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CJ Shearn

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Posts posted by CJ Shearn

  1. On 6/24/2022 at 8:07 AM, Rabshakeh said:

    Are there any good books (or even documentaries) that cover the "non classic" Blue Note eras. The stories above are quite compelling, and I would love to read something of this sort that talks about Butler, the Vault reissues, etc.

    No. Other than that article I wrote, and the one on Blue Note  Live at the Roxy, nothing. In Don Was' recent interview with Ronnie Foster on YT he mentions the 70s era as being glossed over.

    On 8/16/2021 at 10:00 AM, Dub Modal said:

    I dig the Mizell Bros' productions from that era. 

    And totally agree that Shorter's Etc. cover from the LT series is a classic and should've been the only cover it ever had. Perfect. Some of the others definitely work as well, and indeed better than the follow up edits. 

    Also, I thought these LT series covers were more under the influence of ECM rather than CTI in that they used a rather abstract photo that hinted/suggested a connection to the title and/or music contained and rarely if ever used shots of people. I guess maybe the cropping/border used on the LT series evoked some of the style of those earlier CTIs like Wave or some of the Wes Montgomery albums...? Using hind sight on this, it seems to me that those LT series covers help tell the story about the era they were released in a little better than the revisions, which do seem to muddy the BN story esp if like me one is coming to jazz at a much later time. I think maybe the only revised cover I like is Solid, but that's because it's a badass shot of Grant Green...but then the LT cover is good too. 

    I like Mothership and the Cool Blues cover (the LT CD reissue on the way to me from Japan when my friend returns to New York)

  2. I just got off the phone with Lenny White, I called to confirm and its indeed true. I  am in complete shock and have no words to describe how I feel. I read the news on the FB of a colleague, and I literally couldn't move for 5 minutes. Joey was really entering some new places musically and I can count on one hand those who are left well versed in the tradition JOS started, but no one knew Jimmy's music like Joey. 

  3. I used to have The Amazing Jimmy Smith Trio Metro LP on vinyl long ago, and just received a copy of the Verve Originals CD on eBay as part of my JOS collection rebuild (almost there!).  One thing that really bothers me is the credits list Billy Hart on drums instead of Donald Bailey.  All the aural evidence I hear, from the ride sound, to the dry chick of the high hat, the feel and the off kilter comping is DEFINITELY Bailey.  Compared to the Salle Pleyel Mai 28 1965 album where Hart is on drums-- huge difference.  IIRC, Hart joined the trio in late 1963 but didn't appear on a recording with Jimmy till 1964.  Is this album, a date with the correct personnel listed anywhere in a discography? Always wondered why they didn't combine this one on a 2fer with Live in Hamburg which has never seen a CD or streaming release.

  4. I can't say enough about CTI and the albums I grew up with. Like was said above a lot of the albums really aged quite well, California Concert, all the Hubbard's, Turrentine's and a lot of the Benson's, the Joe Farrell's remain classics. Higher Ground, by Johnny Hammond (with some of the best Joe Henderson of the 70s) and Soul Box I love. I'd love to get the Vocalion SACD of the latter

  5. Many of the ECM's I had and reviewed from a few years ago had unusual lineups, one trio was Florian Weber on piano, Markus Stockhausen on trumpet and a bassist I think.  Although not a trio, Kit Downes on pipe organ and Tom Challenger on tenor sax was another.

  6. 1 hour ago, bresna said:

    I can't stand Bitches Brew either but I wouldn't create a whole video diatribe on it, :)

    Neither would I. BTW Kevin sent you a friend request on FB

    42 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

    I can’t stand folks whining about shit that doesn’t matter. Giving guidance, advice and dropping knowledge and real critiques are one thing but complaining about records is ridiculous. I can’t watch more than a few seconds and then I’m done.  

    The YouTube orbit is it's own universe. Agreed that music is not a thing that people should make entire videos like it's a national emergency. Most YT content creators are doing content that monetizes, hence the overload of MoFi gate vids etc

  7. 45 minutes ago, TheMusicalMarine said:

    Wow, thanks for posting this, CJ. Didn't even know this guy existed. I don't collect vinyl, but I certainly have more in common (jazz and crazy collector wise) with him than anyone in my immediate life.

    Sure. I thought his early videos on Jimmy Smith and Prestige and Argo were very good I just lost respect for him at his weird BB vs Red Clay video (you don't like BB, fine, just don't crap on it like he did... reminded me of when I was age 14) and audiophile bashing. 

