CJ Shearn

you can hear the merits or quality of a remaster via streaming in spotify..............? Yes, if it's plugged into your main stereo system you can. I never blind buy anything these days, Spotify (or youtube) is used to assess everything prior to purchase. Right, my laptop is plugged into my receiver, so it goes over my speakers. Sometimes the albums there and Rhapsody are encoded badly I definitely don't crank hard rock in headphones.

Listening to "The Stylings of Silver" now, "The Back Beat" is one of my favorite tunes of his, I love his funky entrances on Blakey's "Cafe Bohemia" volumes

Kenny Garrett's playing on the FPB record makes up for his own fairly dissapointing overall (the first track is great, and the next two are good) live album "Sketches of MD"

He raves about a lot of stuff, but I can't share his enthusiasm for many of the releases. Same......... like I had bought Jan Garbarek's "Dresden" cuz he raved about it. It's quite good but I never played it much so I got rid of it. It's still in my Amazon cloud though. I don't share his enthusiasm for all the ECM stuff in the same way. Steve Khan "Live in Koln" I felt a bit underwhelmed by after Kelman's review. We do share the same love of Pat Metheny though

Listening to the Led Zep I remaster on Spotify now, sounds great. I've heard all the "hits" so to speak, not the albums in context. used to have the Led Zepplin DVD with the incredible Moby Dick solo

Damn........... will spin "The Stylings of Silver" for him

You are welcome. An acquaintance of mine, as I said before really loves that period of BN, as do some others (we aren't the audience for that stuff) and I find, like you said years ago, a lot of that stuff effluvia too (Gene Harris' Tone Tantrum is pretty weak) I really wanted to back up in words how difficult that period was, so I dug up your post I had to edit a few things to make it smoother, but you've always been such a source of on the scene knowledge and wisdom here, it's incredible.

Yeah, I think I remember that a bit :-D Obviously that wasn't good for the record..

My new article for the blog, With a list of notable albums for the readership there to check out. I included a long quote from Jim Sangrey from the RIP George Butler thread, about the state of BN in the 70's. So, Jim you were mentioned! http://www.newyorkjazzworkshop.com/blue-note-records-75-cj-shearn/

I have "Floating Point" and really want to hear "The Boston Record", which not surprisingly, John Kelman has raved at AAJ.

Wonderful date, the Columbia Dexter box is very good, save of course "Isn't She Lovely" which by far is the worst thing on the set. Tons of fine Woody Shaw on this set too for the few people who haven't heard Dex's Columbia's.

RIP.

Same here. I just knew mainly about the Hendrix stuff and the famous aborted Miles/Jimi session. what a career!

My friend is an ex bandmate and good friend of Keir's! He's very very interesting musically, thought provoking may not be the right word, more like change your perception of what music and the avant garde can be. I watched a bit video on YT a while back of a solo saxophone recital Keir did, it was very unique.

Right on. Hence all the GRP love in certain circles, Paul Whiteman makes me gag, but people love it. Brian Culbertson, same thing, (dude can play) it just doesn't touch me. There can be a certain level of sophistication, like Ben Williams and Derrick Hodge do, still accessible music, melodic, it's quite good and not watered down.

Snarky Puppy is definitely bringing more people into the fold

To me, everythingfrom the aforementioned Beethoven's Fifth ( even moreso the Eroica) Miles' "Agitation",even some of the Stockhausen stuff I've heard on YT like "In Freundschaft" (though it's not my favorite thing to listen to) Pharell's "Happy", to some of the piano pieces from Conlon Nancarrow it's all melodic. Most people though, Nancarrow and the like would hardly classify as "melodic", neither would "Ornithology", but I think like Jim said, if melody had a wider definition, then some non traditional melodies wouldn't be as strange to the population.

