Daniel A

Downloads were mentioned several times above, but streaming only once or twice. In this country, even among people with a strong interest in music (including jazz), streaming has virtually replaced both CDs and downloads since more than ten years. It's true that the albums of more obscure artists might come and go, or may never have been available on these platforms. But the availability of millions of albums for a fixed fee has caused "inflation" for digital music. It's just not something that people are prepared to pay that much for (which off course started already with the rise of downloading around the turn of the millenium). It seems as if this has also affected how many people look at the value of these albums/artists/tracks that come and go - it doesn't seem to bother them too much.

I think a CD comeback could only come out of nostalgia - because streaming is even more convenient. A couple of years ago there was even a short-lived comeback for VHS tapes (not for jazz, though), but historically, it seems that the most convenient option always wins out.

Please remind me, was this the session that Shorter thought was ruined by Duke Pearson (as producer)?

Definitely for me as well.

That was my first McLean album. All of it is so good, especially the quartet part which must be his most obscure Blue Note session. But "Blue Fable" is my favorite track.

Coming from a pianist like yourself, I take that as high praise! 😊

Is it really true that no one has recorded anything for years? I know that’s not the case, but this thread does seem to have been somewhat forgotten. I don’t play music for a living and don't consider myself as a professional, but I’ve been fortunate enough to perform in some good bands. This time of year feels like the moment to share some of the Christmas music I recorded last year. I play the piano and did the arrangements, as part of a commission to record “background” jazz versions of Christmas tunes for streaming platforms.

I like Jack's groove on this one:

R.I.P. brownie.

I think it's more about having a (larger) group of musicians that covers all four of the instrument families; strings (e.g. bass), woodwinds (saxophone), brass (trumpet) and percussion (drums). A typical jazz quintet would do that, except, well, that it's not "large". 🙂

In any case, I believe that many of us have the set, and at least I haven't found a defect in any of the discs. FWIW, Discogs is listing SID code variations, indicating that there was a repress of the 1995 set. An interesting sidenote is that mould SID codes were introduced in 1994~1996. This means that discs that lack such SID codes were produced no later than 1996-ish, unless there has been a one-off mistake (or they are counterfeit). But looking at these SID code variants, it appears that all discs within the set have one variation without SID code (presumably the initial pressing) *except* discs 4 and 5. This suggests that these two discs were pressed in a separate run (while it might still have been as early as 1995).

Thanks Kevin, that was more than I expected to learn, and all of it very interesting!

And what is it? An IC board?

There's a long obit on his website: https://www.jim-mcneely.com

I understood the statement in the way Kevin explained; deck=tape machine, set=(composite) tape. I don't find it surprising or unreasonable that the tape for a 70 year old and hugely successful album would have been accessed many times. Discogs lists 160 different releases of this album.