David Ayers

Well I am not dissing CD Universe! I have been fortunate to find Music Resource stock indications accurate and in my favour, but I know others haven't. The main advice for people planning to do this for the first time is to work out carefully how to avoid duty, and this can only be done by keeping the declared value below $26. Good luck Reg!

Music Resource is $6.50 for two. Dusty Groove is $5.70. I have seen similar on others but I generally use these two. Reg Two RVGs from Music Resource are 2 x 9.95 plus 6.50 shipping = $26.40 and a declared vlaue of $19.90 which is not subject to duty. That is less than £9 per CD which is not bad considering!

UK duty limit is £18 or about $26. Thnis is the value of the product excluding shipping cost. If you exceed this they charge you duty (about £3.50) + VAT on total value (including shipping) + a handling charge (can be £8 from Parcelforce). One way round this is to order from True Blue who declare the value at $5 per CD (or did so recently). SO you could order five, plus shipping of $12, but have no duty at this end. Last I looked there was a sale at Blue Note (handled by True Blue) so you could try that route. Otherwise the thing to do is order two at a time from one of those companies that charges less per CD than True Blue, but who WILL declare the full value on the customs declaration. This increases shipping but eliminates duty. Most companies charge about $6 shipping on two CDs - pay no more!

Thannks Hans, and thanks to Hiroshi - thanks to the H-men!

And one up on the equivalent 20-bit US versions.

Thanks Kazak! Er, you don't have the second 50 as well, do you?

Thanks Hans! I suspect that the original list came from him in the first place.

Er... well my Japanese is non-existent, but thanks anyway Claude. Hans - actually I thought of this one, but as you say the OOP titles don't show. We had this list on the BNBB and no-one worried about keeping anything in those days...

I used to have it but I lost it, and it went the way of the BNBB. Anyone? Pretty please?

You know what they say about the relative vocal volume as between actions and words.

Thank you! I knew it was somewhere...

I think there was a thread on the spate of MPS reissues - but I can't find it as you can't do a search on a three letter word... Can anybody help? Anyone have the list?

On BMI I am overweight, but on the machine that detects the ratio of fat to muscle I am in the top 5% of the population. What I don't understand about BMI is that it has nothing whatever to say about what the weight is. So a guy who is all fat comes out the same as one who is all muscle. Can anyone explain this?

Bill Oddie (one for the English...)

Does it have to be vinyl? Did you pass on the the Conn and the JRVG? The TOCJ is still in print if you are interested.

I haven't bought a BN CD since the BNBB was closed - I just had a bad taste in my mouth. Seems that BN are making it easy for me to stay away. Just to clarify, I have never copied a CD and don't even have the means. It is the audio degredation I object to. Compounded by the cynicism of foisting this sh*t off on Europeans but not on Americans who they know won't wear it. So - a decision certain to alienate well heeled European collectors who formerly bulk bought their product. What goon at EMI came up with this nonsense? More trouble for Mosaic too as their parent body's hostilities against once loyal customers go into another phase. If I use the word 'fuckwit' will it be censored? Here is the page where these assholes give their 'technical' explanation: EMI tell their customers where to get off

It is interesting that they roll out this copy control on the euro RVGs but not the US ones. Maybe they think their US customers won't wear it but that Europeans will just roll over. Personally I won't go near this stuff. US customers who at this moment are feeling smug should hope it doesn't come to them any time soon. Claude is right, that this tends to destroy trust in mail order, since as of now no-one knows whether they have ordered a copy controlled disk until they see it. Mail order companies won't like it as they have to deal with all the returns. Oh EMI, what CAN you be thinking...

The logo and other information is so disfiguring it made me feel like a criminal just to be handling them! Still, at least they are part way to smashing the global trade in pirated RVGs. What future now for organised crime?

Well maybe there has been copmment on this but I can't find it. I just saw these in the local shop and they are COPY CONTROLLED. This is the Rollins, Silver etc batch. I am pretty shocked - is this only the European edition? Are the US issues flagged as copy controlled? Are they copy controlled but not so indicated? Did I miss a thread on this??

Well I wouldn't care so much about having a CD but I would certainly wish to have an instrument with me. If I was to take just one work it would be a recording of Mahler 10 - despite its problematic status, I find the final adagio gripping. With maybe Das Lied von der Erde on the B side? Which instrument? Well, I think a cello, along with the score of Bach's solo suites, BWV 1007-1012.

....c'est la question... PS They already restocked most of the titles!

This series concerns works of composers labelled by Nazis as 'degenerate' - meaning they were Jewish, Avant-Garde, Jazz inflected, sexually scandalous, or communist. Most of the material comes from before 1939, though some comes from after. Some composers were killed by the Nazis (Haas, Krasa), others pursued alternative careers abroad (Korngold, Goldschmidt). The basic thinking behind the series is to map part of the history of German music which is considered to have been interrupted and broken off by the Nazis. Very little of this work is well known (though Schoenberg and Korngold are the most eminent figures, even if Korngold's 'Wunder' was little known). It is an interesting series (though how many of these compositions would become anybody's permanent favorites is another matter), and the jazz angle of it is that we can hear how German composers heard and re-presented jazz. In fact, 'Jonny spielt auf' (which doesn't translate well ...) is an opera about a jazz saxophonist, with a mild though not dominant jazz content. Many of these disks wre reviewed in Gramophone and can be seen at the Gramophone review site (remember always to check the 'show deleted' box!). http://www.gramophone.co.uk Click on reviews. Its free but you have to register. PS Sorry Claude I was writing while you were! PPS Claude is right about the Korngold violin concerto - very widely recorded and often played in concert. The Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony has now become well known through records, and this version is particuarly good, being combined with the Symphonic Songs to texts by Negro poets, sung brilliantly by Willard White. The Schoenberg is all available elsewhere and is obviosuly important. But Claude, I don't know whether I would put my hadn on my heart and describe Krenek's symphionies as famous! Among the Operas, the Korngold and Shreker are late romantic blockbusters, fine if you have an appetite for that kind of thing. The Schreker was recently revived in Germany so is not as 'dead' as some of the others perhaps are. I see several of these are now said to be 'out of stock' - but it is worth checking back as the situation may change.

Only just relevant to a jazz board, I suppose, but some of you may wish to plug gaps in your collection of this interesting Decca series - and the price is right, though some titles are currently out of stock. click click

Ornette himself seems unlikely to sanction release of these tapes. Both LPs are magnificent and it would be great to have more available. What label was the CD reeleased on? Was it Giants of Jazz? I certainly don't see it listed any more. I have a feeling that there were two CD releases.

Heavy Soul was a 1999 JRVG and is also still available as a a TOCJ. The TOCJ of Bossa Nova Soul Samba is still available, and this is due as a JRVG in September. The JRVG of IMAWBS is due on October. So no-one need be without!