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Mopro Records M 106 - Blue Wisp Big Band " Live At Carmelo's" - rec. 1984 - Engineer: Jim Mooney

Agreed

Last night at his gig, I bought Jaleel Shaw's "The Soundtrack Of Things To Come" (Changu Records). I have yet to play it but at first glance, whoever is in charge of their graphics need to take a better peek at the final artwork before sending it to the printer. I can't read all of the track names, even with my reading glasses. Whoever did the scan for discogs cranked up the contrast & brightness significantly. The original looks much darker than this scan.

Never heard one but I like the way they look

Nice catch. I have that album, but I've never seen that cover before. Mine looks like this:

I just remembered it: if you take a close look, Kenny is sitting on a large drum case.

Roussel: Symphony No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 23; Pour Une Fete De Printemps, Op.22 National Orchestra of the O.R.T.F., Jean Martinon (Erato FR) A terrific LP.

Thanks for that Brad. It's interesting to read all the other people, including many pre-dating Schaap, who were deeply involved in putting jazz on the air at KCR. Seems like the history is sort of "Phil was a student, and WKCR and jazz got on the air and Phil never left ..." Though I am especially glad for what Phil brought to the station and preserved in his archive, as opposed to the interests of some of his colleagues.

Sounds like fun!

Interesting. I'm not up-to-date enough to have a take on it.

His were black but looked just as imposing. They sounded very good. At first, the high frequencies were rather diffuse. I figured it was the tweeter array used for the midrange, as that's probably my "high" frequencies these days. But when I had him toe in the speakers a lot, the highs became much more pronounced. Even he commented that they sounded much better with that severe toe-in. It created a very small "sweet spot", where we sat playing some great music. He had a Qobuz hi rez download of Cannonball's "Somethin' Else" and I immediately played "One For Daddy-O", one of my favorite Blue Note tracks and it was sublime. When Cannonball hits his first solo, it just jumped at us. I made him wait until the end of the track before playing somethin' else and when Miles asked, "Is that what you wanted, Alfred?", it sound like he was in the room with us.

Spiritual jazz in 2026 seems to me to be more like a registered trademark than anything meaningful. Lots of kids wearing sunglasses making instrumental music with the trappings of Pharaoh Sanders with Lonnie Liston Smith or Alice Coltrane, but no real jazz or spirituality content. Like a "race car" that is just a Nissan Micra with a spoiler on the back. That's what I mean by "fake" spiritual jazz. Anyone, for all that, some of these records are good. I like this one. It has excellent production that reminds me a bit of Fourtet, and that gives it a suppleness. I'd like it more if they were doing something new rather than using new technology to do something old, but in its own way that's new. Worth a go if you want some warm background music with harps and flutes. 2025 really seems like it was a bumper crop of good record. This is by no means the best but I certainly enjoyed it.

Thank you, Pim! Holy cow is right! They're massive! And the RED color makes them even more imposing! How did they sound??? I've never heard a Hegel amp, but I've always heard good things about them.

I have the Jazz Odyssey Series version of this LP: Original cover:

Thx, intetesting, no doubt worth a listen.

Those speakers are incredible. Does anyone have experience with Hegel amps? Listened to an interview yesterday with their reps and came away with the impression that they come with a lot of bang for the buck.

The live Pepper from '59 is really intriguing. Are there any other live shows from him available from this time? He's playing well on these despite the rhythm section.

I visited a friend-of-a-friend's house over the weekend. I have visited him before. He's always buying the latest & greatest audio gear. This time, he had Tekton Ulfberht speakers. Holy cow, are these things huge! Using a tweeter array to cover the midrange frequencies results in a much bigger speaker than most. These were probably a foot taller than me. My wife would kill me if I tried bringing these home. BTW - he claimed that these speakers had an insane 97 dB sensitivity. I don't believe that for one second as I've never seen a non-horn speaker have numbers much higher than 92 dB. Apparently, some independent labs have measured much lower sensitivity (less than 90 dB0 and the founder/owner of Tekton is supposedly threatening to sue them over it.

February 20 Craig Taborn - 1970

The Craft reissue of The Cry sounds excellent. I’ve got originals of Firebirds, Rumasuma and Buring Spirits. All records that really deserve a nice reissue.

Wow those look great Hutch. I wish you lots of pleasant listening hours with them. my wife never makes hose kind of suggestions….

Next up on my show list is Jamie Baum at Scullers on March 7th. She's bringing Jaleel with her, so I'll get to see him again shortly. The show I have on my calendar after the Baum gig is an unusual one - Randy Brecker and his wife Ada Rovati are playing at the microscopic Press Room in Portsmouth. The rhythm section are UNH faculty, and I've heard a couple of them over the years. Should be a fun night, if maybe a bit crowded. This club is general admission and likely without tables (standing room) for this show. When I saw Nels Cline there, it was packed to the gills. I was surprised the fire marshal didn't show up.