Kevin Bresnahan

I did not get any e-mail... and I get all of Jim's e-mails so I doubt it got put into spam. My spam folder empties itself every now & then so it won't be there months later. Kevin

Rudresh Mahanthappa made the cover of Downbeat where he talked about he latest recording, "Agrima", which hit the streets Tuesday (10/17). I liked the sample (Snap) so I ordered the download - a first for me! Well, I have to be honest, I ordered it because it was only $2.50 (https://www.rudreshm.com/). First off, I have to say that I am a fan of classical Indian music so I was very interested to hear this melding of this style of music with Jazz and Rock. Fusion for sure. What I mean to say is that I was predisposed to like this and... I do like this quite a bit. I'm not one to do a track by track analysis but I liked the tunes with the tabla better than the ones with drums. As a player, Rudresh has some mannerisms that get repeated, but what player doesn't? The spacey intro to "Revati" sounded like something from Jane Ira Bloom's "Modern Drama". On the last tune, "Take-Turns" I kept wanting to swat the fly buzzing around my head during the intro. I will probably poke around the rest of Mahanthappa's catalog to see if any of his other recordings are like this.

You have this one: Or this one: And another:

Being the Mobley nut that I am, I really wanted to like that Midnight Walk but it rarely gets played in my house. A couple of tracks have rather dated keyboard playing. For Collectible two-fers, I actually prefer this one: Note that Collectibles really messed up the track times on that Philly Joe two-fer.

I only have the first two on vinyl myself.

Atlantic? How about: or or:

I do like this one even if the label is run by a prick... And if it's tenor you want, pull this one off the shelf: Beautiful quartet date with Tommy Flanagan playing magically. Peter Washington & Lewis Nash round out the band.

I was surprised that a CD called "Latin Lover" wasn't a straight up Latin Jazz disc. Maybe it would have been better off being called "Latin-influenced Lover"? I agree that whoever mastered (or recorded) this music moved the sax & guitar way up in the mix. It does make a few of the tracks sound more like a duet is playing with a drummer. I could have done without ever hearing a Jazz cover of "If I Only Had A Brain".

I have this on CD with a different cover. Under $10 at Bull Moose Music: http://www.bullmoose.com/p/13512402/potts-bill-and-big-band-jazz-soul-of-porgy-and-bess?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpYOuj6b41gIVFyNoCh27SgVlEAQYAyABEgKJG_D_BwE

Another one that I often recommend but haven't in a while is Danny Gatton & Joey DeFrancesco's "Relentless" (Big Mo Records). CD only. Smokin' disc! Their take on "Broadway" is incredible, particularly DeFrancesco's organ solo. And FWIW, if you want to go "full-Gatton", follow this up with his "New York Stories (Blue Note).

Tiny Grimes - Profoundly Blue (Muse). Vinyl only (still) and not in the best sound, typical for 1973, but great playing. Killer band too.

The intro to Head Hunters' "Chameleon" gets stuck on repeat in my head quite often, particularly on a brisk walk. The cadence fits.

I checked the tonearm wires. I reduced the anti-skate to 0 and the problem is significantly better. I still think I may have an azimuth problem. Weird thing is everything was fine until I moved. I unplugged the headshell for the move and just plugged it back in and dropped the needle. But everything seems out of whack. I had to readjust the VTF and now the antiskate.

I am re-listening to this to decide if I should try the new(er) mono LP reissue that's in the stores now. As I am listening to side 1, I realize that "Blues To Bechet" and "Blues To You" are already mono.

That's great news! While my investigations seemed to indicate that the volume pot was sealed, I wasn't 100% certain. I'm glad to hear that it was able to be cleared out. Don't worry if that black gunk has some lubricant in it. Deoxit is also supposed to lubricate as well as clean so (hopefully) you should be fine. Now if only I could de-bug my own phono playback problem... distortion in the left channel on every LP I play. Nothing seems to fix it. Antiskate seems OK, VTF is dead on, azimuth looks OK. My tonearm height is fixed so it's not that. Now I remember why I loved CDs so much when they came out.