neveronfriday

These are definite boots ... the question is ... of which version. As I have the most important material (Gershwin, Ellington and ... can't recall right now) as Verve Master editions already, they could help me fill a couple of holes (or would make nice cheapo presents ... if they are worthwhile in the sound department at all. I'm guessing they're boots of the big SB box. I'd even prefer if they were boots of the original (Dennis Drake) remasters (much better)!

Resurrecting this old thread for a quick question. I stumbled over a bunch of (UK) reissues by an outfit called "Not Now Music" which has been pumping out well-known "classic albums", incl. the Ella songbooks. Has anyone picked one of these up or has access to a shop where they might have these. I'd be interested in finding out if there is any mastering info (probably not), meaning: is this a rip-off of someone else's mastering work or did they do their own? These boxes are reaaaaly cheap. Example: http://www.amazon.co...G/ref=pe_vfe_x1 http://www.amazon.co...f=pd_sim_m_h__1 ...

Mine's very positive. It's just lots of readjusting to be done in a very short timespan. Takes some getting used to. But, on with the McCartney show ...

Solid-state. I don't listen to LPs much anymore. Planning on upgrading to a totally new system sometime next year, maybe even later. Priorities changed when I got sick. Now I'm spending all of my cash on getting healthy and fit again. An uphill battle.

I often wonder if I tick differently when these questions come up. I'm not the very analytical type. In my life, there has always been a strong connection with music and my life at that point in time. In that department, "London Town" has remained one of my favorite albums. Is it good music? Hell, I don't care. Whenever I hear that LP my system responds to it with a positive upbeat feeling. That's enough for me. The same goes for "Wings over America". The same also goes for many other albums that other people around the Internet love to trash continuously. I don't often listen to these albums but when I do, I switch my brain off and let the feelings take over.

If it is an April Fool's joke, at least it is a good one.

Thanks everyone for your kind words and the encouragement oozing from your posts. I'm fine and despite the fact that is the second (mild) bout with the big "C", I'm keeping a very upbeat attitude and outlook (not always as easy as it sounds when you consider the various health issues I had to fight with because of what the cancer caused (not the cancer itself ... which was usually removed and treated fast and efficiently once found). I certainly do not want to start a political discussion here, but without a good solid (in my case private) insurance, I would have been screwed years ago. Last night, just out of interest and because I have to send in bills, I added up all the costs I have so far raked up (for my insurance) and including the hair-risingly expensive and extensive search for both problems I had these past years plus the serious health "side-issues" that needed to be taken care of, I have passed the two-hundred thousand Euro mark. I ain't kidding. In my area, that's almost a decent-sized house. So people, as long as it's only a sore tooth, no probs, but in two cases like mine, you'll end up under a bridge in a sleeping bag. BTW: Once you start analyzing all the numbers and treatments it also becomes quite clear that the system in my country is far from efficient. A lot of money is wasted. I hope you understand that I couldn't give a rat's ass right now (I benefited greatly from all of it), but things need to be streamlined here to save huge amounts of money for the state. Still, without the system we have in place, I would have been screwed. Jim, we always come back, don't we (even drama queens like me)? I still wish couw would one day, but I guess he's one of the very very few that is cured today. And thanks for the best wishes. Volkher

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, survival rate is high, but do keep in mind that there are (at least?) three different types of thyroid cancer. Mine was of the follicular type which loves to spread to the lungs once it has reached a size above, say 1 to 2 cm and more. Mine was small enough not to have done that, a lady at the same hospital wasn't so lucky. So, curable, yes, but things get very difficult down the road if you carry this around too long and if you have a more dangerous type.

If nobody else replies, I'll get back to this in a day or two. Right now I'm too knackered. Might be like this for longer than I'd like.

Thanks, Flurin, and (absolutely) ... no problem! Let's keep it rollin' here and elsewhere. Yup... somewhen next year I might get the Basie thing started again (with major help from you...?) - hopefully... my blog hasn't been updated in many months. Time is just too rare! I check on a weekly basis. PM me re a possible involvement. Volkher P.S.: Before end-May, beginning June I'll be dead to the universe.

Thanks, Flurin, and (absolutely) ... no problem! Let's keep it rollin' here and elsewhere.

