Daniel A

Clare Fischer 'Extension', mono pressing. In all honesty, this session sounds better on the excellent CD reissue produced by Jonathan Horwich some ten years ago. To me, this is the most interesting recording from Fischer's Pacific Jazz years. There's a lot to discover from repeated listening. I understand that the picture does not show your copy, but do you keep the OBI strips on? I hide them inside as I want to see the real cover pictures.

Oh, I like this one and should play it soon. There's a melancholic feel to this album which I find to be very moving. Have been looking for Multidirection on vinyl for years, but still no luck (copies on Discogs are so expensive). Thanks! I should seek this one out.

Yes, I will experiment some more as well. I went down to 0.8 for "strength", but it seemed to me that the high-pass had a better effect. I suppose that the amount of rumble from the turntable setup might affect to which degree this would be a problem. In any case, the end result is still much better than anything I have tried before, so thanks for bringing this up! The stereo vinyl rips will suffer in comparison, so yet another reason for going mono.

Here is an update. I noticed that on sections with pure groove noise (no music signal), the noise itself is heavily reduced, but there is a kind of "swirling" artifact if use 1,0 for the "strength" value. Normally this would not be a problem since I cut between the tracks anyway, but for a very long and quiet fade-out it seemed to interfere slightly. When I applied a 200 Hz high-pass it sounded good enough not to be a problem.

I just tried this when I transferred an old Savoy album with Frank Wess and Jerome Richardson, 'Flutes and Reeds'. It worked really well! The noise level was reduced substantially with no audible artifacts that I have been able to detect so far. Will proceed immediately with Cal Tjader's 'Along Comes Cal'. Now, it makes me want to get only mono versions for everything I want to transfer from vinyl!

I really like Gould's recordings of the French and English suites. However, I find the sound quality to be only just about average for the period. I don't really hear the bass sound of a grand piano. But the latest (last?) mastering used for the big 80+ CD box is the best version I've heard of this material.

Never saw that one! Could you elaborate a bit more? I like Kloss' Prestige dates, but as much for the sidemen as for his own playing, and I don't play them that often. When it comes to ECM, most of what I have (and like) is from the 1970s. Should I look for this album?

Yes, it's really good. I never got around to that Mosaic set, but I have Fischer covered. Now I am spinning this one, maybe for the first time in 10 years. Or 20?

I will listen myself through Clare Fischer's albums over the coming weeks, many of which were never reissued on CD. Today, his second Pacific Jazz album, 'Surging Ahead' on an original stereo pressing. It is slighly more conservative than 'First Time Out' with just a single original composition. Again, an interesting choice of bass player in Albert Stinson.

You probably mean 'Pensativa'? It's a great tune that is also fun to improvise on.

I don't know how much a free jazz saxophone gig pays these days, but I am sure it helped that he started to hunt for free jazz on LP at the age of 12 and has apparently spent most of his spare time doing so ever since. He is also known to have travelled across Europe to pay for rare records he couldn't afford by giving a private concert to the seller. Once, he also entered into a recording contract with a store/label as payment for a rare record.

I just got a new stylus for my pickup (Shure V15 type IV, the model with the (in)famous "stabilizer brush"). The first record I played was Clare Fischer's excellent debut on Pacific Jazz, 'First Time Out' on a hyper-quiet Toshiba pressing. I espescially like the interplay with Gary Peacock.

No; this is the only picture I could find that shows a part of Jonas' collection. He seems to be more of a CD guy: (the first picture is from the collection of Mats Gustafson)

This guy?

I don't own this album, but usually when there has been a CD reissue of an old "direct-to-disc" album, don't they use some kind of tape source? Otherwise they would have to do a "vinyl rip", but that is not the case with some other Columbia albums that were initially direct-to-disc but have subsequently been reissued on CD. I suppose they had sometimes (always?) a tape machine running as well, but then again it might have been just a two channel backup.

Thanks for your reply. I don't have a Now Sound section, but I think the best early CTIs from the A&M era are a bit different. My favorite is Paul Desmond's "Summertime". The worst track (Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) is out of the character with the rest of the album, which on the other hand is more conservative and with excellent production, including wonderful Don Sebesky arrangements. It just sounds a bit too polished for my take on Now Sound.

Also the early A&M/CTI albums?

I think I have actually listened to "Merry-Go-Round" more times than "Ju Ju" and definitely more than any other album under Elvin’s name. 🙂 There is a diversity to the settings which I think sustains interest; it is still a very well-balanced album.

The reason the photos are poor is that they are stills from the TV broadcast of the Golden Circle gig. Unfortunately (for those who didn't get it), the release now seems hard to come by, although some Swedish online vendors still have it.

Is Joni Mitchell "pop"? Anyway, the 'Mingus' album is from 1979.

This might be a matter of personal preference, but I find some tunes to offer endless possibilities of new interpretations that might still sound fresh, like Body and Soul. However, I do not want to hear another version of Take the A Train.

Also the first recorded version from before Corea founded Return to Forever, IIRC. The music on that whole album is great. Could an album having both Corea and Jan Hammer on Fender Rhodes *not* be great?

'Merry Go Round' also had the absurd, gigantic fold-out picture of Elvin. I prefer the CD cover of that one.

No, it's still lousy!

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