Stefan Wood

Well, it's going to be a good day to kick back and catch up on some reading and listening to tunes. Here in DC, we got socked with over a foot of snow so far, with another foot to come. The past few winders have been mild to say the least, but we are making up for it in a hurry. We NEVER get this kind of snow in December -- it usually happens in late January or February. Listening to Peter Green's Anthology on Salvo, a great 4 cd compilation of this guitar great. Digging into "The Last Empress" by Hannah Paulka, a new bio of Madame Chang Kai-Shek.

The Kinks' "Picture Book" box set, available only from the UK Amazon site. 7 1/2 hours of great music!

Haunt your local Goodwill/other thrift store. Look for Boston Acoustics, JBLs, Infinitys, etc. of the bookshelf variety. You'll never know what you might stumble across -- you might have to refoam the woofers, but it is not expensive nor hard to do.

I just caught on to this new niche market of hard drive media players. What's exciting to me is that one can add portable hard drives filled with media content and play them to your tv or audio system with no quality loss. And at a good price -- around $100. Does anyone have one? Opinions?

I also recommend the Amadeus program. A very powerful and versatile program for chump change.

Peter Brotzmann.

Yikes!

Fresh Sounds also issues new material from their New Talent line. Some good stuff there, not boots at all. I agree with you overall re: Fresh Sounds boots. But where do they get the Cuban music from? The Chano Pozo, Tito Rodriguez and Arsenio Rodriguez box sets are outstanding in terms of research and sound quality.

I hit Joe's hard for the free jazz material. SOM is the place I was thinking of -- good owner!

Dusty Groove has a "delay" on the shipment of the Horo discs. Jazzloft has them. I'm wondering if they discovered that these are coming from the same area as the Fresh Sounds, which they no longer distribute.

Not proof based on a sticker. Did you buy them?

Again, we have to refer to this quote -- are they boots? Don't know yet.

Oh yeah, no Olssons' stores either -- the chain closed last year. There are a couple of small record stores that have arisen -- one off of 14th and U, for one, that carries a nice stock of jazz lps. Melody Records in Dupont is the only store in the DC area that carries a wide stock of cds and dvds in all genres, domestic and imports. Not cheap, though.

DC's used cd stores have declined in the past couple of years. Second Story Books, as mentioned is in Dupont Circle, has a wall of used cds, but it is all old stock, nothing fresh coming in. There were numerous CD Game Exchange stores, but many have closed, leaving two -- one in Silver Spring, near the SS metro, and the other in College Park. Neither store is well kept, and recently I saw a sign on the College Park door stating that for unforseen reasons they cannot accept trade ins. Not good. Cdepot, also in College Park, is massive, but it is a mess. You can barely walk throughout the store without stumbling over a box of crappy 12" dance or hip hop records. Their stock of used cds have gone down as well, and their prices seem to have gone up. Joe's Record Paradise, up in Rockville, is okay, but like any used store, is only as good as their stock, and they seem to be on a lull for decent jazz right now. Plus, they are moving to Silver Spring, but where or when is to be determined. Orpheus does not exist -- however, CdCellar, which has stores in Clarendon (near the metro) and in Falls Church, are the only used stores that seem to be doing okay, in that they get promos and fresh new stock of used goods weekly. There is also Record and Tape Exchange in Fairfax, but their prices are way too high - too much studying the OOP prices on Amazon. There used to be other stores (like a Second Story in Bethesda, music stores in Adam's Morgan. etc.) but all have closed their doors. It's all online now.

happy birthday!

Dusty's got these -- I am all over them!!

I just went that other jazz site, AAJ's new releases for the month of November. They have Discomforme as the issuer of the Horo discs. DOn't know what that means -- could be needle drops, or could the owner of Horo have licensed it through them?

I'll second that!

Murders at the Zoo is an interesting horror film with some comic relief. It has Lionel Atwill and the actress who played the Panther Woman in Island of Lost Souls (which by all rights should be on dvd). Its most famous scene is in the beginning, with Atwill sewing a man's mouth shut.

Even better than his Live at Montreux set?

Crap, more money to blow! Awesome news. I've always wanted to hear the Sam Rivers Horos.

Cowher won't go the Skins. No way. They have to dump Cerrato first for any top NFL coach to even look at this team.

Picked up the Keletigui & ses Tambourinis double disc set from DG. I've enjoyed these reissues, and hope for more! Also bought from DG: One of the better compilations of Dibango's work, 2 discs! However, I am haunted by an Atlantic lp with him on it (was is Soul Makossa?) and it had a kick ass afro funk tune that to this day I have not seen on any compilation. It was a blue cover with him on it.......... I had it once, then sold it long ago.

Not so much airbrushed -- more like Photoshopped! What free jazz? I don't see no free jazz.........