I wish there was a way of making sure one gets the improved set. Unfortunately, in mails, most people one talks to on Amazon world-wide don't have a clue as to what one is talking about. It''s down to a round of Russian Roulette. :/

[...] too much muscle and rock beats [...] that didn't seem very organic with the rest of the band... I don't know his music at all though, so maybe if I stumble over that set again, I should reconsider... r.i.p. My problem, exactly. You nailed it. A lot of his varying output was simply too generic.

Thanks! And ... yes! Thanks, John! I'm in good spirits!

"Fatman" was an absolutely dedicated musician. Two of my former students are members of the "Bundesjugend-Jazzorchester". One of the lead saxophones is a girl that, unusual for my area, lived and breathed jazz at a very young age. The last time I met Peter was last year and we spent an extensive amount of time discussing "Eugen Cicero": Peter was one of the extremely few people I knew who knew even the minutest details of Eugen's life and career (although he was not exactly a fan). What fascinated me about him was his both strict (and at times explosive) and loving and extremely dedicated teacher persona. I was allowed to watch many rehearsals of the above-mentioned orchestra from the "bleachers". He had a very unique way of getting the absolute best from his young students, in a conversational tone but always with astounding results. Many, many years ago I had the chance to sit next to him at a fancy dinner for an entire evening and I found out that, at heart, he was a teacher. In the latter half of his life I, personally, had the feeling that he also defined himself that way almost exclusively. I would have loved to have someone like him as a teacher at the school I work at. An idealist with a postively huge background. He gave his very best to young people, even at times at which he was not feeling well .. at all. From that singular perspective of mine, it is a huge loss to the music community (much like Ed Thigpen's death early this year was), because there simply aren't many of those personalities around anymore. It's only my own guess, but a very large number of aspiring jazz musicians in Germany (and, to some extent, Europe) owe an absolutely huge debt to Peter. Without him, his dedication and stamina, many - if not most - would never have been offered the chances they got. Peter made sure to always do his best to help them advance within the jazz and music scene. Unwaveringly. What a loss. :/

Thank you, Marcel! I took my Cowon S9 music/video player along to the hospital (a fabulous player with crummy/confusing (!) navigation/UI and otherwise spectacular capabilities!!! (lossless + most video formats). I brought along Dinah Washington (complete) and Bill Evans (mostly live material) only. It was the first time I had heard much of Bill Evans' last recordings front to back. Fabulous! The rest of the player was filled with American TV series to pass the time: "Threshold" (cancelled but very good), "Defying Gravity" (cancelled but very enjoyable), "the "John Adams" miniseries (!!) and a few films. I'm a sci-fi/fantasy/historical miniseries nut and got my fill, to boot! Hooray for modern technology! Thank you! I will try to keep it my site up to the best of my abilities (=what my current state will allow). Cheers! Volkher Thank you very much!

Thank you! I feel good and have a 100% positive outlook. Let me add another small anecdote here to add to the above. I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, for many years and attended the International School there. I was an active musician then and for many years thereafter. In my class there was the ultimate Ry Cooder nut (and anything that falls into that category), guitarist, musical talent, geek. He went on to become a world-renowned expert on treating cancer in children (I have no idea what the term for this is) and has published and researched extensively in the field. It's a name that pops up top-three on just about any Google search for various intricate illnesses. He read a post on a private web site I keep and called me in the middle of the night (bloody four in the morning!) end-January and announced that he would be sending me an extensive "search list" for my two doctors. He was aware of the intricacies of diagnosing my condition which pointed to everything but ... Item #2 was spot-on. As a result, it took me two days to get a solid scan, two weeks to find a surgeon (also with his help) and a personal mail by him (from thousands of miles away !!!) to get me into the hospital two months ahead of the waiting list. a) Friendship is a good thing. b) We haven't seen each other in person for nearly 30 years. c) We're meeting in June (I invited him) for a jam session (he still plays regularly). d) There's not only porn on the Internet. Volkher

