Kevin Bresnahan

Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" was one of the first CDs put out by CBS/Columbia during the earliest days of CD production. It was pressed in Japan with a matrix number of DP35 4 and sold in the US in a longbox. I am a huge Pink Floyd fan, so I bought it right away. I had it for years until the Mastersound gold CD was released, which I grabbed as it was advertised as an audiophile CD. I did this comparison way back then and in the end, I sold or gave away the older 2-track CD. Truth be told, I am not surprised that this "The 2 track version is best" stuff started over on the Hoffman forums as I believe that the person who started it either has horrible hearing or his system truly sucks, as his opinion of the audio quality of a lot of CDs has always been really off to my ears.

Just last week, I found a copy of the infamous (and expensive) 2-track CD of this recording. This early CD was released with each LP side being a "track" and the tunes of each LP side were an index. Rumor has it that indexes were originally intended to be how songs were to be placed onto the CD but other than a handful of CDs, that never happened. FWIW, as much as everyone seems to think this 2-track CD sounds incredible, I found that I preferred the Mastersound gold CD version over this. I even did a blind A/B with my wife & daughters and we all agreed that the Mastersound CD sounded better.

Did you ever receive the CD? I never did & I've chatted with Jim about it on Facebook several times. He just hasn't been able to send it for some reason.

Andrew Hill - Andrew!!! (Blue Note). This original BN is probably the last record I bought from Stereo Jack. I do miss that place.

If I hadn't just bought this, I would definitely buy it this Friday.

I know we don't talk much about equipment on this thread but I want to bring up an interesting point about this Perkins LP and why I like the Ortofon 2M Black cartridge. This Perkins LP has a light but visible surface scratch across most of side 1. I could see it but couldn't feel it so I gave it a shot, the reason being that the Ortofon 2M Black stylus seems to go deeper into the grooves and surface scratches like this are not heard. I was right. This LP played perfectly. I like that this nude Shibata stylus design seems to avoid many surface scratches as if they are not there.

As I listen to this Perkins LP, a few things stick out. Perkins seems to have a few instances where it sounds like he was having embouchure issues, as his held notes wafer in places. The second one is very weird... it sounds like the engineer varied the way he recorded the bass. Several tunes have the dreaded twang that's usually a sign of bass direct whereas others sound like the bass was mic'ed. Verdict - worth the $6 for a spin every now & then but maybe not worth recording to CD.

Bill Perkins - Journey To The East (Contemporary). I'd never heard of this one but in general, I've enjoyed Perkins' dates so I figured for $6, I'd give it a try. It looks like it's never been out on CD.

All of this material is on the Art Pepper 4 CD set, "Blues For The Fisherman". According to Laurie Pepper, the track on this LP that is titled "Y.I. Blues" was called "Untitled #34" when they recorded it at Ronnie Scott's that night. FWIW, that is a really good box of music if you don't have it & at only $22, it's a steal.

Junior Mance - Live at the Top (Atlantic). With David Newman on a few tracks. Kind of a funky mix of jazz and blues in a Ray Charles/Cannonball Adderley way. Not bad for $6. LP looks like it was barely played.

In that scene, Bosch was playing "Doxy" from Miles' "Bags Groove".

According to discogs, all hardcopies of this release have that cover. I suppose if you simply download it, there is no cover.

Eddie Higgins' "When Your Lover Has Gone", while not being one of the worst Venus covers, is available on Sunnyside as "Zoot's Hymns" with a very different cover. I think the cover shot of Eva used on Higgins' "It's Magic" was a terrible choice by Venus. I don't know what they were thinking when they decided to use that photo. FWIW, Eva sued her (now late) mother to gain control over the negatives of all of these photos, so I doubt we'll ever be subjected to more of them in the future.

