neveronfriday

I ordered the following titles (I'm too lazy to type them all up, so I'm using order confirmation short titles in the hope that you can identify them from that). I have yet to come across titles that sound more than mediocre or adequate, although I really only spot-checked (!!!). The best way to describe the sound on these is "veiled". No other word in my vocabulary (after three Cuba Libres) to do the sound "justice". 505453 Webster Love 505485 Sims Morning 505475 Wilson Porter 505492 Pettif.Montmar 505474 Grappelli Meets 505446 Hawes Blues Bud 505480 Previn Sunset 505494 Konitz Body 505455 Gordon Body 505486 Ellington Feel 505496 Hines Blues in 505482 Russell Money 505483 Konitz Storyv 505465 Powell Essen 505488 Basie Class 505479 Hines Tour de 505472 Cole Anatomy 505476 Gordon Take the 505495 Wilson Blues for 505497 Pettif.Vienna

How's this buying-through-the-board thing turning out? Numbers? Complaints? Slowing down? Picking up? Covering the expenses? And why not?

I don't have the original Black Lion CDs to compare with and please do correct me if I'm wrong here, but the sound on these 24-Bit remasters (God, how I'm getting to hate that phrase) sucks. Muffled at times, shrill at times, compressed at other times. It sounds like someone did one of those 20-minute runs with whatever "f*ck-up-the-original-tapes" software is en vogue at the moment, flattening the sound to a mere nothing. I bought about 15 of these and have only quickly checked some, but the sound was bad throughout. Major disappointment. P.S.: I know most of these are reasonably old recordings, and they might have been mediocre tapes/recordings at best when they were recorded (no idea) or the engineers were a bunch of crack heads, but I've heard a million better transfers than these.

2nd paragraph

Storm blew over a few hours after my last post here. Things did not turn out as drastic as everyone had predicted for our area, but the fire department was out in force, my neighbor ruined his own car this time around (with his own tiles falling off his roof ... what an utter and complete idiot), and I had a wonderful view of the mayhem across our small town here. The funniest thing were two teenagers trying to fire off a left-over New Year's rocket (one of those massive jobs with sequences of fireworks that last quite a while) and they managed ... to send it straight down the road only to explode in front of the Thai take-away, scaring the crap out of the people inside. The next day there was tons of water everywhere (I'm very close to the "Rheinauen" which is an extensive swampy area right next to the river) that had risen up through the ground. In short, nothing we aren't used to here.

http://www.genesis-news.com/genesis/live/t...dates_2007.html All the latest on the tour dates, etc. Good site. P.S.: Stuttgart (Germany) has been rescheduled, as far as I recall (moved to the 28th). Check the site.

Crikey! Where the hell ARE you? MG I'm in south-western Germany, right along the Rhine river (the "tunnel") across from a city called Karlsruhe. Behind me, not far away, there is a mountain (hills, actually) range and where I live, stretching up for a few hundred kilometers, everything is flat, flat, flat. The wind races along the range and is really picking up speed around here. It's passing though absolutely unhindered. My place is literally shaking, although it has so far withstood any of those darn storms. The roof is rock-solid, and so is everything else, but right now - because I've got two sides exposed to the onslaught of wind and rain (we just had a torrential downpour which luckily only lasted a few minutes, but the fire department is already pumping out basements a bit further down the street) - it sounds like the roof will come off in once piece instead of many. It's also pitch bloody black outside right now, and the main force is still about 30 minutes away, I've heard. A wild ride.

We're at nearly 200 km wind speed here (basically, the storm is channeled through a flat area here. It's almost like a tunnel). Fun. The neighbor's roof is beginning to deteriorate.

I've still got a 5-hour wait until it is supposed to hit here in full force. Things are still relatively calm, but if I look at some of the maps, there's some real crap bearing down right on where I live (120 - 150 km winds expected about 4 to 5 hours from now, plus torrential rain). If the neighbors didn't have such loose roof tiles, I could actually enjoy the storm, but if it goes anything like the great big one a few years back, I'll be lucky if I don't get parts of their roof through my windows. Idiots. They haven't fixed a thing these past years and their house has always looked like nobody ever intended to finish it.