    1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

    I watched a few of his videos during lockdown. I like his older videos on Bethlehem etc, which I didn't know that well before. Otherwise he's just a weird opinionated man who needs to wash his hair. You have to be impressed by the grinding commitment to putting out three videos a week to such a minute audience.

    True 

  8. Honestly I feel like he's an obnoxious guy at times after watching his Mo-Fi rant and his crazy Bitches Brew vs Red Clay video just as two examples.  What I will give him credit for is exploring the history of jazz and getting people into it but what do people here think? I don't agree all jazz must have the blues, swing, his takedowns of free jazz and audiophiles is a bit much.   There's one video with Ken Micallef where they shit on Miles and Jazz Shepherd says something like he could basically knock Miles out, it was incredibly immature and in poor taste.  

  9. 4 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

    It's a good article and a pretty good list, although I would not personally have chosen any of those records. 

    There is quite a lot of guidance out there already in relation to Blue Notes, including where to start, deep cuts, soul jazz, avant garde records, etc etc. I think that anyone who is interested in getting into jazz, whether out of musical interest or just for some good record sleeves, has quite easy access to this information.

    True and fair enough, just wanted to put my spin and passion on what my fav. Blue Notes are, and what I'd recommend to others.

  10. 1 hour ago, clifford_thornton said:

    I was gonna say one might start where Blue Note started, with Meade Lux Lewis, but this is a pretty solid top five otherwise! 

    :D

    I gotta track those discs down they were issued in the 90s.

    2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

    Jacke McLean, "New Soil"

    Hank Mobley, "Soul Station"

    Horace Silver, "Blowin' the Blues Away"

    Grachan Moncur, "Some Other Stuff"

    Agree about the first 3 but "Some Other Stuff", I could have put  on the list of 40, but for that level of out I chose "All Seeing Eye" and "Out to Lunch" instead. I would NOT personally recommend the Moncur to someone just into jazz unless they were into some form of avant garde or coming from another place like punk. "Gnostic", my favorite track on the album would be too strange for most people. 

  11. 1 hour ago, JSngry said:

    I guess these days you would recommend a playlist instead of a sampler...unless your friend is old, in which case, tell them that vinyl sounds better and get busy brokering some deals that benefit everybody, especially you! 

    She is young my friend but has an interest in deep dives of genres through streaming but doing a separate article with a playlist might be cool. She has an interest in audio and would like to hear my system (mainly set up for CD/SACD playback) but my Schiit Bifrost 2 DAC is also connected to my laptop to streaming so laptop connection in through DAC and goes through the CD out of my preamp 

    1 hour ago, JSngry said:

    So, by jazz, you mean...what, exactly?

    Or Blue Note, for that matter, but my hunch is that the first question answers the second? 

    People getting into the music might hear about Blue Note and wonder what it's about but I like your question by jazz what exactly do I mean? Kind of fuzzy because we could say music originated by Black Americans but now evolved and played the world over by everyone. Perhaps I'll change the title a bit and make it a bit clearer the goal of the article. Thanks!

  12. 1 minute ago, JSngry said:

    So, by jazz, you mean...what, exactly?

    Or Blue Note, for that matter, but my hunch is that the first question answers the second? 

    People getting into the music might hear about Blue Note and wonder what it's about but I like your question by jazz what exactly do I mean? Kind of fuzzy because we could say music originated by Black Americans but now evolved and played the world over by everyone. Perhaps I'll change the title a bit and make it a bit clearer the goal of the article. Thanks!

  13. On 7/18/2022 at 8:15 AM, mikeweil said:

    I ended up using the new Micromega player in my bedroom as it sounds better with the Micromega MyAmp amplifier than with the Marantz. With the latter I had to turn the volume up so much that the neighbours started complaining. In my (smaller) bedroom I am closer to the speakers (Focal as in the living room) and the higher frequencies are more prominent. And the CD-30 sounds excellent, very detailed, with the MyZic / Focal Spirit Classic combination. I'm satisfied. 

    I love Focal. I have a pair of Focal Chora 826's which sound fabulous with my Audiolab CDT6000 (which Lon recommended to me) Schiit Bifrost 2 DAC, Sony X700 blu ray player (for SACD and Blu ray audio) and Marantz NR1200 preamp and Marantz MM7025 power amp 

  14. On 7/23/2022 at 1:16 PM, Jim Duckworth said:

    I use Apple Music but utilize my physical collection most of the time.  I've found Apple Music useful as it allows me to stream playlists etc. from my Itunes throughout my house-an essential feature for me.  

