Rooster_Ties

I’m ok with that. The actual verbiage isn’t particularly obtrusive (or nauseatingly effusive) — and they’re transparent about it being a sponsored ‘article’ — and it’s all short and sweet at the end of the piece. Looking for new ways to enjoy music at home? A Marantz CD player is a great option for making the most of your compact discs. Published in partnership with Marantz.

I’ve heard electric cello a few times — sometimes it worked great, sometimes not. Or maybe it worked for other people in the room, and just not me. I’m definitely open to such things, but the actual success of such endeavors is specific to each one.

I’m reminded of a classical pianist friend of ours back in Kansas City — a performer of the highest order (she was the primary pianist for the 20th Century chamber ensemble newEar for a number of years). She refused to play any keyboard instrument that didn’t have REAL ‘volume action’. As a rule, she never played any electronic keyboards (or harpsichord), not even the electronic keyboards with fake ‘volume action’ (or whatever it’s called). But Leah would and DID occasionally play Fender Rhodes — because she said it had a natural form of ‘volume action’. That it really was a keyboard that was essentially just an “amplified acoustic event” (if somewhat distorted). That always stuck with me, when detractors of Fender Rhodes dismiss it simply because electricity is involved in the sound production. She would also play celeste on occasion too. In addition to newEar, I’m also remembering she was the house “orchestral pianist” for the Kansas City Symphony for 6-8 years too. She’d play any keyboard with a “real” action to it, and Rhodes qualified.

8 years after first starting this topic — just last night I finally found one of these online from a seller on this continent (Canada), for a price that wasn’t a mint. It’ll be here in couple weeks, if not sooner. PS: Including shipping, I got a still-sealed brand-new copy for $21.34 — so I guess I saved $4 on it by waiting all these years until I found a copy. Meaning I never could find it for less than $25-$30 in all these years, until now. Got it from a seller on Discogs, who sold it to me for about $4 less than his original asking price.

Got a prompt (automated?) and I can only presume ‘encouraging’ msg from the eBay seller that I got the “Big Fun” shirt from, saying… This product is 100 % satisfaction guaranteed. Period! - Your satisfaction and positive feedback is very important to us. - If you have any problems with our items or services, please feel free to contact us first before leaving negative feedback or opening a case, we will do our best to solve any problems and provide you with the best customer service.

Whew!!

$330? Each?? Is that about what you paid for them?? Surely that’s a typo, and maybe you meant $33 each. Even that would have been kinda pricy ($66 for both) back in ‘81. Tell me you didn’t really mean $330.

Lemme know how they turn out, the Dizzy Reece especially. I just noticed that in addition to Wayne’s “etcetera” — this seller also has two Jackie McLean BN covers: “Let Freedom Ring” and “Action! Action! Action!” — all of which are tempting.

Those original Plugged Nickel covers are pretty out there (not necessarily a bad thing, nor necessarily good either) — just really out there. Have you ever owned either or both, Jim? Or even seen one up close and in person, out in the wild? I could be down with those designs on a shirt, but I’m not quite there on first glance — not like I was with that Big Fun one, specifically on black. That green horn bell on black just ‘pops’ visually like all get-out! (But we’ll see what it really looks like for real when it gets here.)

Same too, can you post when you get whatever you got from that one Etsy seller? Which ones did you order? (Or did you order any yet?) I’m really on the fence about getting that Wayne Shorter “Etc” shirt from them — mostly about doubting the quality — although they’ve also simplified Patrick Roques design in several ways. They took out the Blue Note logo and catalog number entirely, simplified the texture of the big lettering (which is just solid on the shirt), and there’s no ‘stereo’ in the left hand corner — basically everything that makes it look like an actual album cover. They also removed Wayne’s name from the line-up, from the line with Herbie, Cecil and Joe’s names (but that’s probably OK, since his name is also bigger in orange by Wayne’s picture). It’s still highly evocative of the Roques cover, but since it’s not an actual Reid Miles design, I guess it’s ok.

BTW, “Birth of the Cool” was really the only reason I bothered getting the 3 from the UK source. “Green Street” is a fine album, but that’s true of 15 or even 20 of Green’s leader-dates. BUT, that dark green on black will hopefully look as good as it does in the rendering. And never in a million years would I have imagined owning an “Electric Byrd” shirt. I like the album, sure. But so too of 15 or even 20 other Byrd albums. But that minimalistic ‘bird’ design on black like that is simple, and I hope it turns out as nice as it looks. PS: I’m actually thinking “Electric Bird” will be good for going to rock concerts. It’s subtle, but eye-catching (or at least it would certainly catch my eye).

