AllenLowe

well, what they are saying is completely false - that kind of swooshing is not the kind of thing masked by other noise. It's some kind of phases-type of artifact; maybe. But I agree, let us see. I just don't think they've been very straightforward about this issue.

well - they've already said there are problems - the swooshing. This doesn't mean it's a bad system - CEDAR is incredible, but it can be destructive, and that's the point at which you have to handle it differently.

I know a lot about restoration - and I've never heard of this process - Bit Density Processing. It may be fine, but so far they seem to be going out of their way to explain what it is.

hmmmm.....nonsense, if you ask me. It's more likely to be an artifact from the software, an additive distortion. Personally I would find this unacceptable. Also - if these were from disc sources, would they even have wow and flutter? I thought that was a tape thing. Though apparently they can occur with older turntable systems. This really sounds fishy. also - "the various high-end noise software, all of which we have found to be entirely unacceptable because they alter rather than restore.." well, if the swishing was not there before - and I have never heard It - these things have been altered. This is really -- bad.

thanks; next thing, I think, is a session with Matt Shipp and Michael Gregory Jackson.

Rabbi Schneerson.

to me the Ladnier on this stuff was just some of the most purely beautiful New Orleans playing ever.

no, only jazz musicians who try to play gospel. But seriously, many of the gospel singers I admire are from the middle class; Wynton's problem is that he just, to my ears, doesn't have the feeling for the kind of deep vernacular that gospel requires. It becomes, instead, a solemn, "here's to my heritage" tokenist musical tool. To me gospel is a much more complex and multi-layered music.

Wynton's too middle class for real gospel. here, let me help you guys (and Wynton) out: (warning: do not listen to this while holding a Wynton CD, as the emotions generated might cause you to light it on fire and stomp on it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSbkIm7SNM

I must know about the drums before I decide to order. Please, someone, report back.

French black and white LPs are the best of all I have heard.

I have no idea about that, but I do know that Schiltten, to his eternal credit. changed the deal at Xanadu to an equal split on costs which allowed the musicians to earn fairly quickly. But then, his stuff sold next to nothing.

I consider myself to be pre-Bob. And then maybe post-Robert.

years ago somebody gave me Ran Blake's phone number so I called him up and asked him to record with me. He turned me down, was very polite, but also upset that I had his phone. Apparently, from what I was told, he immediately changed it. So I feel personally responsible for his increased isolation.

let us know how the drums sound -

well, just to respond - that conversation was in Evans' kitchen, 35 years ago, so my memory is faded - he told me about his problems with Philly Joe - and, speaking of a dead horse (since I talk about this other musician all the time), he said the following: "To my mind there were only two alto players from that generation who didn't copy Bird - Lee Konitz and Dave Schildkraut. Dave was amazing."

Gene Seymour put us into his 2014 Top 10, and I am gratified to reprint his review: 2.) Allen Lowe, “Mulatto Radio: Field Recordings 1-4 (or: A Jew At Large in the Minstrel Diaspora”)(Constant Sorrow 101) – In the 32-page liner notes accompanying this package, which constitute some of the finest music criticism I’ve read all year, Lowe begins by talking about his “strange encounter” with fellow classicist/bandleader Wynton Marsalis, with whom he dared discuss “the modernist implications of minstrelsy,” which Marsalis pointedly refused to engage since he’s predisposed to regard hip-hop in general and ”Gangsta Rap” in particular as “neo-minstrelsy” catering to racial stereotypes. Which was far from the point that Lowe was attempting to make in the first place. In the six years since that brush-off, Lowe, a polymath who’s as incisive with his shtick as he is with his sax, dove headfirst into what some would consider the mongrelized, or creole-lized foundation of 20th century popular music where shotgun-shack juke joints and free-swinging black vernacular found communion with the tunesmiths piecing together their slick contraptions on Tin Pan Alley, or in the Brill Building. The result of Lowe’s restless search for a proper response to Marsalis is this four-disc omnibus of mostly home-cooked sessions (Lowe lives in Maine) in which several traditions – gutbucket, gospel, early New Orleans, ragtime, bebop, stride, avant-garde, nightclub swing, noir soundtrack, beat poetry and backwoods country – are probed, prodded and often pulled inside out (so to speak) with an eclectic array of musicians from saxophonist J.D. Allen, trumpeter Randy Sandke and clarinetist Ken Peplowski to saxophonist Noel Preminger, pianist Matthew Shipp and singer Dean Bowman. Along with other reeds, horns and rhythm players, there’s also a tuba (Christopher Meeder), a fellow musicologist (Lewis Porter) who plays wicked piano, alone or accompanied, and – of course, what else? – a novelist (Rick Moody). Even some of the titles of these pieces – “Jim Crow Variations”, “The Discreet Charm of the Underclass,” “When My Alarm Clock Rings on Central Park West” (Lowe’s variation of “When it’s Sleepy Time Down South”) – are provocative, mischievous throw-downs to whatever passes these days for dialogue about jazz. And after a year such as this, the prevailing conversation can use some spritzing and shaking-up.

my news is that the wife and I have made an absolute decision to get out of this hell hole called Maine by April 1, 2016. The whole arts scene up here has gone from nothing to extremely nothing. I need to get to NYC more often, and I'm just fading fast up here. We are looking at the last urban area we can afford - New Haven - which has a very nice music scene and is only a 2 hour train ride from NYC. I also have some old friends there. I am looking for a job, 20 hours a week would work, what with various retirement and social security/pension things. But the last few years have been torture and almost complete social isolation for me up here. Just hoping my health holds out. Feeling pretty good, though I do have some hearing loss.

I seem to be conducting a monolog here, but I'm used to it - THIS is the gospel collection you need to own: http://www.amazon.com/Spreading-Word-Early-Gospel-Recordings/dp/B0002TX8TO/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1417727402&sr=1-6&keywords=jsp+gospel

I've transferred about 600 LPs to CDR since April, and in an A/B with the vinyl the CDRs are identical.

the more interesting gospel, and the more closely related to the idea of improvisation, is the '20s 'storefront' sets. Arizona Dranes, Bessie Johnson, et al. This is the stuff that inspired Ayler. jazz musicians tend to be overqualified.

only if it has the Tenth Symphony.

I did a whole project - Blues and the Empirical Truth - based on blues and Gospel forms. If I dare say, it gets more to the essence than most such jazz projects: http://www.allenlowe.com/albums/blues-and-the-empiricle-truth/

is Zev Feldman French? I know that Schlitten, who I like but who is a pain, has complained about prior French Xanadu reissues.

interested in Chuck's comments about mics; a lot of times engineers will use ribbons on strong players, and they give a weirdly transparent, dislocated sound. I will only use an 87, which is the classic. Though I still hate Yamaha horns. Though they do kind of play themselves, which allows me to take frequent bathroom breaks.