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Hot Ptah

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  1. Here is something else about streaming. It is so easy to listen to albums you don't have, and have never heard, to figure out if you want to buy them. There are a great many albums by Chick Corea and David Bowie which I have never heard. With streaming I can plow through them one after another while driving. It made me realize that there are not that many David Bowie albums that I want to buy. That would have been a $300 experiment at least if I had bought all of his CDs which I had never heard. I am glad that I heard the albums once. I now have a much better perspective on the nature of his artistry
  2. You said something really interesting. I listen to music in my car a lot as I do a lot of driving. I hear no difference in sound quality between playing a CD and listening to a steaming service through my cellphone into the car's speakers. Of course, this is not audiophile sound equipment here. But the supposed terrible flaws in the streaming sound are simply not audible to me
  3. Very true. One piece of anecdotal information only. There is a large public high school near me with a jazz band which wins national awards.. I asked the jazz band director if he wanted a donation of my 40+ year collection of down beat and Jazz Times magazines, for the music library. He replied, "I can't get my jazz musician students to listen to a three minute recording of the piece we are going to rehearse, by the original jazz artist who recorded it. I pass out a one or two page article about the piece of music and the musicians who composed and recorded it, and all of the student musicians throw them on the floor unread. I hear them playing rap on their phones on the way out of the rehearsal room." Also, there are surprisingly few jazz concerts on many college campuses today, taking the nation as a whole.
  4. My point in posting this was NOT to make the super obvious old point that jazz is not very popular. My point was to show how streaming is becoming huge in pop music and more popular in other genres like Latin--but not in jazz. i was slow to try steaming but now I love it. In my car, I can play my Spotify Premium ($10 a month) through my car speakers, from my cellphone. Today I played on a whim whatever I felt like hearing moment to moment. It was Miles' "Nefertiti," the opening track of Wayne Shorter's "Supernova," Weather Report's "Gibraltar," Duke Ellington's "Jack the Bear," James P. Johnson's "You've Got to be Modernistic," Arthur Blythe's "Odessa." All so easily available. I love it. Nothing stops a rock or pop listener who is on their steaming device from thinking, "huh, I will pull up that John Coltrane guy, I have heard his name, let's see what he is like," and two seconds later they are listening to Coltrane, including possibly an intelligently chosen playlist posted by a jazz lover. However, apparently almost no one does that, from the numbers accompanying this article. I find that disappointing.
  5. Oh that explains why the person cleaned up. Your father is in the know.
  6. I am really glad that I have this set. It is consistently good and enjoyable, and in the case of the Ronnie Mathews albums, I think it is great. Ronnie's "Roots, Branches and Dances" album is one of my favorite jazz albums by anyone, anytime. This is the first time it has been issued on CD, to my knowledge.
  7. Thom, did you promise this person who participated privately, and cleaned up, that you would not share with us, his or her comments? If they "cleaned up," I would be very curious to read what they have to say. So many of these tracks are great, and not yet identified.
  8. I may be in a minority but I like that album a lot.
  9. What is this Brother Ah misfire of which you speak, John? I have liked the Brother Ah albums that I have heard. Which one were you referring to?
  10. Track 11. It hit me during the piano solo that this is a skilled recreation. Is the group Mostly Other People Do the Killing?
  11. I have come to expect poor or inarticulate or unhelpful customer service as a matter of course in today's world. I expect nothing from anyone and am then pleasantly surprised when anyone does anything. I am delighted when someone does something perfectly, and in the case of online commerce, I leave feedback with high praise, because it is so rare. It strikes me that to absolutely insist on near perfection from any aspect of online commerce is a recipe for unhappiness, constant agitation, and unhealthy anger. That is probably why we don't agree on this thread, because we come from such different beginning perspectives.
  12. You should buy from Wal Mart or Amazon then. They have huge staffs of people to cover every order. Small indie businesses can never do what you expect.
  13. I am with Ed Swinnich. Mosaic is like a microbrewer who makes batches of beer himself with no other staff, and then drives around in his personal truck to deliver the barrels to local bars. To expect such a person to have Anheuser Busch's distribution and customer service departments is not realistic. As long as you get your Mosaics by the end of the summer, what is the big deal? It will take you weeks or months to listen to them all once anyway. You will have them for a lifetime. Why be so obsessive over whether your box arrives on June 26 or July 18? Unless you just like to be obsessive.
  14. So #1 is Clifford Jordan, but who are those other musicians, and where does this recording come from?
  15. Track 1 is Charlie Parker's "Confirmation". But who is playing it? I feel like I am a half inch away from identifying all of the musicians, but I can't identify them. Who IS that drummer? At times the drummer sounds a little like Art Blakey, but bashes too much to be Art. Track 3 gives me the same feeling, like I am so close to knowing all of the musicians. The bassist sounds like he is from the Cecil McBee-Richard Davis approach to bass.
  16. Since the end of April I have seen: Jack DeJohnette (with Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison) Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya, with Terence Blanchard Joey Alexander Kermit Ruffins Harry Connick, Jr. Mokoomba Dr. John Pedrito Martinez, with Terence Blanchard Joe Louis Walker Deacon John Usher Tom Petty Trey Anastasio Garth Brooks Roger Waters Regina Carter Brian Blade Fellowship (outstanding!) Zac Brown Band Steve Miller Tonight I am going to see Charlie Musselwhite.
