Daniel A

Two weeks ago I went to see Brad Mehldau (w/ Grenadier and Ballard) here in Stockholm. Haven't followed his albums from the last couple of years (have got a few "Art of the Trio"'s) so I was not sure what to expect. Initially I was underwhelmed - I thought his solos took too long to develop, and there were some tendencies to go for effect. But then there were a couple of astonishingly beautiful passages, and some technically unbelievable two-handed (though not octave) playing. I guess he has his style down, and that will be enough for many. Not sure I'll need another album of his, but I'm not sure I won't go and see him the next time he's in town. On the first tunes I had the feeling Jeff Ballard didn't quite fit with the group, but it got less noticeable as the show went on.

The Mike Longos have cocktail piano over some nice Mickey Roker backbeats. They're fun the first time, but not convincing in the end.

Yep, it now says 2.3.3 at the bottom of every page.

We're adviced to check back soon for the current tour dates of Hank Mobley... http://www.bluenote.com/ArtistTours.aspx?ArtistId=904922

In the Euro NCAP crash tests the Smart Car outperformed several other vehicels in the supermini category, for example Chevrolet Kalos and Matiz.

Well, that's great! Just last night I discovered that they had some titles in stock which sell for twice as much on Amazon marketplace.

Where did you learn this? Their site still says: http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/faq.html

Yes, that is what I'm thinking as well. There are many kinds of businesses that can't be run downtown in a big city these days. I'm not saying that $100 a night should be enough for a musician though. But: I suppose you can't. If there's too many, some have to stop. And if people can't hear the difference between real and fake musicians, those asking for less money will get the gigs.

Thanks, Brandon! Nice to see you around, too!

Maybe we should not expect serious music to be made any more in areas which are so expensive. Stockholm is very small in comparsion, but in the suburbs there are more and more places with live music popping up.

I can see that. Still, what happened to me recently was that Caiman suddenly listed an item (on Amazon Marketplace UK as it were) which had previously not been available. Suddenly Caiman indicated it as "in stock" (which of course it wasn't, as they have no stock). So how do they suddenly decide that they will be able to get an item? In the end, it costed me a dollar because of the varying exchange rates so it was no big deal, but still...

I'd say Caiman is violating Amazon Marketplace Participation Agreement by not having the items in stock. But that goes for a lot of other sellers as well. (italics/bold by me) http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/dis...;nodeId=1161302

As posted elsewhere on the forum I've had the same experience as Ubu.

Got this one today: Lee Morgan 'The Gigolo' (orig. stereo Liberty). The playing is fine, but the recording only average (weak bass, messy cymbals).

No, because:

I agree with everything said in previous posts. There are some artists who are totally dependent on the media industry marketing - those (IMO) without quality. To a large extent a new (yeah, I know Britney is finished, at least for the moment, but I'll take her as an example anyway) Britney album is a large-scale production rather than "Britney doing nice songs with sympathetic musicians". Almost everyone in the production - musicians, Britney herself (remember her voice is "fattened" with overdubs from various professional singers), even songwriters - is replaceable, except the producer, who in the end is an extension of the record company. I realize there are a lot of people who like the result, and so want the "product" - a product no small independent label would give them. But for "quality artists", I wonder if the marketing apparatus is crucial. I know that myself and the other members of this forum are not entirely representative of jazz "consumers" of today, but looking back at recent purchases of music of (to me) previously unknown artists, all of them have been upon recommendations on the internet. People will want music, and they will not stop searching out new stuff just because there is no Borders around any more.

It may still be an RCA plug problem, of course.

Without a working crystal ball I still have a couple of predictions about the future of music distribution: The compact disc will die There is no stopping file sharing So, how will the industry handle that? It may seem this topic has been up several times before, but I cannot recall too many inspired suggestions as to how the distribution will work a few years from now. The theory behind intellectual property law is that every artist is entitled control over his work. Supposedly, this has been widely accepted as a fair idea. Recent years have seen a new generation of downloaders, who think that (along with other things) music should belong to everyone. Now, I'm not too sure that people are suddenly disinterested in that the artists should be rewarded for their work (aside from the fact that much of the money never reached the artists anyway); I think most people bought their LPs and CDs without giving much thought to where their money went - they just wanted the product. Since there now is a free way of getting (almost) the same thing, lots of people are opting for that instead. So, many people don't want to pay anything for music, they will never pay - but on the other hand, they never wanted to. But there are also still people who do want to pay the artists something. Looking at the jazz scene i my own country (which I know better than ths US/"global" scene), nevertheless more music than ever is recorded. Looking back at the 80s, 70s and the 60s, a lot more artists are putting out discs (and downloads, for that matter, but so far only in a limited scale) today. But the difference is that more or less all of these are distributed by the artists themselves, or by very small labels. The larger companies are barely releasing new jazz any more. So it appears the last few years of massive downloading has not affected the variety of recordings available. I don't say that it won't in the end, but still it hasn't over here. Also, the interest for music of all kinds are, as I take it, greater than ever before. As much as I love a physical product, I think that in a few years we'll be downloading music from artist websites, paying directly to the artists. A much more uncertain area will of course be reissues of existing material. The media industry wants to earn money, nothing more. When they can't get anything out from their old tapes, they will stop their reissues (more or less already happened). If there still are people wanting to hear them, they will find their way out somehow, but perhaps more via audiophile/niche companies. My point is that there will be a way of recording, distributing and consuming new music, and I don't think that the major media companies will play a very big part in it. The big challenge will be how to revise the intellectual property law. Historically, I think it has not been as much to the benefit of the artists as of the media industry. I would need a crystal ball to see how rights of producers, composers, artitst etc. will work in the future. Thoughts?

Well, perhaps you could spin some mono album?

Yes!

The output signal from a phono cartridge is so weak that it would take something more than an ordinary RadioShack-ish multimeter to test it, but you Father-in-law may of course have some serious stuff.

I'm not sure about this, but I have a feeling it might be something wrong with the RCA plug. I'm thinking that if the wiring was OK all the way up to the arm, that would be enough to pick up some ground noise when connecting the plug. To me, no "click" suggests that the circuit is broken close to the amp.

I couln't be the stylus, since the channel separation is done by the cartridge. I think the most probable cause would be either the connection between the cartridge and the arm or in the cables/connection between turntable and amplifier.

I've noticed this in some other threads from around 2004. For some reason the missing posts are usually by Clementine.

I just listened to it and thought it sounded a little as Harold Land.