I don't have "Time On My Hands" but the others are all very good, especially the Jobim tribute. "When Your Lover Has Gone" (titled "Zoot's Hymns" on Sunnyside) is also worth hearing. I have to say that I really hate the cover of "A Handful Of Stars". Unlike a lot of Venus' cheesecake cover shots, this is one of Irina Ionesco's photos of her very young daughter Eva. Venus's use of semi-nude women, even if they are considered "art", is weird enough. Using a photo of a partially-nude underage girl is not weird - it's just wrong.

What song is it you want to hear...

We're venturing away from Larry's situation here, as he was committed to a facility by his wife. But I do want to comment about the adult children of an elderly parent... I think it's far more complicated than the children simply not wanting to take care of their parents. Many times (most times?), they simply can't give their parents what they need. When my mother started falling and breaking bones, she kept insisting on moving back into her home, where she was alone. Her doctors did not want to release her into her own care, sending her to rehab hospitals several times. She insisted she was fine at home alone. My mother needed someone with her 24/7. She needed help going to the bathroom. She needed help cooking meals without burning down the house (she set the stove on fire once). She needed help taking her meds. She needed help going to her multiple doctor visits. But her children all had jobs/lives and there was no way we could do this for her. Take it from me, being her son made it extremely uncomfortable helping her go to the bathroom. You know how hard it is to help someone in the bathroom with your eyes closed? On top of that, me & my brother were with her one night when she fell & we had a tough time picking her up. Dead lifting a 180 pound woman without injuring her is tough for a couple of 60+ guys. I almost blew my back out & she still had large bruises from it. Mom continued to refuse to leave her home until she fell, split her knee open and almost fell down a flight of stairs to her death. Her 4 children were incredibly relieved when she agreed to move into a retirement facility, at first to an apartment which eventually progressed into an assisted-living room. She actually enjoyed the first two years in her apartment before she had to move into an assisted living facility, as she had a lot of friends there and the food was great. None of us were happy that it happened this way but it really was the best for her. I'm pretty sure she would have died several years earlier if she had stayed at home alone or if she moved into one of her childrens' homes, where she would have been alone for most of the day as we all worked. The saddest thing about my mother's situation was that the assisted-living part happened during COVID when many of these facilities were very very understaffed and her quality of care suffered dramatically.

This Herbie comp: was released with this cover in Germeny:

Good to hear from you Larry. Sorry to hear of your unfortunate visit to an assisted living facility. Some are better than others but it's hard not to feel like a prisoner at times. I hope you can avoid having to go back in the future.

And the refs gift the Chiefs with another BS call for their benefit. Bills fans have every reason to call out the NFL for the way that delayed pass interference call was made. If it was a penalty, the ref throws a flag. If it's not, they don't. What should never happen is that they all get together in a huddle and say, "I didn't see anything, did you?" until they find one them willing to say, "I think I did". I'm about done with the NFL these days with the way the referees are calling games.

I still can't believe that there was no flag for hitting Deebo in the helmet on that play. The NFL talks the talk about player safety but they refuse to walk the walk when it comes to calling it the right way.

I like the 49ers but I still have trouble rooting for McCaffrey. I am not a fan of the way he's acted since his college days.

It would be helpful if you could update your list when titles sell. Considering that two of the CDs I requested were already sold on another forum, I'm a little hesitant to put together another list of titles to buy unless I know they're still available.

I was told that Mal Waldron stopped playing in the US because they had banned smoking in the clubs. Because of that, I never got to see him play live. I actually tried seeing him when I was in Munich on business and saw his name on a flyer for a Jazz club. I jumped onto the U-Bahn to go and when I got off the train, I was nowhere near the club. After wandering around for about a half hour, I gave up and headed back to my hotel. Kicking myself for that but this was before smartphones and I wasn't comfortable walking up to strangers in Germany to ask in English where the local Jazz club was. It wasn't in the best section of town.

Gene Ammons - Jammin' In Hi Fi With Gene Ammons (Prestige/OJC). I never did buy this on CD over the years. The vinyl will have to do for now.

I saw him live and almost left the show early. It was pretty boring to be honest.