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Black Saint/Soul Note Box Sets


romualdo

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Never had any issues with sound (except for the defective Murray set).

Tend to hold on to older discs I have (they include "The Hill", bought from our own J.A.W. many moons ago) when I have them, to keep the liners and all ....

I'm most happy the series goes on, I'm in for the music, not for the sound - haven't been around (or aware) when the entire Soul Note and Black Saint catalogues could be bought (getting the missing five or six Muhal discs was a nice test ... a couple of them could be easily found, and for good prices, but not so with a few others).

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The ones I have so far have sounded fine to me. I'm interested in the Bley and Cyrille sets from the upcoming batch.

I'm still considering some of the previous boxes (Cecil, George Adams, George Lewis, Muhal & Waldron). Any favorites?

I don't have the boxes, but I have all of the recordings in the Cecil box and all but one of the recordings in the George Lewis box.

All very fine stuff and there's a good variety of material in the Lewis box. Actually the Cecil has some variety too - solo, duo (w. Max Roach), quartet, and larger groups.

I'd say If this is your kind of thing - and you seem to have big enough ears - go for both.

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Good batch, but very disappointed to see Jimmy Lyons, Billy Bang, and Ran Blake neglected again, though I guess the Cyrille should include 3 of the 5 Lyons. Farmer & Lake are favorites of mine, but I think they could've made more interesting choices.

(WAH WAH WAH DO WHAT I WANT)

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The ones I have so far have sounded fine to me...

I'm still considering some of the previous boxes (Cecil, George Adams, George Lewis, Muhal & Waldron). Any favorites?

I have four of those five (haven't bought the Lewis). All are good and I didn't notice any sound problems. I probably give the Waldron and Adams the most playing time, but that's just personal taste. Couple of random comments: The Adams is the most hard-boppish / least "out" of the boxes (and he only sings on one track); the Waldron includes the Seagulls of Kristiansund album, which had long been on my wish list.

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I'm in for the music, not for the sound.

So am I (I can only speak for myself, of course), but in some cases the sound has been tampered with to such an extent - as is the case with a lot of "modern" remasters, at least to my ears - that I can't enjoy the music anymore. Listening to "hot" remasters like those results in quick listening fatigue and gives me headaches, and that's the last thing I need.

Edited by J.A.W.
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I'm in for the music, not for the sound.

So am I (I can only speak for myself, of course), but in some cases the sound has been tampered with to such an extent - as is the case with a lot of "modern" remasters, at least to my ears - that I can't enjoy the music anymore. Listening to "hot" remasters like those results in quick listening fatigue and gives me headaches, and that's the last thing I need.

Are you just saying (I agree, but I've heard only half a dozen discs that had such a strong effect on me) or are you talking about the boxes this thread is about?

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The Black Saint/Soul Note remasters I was able to compare to the originals suffered particularly from excessive highs. This way the sound got in the way of the music, instead of helping to elevate it further. Perhaps if I had nothing to compare them to...

They did not suffer from high volume levels, unlike the Impulse Originals series. For instance, the remastering on Coltrane's Crescent creates earsplitting peaks, particularly obvious and intolerable on headphones. It also has a lot of bottom end. Those kind of remasters are the most fatiguing around and can give you something approaching a (minor) headache.

Like I said before, the sound should further elevate great music, not detract from it. I would rather have less titles/CDs in pleasant sound than become a completist again. Perhaps for people who have been listening to this music for decades seeking out more obscure recordings by favourite artists becomes a necessity as they tire of the classics. This could possibly lead you to become less critical of sound quality as you have to make do with what little is available?

David Murray's The Hill has great sound quality on the old CD substantially enhancing my enjoyment of the music when listened to on a good sound system. This is why I try to avoid listening to favourite albums on my iMac. That's not saying sound is more important than the music. I'm generally very critical of both.

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As for the contents ... seems Lake and Farmer are clear cases, Lake has six albums and a duo with Borah Bergman, Farmer has three quintets, one Jazztet, one with Fritz Pauer, plus the album with Pieranunzi.

But Cyrille has five ... then there are three with Lyons plus more, so ...?

