felser

Well, if that's your idea of fun, I just learned a lot more about you today.

ONE of the reasons I favor the second scenario is that it enables a secondary market,with ALL that entails. Also, the time involved in downloads (I buy a LOT of CD's), the quality of the CD itself vs. the CD-R (I'm in the camp that believes CD-R's degrade quicker than CD's), and the packaging. liner notes and related info, the print quality involved in the real artwork vs. what I am able to produce on my home inkjet with all-use paper, etc. And that preference doesn't make me some sort of freaking idiot deserving your public scorn and your oversimplification/distortion of my points. If you disagree, just say you disagree (or don't bother), and spare me the bold font and the little faces. And it's interesting that with all your posts about standing up to what we feel is wrong and making ourselves heard, etc., that you're now saying we should roll over and give thanks for an inferior product because maybe the companies will make enough off of it to not withold product from us. And THAT fits my definition of exploitation more than Andorran companies adhering to Andorran copyright laws does. If the choice given to me in the marketplace is between an Andorran CD and a US download, I am going to go with the Andorran CD and my conscience will feel just fine with it.

PM sent on keith jarrett-el jucio $8.00

OK, we just have different opinions on CD's then. I love them, always have, saw them as a huge step up from what was available on the market previously (LP's and especially tapes). I remember groaning at how easily LP's would get scratched, or warped, or the jackets would split. Wasted so many hours in second hand stores, looking at LP's in substandard shape. The ability to so easily go from point to point on CD's was great, the sound quality of one done right was such a pleasure.

But, Lon, acknowledge the point I was making, this is a change being pushed by the companies for their profits, not pulled by consumer desire to change to a better format, the way CD's were (at least for many of us). Concord (and the whole industry) was dishonest in trying to indicate that the switchover to digital is due to "customer demand". That's my point.

I can resell a CD if I decide I don't like it. I can buy multi-cd lots on ebay at very low unit prices and explore stuff I'm not familiar with. Some CD's appreciate in value (hello Mosaic), so I can buy those and explore, knowing that I can get my money back if I don't want to keep it. I can legally trade one CD for another CD without breaking any copyright laws, thus being able to further explore more music.

I agree with you, but that is also the basis of my argument. There are no indications from the companies (that I'm aware of, there sure aren't any in the current marketplace) that there will be any price breaks offered at all on downloads, and I don't see any other possible benefit (you can always throw away the jewel case!).

I agree with Chewy 1 - Kids buy downloads for their Ipods. Adult jazz fans buy CD's. This (switching the jazz to downloads) is a case of industry push, not consumer pull, driving the format change for jazz. How many of you really WANT the music delivered to you in downloads instead of CD's, rather than just tolerating it? We wanted CD's because the benefits were obvious. Benefits of downloads are zero, as you can burn from your own CD's if they deliver the music in CD's. 2 - The REAL industry trend is that people are buying less, period. Understandable considering the dearth of meaningful new pop music and drying up of the reissue market.

PM sent on the following: Donald Edwards, In The Vernacular (Leaning House Jazz) $9 NOW $7 Robin Eubanks, 4: J.J./Slide/Curtis and Al (TCB) $8 NOW $6 Rick Germanson, Heights (Fresh Sound New Talent) $9 NOW $7 Donald Harrison, Real Life Stories (Nagel Heyer) $8 NOW $6 Tim Richards Trio, Twelve By Three (33 Records) $7 (Three Sounds inspired piano trio) [Randy Sandke, Cliffhanger (Nagel Heyer) $8 NOW $6 Michael Thomas Quintet, The Awakening (JazHead Entertainment) $7 Peter Martin, Something Unexpected (MaxJazz) $8 NOW $6

PM sent on following: Nat Adderley Quintet, We Remember Cannon (In Out Records) $8 NOW $6 Chet Baker & Art Pepper, Picture of Heath (Pacific Jazz) $8 NOW $6 Mads Baerentzen Trio featuring Eric Alexander, 785 Madison Ave (Music Mecca) Ray Charles, The Great (Atlantic) $8 NOW $6 Joey DeFrancesco/Danny Gatton, Relentless (Big Mo) $10 NOW $8 Harry Edison, Sweets for the Sweet (Collectables) $7 NOW $5 Mark Elf, a Minor Scramble (Jen Bay Jazz) $8 NOW $6 Ella and Basie, A Perfect Match (Japanese Pablo) $12 NOW $10 Paris Reunion Band (Griffin, Davis, Shaw, Reece, Drew) French Cooking (Gazell) Johnny Hartman, Songs from the Heart (Bethlehem) $7 NOW $5 Gloria Lynn, Miss Gloria Lynn (Evidence) $6 NOW $5 Buddy Montgomery, Live at Maybeck Recital Hall (Concord) $8 NOW $6 Steve Nelson, Fuller Nelson (Sunnyside) $8 NOW $6 Philadelphia Heritage Art Ensemble, Under The Bridge (Dreambox Media) $7 Eddie Harris, The Last Concert (digi-pak is rather beaten up, disc is fine) $10 NOW

'Elevation' is the last domestic Impulse! Pharoah reissue I'm aware of.

