All Activity

Ready-made for a Christmas gift!

So much color...

Features Jerry Weldon on tenor sax/

Thanks!

John Coltrane, Copenhagen 1962, disc 6

“Dizzy’s Big 4” Pablo/OJC cd

love that early cover design...

Anthony Branker & Imagine “What Place Can Be for Us?–A Suite in Ten Movements” Origin cd This is a fascinating disc. Great sound too! Alison Crockett. Spoken Word, Vocals Anthony Branker. Arranger, Composer, Music Direction, Primary Artist, Producer Fabian Almazan Piano Linda May Han Oh. Bass (Electric), Double Bass Pete McCann. Guitar Philip Dizack. Trumpet. Remy Le Boeuf. Sax (Alto), Sax (Sopranino) Walter Smith III Sax (Tenor)

A gorgeous album.

Coleman Hawkins “The Hawk Returns” Savoy/Denon cd 1954 Sessions recorded in Chicago with Herman Blount aka Sun Ra on piano on the second session.

I like the "warmer' sound with a bit of vibrato that is often missing from period instruments. There is also (at times) a whining quality I hear from period instruments. Though I must admit, that a number of the more recent recordings i have heard by period instrument groups strike me as much better sounding than some earlier recordings. My impression is that some more recent Period Instrument quartets have moderated their approach a bit and incorporated a modest bit of vibrato and sound less whiney. At the same time a number of string quartets who do not identify as Period Instrument groups have also modified their playing to become more sensitive to some period instrument performance concepts.

👍

The best bit of Rome is the way that if you don't want to go to the tourist spots, you can just turn any corner and the random church you find will be more impressive than any that you have ever seen anywhere, anyway. Also, even for Italy the food is really good, with easier restaurants than e.g. Tuscany and very child friendly.

Would you mind telling the reason?

Yes, the Haydn Box by the Schneider Quartet is very good. I am not generally a big fan of performances by groups using Period Instrument string quartets. However, having listened to so many many string quartet recordings by various groups using modern strings, I decided to give some of the Period Instrument groups a try. So am now turning my attention to Haydn Quartet recordings by these 3 groups. Festitics Quartet Buchberger Quartet London Haydn Quartet

Beethoven - Violin Sonatas No.2 and No.9 - Coop & Dawes

the other side features Pat Patrick.

Maybe it's different in the USA, but over here they are often dismissed as the usual "cheapo student pad furniture" that won't last too long. However, it seems to me IKEA have improved the BILLY range over time. I have three older ones (shelf width 75 cm) from the 90s (discarded by my office partner and taken home by me in 2005 or so) and am using these mostly to hold car magazines stored in magazine holders (most shelves are crammed full), and the shelf boards indeed tend to flex to some degree. And I've had to add some reinforcements here and there to prevent the side walls from bowing out under the load and allowing one or the other shelf to drop. But the BILLY shelf units I've bought new myself (long ago too - 20+ years) still hold up very well, even though they are also loaded to the limits (some of them with car mags and books too, but most of them with LPs now) they stand up very well and don't budge to any singificant degree. In fact they seem almost as solid overall as some significantly more expensive shelving units I've bought specifically for my vinyls back in the 90s (and these are no longer made either, alas). Checking those BILLYs over I noticed on those I bought myself that Ikea have added some extra screws (with the socket hex heads visible from the outside) to hold the center shelves (at half-height of the full shelf) firmly in place so the side walls cannot bow out. These, by the look at it, were missing on the older ones, so this may be ONE reason for the somewhat seedy reputation of the BILLY range.