  17. Track 7 is either "Home on the Range" or the Lennon/McCartney tune, "With a Little Help From My Friends." I had never noticed before how close the two songs are. I do not know the artist for this track.
  18. Track 9. This is from a James Carter album, "Layin' in the Cut", which was released at about the same time as another James Carter album, "Chasin' the Gypsy", in 2000. I remember this vividly because the two albums are very different and I was really into James Carter at the time. I had seen an incredible live show by Carter in the spring of 1996 at the short lived and lamented Drum Room club in Kansas City, Missouri. I was excited by the two albums coming out at once. "Chasin' the Gypsy" is a real favorite of mine, both accessible and inspired. "Layin' in the Cut" is more hard edged and also inspired. Listening to "Layin' in the Cut" again, I find that this track is "Drafadelic in D Flat." Track 10 is right up my alley. I was very much into David Murray when this album came out in 1982. His octet recordings, such as this one, seemed so fresh and imaginative and inspired to me at the time. They still do! To me, this is the real stuff, the essence, the beating heart of jazz. This is "Last of the Hipmen" from the David Murray Octet's "Home" album. I bought the album on vinyl (as CDs had not been invented yet) and just about wore out the grooves. What an octet! David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Olu Dara, Butch Morris, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Wilbur Morris, Steve McCall. This was truly a golden age of jazz. This is what should have gone on to be the future of jazz, instead of the manufactured neo-con movement.
  19. Track 2: That is Hubert Laws on flute. He was very big when I was just starting to get into jazz. I saw him live in 1978. I recognize his playing here. I have this album. This is the title track.
  20. I wonder if Kamasai was a flavor of the day. I never hear about him any more. He is not touring to packed houses. I have heard what his live show was like at the height of his hit album's popularity. He did not try to reproduce onstage the elements which made his album popular. It sounded like a Pharoah Sanders small group concert. I think he missed his chance. i just read an article that less than one per cent of pop music results in over 80 per cent of all streaming. No one is rushing to jazz these days. i see zero evidence that young people are becoming jazz fans in any number. I have seen virtually none at any jazz concert I have attended in the past three years.
  21. Track 1: Now this is embarrassing. I have this Mosaic Select and played it quite a lot when I first got it, but did not remember this song, which I enjoyed a lot. Track 2; I have never heard of this album, but now I want to get it. A session with James Newton and Ray Brown! That is a trivia question in itself. Thanks for presenting this one to us! Track 3: I have several Herbie Mann albums, but not this one. I enjoyed this one very much. Track 4: Another album I have never heard of, and which is greatly appealing, if this track is any indication. Another album on the "to get" list. Track 5: I have never heard this album, although I have seen it in many record stores. I first heard Hyman when an enthusiastic friend played recordings on which she sang. Then she was on McCoy Tyner's 1982 album "Looking Out." I was buying every new McCoy Tyner album as soon as it came out back then, but I was disappointed with that album. I thought that Hyman never really blossomed into what she could have become. I am glad to have heard this recording by her. Track 6: I included this track on a prior Blindfold Test of mine several years ago now, so you know that I really like it. Track 7: I followed Charlie Hunter's recordings for awhile after hearing him in an amazing live performance around the year 2000 or so. Somewhere along the line I stopped trying to get all of his new albums. This is a good one. I will have to check it out further. Track 8: I did not recognize Rudresh. I have some of his earlier albums, but just did not make the connection. This one is very interesting. Track 9: Another embarrassment. I have this album but did not remember this track. One can never hear too much Arthur Blythe. Track 10: I had never heard of this King Curtis date with jazz giants. Very intriguing. I will have to check this album out. Track 11: I really like Earl Hines, and have not explored this particular set. I need to do so. Track 12: Great track, great session! Now I have to dig in to my collection to see if I have it or not. If not, that will have to be remedied. Track 13; That is really a beautiful track. I have several Tommy Flanagan albums from that era, but not this one. Track 14: I am not very familiar with Hank Garland, and not familiar at all with this album. Thanks for presenting it! Track 15: I figured this one out after a time. Those vocalists were nagging at me. I knew I had this, and finally remembered it. Yusef Lateef has a lot of good albums. Track 16: Even by Dylan enthusiasts, this is considered a throw away, filler, on one of Dylan's least admired albums. That you included it on a Blindfold Test and no one commented that it did not seem like a real jazz boogie woogie pianist, that is something. It shows how one can hear something different when stripped of preconceptions regarding the artist and album. Thanks for this Blindfold Test! I enjoyed it a great deal!
  22. However, I have talked to a group of high school jazz teachers who told me that their students have little or no interest in jazz when not playing it in the school program. They have told me that they have lectured on the history of jazz, shown DVDs in class of the greats playing the material that the school band is going to start playing, and have printed off articles about the music they are performing, and the musicians who originally played it. They all told me that virtually none of their students seemed interested at all.
  23. On the other hand, I sent Mosaic an email from the link on their site and suggested a Chu Berry set. I received a positive reply email. Within a few years there was a Chu Berry set. if there had been a forum with polling, that set would never have been a top vote getter. That is part of the charm and vision of Mosaic over the years, to undertake projects which led their fans into something they would not have thought of pursuing. It worked for many years because they did not have a traditional.business website but went their own way instead. i think that Mosaic's current woes reflect the diminishing sales of music on physical objects.
  24. For many years, there was a link on the Mosaic site which invited the reader to suggest future Mosaic sets. I suggested several over the years, and often received a prompt response back from Mosaic.
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