Daniel A

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.

It's enjoyable for casual listening, but it sounds a bit old-fashioned compared to Legrand's (brilliant) 60s work.

An evening of Gary McFarland: Soft Samba (Verve, 1964) The In Sound (Verve, 1965) Soft Samba Strings (Verve, 1966) America The Beautiful (Skye, 1968)

Believe it or not, but some of these are of interest to me. What I would like to know though is what masterings have been used and how the discs are packaged. Did anyone try any of these?

And if not, are they both part of a bigger, secret organisation? Dan Brown should perhaps write a book about it.

The initial post is from 2007, when it still hadn't been said that many times. The article is available here: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/2007-12-26-1036564388_x.htm

Thanks for this very interesting story! I might add that I've got the Japanese 2007 reissue SICP 1371 - the OBI strip declares it as a 75 year "bon anniversaire" edition for Legrand - and can report that it does not mention the connection with Philips. No recording date or personnel is given, the original release date is quoted as 1958-05-19 and furthermore it says "(p)© 1958 Sony Music Entertainment Inc."

I'm looking for recommendations for recordings of Korngold's orchestral works. I heard the piano concerto on radio the other day and I'm interested in seeking out recordings of that, as well as his other works; I don't own any. There's seemingly not a wealth of different recordings to choose from and some works seem not to have been recorded all that often. There is a four-CD release featuring what seem to be all of Korngold's orchestral works with Werner Andreas Albert conducting Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. I can't say that I'm too familiar with either the conductor or the orchestra and I'm a bit hesitant to order it without recommendation, even if it's not very expensive (around $20 used on Amazon marketplace).

I agree with just about everything that has been said above. I was hoping that, somehow, original tapes had been used for this reissue. If the source is indeed the Ubatuqui release I'd not count on that, and if it's not it would have to be dubbed from an LP. I'd rather do my own needle drops than buy someone else's. I wonder if the tapes still exist. Last time they would have been in use to my knowledge were for the ugly cover Liberty reissue series from around 1980: I'm eagerly awaiting James Harrod's book on PJ.

Thanks, Jim and Hans. They (Solar) seem to like living on the edge as there's material from as late as 1963. Anyway, I'll keep on waiting for a decent LP copy of Brasamba to turn up.

I just discovered that the Bud Shank/Clare Fischer Pacific Jazz albums 'Bossa Nova Jazz Samba' and 'Brasamba' (long awaited on CD) are being reissued this month on Solar Records. I've never heard of that label but I'm a bit suspiscious, though it does not seem to originate from the Fresh Sound mold. Any information would be appreciated. http://www.jazzmesse...28&languageId=2 Other releases from the label include such diverse artists as Sun Ra and Oscar Peterson. I somehow get the impression that it is affiliated with the Jazz Messengers store in Barcelona (which is a very nice jazz store).

On YouTube: There are some interesting scores from the original Star Trek Series. This set is probably too much for me, but I don't doubt there are enough trekkers worldwide to make this sell out in no time.

Maybe this is more about what you think of Pat Williams as an orchestral arranger in this context. Their last album (from 1979) was á capella, and while it is not up the level of their first á capella album it does not fit under your disco label. Perhaps not even TSU/HGBS were immune to the changing production ideals of the late 70s, and I can imagine that the later albums appealed to their audience at the time. Someone who was following the scene back then would have to tell, though. Myself, I prefer the group without instrumental backing with the exception of the album with Oscar Peterson.

I agree about the sound quality; excellent remastering.

I think it was directed at James Harrod who is writing a book.

A drawback (the same as with the old subtitles) is that they're not visible while browsing the forum from a mobile phone (at least not for me when using an Android phone). As it makes some previous thread titles incomprehensible I'd suggest not to put vital information in the tags.