OK, I bit the bullet and ordered the 3 shirts from the UK source -- "Green Street", "Electric Bird" and "Birth of the Cool". In order to get the 25% off coupon to work, I had to get all three (3) shirts -- so the 3rd shirt was basically about $8 more than if I ordered just two shirts. With shipping, it was £49.93 (Google says that's about $59.54). Would have been over $50 for just two shirts. Again, hoping the quality is at least decent. All told (including the "Big Fun" shirt, which I got separately off eBay), it was about $88 total for 4 shirts, or $22 a pop. Which includes all shipping charges -- three of the shirts are coming from Winsford, Cheshire (UK) -- and shockingly the shipping on those was only $6 total. BTW, the discount-code for 25% off at djtees.com was: ROCKDOWN25 (And it seemed like I had to get 3 shirts to use it, though it never really said that -- it just didn't work when I only had two shirts in my cart.)

OK, I just ordered the Miles Davis "Big Fun" shirt. But I decided not to get the purple Herbie "Prisoner" shirt -- much as I love the album itself, the basic cover design just isn't all that appealing (never was, I'm afraid). "Big Fun" was $29.09, once I added shipping and tax. Fingers crossed the quality is at least decent.

AND, I just found a 25% off coupon code, that appears like it will work!! Now this is really getting tempting!!

Also just spotted these from a source all the way over in the UK. Gosh these look nice though -- very tempting!! https://www.djtees.com/

OK, I am THIS CLOSE to pulling the trigger on these two shirts online. I think Miles "Big Fun" looks especially nice on Black -- MUCH nicer than the album cover, actually -- and it'll come to about $24 incl. shipping. I'm a little on the fence about Herbie "The Prisoner" (only ~$18 shipped, cheaper because I'm getting it along with "Big Fun" on the same order) -- but it is my all-time favorite Herbie leader-date. I'm not fanatical about the cover-design of "The Prisoner" generally speaking, but I think I'll be kicking myself later if I don't get it at the same time. Gonna mull 'em both over for a few more hours, or maybe until tomorrow. Doesn't that Miles design look especially great on black?? Edit: to say Big Fun isn’t even necessarily my favorite 70’s Miles album (I probably bounce around between 6 different ones, one 6 different days.) I just think that “Big Fun” graphic looks totally bad-ass on black.

Howard Johnson, and metric ton more other tubas and the like…

The idea that they’re possibly “cheap iron-ons” is what’s kept me from buying this sort of stuff for years — though some of these specific designs (probably from the same sellers?) I’ve literally been eyeing for 3-5 years(!) now. But I agree, looking at the hundreds and hundreds of positive reviews — maybe finally — is just too tempting NOT to take a chance on. Maybe it’ll be great, maybe it’ll be crap — but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Elsewhere online, there’s also black t-shirt with the Miles Davis “Big Fun” cover on it — except it’s the green trumpet bell and lettering with the BLACK background of the shirt (instead of the blue background of the cover) — and it looks really, REALLY nice — and I’m eyeing that one too. And a simple “Birth of the Cool” cover one too (on a black t-shirt).

Me too (or especially the “too cheap” part)…. but during the Covid lockdown, and literally an entire year wearing t-shirts at home, I realized I hadn’t bought more than two new t-shirts in over 10 years — and most all the other dozen(?) ones I’d been wearing were closer to 15 years old (and definitely showing it, despite line-drying them to try and preserve the various graphics). So, yeah, $24 a pop is a bit much for a t-shirt — but if it’s something I’ll wear proudly for 15 years, that comes down to like less than $2 per year over the lifetime of the shirt… Then, yeah, darn it — I think I’m gonna drop $50 or $75 on some new jazz-themed t-shirts this year, or maybe even $100 — why the heck not?? Judgement! - Out To Lunch — ETC — maybe a few others (there’s Prisoner and Schizophrenia BN cover shirts I’ve been eyeing from another source recently too. Not like opportunities like that present themselves every day — streetwear with BN titles like THAT!!

ETC!!!

Been going on two years, I realize — but I imagine it would still be interesting to get Michael Cuscuna’s impressions of this whole crazy thing. Just a thought. And/or are there any other BN historians worth consulting about it?

So, why did the A Night At Birdland releases get not just two, but three(!) different contemporaneous sets of cover designs? I’m not sure I can think of any other similar sorts of examples of even just two designs like that, specifically from around the same timeframe (cue Chuck, to point out some really obvious example I’m not thinking of ). I swear, I think I’ve known and forgotten as much of this minutia, as I’ve retained over the years (and I think I knew it better off the top of my head 10-15 yrs ago). But seriously, why were there three(!) different cover designs?? ===== Ok, the first set of 3 covers were for (shorter) 10” releases — I figured out that part (once I remembered there were three vols, and not just two). So that explains TWO sets of the designs (one of the other sets were for 12” LP reissues of the three 10-inchers. Two down, one to go/explain…

I was about to say, can you please expound on that? But then I read the obit. No explanation necessary!

No WONDER why all these titles have confused the fuck out of me over years — they’re all the same!! I’m nowhere near a Blakey completist — not even close — but especially not his 50’s output. This is(?) the same material as the 4cd Complete Brownie on BN & PJ set, right? (That’s how I have the material, if that’s right.)