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couw

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Posts posted by couw

  7. Impulse Original thoughts?

    in Re-issues

    Posted

    Well, I'm not a headphone listener to cds, now MP3s of cds, yes, and they're compressed and don't present those same problems.

    if you do good encoding, you will be challenged to tell the difference between mp3 and uncompressed. Try it and let someone burn some mp3s and direct cd track copies to CDr and play it (blind) on your main or any system.

    I'm not that happy with the Labsons, not awful, just a bit too "digital" sounding to me and not exciting.

    yes, just that I would call them a tad "too exciting" in places. But that's nervous me. ;)

    These new ones are if I remember not as "loud" as they possibly could have been.

    a "new" reissue that is not louder than its predecessor? Hard to believe in this day and age! ;)

    I haven't heard any of these discs, so I cannot judge.

    Yes, the Village Vanguard box is excellent material. But in these instances where I've lived with the LP for a long time, I personally also like to have a cd that duplicates the original LP material.

    Just saw that the box still sells for about 30$. So if you really need to have it in original album format as well, at least ALSO buy the box. It's cheap and filled to the brim with awesomeness.

  8. Impulse Original thoughts?

    in Re-issues

    Posted

    for all I know, the newer it gets, the LOUDER it gets with some not-so nice effects for the headphone listener. The early (late 80s/early 90s) issues be them from Japan, Germany or the US all seem to have used the same master and although there are some differences in overall volume, these are all very nice on the ears. The Labson mid-90s masters (I guess that includes MichL's Duke&Trane) have everything, but mainly bass and highs pumped up. This usually means more detail where previously there was little, namely highs and lows and it *may* lead to too much detail which can freak you out (listening on headphones). Now this is not so much of a problem with the Labsons, at least for me; I know others think differently about those. The RVGs of Coltrane, Ballads and Love Supreme suffer from too much and listening to those I feel like I have just downed 4 liters of black coffee on an empty stomach. I can't tell you where the K2s stand here nor whatsup with the new ones. But if Lon says these new ones are "more dynamic" and "less mellow", I fear for the worst and will abstain.

    As for live at the VV, do yourself a favour and do get the box. It's all good.

  12. More Coltrane reissues

    in Re-issues

    Posted

    Disc: 1

    1. Africa

    2. Greensleeves

    3. Blues Minor

    Disc: 2

    1. Spiritual

    2. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise

    3. Chasin' The Trane

    Disc: 3

    1. Out Of This World

    2. Soul Eyes

    3. Inch Worm

    4. Tunji

    5. Miles' Mode

    Disc: 4

    1. In A Sentimental Mood

    2. Take The Coltrane

    3. Big Nick

    4. Stevie

    5. My Little Brown Book

    6. Angelica

    7. Feeling Of Jazz

    Disc: 5

    1. Say It (Over And Over Again)

    2. You Don't Know What Love Is

    3. Too Young To Go Steady

    4. All Or Nothing At All

    5. I Wish I Knew

    6. What's New

    7. It's Easy To Remember

    8. Nancy (With The Laughing Face)

    So that's the originally issued albums "Africa/Brass", "Live at the Village Vanguard", "Coltrane", "Duke Ellington and John Coltrane" and "Ballads".

    Beats me why this needs to be reissued as these are still easily available with substantial extra material added.

  13. Rolf & Joachim Kühn

    in Re-issues

    Posted

    Just after it was released, Joachim Kühn defected to the West through Vienna and the Solarius album was taken off the shelves. At least that is how the story goes. The story also goes that the music is really good and inspired and the stories combined make this LP the holy grail of GDR jazz collectors. LP copies offered on eBay off and on are way beyond my budget so I was thrilled when I saw it mentioned in one of J.A.W.'s upcoming releases listings.

    kuhn_rolf~~_solarius~_101b.jpg

    Spinning the CD right now I must say that this stuff sticks to the story. This is fabulous music with very inspired playing. Joachim takes to sparse (on one tune even Tyneresque) compings with Bartkowski mirroring him in a not-too-busy and often simple drumbeat that is really backing the whole event without drowning it anywhere, leaving Koch on bass with much more room to fill under Rolf's self-propelling clarinet lines -- which he does admirably. Michal Urbaniak sits in on most tunes, playing soprano and tenor sax. His sound fits well with the group. I have always liked his horn playing more than his violin. Lots of magic happening between the players on these tunes. On the down side I wish Joachim could have left his hamster at home.

    Anyhoo: a big :tup

  16. Delmark

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    FWIW, I didn't "quote" him. I simply pointed out he typed something that could/would be misunderstood in context.

    no, you didn't "quote" him in the technical board sense, you just put some words in his mouth:

    Cliffie said he dumped the Delmarks because they needed sonic upgrades

    no trace of "could/would" in that, really.

  17. Delmark

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    Cliffie said he dumped the Delmarks because they needed sonic upgrades

    the term used was "condition upgrades"

    For some reason Couw is on my case.

    sure, just like when Clifford supposedly dumped on the sonic quality of those records your produced. :rhappy:

    stop being so paranoid man, I'm merely pointing out a factual mistake in your quoting of a fellow board member.

    sheesh.

  21. New Blue Note 45rpm sets

    in The Vinyl Frontier

    Posted

    The Rollins I can only compare to the Freelance box, which has K2 masters AFAIK. I have always found these a tad too loud and jittery and they can be rather fatiguing on these headphone ears. The snippet posted is much better in that respect. Nice and smooth, a bit lower on the bass and the treble (<10kHz). The CD version has the left channel (tenor) boosted, which actually introduces some low volume hiss which makes for an awkward headphone listen. The snippet is much better in this respect.

  22. New Blue Note 45rpm sets

    in The Vinyl Frontier

    Posted

    interesting, thanks for posting the links. Listening to the Monk snippet, it clearly has more bass than the OJC CD (comparing to the box set). The lower and mid-treble (3-9 kHz) are lowered and the high-treble (10+ kHz) is boosted compared to the OJC. The effect is that the piano and the tenor (and the bass of course) have more bottom to sit on and that's nice. Compared to the OJC the sound is smooth but muffled. Not only is the tenor less loud, but its acid is drowned in bass and lack of midrange; at times it sounds like it hits a cushion somewhere mid-air. So whereas the OJC can sound a bit restless, the sample posted has too much bass to the point of being boomy (which may of course be ascribed to the LP to wav recording) and at times the tenor and piano can sound very awkward, like around 0:45 into the sample where the piano sounds like it has been drinking. If you have it available, compare it to the OJC (~1:45).

  25. Swinging Bach - J.S. Bach, that is...

    in Miscellaneous Music

    Posted

    there is Memory of Bach by Komeda (also on Milian's BaaZaaR album) and Konitz and Marsh do a Fugue on Tristano's Wow album. As for the Ornette, listening to it after plenty of time in between, some of the stuff on the Tone Dialling album has aged pretty badly with the cheap casio drumloop sounds; also Ornette's tone gets pretty yucky at times. That may be just me of course and you better judge for yourself here

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