    I use Amazon HD but primarily to test drive albums but also if I'm a bit tight on money I'll listen to something until I get it but my CD and SACD's as my primary mode of listening 

  15. On 8/7/2022 at 11:01 AM, hopkins said:

    I'm an audiophile! But I'm not obsessed with getting the best versions of albums, especially considering how costly it would be. When I have the choice I avoid purchasing bad quality versions issued by  "dodgy" labels - if I can find one from a known "respectable" label at a reasonable price. 

    I'll spend more for Mosaic box sets, and have quite a few, but it's really about the music offered (and the liner notes). I don't really care how the "manufacturing process" works, and I'm happy with CDs, I don't care whether it's digital or analog. In fact, I just received yesterday Mosaic's latest :)

    But if you purchase one of these MOFi albums, then you are really paying for the quality of the manufacturing process only, not for the music or liner notes. 

    From an economic standpoint, I'd rather see money spend on preserving music, issuing unreleased material, and generally contributing to our knowledge of the music, than see people spend large amounts of money on one more version of "Kind of Blue". So I guess I don't have much sympathy for either side in this MOFi fiasco. 

    I'm with you on this. I like to get the best versions when I can, thankfully after the fire when I rebuilt my system and collection, my friend's dad gave me a bunch of OOP  Japanese CD's, SACD'S and  I'm very happy with. I have about 60 ish SACD and dig it

  16. On 8/7/2022 at 7:39 AM, jcam_44 said:

    Esposito’s YouTube is a good watch most of the time and he does irritate a lot of people. I started watching him when he was dragging ERC for their quality. He made a good argument. The beef with him and Fremer was hilarious. Fremer is a tool imo. He’s the quintessential audiophile dork. 

    I just can’t believe Esposito is only 37… I would have guessed much older. 

    I know right? I'm 41 and look way younger than Mike Esposito, most people think I'm in my early 30's and transitioning to female and being on hormones, the youthfulness really comes out more, but I have good genes.  I've been following this shitshow and my friend and I just make fun of Fremer and co. any chance we get.  The fact Fremer wanted Geoff Edgers to revise his article because he was "misrepresented" shows he has really thin skin and a huge ego.  He hasn't learned the ego is an illusion, a shell.  I subscribe to Esposito's channel, 45 RPM Audiophile and Ken Micallef's but refuse to for Fremer because a) I don't deal with vinyl, b) it's too impractical for me and c) he's an asshat.  I do have my issues with Micallef because he tends to always argue the superiority of original BN pressings (or Liberty and UA era) over Tone Poet's etc.  I've heard many TP's sound spectacular.  The other issue I have with Micallef (I have to respect he's done far more interviews than I have but I know how it works) he often looks very stupid because he does poor research at times, and has gotten embarrassed in certain interviewers.  His beef with the Miles estate and him crapping on Miles with Jazz Sheppard (another buffoon) is ridiculous.  I happen to be friends with Vince Wilburn, we are in Lenny White's Zoom chats most weeks, after the fire he checked on me several times to see if I was cool. The business side is one thing, the personal quite another, he's a nice guy. Lenny is great fun too, sometimes I'll just call him and chat. I think Jazz Sheppard (not the place for this) has white guilt and for some reason Miles is a threat to him... someone dead for over 30 years threatens you that much? You need help!

    On 8/7/2022 at 3:50 PM, bresna said:

    I've been reading about this over on the Hoffman forums and I've tried to hold back on posting about it because I'm afraid my attitude might upset a few posters. I think this is awesome. It finally shut up all of the golden eared music listeners who claimed that only AAA can sound good and that they can "hear" analog.

    I've been saying for years that analog in and of itself does not guarantee great sound but nothing I've said has had any effect on most of them and the Hoffman forums' rules preclude anyone from calling them out on it. Mobile Fidelity finally showed them that the emperor has no clothes.

    Michael Fremer would never concede embarassment, LOL.

  17. 20 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

    I had not clocked that record before. I listened to volume 1 last night and it is really exactly what you'd hope for. It is also nice to heard Whalum getting a chance to really wail, which you don't always on the more cuddly records designed for radio play. Are the other volumes as strong?

    I'm not sure... the overly religious connotation kind of steers me away, but that's who Whalum is and have to accept him for it, but the music can be enjoyed regardless . He also really stretches on the Mack Avenue Superband albums and "Impressions" on Joey Defrancesco's Live at the 5 Spot

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