WD45

Yes - tubes on both ends of the experience. As someone who used to power up and power down a 5000w tube AM transmitter as a livelihood, I can attest to that. The AM chip in radios for many years cost pennies. AM became such an afterthought for so many manufacturers--they were obligated to put it in to maintain parity with other manufacturers. And they did so as cheaply as possible. When digital compression came to the fore, we had many conversations about the loss of fidelity at radio conferences. IBOC was seen as the holy radio grail. It brought its own set of problems, especially on FM. AM on HD Radio sounds pretty good. When it works, that is.

The 2012 box is a reissue of the box that came out in 2002, which was remastered and sounded a lot better than the bad-sounding earlier disc. Having said that, I don't like the sound on the 2002 box either, to my ears it is harsh/shrill. I have the long OOP French Masters of Jazz CDs, which I think have the best sound of all. I might well pick the reissue box up when it's released. I love the Benny Goodman sides with Christian. And only have ancient remasters. It seems that the reissue may have corrected the earlier physical box, which upset a few people. That 2002 box with its lame foam-slot CD holders was most unfortunate. Some sort of reaction between the foam and the discs caused a rather heavy haze to appear on all of my discs. I could barely buff them out with my 3/4 HP bench grinder / polisher. Glad to see they have fixed this.

I picked up the "Djangologie" 20CD set a while back for about $36 new at Amazon. Looks like it is no longer available at that price. Amazon link That, plus the Period 2CD set make up my Django collection. Lots of gems in there, for certain!

I've got a copy of this Riverside 4LP boxed set of Alice in Wonderland as read by Cyril Ritchard.

I remember seeing Brian Blade at my first real jazz concert in 1995 with the Joshua Redman Quartet. I didn't know much about jazz at the time, but it was his performance with that group that left a lasting impression on me. (As an 18-year-old, especially.)

I simply cannot stop listening to these first three Brian Blade Fellowship albums. The other day, I watched that "Icons Among Us" on Netflix streaming. Blade's band was one of the groups in the spotlight. I went to Rdio and haven't stopped listening yet. I remember when they came out, and even listening to some samples at the time. Didn't catch my ear then. Now it won't let go. The steel guitar on the first two is positively magical, both in a solo and textural position.

Yep, this is the one I use, too.

My cat has a distaste for Kevin Drumm's "Sheer Hellish Miasma" LP. So does my wife, also.

Naxos also issued the Weiss lute pieces across three discs (I think). I have one volume, and it is quite nice.

I'm sure there are some infrastructure savings for them on a move like this. They are a business, and found a place to save some costs. Not sure how the sound samples used to be uploaded. Does anyone have insight into that? Did labels provide them? (I remember the days of RealAudio samples and the like. Ugh.)

I don't really care for sports all that much. I actively dislike football, as a matter of fact. BUT, I got cable just so I could watch as much of the Olympic Games as possible in glorious HD. I've been excited since January!

Agreed. I will no longer buy anything unless I hear the entire album first, Spotify (and MOG) has been a blessing in this regard. Same here! (Except that I use Rdio) I'll even preview/listen to things on Rdio on my moblie WHILE I'M IN A RECORD STORE. Crazy collision, that is. It's caused me to discover and buy more things than ever before. (To the detriment of my bank account, you see.)

I remember print-through being an issue on the CD reissue of Jimmy Giuffre's "Free Fall" album on Columbia. That's where I first learned of the phenomenon.

I can't believe that he'd never heard Art Tatum playing in a trio.

I replaced the startup sound on an old PC of mine with the first few seconds of Jackie McLean's "Blue Rondo" -- that would make a great ringtone, too. I like the idea of Soul Sauce, as well.

I bought LPs from Stefan, and he shipped them super-fast in superb packaging. And, that Farlow material is FANTASTIC. Buy!

Thanks all! To celebrate, I shall visit a local record store (or three) today.

Speaking of big bands, if only Buddy Rich had been on board THIS bus.

There is the other storied Minneapolis store, Treehouse Records, which was formerly known as "Oar Folkjokeopus." For reals. Love the Electric Fetus, which we all refer to simply as "The 'Fetus". For better or worse. More worse, methinks.

I listened to these three cuts last night on the way home from work. The first piece has a section with Elvin and percussion section. That business had me hanging on every note. It was like Elvin had another arm and a few more drums. Magic. The third piece's drum breakdown was a bit more odd. You could tell Elvin was going to do that stretch the tempo thing in the solo. And he did. But it felt like the straight time of the rest of the percussion made it out of place. First time I'd heard Laws on tenor. NICE!

I happened upon that myself a while back. Crazy!

I sent some bread, electronically. Like it's THE FUTURE.

Well worth the effort. I second this. I stayed away from it for a long time. Not sure why. GREAT stuff.

It was the head of "Blue Train" that did it for me. Bought it as a freshman in college on a whim, based in part by the cover. It was all over after that. It started the "follow the sidemen" game.