Up because show is tonight.

Ruth Naomi Floyd and Renewal at Cheyney State University in West Chester, PA, Dudley Center for the Arts, 7:30 PM. See Doug Ramsey's review of her latest album below her website URL. http://www.contourrecords.com/Default.asp? Ruth Naomi Floyd, Root to the Fruit (Contour). Ms. Floyd is a Philadelphia singer whose jazz connections and finely tuned musicianship are as organic to her art as are her Christian convictions. In her fifth album, she leads ten musicians including saxophonist Gary Thomas, drummer Ralph Peterson, bassist Tyrone Brown and the incredible flutist James Newton. Songs like "Mere Breath" and "The Bottle of Tears" disclose her as a solid composer and lyricist whose work holds up well in the company of pieces by Randy Weston, Mary Lou Williams and Antonín Dvoøák. The control, phrasing and inflections of her creamy mezzo-soprano voice make Ms. Floyd one of the most compelling singers of the day, regardless of idiom. ---By Doug Ramsey, November 22, 2006 for http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/. Mr. Ramsey is the author of Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmondand Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He has written regularly for Jazz Times since 1975.

The Shepp was pretty useless, though, since the major cuts were available as bonus cuts on 'The Way Ahead' CD. Better if it would have been 'Things Have Got to Change' (impossible to find on CD now), or at least 'For Losers' or 'The Magic of Ju-Ju' (both pricey imports, which I did shell out for). The couple of short stray tracks from Kwanza could have been placed as bonus cuts on these.

And there are excellent remasters of them on the "Essential" 2CD set which came out several months ago.

Check out deepdiscount on some of those Hip-oSelect releases. Available much cheaper than from the official website, and free shipping. I got the David Ruffin Vol. 1, Eddie Kendricks Vol. 1, Four Tops Lost and Found, and the Martha and the Vandella's Lost and Found sets for $32.78 total each, they're $39.95 + shipping from the official Hip-oSelect web site. Wish I had waited and bought the Motown singles sets that way, would have about $150 extra in my pocket right now.

I've never even heard of this! Sounds awesome. Please be sure to let us know when/where it's available.

Me too.

Good luck there, too. the small print in their Sunday ad said "minimum two per store", so unless you're one of the first two, you won't see that price either. Circuit City is even worse on that particular ploy. DeepDiscount and Amazon are both very expensive relative to list price on this one, so I may be waiting for awhile on this. CDUniverse is the only tempting price ($49.34).

The site claims they don't have $40 sets in stock. I'd be willing to pay $40.

Me too. I'm going to go to Better Business Bureay if they don't do something good. I'm willing to pay the $39.99, but not willing to be just jerked around and shut out.

Boy is that dumb. Why wouldn't they put them as bonus cuts on 'Stand'? Guess I'll need to keep my 'Essential' set.

The cooperative jazz-gospel group Renewal will be performing in a free show at Cheyney State University in West Chester on Friday, April 13, at 7:30 PM, at the Dudley Center for the Performing Arts. The members of the group include pianist Bill Edgar and singer Ruth Naomi Floyd. Ruth has five CD's out on Contour Records (www.contourrecords.com) and has performed in concert in the past at the Painted Bride Art Center and the Ethical Society. Personnel on her latest CD include James Weidman (her musical director), Gary Thomas, James Newton, Tyrone Brown, Ralph Peterson, and others. Past personnel on her CD's and live groups have also included Julian Joseph, Bryan Carrott (the best vibes player in the world IMO, never properly captured on CD), Bobby Zankel, T.K. Blue, Terri Lyne Carrington, Craig Handy, Uri Caine, and Charles Fambrough. She is an amazing singer, the best out there to me. She is also, incidentally, my wife's old roomate from when we were dating, so I come with serious biases, but also trust my ears. Scott Yanow is as enomored of Ruth's singing as I am (see his review in AMG). In the spirit of full disclosure, I will let you know that there will no doubt be a strong faith element in the show, in case you consider that a bad thing (I'm thankful for it - find it incredibly uplifting), but the music will no doubt be outstanding. Ruth and her producer, Keith McKinley, turned down a contract offer from Polygram and interest from DIW in the early 90's to retain artistic control over Ruth's music - Polygram and DIW loved the music, wanted the lyrics watered down for mass consumption. Felser and Mrs. Felser (and hopefully our daughter Zakiyyah) will definitely be there. Let me know if you have any interest in attending. Hope to see some of you. We could also meet for dinner beforehand if interested in that.

OK, I'll start a potential firestorm here. If anyone owns the Grant Green/Sonny Clark Mosaic box (sold mine off many years ago when the 2CD set came out on Blue Note proper), do the math and you'll see that it all would have easily fit onto three CD's instead of being maxed out to four. I noticed the Jarrett being able to fit onto one disc back when I got it, but I guess Columbia wanted to pocket a little extra coin on it, and the set was so well done in the reissue and so inexpensive that I never really worried about it.

I'm reminded of Zoot Sims' quote about Getz: "Stan's a great bunch of guys."