Hi everyone, I didn't know if I should place this in the thread about the Mosaic discographies that has been silent for a while, but I decided to put it here. As some of you know, I have been quite ill for a while (the story of the past 6 years) and have pulled another Houdini for a few weeks ("good riddance", as some members here might say). I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a while back (I expected the diagnosis), my second (milder) bout with cancer in my life. I spent quite a bit of time searching out the best surgeon for my problem (hooray for private insurance) and had my thyroid gland removed by a certified celebrity in the field (I needed the best as there was a high probability that my vocal chords might take a hit in the process and without those, my job would have been down the drain). The prognosis is 100% recovery although I do have to go for very mild and brief (4 days) radiation therapy at the end of April to make sure that everything is gone (left-over tissue is "burned away" into oblivion by the intake of one single pill). Thyroid cancer (of course, with my luck, I had to have the more dangerous type), is nasty because it often goes undetected. As silly as it might sound, it was mostly myself - with the help of some online friends of mine who are doctors - who pushed diagnostics in the right direction. One check ... "It's a bingo!" (use the Christoph Waltz intonation from "Inglorious Basterds" here, please)! It was caught in the early stages and did not (I'm going to have this double- and triple checked) spread to the lungs, which this nasty form usually does (mine was under 1cm in diameter). Just a heads up for those who perhaps have similar problems (in my case, another illness covered it up and lead doctors into the wrong direction) ... Hoarseness (spelled correctly?), weight gain (or loss), sleep disorder, personality changes, eye problems that won't go away, skin problems, plus more ... there's hardly anything that can't be attributed to thyroid disorders. If you have several symptoms and doctors can't explain things or are misled by two or three symptoms that don't fit ... have your thyroid gland checked via a simple and painless scan. In fact, the cancerous growth was discovered (and expected) because I had "hot" spots (red) slated for removal (hot spots were the cause of my problems). The doctor had the scan to also be able to look at and - if necessary - remove the "cold" spots (dark blue) which then turned out to be cancerous. In the hospital I met many people who hadn't been as lucky as I was. Their thyroid cancer had gone unnoticed for too long and had spread to the lymphatic system and the lungs. Very often, these people were successful businessmen and other professionals who simply ignored the signs that often seemed stress-related. On a sidenote: I had myself checked three times thoroughly in the past six months and the cancer went virtually unnoticed all that time. That kind of growth likes to fly below the radar and is often only discovered once you start looking for it specifically. In about 4 weeks I have the radiation therapy and will then probably have a clean slate. Until then, I have to live with various problems that are brought about intentionally to make the radiation therapy work flawlessly (sleep disorder, weight gain, drowsiness, etc.) as I'm not allowed to take hormones necessary after the removal of the thyroid gland. The "starved" hormone system will "suck up" the radiation and after that, I will be slowly brought back to normal (one pill before breakfast for the rest of my life ... that's it) ... as much as "normal" is a term that can be attributed to me, myself and I. So, my Internet activities and various pages I keep online will or will not be updated according to what I feel like. Health will come first and everything else comes second. Just wanted to let you know. I especially wanted to leave a thank you for many board members who inquired as to my health, to Mike (vajerzy) for swinging the Anita O'Day deal with me while I was in hospital (thanks a million!), and all the others who helped relieve the boredom that is "hospital" for the past week or two via e-mail and many very nice and touching words of encouragement (no idea how some of you found out as I kept quiet about it all, but I was sure glad you did!). @Mike: This year I set one goal for myself and that was to fill some glaring holes in my collection (new ones will open up soon enough, I assume). At the top of my list were the complete Dinah Washington on Mercury reissues (done), every single Siegel-Schwall Blues Band reissues (done ... although some of you might say I should have spent my hard-earned cash elsewhere) and, last, but absolutely not least, the Anita O'Day Mosaic box which I simply couldn't afford when it was available. Mike: It sounds silly, but knowing I have the set at a good price helped me through the past week, as mundane as that might sound. Thank you very much! I'm around (for better or for worse). Volkher (neveronfriday, deus62, ...)

If it does come to pass, great news!

Thanks, Hans. I'm an eBay member (don't use it anymore), but for months, I've had problems with the password. No matter what I do, it's screwed up and I can't access my eBay US account at all. I can change the password and access it, but then my German account doesn't work anymore and vice-versa. Because I don't use it anymore, I'm not about to set up a new account. Edit: I got my set cheaper.