A $2000 CD? I don't even.........

xybert makes a GREAT point that the personnel on records (the "tree" that leads to other branches) is insignificant to most people. I have some friends who like jazz, but they like the sound and or mood, they could care less why the Freddie Hubbard/Wayne/Curtis Fuller lineup of the Jazz Messengers is significant, or why we go nuts over Miles' Second and Lost Quintets. One of my best friends has told me maybe I can help her get into jazz but she knows her tastes pretty well (a lot of pop music from all over Asia, and classical) and its unlikely she'll share a passion for it. Then there is the reality of someone else I know, really likes a lot of jazz after have been exposed to samples in hip hop, and he likes some "real" stuff(Weather Report, Herbie, Pat Metheny- although the albums I really like, such as "Tap" he tends to dislike , RTF) but often because he really loves disco also, he goes for albums in my opinion that are near the bottom of an artists' catalog like "Sit on It" by JOS, all the Mizell produced Donald Byrd stuff, their Johnny Hammond productions, a lot of Arista/GRP stuff......... we aren't the audience for those records these days, (those some here do love those for what they are) A whole new generation loves those mid 70's and early 80's albums, in a way those of us who have straight ahead as a base just don't. I consider my tastes in jazz pretty wide, but because I find certain 70's albums or GRP albums pretty dated, some people see it as snobby, good if generic playing on many of them, which just doesn't hit me. I like the GRP albums that don't sound like typical GRP (Michael Brecker: Now You See it Now You Don't, "Greenhouse" by the Yellowjackets, "Reunion" by Gary Burton) there's a reason those albums on that label overflow used bins, IMO. Once a few listeners wanted to go further and found out there was better stuff, and they took an interest in it, or their tastes changed, the GRP stuff went out the window. Then again, the main issue is most people just want nice background music, even for the crate diggers who check out the original albums from some of those 70's BN or GRP samples, since they are way too young to remember when CD 101.9 and stations of that ilk played that stuff, they love the vibe. Jazz is getting to a younger fans through Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, Derrick Hodge ("Live Today" is very good) Jose James, Ben Williams, but why aren't those records like Black Radio crossing over on the radio, and on what's left of music videos? maybe because still, the musical content is too deep for people who enjoy stuff like T.I. Nicki Minaj, etc....... that's nothing new though either, when I was 12 when Us3 hit big with "Cantaloop", that stuff never really crossed over to the kids into mainstream hip hop. There's some cool stuff on like, "Triumph of the Heavy" by Marcus Strickland, but most people won't want to hear it. That's OK. Most people don't wanna hear Trane, Dizzy, that's ok too.

It seems quite a bit of the Smalls audience are students actually, quite a few come from the New York Jazz Workshop and other music programs. Some of the jazz audience, I think, it's healthy that the new audiences checking out groups like Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, Derrick Hodge, come from less a jazz background than a hip hop one, who come to jazz via samples used by J. Dilla and others. Some of that audience, (like an acquaintance of mine for example, who likes straight ahead, but really likes mid 70's Blue Note and GRP, because he loves disco) stuff aren't as interested in classic BN or Riverside, Prestige, like our audience. Hopefully through the new stuff new fans will check out the rich and varied history. The audience still tends to be a middle aged white one, for mainstream jazz, at any gig I've gone to though.

Very interesting ! Imagine working as an electrical engineer/'resident genius' in the tech department at that place. You'd never get any work done.. I think, even though I'm not a vinyl person it's very good they are doing this. Watching the Don Was interview, I felt he was very genuine in the endeavor of this project and it will be interesting to hear the alternatives.

Don't know if this will help, but Bernie Grundman explains how he had to repair the master for "Newk's Time".

They are also on Rhapsody, listening to "Two Headed Freap" because I've never listened to it in it's entirety. The only Foster I own is "Live at Montreux" which I think is a wise choice...... IMO, it's his best record. Are these some of the greatest B-3 records ever? (an acquaintance of mine loves the '74-78 UA era BN especially). no....... but a good occasional listen. Glad to see them out though in digital form.

Happy birthday!!!!

Using my limited knowledge of Japanese (I know a bit, but it's terrible, took a semester and a half of Japanese. I have many friends there though) Meronezu (メロネズ） phonetically Merone is how Melonae sounds in Japanese though, so it's not a bad translation in that sense. People with better knowledge may correct me