Bley has six as a leader, three as a co-leader (w/Motian, Maslak, Peacock) and one with the Giuffre/Bley/Swallow Trio - which one will be missing? Let's hope not the Maslak, I'd like to hear that one for sure!

Murray has at least a dozen or so left, if you count off the octet albums ... there are seven trio/quartet/quintet albums, that would mean the big band and duos aren't included.

Just thinking out loud, the Cyrille is particularly puzzling (why leave off "Nuba" or one of the two Lyons/Cyrille duos?) - maybe the numbers given now are wrong, amazon.fr gives an early October release, there might be some change until then.

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It depends on your sound system setup. I upgraded recently and found no issues with regards to these sets.

The Black Saint/Soul Note remasters I was able to compare to the originals suffered particularly from excessive highs. This way the sound got in the way of the music, instead of helping to elevate it further. Perhaps if I had nothing to compare them to...

They did not suffer from high volume levels, unlike the Impulse Originals series. For instance, the remastering on Coltrane's Crescent creates earsplitting peaks, particularly obvious and intolerable on headphones. It also has a lot of bottom end. Those kind of remasters are the most fatiguing around and can give you something approaching a (minor) headache.

Like I said before, the sound should further elevate great music, not detract from it. I would rather have less titles/CDs in pleasant sound than become a completist again. Perhaps for people who have been listening to this music for decades seeking out more obscure recordings by favourite artists becomes a necessity as they tire of the classics. This could possibly lead you to become less critical of sound quality as you have to make do with what little is available?

David Murray's The Hill has great sound quality on the old CD substantially enhancing my enjoyment of the music when listened to on a good sound system. This is why I try to avoid listening to favourite albums on my iMac. That's not saying sound is more important than the music. I'm generally very critical of both.

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I'm in for the music, not for the sound.

So am I (I can only speak for myself, of course), but in some cases the sound has been tampered with to such an extent - as is the case with a lot of "modern" remasters, at least to my ears - that I can't enjoy the music anymore. Listening to "hot" remasters like those results in quick listening fatigue and gives me headaches, and that's the last thing I need.

Are you just saying (I agree, but I've heard only half a dozen discs that had such a strong effect on me) or are you talking about the boxes this thread is about?

I was talking about "modern" mastering in general.

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I would rather have less titles/CDs in pleasant sound than become a completist again. Perhaps for people who have been listening to this music for decades seeking out more obscure recordings by favourite artists becomes a necessity as they tire of the classics. This could possibly lead you to become less critical of sound quality as you have to make do with what little is available?

So right on few and listenable. At least, that's the way I've gone, so tired of remasterings in general, it is Russian roulette with a sub-machine gun.

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These Cyrille discs are really nice, the ones with Ted Daniel in particular. I guess I have most of them, so won't be buying the set.

I have the Waldron set and it is indeed treble-heavy. Don't have the single CD issues to compare, though.

I'm also a big fan of those Cyrille discs.

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Bley has six as a leader, three as a co-leader (w/Motian, Maslak, Peacock) and one with the Giuffre/Bley/Swallow Trio - which one will be missing?

Possibly the Motian, since that was included in the Motian box.

The Giuffre was in the Giuffre box ... and others have already been duplicated, I think, and the Maslak is the lone one on Black Saint ... who knows. I'd just be happy to see the Maslak included (and would be majorly pissed if the Peacock wasn't).

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Hi all,

My name is Chris, this is my first post on the Organissimo forums. I'm not really in to these "i'm new here" type posts but just out of respect i'll give a brief introduction. I've been posting on the AAJ forums for just over 4 years (not sure if this will endear me to you or not ha ha but i've enjoyed my time there overall).

Organissimo threads have come up quite often when i'm searching for info online, to the point where i'll often google an artists name along with 'Organissimo Forums' (for example 'Lee Konitz Organissimo Forums'), and what comes up usually makes for interesting reading. Anyway, i've decided to take the plunge and sign up. Cheers, everyone.

Anyway, to the thread at hand. I'm extremely happy to see that these sets are still being produced. Out of the latest batch i've really been hanging out for the Bley one. Seeing that they're doing another Murray set gives me hope that they may do another Steve Lacy set.

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