The Magnificent Goldberg

Good! MG

Wyn Calvin Lex Luthor Luther Dixon

It'll be good to get this sorted out, Dan. Not having the original LPs, I've always wondered precisely what was what. MG Well, here goes: "Danny Boy Soul" (Boss Organ) is different from "Danny Boy's Soul" (Smokin') as there is a tenor at the opening before the theme - he also solos (sounds like Coleman, not Schnitter). Also, "Millology" (Boss Organ) is the same tune as "Penn Relays" (Smokin) but it is a different performance, as Schnitter solos first on the Muse LP and Ponder solos first on the Choice LP. However, "Six Twice" (Boss Organ) appears to be the exact same tune as "Red Green & Black Blues" on Mama Roots. Timing was ever so slightly different, but I noticed, right around 3:40 on both tunes, the same organ trill heading into a new chorus. My other observation would be that the Choice LP has superior sound, and that isn't just a difference in the particular copies I have. And a final observation would be that all three albums deserve a lotta That is VERY interesting, Dan. Thanks. I'll update the discography, accordingly. But it rasies the question of whether the material on Choice 520 - "Soul crib" is the same as the other tracks on "Smokin'" or if there are some alternative takes on the Muse LP. Anyone got that one? MG

Didn't think about that! A LOT of the stuff I get from Amazon UK is from the marketplace sellers. In fact, everything since Organissimo set up the link. MG

The Choice label for which Earland recorded was owned and operated by Ozzie Cadena. This explains the Gospel orientation of much of the rest of the label's output. Ozzie was hired as a record producer by Herman Lubinsky of Savoy Records in the fifties and was responsible for Savoy undertaking much Gospel recording at the studios of one Rudy Van Gelder. It was also Ozzie who was responsible for much, if not all, of the Gospel recordings issued on Prestige's subsidiary, Trusound. I don't know about the '70s label. MG

Sadie Stern Isaac Stern Stern's African Music Centre

It'll be good to get this sorted out, Dan. Not having the original LPs, I've always wondered precisely what was what. MG

Alvin David Seville Ross Bagdasarian

Wish I had this one. Only "Danny Boy soul" was reissued on "Smokin'". All other tracks have never been reissued. "Smokin'" contains some tracks that were recorded at the same sessions as these, but have different titles. My discog of Charles is posted on the Earland thread - but I've got to carve the meat now, so no time to find it. MG

Thought so. Good thing I got my last one through you. MG

Yes, I read that King Records of Cincinatti had a full time employee doing nothing but running tapes in order to preserve them. But I've never heard of anyone else doing this, so I wondered if that was an eccentricity of Syd Nathan. That problem affects the record industry even more than the academic institutions, since most of the masters are on tape. How do they do it? MG

I've got classical LPs with 40 minutes on each side, which means it would even be difficult to squeeze the contents onto a single CD. The LP grooves are narrower during quieter passages, so maximum playing time depends on the dynamics of the music. However, with playing times of 30 minutes or more the overall dynamic range will probably suffer. I've even seen a disclaimer once (on what happened to be a Red Mitchell LP from the 1980s) that in order to get all of the music onto the LP, the producer (who might have been Mitchell himself) had to limit the dynamic range of the recording. My experience with long LP sides is that they're more inclined to skip, unless you have a really good turntable. When I eventually DID buy a decent turntable, I found quite a few LPs were rehabilitated. My question always was, why do manufacturers make records that can only be played on high end equipment? MG

Even if he had seen you that wouldn't have helped. The Mole Jazz bags were all black. Impossible to see what's inside! Quite right! And on my visits to Mole, I usually came away with several bags-worth. I can't swear that Leroy's records were even nearest the outside. Superman would have been able to see it, with his x-ray vision, however. MG

What you're probably going to get in the way of recommendations here is a list of geniuses. You should pay attention to this list. But you should also remember that it is NOT a representative sample. 90% of jazz - 90% of GOOD jazz - is not performed by geniuses. But there is enormous pleasure to be obtained from these more run-of-the-mill players. MG

In fact, preserving material doesn't require that it be copied at all, as far as I can see. If the British Library, or any other academic institution such as the Institute of Jazz Studies at Ruttgers, holds recordings, they don't need to be digitised to be preserved for future generations. Such organisations could think about the task in a different way. Instead of continually copying enormous quantities of material into the latest version of whatever the technology is, why can't these organisations start departments of historical engineering? The purpose of such a department would be obvious - to maintain, and rebuild when necessary, the machinery, from cylinders onwards in the case of audio material, to enable the material to be reproduced in the way that it was manufactured/created. On the face of it, this looks to be the most economical way of ensuring continual access to material, since the number of different technologies, though quite large, is tiny compared to the number of recordings. Similar considerations apply to all kinds of intellectual property. That solution means that the main work of preservation is the physical preservation of the cylinders, shellac, vinyl, tape, CDs or whatever. Fortunately, the material is not nearly as perishable as parchment or paper. But some of it is breakable. Copyright issues wouldn't exist in such a preservation regime. MG

Clyde Stubblefield John "Jabo" Starks Melvin Parker

If someone already has all of the other material on this set, but wants "That Certain Feeling", why not pick it up and sell the other discs you already own? That would help offset the cost of the Select, and you wouldn't have duplication of any of the other material, either. Ho hum - I had all the records anyway, just "Understanding" and "Certain feeling" not on CD. I've still got the LPs now. MG

It's not to build a ballanced collection for the sake of having a broad, eclectic library, but I want find out what else I like. I tend to realize too late that, after listening to one sub-genre too long, I missed out on a lot of great listening. I'm not keen on my own tastes yet, so I want to get a glimpse of everything first. Thanks for your suggestion, and otherwise, I completely agree. Right! MG

YESSSS! I was wondering when someone was going to mention this. After "Blues moods" this is my favourite Blue Riverside album. MG

Why do you want a balanced collection? Why not have an unbalanced collection of stuff you really like? MG

I think you're wrong there. Look at the enormous effort that goes into preserving ancient texts. This is not done for the sake of future sales. The real difficulty is that the amount of material has increased exponentially over the last fifty or sixty years. And who shall say what is worth preserving for the next thousand? MG

There you go. You know, I have the McLean set for High Frequency and the swell booklet... We've more money than sense, haven't we? MG

Stupid question from someone who bought the whole fucking Sonny Stitt Mosaic box just to get the LP with Don Patterson. OF COURSE it's worth it if you've bought it! You don't spend all that time toying with your scruples and then make a mistake of that magnitude. MG

So, tell US, was it? We really want to know. MG

This looks very interesting. I had a quick shufti around Google on UK sites only and the cheapest I found was here http://www.discountdiscs.co.uk/Merchant2/m...gory_Code=Xitel £52.99 - post free. It looks as if the cheaper option might be to get one from the US. Not sure about how to handle problems or faults, however. MG