Daniel A

Yes, that is the UK Fontana cover. If I recall, this one is compiled from two sessions - side 1 has tracks from 'What The Dickens' and side 2 tracks from a slightly later session. It doesn't appear so; it's a conceptual album, the contents being a continuous suite. It seems to have been recorded in 1967, since the liners make a point about Dankworth's "very newest orchestra" and mentioning a May 1967 gig at Ronnie Scott's. But I think I will seek out 'Dickens' and the other of Dankworth's 60s big band dates too. Now listening to the Blue Mitchell Milestone twofer, the side from 'Smooth as the Wind'.

There's only a point in bypassing the sound card if the inputs on whatever device you're using are better than those of the sound card. Arguably, a separate device at some distance from the computer will not be subject to intereference from the computer itself to the same extent, but I think you'd have to go above $50 to really get an improvement over the sound card inputs.

This is not crazy, just a bit weird. All Herbie Hancock album listings on eBay unsing the Muze pre-filled information appears as Quincy Jones albums. If the sellers haven't put Hanock's name in the title manually they even have it in the auction title: Empyrean Isles "Quincy Jones" albums...

You know, I bought my LP copy in a shop which was so close to my apartment that I just walked home!

See this post: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...st&p=412209 Perhaps not "definitive", but...

Thanks. It appears that my link to the first cover doesn't work. Anyway, the cover I've got is at the bottom of this page: http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicHall/1069/...965-9/1967.html

Happy birthday, Chris!

That's a very good LP. Fine sampling of some of Lee Morgan's best on Blue Note. Agreed! IIRC the sound quality is good, too. Now spinning: John Dankworth 'The $1,000,000 Collection' (Fontana SRF-67575) A very enjoyable album, indeed! Got this today; my first Dankworth album, and the only one I've heard besides the co-effort with Wheeler, 'Windmill Tilter'. It appears to be a US pressing. The cover looks like this: http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicHall/1069/...0collection.jpg compared to this - what I believe is the UK - version (especially note the Fontana logo): http://www.tazrecords.com/tazcovers/dankworthjohn001.jpg Perhaps sidewinder or someone else of our British vinyl experts may be able to confirm this. The LP label is just plain blue with nothing else printed than the track titles and a circular Fontana logo.

Hear, hear!

Here's a link to a Lee Morgan discography: http://www014.upp.so-net.ne.jp/lee/lee/leeabm08.htm There are links to the sessions included in the Blakey set to the upper right.

Heres one for splitting MP3s: http://www.mpesch3.de/

Happy Birthday, Reinier!

Goldmine gradings: http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/modul...d=17&page=1

To round off this story, in his last reply to me the seller said he was sorry the LP did not meet my expectations. I've had a lot more hassle getting a refund before. The worst seller I've encountered was in fact from the UK. Actually, according to the goldmine gradings even a "G" record should "play through without skipping".

What happens in this case is that the stylus jumps further to another groove altogether four or five spins in a row. Since I got my money back I'm not feeling ripped-off. I just thought it incredible someone would defend the grading, even with recorded evidence. And Dan, I fully accept your apology. In fact, for a moment I was flattered anyone would take me for a native English speaker. But then it turned out you confused me with that Russian guy ... and BTW, don't ask him about my Russian, because it is bad beyond description...

For those who didn't know this album was reissued again in September; I believe it comes in jewelcase this time. The price is 1800 Yen, about $15. Including shipping from Hiroshi Tanno it shouldn't be too much over 20 dollars to the US. There have been previous threads about the merits of this album. I think it's good rather than great, but far from forgettable.

An update: today someone left this seller (who previuosly had only 1 negative feedback, but 5000+ positive from the last year) negative feedback for seven items in a row! Shortly after, all the negative feedback was "mutually withdrawn".

