David Ayers

Well, I wouldn't want to have a benchmark myself. Really the entire cycle is for reference, it seems to me, not for life, the best of the symphonies are to be heard in many versions. I have a very low tolerance for the sound of historical recordings of orchestral repertoire. That's why Neumann is going in the car! Thankfully Rowicki and Kertesz are both on Spotify. Hurrah!

Gosh.

Paul Whiteman.

I would have asked him to sign my Mosaic!

Still showing same price though. These are old recordings, for those who don't know, and you get symphonies you don't necessarily need (1-4) and others where you'd do better with single discs. The other items are bonuses but not a complete picture. I am really not one for historical classical box sets or even non-historical ones, but this is cheap and can go in the car. I've been auditioning the Rowicki set (with LSO) on Spotify so that will be an interesting compare/contrast for me. I am guessing everone here knows their Dvorak but maybe not. If anyone is reading this who has no idea whether Dvorak is for them, I'd say this set is a great way to hear the popular and famous symphonies (7-9). The rest is a bonus for when you get round to it. The sound will be of its age, the playing as idiomatic as it can be.

They've been all over amazon for a while. Blakey, Henderson, Hancock, Baker, Shorter, Gordon, Adderley, McFerrin - maybe more I can't remember. Four albums of each - attempt to rival the PD products, I guess.

Surely it's OK to express a preference? It's not a war. Even Chuck did an HDCD and that is not at all an established format. These issues are targeted at an audiophile market so it is to be expected that audiophiles will have an opinion. Not every difference of opinion needs to be treated as a heresy.

No but it's a great way to go.

It can happen though, apparently...

So Jackie McLean is artistically equivalent to Man Ray? You learn something every day.

Are you looking for a letter of recommendation? Well, FWIW, I've got a feeling that if we each listed alto players in order of preference we'd have pretty similar lists and Mclean would come in pretty much the same place in the ranking order. You aren't really making a strong defence of him and I am not really making much of an attack - if this conversation was about Parker or Ornette, or Desmond, Pepper or Braxton, it would seem like there was more at stake, as indeed there would be. We can talk about James Spaulding if you like.

Did he get his degree in the university of life?

They must be worn out!

Sounds like you need an extra copy of those Freddie Redd sessions!

And on that, yes, he plays the same regardless of context. It's a 'signature sound' I find not that purposeful. And it doesn't seem to have that many imitators, for some reason, so I might not be the only one to see it this way.

I've just got bored by it. If you want to say he's up there with Coltrane, Coleman, Rollins, Mingus - but you don't and no-one does.

If he played like that at certain times for certain reasons, that would be one thing, but all the time and for no particular reason... To me it has that 'make a jackie-mclean noise here' feel to it, if you know what I mean.

Ok, as a subjective reaction, I can give you "annoying" (and let you keep it! ) but gimmick? How does that work, exactly? To me it is like a novelty device that stuck - as if he began to use it to cut through but stayed with it to the point of excess. Like - but not as impressive as - Maynard's top register playing. You might disagree. I'll grant him one thing though - it is certainly memorable!

Jesus! I can't afford NOT to get it. Interesting they omitted this current disc: The Czech Suite is a long time favorite. Good lord, the price just went down on the Dvorak box. $6.39!!! Hasn't shipped yet...... That is... unusual...

Tend to agree with Hans on the Redd dates - he's not really very interesting. Agree with Mike on McLean, whose playing I know well. The sour playing is an annoying gimmick, and add to that my other dislike which is that he repeats himself so much. I can listen past those things, and have done so for years, but ... Oh but I would still want to have these dates around, for reference

not really relevant I know...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg5TSAed77s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlvuK3J0yeA&feature=fvwrel

And also check out Miles playing at Ronnie's in 1969 - supposedly his first television appearance - in terrible quality...

Wonderful!