mikeweil

Sorry to hear of his passing. I quite like a lot of the albums he produced - and what he said about Kenny Clarke is so much on point and just what I miss about most other drummers.

Thanks! Now that's a very diverse list, with widely different recording philosophies involved. I cannot imagine anyone not hearing anydifferences! My guess is that high end equipment coaxes such great sound out of red book CDs that the higher resolution doesn't make the big difference. But in mid-range equipment like mine ...

So far, so good - but why in all the world does someone still smoke when he knows about the consequences? I'll never understand that mindset. And since the smoke effects other people than the one person smoking, I will follow you as far as personal responsibility to smoke is concerned, but not as far as allowing smoking in a pub or whereever. As soon as it effects other people, it's no longer a private affair. And I have yet to meet a smoker really caring for the effect the smoke he exhales has on others. Why do people need this type of drug to relax etc., anyway? That makes it a political question. Masses of people functioning only with their daily dose of nicotine, alcohol, marihuana, sleeping pills, you name it.

And personally, I like playing in bars without that shit making the air unbreathable. And coming home smelling like somebody's ashtray (not to mention the smell of all my gear, and thus my vehicle, etc.) My thoughts exactly! That's the thing about any drug: At the core it's an entirely egoisticial thing, and you don't care for the effects on others, no matter what it is. And it always effects others.

The German classical forum I joined has this, too - very useful! Welcome, Denis!

Indeed they are!

Please do not take my remarks about pitch of players too personal - I have been listened to so much music in different tunings and tonal systems over the years that my hearing gradually changed - I tend to hear equal temperament, which is the standard in Western classical music and jazz, as "wrong", since no interval in this temperament is really in tune, except for octaves. In baroque music in meantone or other historical tunings, you always have at least some intervals in tune. Of course, the average jazz listener won't perceive this as such. But I see what Ornette is talking about when he says you can play flat in tune and sharp in tune. Just a matter of taste - you can't like everybody.

That should be the March 29, 1959 session with Donald Byrd and Hank Mobley, released as a Connoisseur CD as My Conception.

I just spinned the Mobile Fidelity hybrid SACD reissue od Coleman Hawkins' The Hawk Flies High and switched back and forth between SACD and CD layers. This is one of the better sounding Riverside sessions from 1957, in glorious mono, the transfer done well, and the differences are subtle, but they are there, and my wife, who is not in to audiophilia, hears them, too. The SACD layer sounds a bit more detailed, silkier, not as harsh and the soundstage is deeper.

... minus the gasoline to Basel or whereever

How much naiveté from jazz collectors (myself included)! We all saw it coming etc. - no use to shed tears now.

I dunno - on their website they ask for € 85.00 (USD 101.07) for the new Arsenio Rodriguez box set; in the ebay shop, it's US $124.50 .... For the A.K.Salim double CD it's € 17.50 (USD 20.81) on their website, US $34.85 on ebay. Even if the shipping charges are higher on their website (I haven't compared those), I'll stick to their site. I won't buy anything for the next months anyway, except for a Mosaic that I really want going last chance, as I just found a used set of Gon Bops timbales from the 1970's - something I have been searching for more than 20 years! Cost me € 374.00 including new heads ........

Right now, as it is, they would have to re-print most of them ...

Ubu, where do you buy them? My experience is that ordering from the Fresh Sound website is the cheapest - at least the price plus postage and customs (if applicable) is still below what I pay when I order them at my local retailer, who gets them from Fenn Music Service - and this distributor doesn't carry all titles, it seems. Plus, their service was fast - Barcelona to Flörsheim in no more than two days, always! I think without them a lot of this music wouldn't be available - sometimes there are tracks missing (mostly alternate takes), but OTOH they often add obscure and rare things. Now that the majors care less and less about reissuing their back catalogue, I'd rather buy one of theirs. Some Lonehills sound strange when dubbed from vinyl - now there's a risk. Their de-noisung software is not the best, it seems, or their sources are.

Now that's one of the few Gryce sessions I never heard ...

By "too flat" do you mean "too dull, or boring", or are you talking about problems of pitch? If the latter, I have no complaint about Jackie, but always find Gigi Gryce too sharp. Any views on this? I mean flat, as far as pitch is concerned. And I don't like his tone that much. I listened to the CD this afternoon, and I can hear that he plays very well, and I appreciate it, but I just don't like his sound. I hear that Gigi Gryce is sharp, sometimes, but since I like his tone and phrasing, I don't mind. It's a personal thing: You like a player's sound and conception, or you don't.

I always remain skeptical when I read about those double blindfold tests: There always are parameters that remain obscured. What music do they use, how do they select it? Do they prefer recordings with a natural room ambience recorded with minimalistic techniques, or multi-tracked studio recordings? What musical styles do the samples cover? I have experienced that high resolution is perceived best in combination with minimalistic recordings in a natural room ambience. Your emotional reactions in case you don't like the music played will bias your judgment, and vice versa. If they would publish a list with the samples used, there would be all kinds of reactions and comments. From all sides.

Fantastic observation - I'm spinning this right now, thanks for pointing this out! BTW - I still have the first Blue Note CD edition from 1987, and it mistakenly prints the liner notes of the Japanese LP "Cool Struttin, Vol. 2" instead of the original notes! Who did the notes for the LP, and are they available online somewhere?

I was only 14 when this occured - can't remember what my feelings were, only that I heard it in the news. I only remember it somehow scared me that there were political leaders and presidents assasinated in a country that claimed to be democratic and in a leading position in the world ...

I first had an Italian Saeco machine, and now have a small Gaggia - metal steam kettle, to last for the rest of my life. Nothing like Italian coffee - best brands are New York or, for a stronger taste, Sicilian Ionia. For other than Italian coffee I would advise a French filter mentioned above. Anyone with a sensitive stomach should avoid any systems using paper filters - the paper chemically binds part of the substances contained in the coffee beans that are crucial for digestibility - I cured two friends from their acidic reactions towards coffee by talking them into using a gold filter. You save the money spent on paper filters, get more flavour and your stomach will thank you:

Yes, same session (January 5, 1958), intended for release on Blue Note LP 1592, together with three tracks recorded December 8, 1957 - but that LP was never issued. It was first issued in Japan in the 1970's. The three other tracks are on the My Conception CD.

The cover might be one of the best known of all Blue Note covers: Personally, I like the trio versions of his tunes better, more intensive, as far as the moods ar concerned, but that's just me. Too bad he didn't record trio versions of his three originals of this session. McLean - I always find his tone too flat, so this turns out to be my least favorite Sonny Clark session.

Happy Birthday, and keep goin'!

Wilbur Harden's presence on those two tracks was confirmed in Loren Schoenberg's and Orrin Keepnews' liner notes to the most recent two CD reissue of the Wilbur Harden sessions for Savoy with John Coltrane (who really was the sideman on these dates). Harden "fell ill" during the Fuller session, so it was abandoned. Only one of the tracks was ever issued (A New Date - the info on Mike Fitzgerald's site can be trusted). These comments also say that Lateef and Tyner returned to the studio with Fuller and Lee Morgan as Harden's replacement the very next day to finish the album. The two takes of "Accident" issued have Lee Morgan. Listen yourself whether or not Lateef is present ...

They probably don't have any surplus booklets. I once bought a used box set with the booklet missing, and they replied to my e-mail inquiry that they were sorry but didn't have any booklets. Imagine how much storage space it would take to keep a hundred booklets of each item ... probably costs more than giving away a whole new disc.