 20 years, so maybe should I pick it up again? Isn't it a bit old fogey?

Thinking of folk, there's a tune The Dark Island which I'd count as one of the most beautiful from Scottish lps played by my parents... Internet search brings up Lyrics - David Silver, Melody - Iain MacLachlan and the fact it was popularised as theme tune to a radio serial in the early 60s

Ida Lupino would be one of my picks. Can't see all the youtube links but very little more recent than the Beatles, Sure there must be some recent tunes from the hit parade...

Received and listened to briefly on the bus this morning. I know one and have it in my collection so I'm delighted so far...

Me too thanks

I use a free shareware program called EAC for ripping. www.exactaudiocopy.de/ Supposed to be one of the most secure and you can set the accuracy/speed to what you need, really as quick as your drive? Putting in indexes I use something else Wave Repair www.waverepair.com/ which is great for putting indexes in vinyl rips Shareware with a low registration fee. Both from recommendations from here so others might know more

One of the reasons I love 'this' music is that even the majority of studio albums are recorded live and all those blue notes especially are live to 2 tracks. There might be the odd 2 takes spliced together or Richard Bock cutting out extra solos but the sound you hear is 5 guys interacting in real time. When I started getting into music in the 80s the fact that a jazz group were in a room, recorded pretty much live (pre Teo) was so refreshing compared to the rock I listened to carefully worked up over weeks/months in a studio...

I like the Azimuth albums though they are 'of their time' and have an 'easy listening (BBC) Radio 2, new ageyness' to them which means you really have to be in the mood. Very ECM and the one with Towner which is maybe the best, has this the most.

Yes - the 'Mr Benn' complete series DVD is a great British Jazz 'sleeper' session . Been a fan of that stuff since childhood. Ray Swinfield's flute is heavily featured. No doubt Mr Benn was a big influence on the film 'Eyes Wide Shut' and that dubious theatrical wear shop. Kubrick must have been a fan.. I loved it as a kid too. Funny to think of what you heard when young that might have influenced what you like later. Interesting too that I saw Duncan Lamont with Kenny on his 70th (or 75th) birthday tour and had never heard of him and had heard him and Kenny all those years before. Kind of thing Johnny Trunk should issue?

Never knew this but after watching classic UK 70s tv show Mr Benn with some friends children I noticed in the credits that Kenny played in the soundtrack. No appreciable solos though... Music by: Don Warren Musicians: Ken Baldock, Harry Stoneham, Art Morgan, Peter Hughes, Kenny Wheeler, Terry Emery, Ray Swinfield Don Warren being aka Duncan Lamont

Uh oh. Worries me too... Its fine if you know who Ivor Cutler is (and I recommend at least a youtube search for this eccentric one off and his poetry and songs) but the stance maybe comes across as a wee bit aggressive...

Not good form but I'll reply to my own post. Lots of these show on Archive.org which can be found easily by googling archive.org/details/DestinationFreedom Possibly better on the historical figures than the dramatisations about Duke and Pops, but its interesting to hear radio from this long ago and wonder at its impact.

I liked cassettes then and like them still. Have a box or two of them under the spare bed and dig the odd one out occasionally. Still have a deck in the sitting room and have been known to buy the odd tape from charity shops. Bought The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. Sound takes a bit of adjusting to after digital clarity but it isn't bad and I've heard Gig PAs with more hiss... Used to love the portability compared to LPs and their near indistructibility (though tapes would occasionally mangle). Remember travelling in the 80s with a clutch of tapes and sometime look at my 8 gig mp3 player (Sansa Clip) and wonder how many cassettes it holds in a device about the size of a matchbook...

Was listening to Radio 4 on Sunday and after Alice Walker's Desert Island Discs this came on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r9skv Half hour show on this groundbreaking radio show I'd never heard of. Fascinating stuff. Anyone heard many/any of the shows? They mentioned shows about Ellington and Armstrong which would be fun to hear.

Listened to this on the way to work today on shuffle so I can't rememer which track was which. Just thought I'd firstly say thanks for an interesting mix. Haven't taken part in one of these for a while and always amazed on the variation in what we all listen to. Plenty to enjoy; one of the earlier tracks not maybe to my taste and the free-er track was a little too much like hard work for me but the rest were really good and the mix will see me right on the bus home with some thoughts track by track to come.

Got this from Ken so thanks to him! I've uploaded it to sendspace as mp3 but not sure I should post a link so pm me if you want to hear

i can help with this. pm me. happy to share with others if interested. I'll add a bit more since I'm now home. have this recorded off the radio from someone here. It's a good show and funny. maybe Marian didn't like the playing but its a show I've listened to a few times.

Download for me too! Haven't done one of these in a while...

As ever here, you guys make me ashamed that i don't know the stuff I've got better. I'll need to dig out Prez, Armstrong and Coltrane at Birdland. a few others I'll need to look for. A couple of others dug out Monk solo from Monks Dream and Dolphy on candid Wish all was on itunes then it would be easy. thought there would be more...

On my mp3 player the other morning a couple versions of Body & Soul came on one after the other, First the Coleman Hawkins classic version then a vocal version by Sarah Vaughan which suffered by comparison. I started looking through my cds for other versions and found loads as you can imagine. Anybody got any standout favourites of the tune? Its an intriguing one for me since its not a tune I love, but what Hawk does with it is. I can think of a few other versions I really like; Trane (on Coltrane's Sound?) is one that stands out for me. Any other versions I should look for? Apologies if this has been done on here already...