Thanks! Which one cost the most? Volume 5? I got my set in that price range as well, but #5 I had to really dish out for (as new). Considering that a very nice person gave me Volume 6 for free, I still - in total - stayed in the price range of these eBay items. *relief*

How much did these go for? I forgot to watch the auctions.

Ah, finally something well thought-out that I'd like to respond to. Actually, we both agree pretty much. The problem is that we are looking at it from two different places on this planet. See, in Germany, Rapidshare is not a "firm" per its business model, it is considered to be an illegal offering that has removed itself to Switzerland to avoid legal issues in Germany. So far, three courts have decided that Rapidshare is, for all intents and purposes, a company mostly enabling illegal downloading (which very few people would doubt), having veered wildly off course from the original idea of offering a place where one can upload and easily either store or offer for download to friends private material, larger (work) documents, etc. It doesn't really matter if it was the users that took the business model off course or if it was Rapidshare encouraging this misuse because it noticed it was making millions of dollars that way. Rapidshare is acutely aware of these legal issues and is either slow or reluctant to respond to the various court decisions against it. Yes, they are acting quite quickly (they have to) to copyright claims (Chuck mentioned that above), but they're not trying hard. Why should they? There's always that new upload to replace the one they took down (a recent article by some guy who watched the most popular downloads for two weeks concludes that Rapidshare is fighting a battle it can't win. As soon as one file is taken down, 50 others pop up in its place. In that article, it was clear to see from a long two-page table that this was happening in the single-second range). So, from a legal German perspective, we are talking about a company that is - again legally - placed squarely in the camp that encompasses just about everything that can be termed "organized crime". The same goes for several other European countries who have tried to level similar cases against RS. Considering recent legislative work of the EU one can safely assume that it won't take long until RS is considered to be a criminal outfit EU-wide (read this: ACTT to see what I mean, depending on how far this agreement will reach when done). So, from my perspective, you can't compare RS to, say, IBM. In short, asking Rapidshare to stick to its advertising is like asking the MAFIA to sell its drugs and whatever at "promised" prices, follow free market principles and be held accountable for what they are doing by state legislature. Hell, they aren't even allowed to advertise in many European countries because they have been legally placed even below the rung on the ladder that is the "Pirate Bay" one. So, the German perspective makes it a ludicrous statement (and, if you read the ACTT link above and if public opinion will not bring those behind closed doors discussions down, that German perspective might very well turn out to be a world-wide perspective sooner than we think). I have no idea what American courts have said/would say about Rapidshare, but I'm quite sure that with the even tighter copyright control in the US, Rapidshare would end up in a cell next to your local Mafia hitman. Now, what do I use Rapidshare for? I use it for activities that are largely illegal in my country. Years ago, I decided to go the "digital way" and get every single CD and DVD I have into digital formats. It didn't take me long to figure out that ripping, checking and tagging more than 10.000 CDs is not a viable way of doing this. I would probably have to go through about 5 to 10 dead Plextor drives (probably more), etc. Additionally, it is illegal in my country to bypass copyright protection so, legally, I cannot make copies of some of my CDs (Blue Note "non-CDs", etc.) and hardly any of my DVDs (99% of my DVDs are, of course, copy-protected). No matter what, I soon found out that besides about 1000 CDs (and about 200 DVDs) or so that cannot be found online, everything else was freely available on RS. Ripped, often tagged to perfection and error-free. So, yes, I have started downloading illegally one copy of every CD and DVD I have paid for and own. Again, I own this stuff (!) and still, I'm a criminal in my country and have absolutely no doubts that the legal system would break my neck if I was taken to court. Idiotic and schizophrenic from my perspective, but that's what life is like over here. Last, but not least. If you spend quite a bit of time in various places where these CDs and DVDs can be found, you also notice that there is hardly anyone willing to pay for anything. In fact, most people throw endless tantrums when they simply cannot get free slots to download 1080p Bluray copies in the 20GB range. For hours, days and weeks, they will rant and rave about the inanity of the service but, mostly, they will not pay 1 single dollar for the bandwidth they are stealing from others who just might (unfortunately, I'm not one of these people) use this service for legit purposes.

Yep.

Pay for it or stop whining. It's really simple