2007/06/11 Helsinki Olympic Stadium Finland 2007/06/14 Herning Messecenter Denmark 2007/06/15 Hamburg AOL-Arena sold out Germany 2007/06/17 Bern Stade de Suisse Switzerland 2007/06/18 Linz * Gugl Stadium Austria 2007/06/20 Budapest Puskas Ferenc Stadium Hungary 2007/06/21 Katowice Slaski Stadium Poland 2007/06/23 Hannover AWD-Arena sold out Germany 2007/06/24 Brussels Stade Roi Baudouin NEW Belgium 2007/06/26 Düsseldorf * LTU-Arena sold out Germany 2007/06/27 Düsseldorf * LTU-Arena Germany 2007/06/29 Stuttgart Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion sold out Germany 2007/06/30 Paris Parc des Princes France 2007/07/01 Amsterdam Arena sold out Holland 2007/07/03 Berlin Olympic Stadium Germany 2007/07/04 Leipzig Zentralstadion sold out Germany 2007/07/05 Frankfurt * Commerzbank-Arena sold out Germany 2007/07/07 Manchester Old Trafford sold out UK 2007/07/08 London Twickenham Stadium sold out UK 2007/07/10 Munich * Olympic Stadium Germany 2007/07/12 Monaco Louis II Stadium Monaco cancelled 2007/07/12 Lyon Gerland Stadium France 2007/07/14 Rome Colosseum Italy free entry * VIP Tickets available

Yep, and there's a thread somewhere around here about it too.

Wasn't this supposed to be a recommendation thread and not the usual nobody-makes-any-money-if-Europeans-rip-it-all-off-whining one?

Yep. I bought 5 books from them the other day and four of those are English editions (Jim Marshall, Proof"; John Cohen, "Photographs"; B.B. King, "Treasures" and William Claxton, "Photographic Memory".) Unfortunately, Bill Wyman's "Blues" is in German, but at that price I might as well read it in my mother tongue (s.th. I rarely ever do). Actually, 99% of the books I bought from 2001 these past twenty years were in English.

Very nice. And yes, I agree with you, good music it wasn't in those links I supplied (besides Tommy Emmanuel, who's written some wonderful music [and has played some real crud as well]. I was just fascinated by the (new) technique. I remember that Stanley Jordan guy, who was big once because of that tapping technique, but his stuff had one problem: Every bit of space was filled with notes, slides and whatnot. Your link is more what I consider to be music as well, especially because it's given room to breathe. Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv9ju0YjpyM Just because ...

Bugge Wesseltoft. "It's Snowing on My Piano". Act 1997. Best Christmas CD I have ... and I have many.

Come to Europe already so I can take some photos! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. P.S.: Very nice shots!

Tord Gustavsen Trio. Both CDs. Pure. Scandinavian. Lyrical. Excellent. Must-haves.

Excellent! Thank you.

I have plenty of Definitive stuff that I'm more than happy with, so all of that might be purchase #3, 4 ... and whatever.

I think that a Kenton record which would fit your requirements well is Adventures in Blues, easily available on a Capitol CD. It has swing, drive, intelligence and surprise (and very good arrangements, mostly by the underrated Gene Roland). I used a track from it for my recent Blindfold test, and I succeeded in fooling almost everyone luca i concur, ditto trop. I think this might be purchase #2!

That sounds like it would be right up my alley and a #1 purchase.

Thanks a million, guys! Those are exactly the recommendations I was looking for. Many excellent recommendations in there. Keep 'em coming ... I've got 10 CDs to buy ... minimum. I'll let you know which releases I bought once I sampled all the recommendations.

I like small group and big band sessions that swing. Swing is the very essence of the music I like. I like big band music that has drive, intelligence and surprises. I love West Coast jazz as well. Period. I also like (love) vocal jazz if it's got those extra elements that I need: intelligence, interesting arrangement, unique voice. I love Anita O'Day (#1), Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday (#s 2), June Christy and Una Mae Carlisle (#s 3) and Dinah Washington (#4). If the session has Anita O'Day, I'm interested in it no matter which of the requirements above are fulfilled ... even if none are. I abhor anything that is free or turns into mindless blowing sessions or muzak big band outings. If a recording has only very few highlights and is otherwise, err, boring, ... nope. I need good sound (I'm not the snap-crackle-pop guy), although mediocre will do if the music merits sitting through the "noise" (this goes for many of the Armstrong or Ellington sessions that I just love, although the sound is close to horrible). Hell, I couldn't care less if I need ear plugs to sit through a stellar session. I have the feeling that too many Kenton sessions might fulfill my requirements from what I've read, but I'm looking for 5 to 10 essential recordings that you think I should have/anyone with more than a passing interest in jazz should have. It's Kenton Christmas for me soon. I won't buy anything else, because it's one of the most glaring holes in my collection. Can you help me out with releases that are a) easily available and b) are must-haves? It would also help if they don't cost an arm, a leg and at least one testicle. Thanks for your help.