Sorry for being unclear! To clarify: My question in the post above mentioning visual grading was hypothetical. In the case of this LP, the item description did not mention whether the grading was visual, but instead something to the effect that it wasn't too bad at all; "quelques craquements ponctuels sans consequences" (which would mean something like "occasional crackles without consequences"). I didn't find more skips, although I haven't listened to the whole LP. But there was more crackle than I would accept for 'VG+'. Very shiny and nice surface, but with a couple of really long, visible scratches. I'm not sure if a "Stupid Swede" is even worse... Anyway, I was just going to say that I've gotten several really nice LPs in great condition from a French eBayer, but then I realized he's an American expatriate... However, in general I have nothing but nice memories from France, which I used to visit every summer for many years.

Then the question is: If a record is stated as visually graded "VG+", looks like a "VG+" but skips all the time - is it still graded correctly? Edit: the record I got did not even look like "VG+", but on the other hand; the scratch which caused the skips did not look as bad as some others.

I agree with all of you. I should have known better, really... Absolutely true. And I suppose the state of the stylus matters, as well as the counterweight and anti-skating settings, etc. My stylus is not new, but I think it's good enough. None of my other ever LPs skips, and some of them are "true VG", perhaps even true "VG-"...

Wasn't that the one that got the Parisian scene, sort of 'a la Reach Out' ? I think it just showed some railroad tracks and a train station.

Not that I really need to ask you this, because I'm convinced what the answer should be, but I was stunned and slightly irritated about the reaction from an eBay seller. I won an auction for an LP from France (quite cheap, I must admit - shipping was twice the price of the LP). It was stated as 'VG+'. While the record is glossy and looks rather decent at a very quick glance, there are a couple of really serious scratches. Less than 30 seconds into the first track, there are at least four skips within ten seconds. I made an MP3 sound clip of the first minute of playback and mailed it to the seller, who has 99.9% positive feedback, and had already left positive feedback for me as soon as payment had been sent. I specified the time range where the skips were. To my astonishment the seller then tells me he cannot hear any problems. He would have graded it 'EX' if it didn't have certain "defects", which is to be expected for a 'VG+' record'. He goes on suggestsing that I only buy 'EX' or possibly 'VG++' discs, because "one cannot require of a VG+ disc to be in very good state". Then he sent me a refund anyway. But why would he take that somewhat unreasonable position if he would nevertheless refund the money? If he doesn't hear the skips, I can't understand how he can be dealing with used LPs at all. My limited experience of buying LPs from eBay is that sellers tend to overgrade even more now than a couple of years ago.

All his item descriptions say "Quantity: 99". Don't know what's up with that, because even those with normal prices say "Quantity: 99". I checked another UK Amazon Marketplace seller at random. His descriptions said "Quantity: 10"...

He also claims that - after Desmond asked him why they didn't have more original tunes in the band - he wrote "In Your Own Sweet Way" and another tune in 30 minutes. This is from Len Lyons' "The Great Jazz Pianists" (Da Capo Press, 1983): Brubeck: 'In Your Own Sweet Way' was the first original that I'd written in years. It was about '52 or '53. We had just done a concert in upstate New York, and back at the hotel Paul said, "We really need some original material", because we'd been doing practically all standards. "We better find somebody to write some", Paul said. I looked at him and said, "You got to be kidding. I'm a composer. I can write two originals in a half hour." So I sat down and wrote 'In Your Own Sweet Way' and a piece called 'The Waltz' in thirty minutes just to show him. Paul titled 'In Your Own Sweet Way.' He really liked it. I don't think either of us liked 'The Waltz'. On 'Take five' (he didn't claim so much credit for that as I thought): That was written in '59, when we were getting ready for the Time Out album. I told the guys the album should include unusual time signatures. Joe Morello had been messing around with a 5/4 beat when he was warming up, and Paul was always intrigued by it. So I said, "You guys write the one in five/four because I know you've been fooling around with it." Paul came to rehearsal with two themes, but he said he hadn't gotten anything on paper. I had him play the two themes, and right away I said, "You've got a tune right there. Use the second theme for the bridge." That's how it happened. My wife and I wrote lyrics for it later. Suddenly it's being sung a lot, like by Al Jarreau. Carmen McRae was the first singer to record it. It's hard to believe that 'Take Five' was something the avearge musician could not play. Now any studio guys could probably play it without any problem. High school kids don't even think twice about it now. At the time the public was more ready for that than the musicians.