Daniel A

Re: the Kelly/Henderson live recording - I find it pretty amazing in spots, but I feel that Kelly and Henderson does not always mesh with eachother in terms of style. Other opinions are of course more than welcome. Regarding the label Lone Hill Jazz - don't they have a reputation of not always clearing music rights prior to releasing stuff, no? 'Four' and 'Straight, No Chaser' still appear to be available from Verve.

My experience in the "pro arena" says many times 1x burns are too hot and deliver many digital errors. The preferred "balanced" burn is 4x. Anything higher is problematical. ← I read about this issue a few years back, when I was still using an old 4x burner. It appeared from tests (just don't ask me who made the tests) that burning today's high-speed optimized CDRs too slow increased the nuber of errors just because the laser became too heavy, as Chuck says, and caused some sort of "bleeding". If I remember correctly this problem was measurable also at 2x, 4x and perhaps even 8x when 52x CDRs were used.

Is the time limit for this series still effective? The issues from the first batch supposedly would have disappeared in May 2005, but they still appear at the Verve website. I'm looking at a copy of Oscar Peterson's "Soul Español" right now, and it proudly indicates on the OBI (is it still called OBI if it's an American reissue, BTW?) that it will only be available until May 2005.

Angel Records is another EMI subsidiary, which happens to have a couple of new releases on September 13th. Probably a mix-up at CDUniverse.

The gas price in the US is still way lower than in most of the industrialized western world. Taken into account the long-term damage on the environment it probably should be a lot higher, as to prevent the use of excessively thirsty cars. I'm not even sure the price here in Sweden (similar to the major part of Europe, and about 2.5 times the US price) is enough. We're facing pretty serious climate issues during the next decades, and not even bio fuel is a permanent solution to that. In the end, we (the whole world) could expect dramatical changes which will affect the entire living standard more than a higher gas price would right now. I know that in large parts of America you're much more dependent on a car to get around, compared to some European urban areas. What I'm saying is that the majority of car engines is just unnecessarily big (both in Europe, and even more so in the US), and still higher gas prices would encourage the use of more economical vehicles. There is simply no rational need for a V8, or even a 6-cylindre engine in a car or a minivan. But I'd dare to say that the average European car cosumes less fuel than the average US car. Partly this is because we have a tradition of building small to medium sized cars, rather than big ones. But I think even if you're comparing cars of corresponding size the European (or Japanese for that matter) one will have a smaller engine. To have a V8 motor in a family car is vary rare here (except for the recent, unfortunate increase of SUV:s), while it's still not uncommon in the US, from what I've heard (please correct me if I'm wrong). I think the higher gas price in Europe is partly to thank for this, but there is still so much to be done. For the last decades the typical fuel consumption of a car has not decreased much at all, while top speed has doubled and acceleration become twice as fast. And the average highway speed limits are still just getting lower! This is an unnecessary, and very unfortunate development in my view.

Thanks, Claude! I did try to search for a thread about the album - not too well it seems! I'll delete this thread lest someone else has a different opinion.

Anyone got the latest Shorter album? I would be interested to hear what you think. I saw this group live a few years ago, truly my greatest live jazz experience ever! I'll probably get this anyway, but some positive comments here will perhaps make me go for it sooner rather than later. 'Beyond the Sound Barrier', released July 2005

It appears as if the head is dislocated from the body. Looks kind of dangerous to me. But as long as it all serves its purpose you couldn't go wrong with it, I guess.

It's not that different from the other of Hutcherson's albums with Hancock, but all the same: it's a very good and listenable album. If there's a difference, it's that the tunes in general are perhaps a bit mellower/more melodical, or perhaps better put; less abstract, than on the typical Hutcherson album of the time. But they are not lightweight in any regard. Together with 'Total Eclipse' I consider this album as the most consistent of Hutcherson's Blue Notes. If you're not too fond of Hutcherson you'll probably want to spend your money on something else. But I think you wouldn't regret trading in one or two of your least favorite Hutchersons for 'Oblique'.

Birthday wishes to Lon, the true gentleman of the Internet jazz community!

Thanks, Brownie! I was moved to learn that my meager contributions here are in any way missed. Things are beginning to look a bit brighter. I'll stick around!

Hi everybody! The subject of the J.J. set is enough to bring some joy to my recently rather miserable life. It should on no accounts be missed! As mentioned above, Jaspar is very good, the overall playing and arrangements are way above par, and the probability that much of this material will be available again during the next decade is slim. My favorite Mosaic set.

I've heard it once, and I thought it was pretty bad actually. And I do usually like Bill Evans. On that album he's buried in busy arrangements, through which his Fender Rhodes (of course) can sometimes barely be heard.

Thanks again! 10 Euro is a very good price for the ECM titles. Usually used copies are not cheaper than that around here. Nor is the fixed shipping price high if you order two or more LPs.

Claude, thanks for mentioning JPC, didn't know that they had a lot of LPs too! When they say that they may get an item within 1-2 weeks, are your experience that it's usually true?

Like Big Al, this set was my first purchase from Mosaic. Though there are a few really enjoyable sessions, I'm a bit more hesitant to put it among the best sets. The individual albums are mostly good on their own account, but I feel that Donald Byrd doesn't manage to hold my interest across several discs, which for example the Thad Jones or Woody Shaw sets do (speaking of trumpeters), or the excellent J.J. Johnson set. I'll probably get flamed for this, but to me Byrd sounds a bit like a good trumpeter on a bad day - all days. But if you're a fan of Byrd or Adams, you'll probably want to get it.

Actually, I didn't buy it. I browsed the web for more opinions, and came across a thread on AAJ where someone who apparently has everything Powell did (including 33 CDs worth (!) of bootlegs from his last years) posted something which basically meant "get any of Bud's albums, but not that one". If I remember correctly, he too used the word "depressing". As a guy who has only heard Powell's Blue Notes, I decided that I should get some other of his (earlier) albums before trying this.

"Jazz cat" is coming fast. He made 140 posts the day before yesterday, without too much effort it seemed. The guy obviously has much to say...

"The return of Bud Powell" (Roulette, 1964) is available at 9 Euros nearby. Clean copy. Shop will close soon, and I'll be out of town all of next week. Buy or not?

"Powerhouse" (and also "Lighthouse '68") was out on CD on the dubious 'Applause' label. But I would hardly say that counts; sound was bad and cover art sabotaged.

He appears to be playing with "The New Jazz Couriers". His website features rather recent reviews, so it seems he's still playing. http://homepages.tesco.net/~martindrew/index.htm

A good one which is still missing:

For newcomers, here's a good and informative five page guide to making MP3s with LAME: http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/encoding.ars/1 The only thing it fails to mention are settings for mono encoding, but that is mentioned above in this thread.

If the total bitrate drops as much as you're experiencing here, I'd bet that this recording is as mono as it gets (and probably a bit limited in dynamic range as well). My guess, based on what I've read here, is that the bitrate would average about 90-100 kbps if you'd used mono encoding. So re-do the ripping if you want 30 percent smaller files with the same quality. Quality is not affected by encoding this in joint stereo, as you've done here, there's only some waste of space since the files are bigger than necessary.