Daniel A

Thanks, Hans, I didn't know that. The domestic shipping rates for the UK are displayed. However, to get the EU rates you've had to click on the link. It's funny, further down the page where the rates were previously quoted, it does also say "Postage rates and delivery information for items sold by Sellers at Amazon Marketplace can also be found when you click on a Seller's feedback rating in a list of Sellers offering an item for sale. From the page that appears, just click on "Delivery rates" or "Shipping rates" at the bottom right of the page." But if I do that, I only get directed back to the same page where it says that the rates may differ...

I was trying to browse a few of the really old BFT threads (links from thread) and found that I could only access the first page of each topic. The rest of the posts seem to be missing. This is the case for both "discussion" and "answer" threads up to test #44, and quite possibly also for other multi-page topics of the same vintage.

It was a few months since I last ordered something from Amazon Marketplace sellers. I usually check Amazon UK first since their shipping rates within Europe have been much lower than any of the other branches. When I just was checking out a few items on the US Amazon site I noted that the overseas shipping rate for CD:s seems to have been raised from $6.89 to $14.29 per item, which seems unreasonable. And when I went to Amazon UK to check if there had been any changes over there I found that they don't even quote the rates any more. If I click on the 'International and domestic delivery rates' link below every Marketplace listing I only get a message that "Delivery rates for some items sold by Sellers may differ. Please check the delivery charges before you click the final "Place your order" button on the checkout page. ", So I have to put the item in my shopping cart and go through the checkout process just to see what the shipping charges are, which doesn't strike me as particularly user-friendly. (However, when I put a few CD:s in the basket it still appeared to be £1.82 per CD within the EU for those). Has anyone else noted these changes?

Bob Florence's scoring for this album is quite nice. Strange that they omitted these two tracks from the reissue; have had some of these reissues through the years and don't think any tracks were missing from those titles. The covers are spectacularly uninspiring, though. The missing tracks from '...and the Sax Section' are as good as any on that date, and if anything the Beatles tune is one of the better from that album.

Happy birthday!

I guess they ran out of money. Their site has the following message:

Thanks, TTK. I'm sorry to say I voted for "pad".

Last visit in 2006; hope that you're OK Tod. I wish you a happy birthday!

To be able to form an opinion I'd first like to know what meaning native English speaking persons are attributing to "pad" in this context.

Actually, I believe season two was released as well. It was a very good show, especially during the "Esterhaus period".

What a terrific set this seems to be! Many thanks for the heads-up, TTK.

The 'Noon in Tunisia' album was reissued on CD in Japan some six or seven years ago with a wonderful reproduction of the LP gatefold cover and booklet (although with customary microscopic typeface). A fascinating recording.

Happy birthday, Jeff! I wish you all the best! /Daniel

Happy birthday, Clifford! As a birthday gift I'm bringing the cover of this rare Swedish jazz LP from infamous free jazz saxophonist Bengt "Frippe" Nordström: In fact it's not one but many albums, since this was the cover he used for numerous of his privately pressed recordings.

I placed an order with zoverstocks on December 17 and the CD arrived in good shape two weeks laster which is just about average.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. What player are you using with your phone? I'm using the one that came with my SonyEricsson Xperia phone, which is indeed lacking in several aspects. For example it cannot display long track titles. Using the tagging "standard" (which is not official as I take it) I should put the composer's name first. But then the title is cut off like this: "Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.", which makes it impossible to identify the symphony number as well as the name of the movement. There are many other player apps around so I suppose I should try to find a better one, although I wouldn't want to pay too much unless I knew it worked very well. Another obstacle is that many hardware players (car stereos, for instance) do only play tracks in alphabetical order within a given folder, which makes it necessary to put the track number first in the title name. For that reason I'm more comfortable with creating one folder for every work (symphony, concert etc.), but it will look slightly ridiculous for very short works like songs outside a song cycle.

I've made MP3:s from many of my CD:s (and some LP:s) to be able to bring music with me on my mobile phone or in the car. When it comes to classical music I feel that there's no obvious way of using the ID3 tags and folder structure for organizing the files. Usually I like to listen to music in album form, but in the case of classical music there may be fillers to pad out the CD issue that were recorded at some other point, sometimes various composers represented on one album etc. It doesn't make too much sense to me to create a folder or playlist for an album that consists of a lot of bits and pieces, but on the other hand a lot of stray tracks in a general "composer" folder does not completely appeal to me either. So, how do those of you who have a big digital classical collection organize your files? It should be mentioned that I'm a PC user and mainly rip my albums to MP3:s for reasons of player compatibility.

Chick Corea?

Belated thanks to Bev for the suggestions. I will probably go for the complete CPO set as it has some things not available in any version on Spotify and then look for different recordings for select works.

Good suggestion to look for London pressings that would probably be less expensive! Not sure there will be many around in Stockholm, though.

Thanks for your input so far! I believe that a first US pressing of Coltrane Jazz would be with a "white fan" label. A first pressing of Giant Steps would be black label for a mono issue and green label for stereo. There are "bullseye" label issues sold as first pressings as well; maybe there were two plants using different labels at the same time? I've read that there were two different pressing plants so that there may be black label mono first pressings both with and without DG (for some releases, not sure about Giant Steps).

This annoying problem has occurred on too many blue label Blue Notes from the seventies so I'm avoiding those completely. A pity, since the sound is otherwise usually good.

I have long wanted to get some of my favourite Coltrane Atlantics on LP (I have the Heavyweight Champion CD box), but I'm unsure as to what the best sounding issues are and if they're worth the extra money. I happened to see what looked like a first pressing of Coltrane Jazz in a shop just before Christmas (will have to check the label more closely though); NM stereo copy, asking price was 50 euro (around $70) and it's most likely still left. A Rhino reissue would be a lot cheaper, though, so any advice would be appreciated. If anyone's got an opinion regarding mono vs stereo Atlantics you're also welcome to post your thoughts.

The Pastoral symphony is wonderful (I have the Boult EMI recording mentioned above).

I don't know the source for this recording, but Nalle Nilsson, who was employed at Nalen for many years, claimed in a recent interview - done by Swedish Radio! - that he recorded the concert through Nalen's three-mike PA system. Later recordings could not be included due to the 50-year rule, but he claims to have paid royalties to the sole surviving participant, bassist Georg Riedel.