Rooster_Ties

This is entirely anecdotal, but I’ve had 20+ homemade CDR’s become unreadable after 5-10 years — where I’ve only had 2 real CD’s (out of over 8,000) fail in 30 years (for reasons other than scratches, etc). My concern is not that “most” CDR’s won’t last for 20 years or more, but that any particular CDR would seem to have a much higher probability of failure over time. We don’t own any cars any more (hello city-living, since 2011) — but I especially wouldn’t trust a CDR to stand up to lots of playing in a front-loading car player, nor to the extremes of weather. No idea if they’re especially susceptible to heat — or cold (or both) — but I just don’t trust ‘em, like I do real CD’s.

I see they have a brand new Matthew Sweet album coming out in January too.

Any guess as to whether Dusty will carry this? At least they often often have scheduled releases listed super early (though not this one yet).

For those like me, who didn’t recognize the drummer...

Begrudgingly, I guess I don’t really blame them — but I absolutely loath this trend. Then again, with physical releases seemingly going the way of the dodo, I suppose it’s better than nothing.

I absolutely love the integration of the vigorous string quartet writing (“comping” a bit more than than entirely front and center — but WAY more front and center than most “with strings” sorts of projects) — with the rest of the band. The writing and arranging here is complex, but not quite chaotic. I also love the way the strings are recorded here too, very in-your-face sounding (in terms of timbre) — I think(?) perhaps close-miked, and in a pretty dry space (little reverb) — a kind of bold choice in terms of pure sound, imho.

С днем рождения!!

GARY THOMAS Not everything, but the better/best half of his output is just divine (which includes a bit from the late 80’s).

Was on a Zoom mtg this morning with about twenty 6 & 7 year olds (and their parents), for a virtual 6th birthday party for the son of a friend of ours. If you have any similar circumstances, and are looking for some special entertainment for the little ones — I can recommend the virtual distanced fun that is BubbleDad... https://www.bubbledad.com/

Wendell Harrison - Farewell to the Welfare (Unreleased, 1975)

Hoping for the very best possible outcome for your dad, jazzbo — and strength to you and your family.

I’ve always loved the timbre of Chuck D’s voice. I can’t say I have a ton of rap in my collection, but Public Enemy has always been high on my list, and I had a lot of respect for them back as early as the late 80’s. I also loved the density of their production — none of which made any ‘sense’ — but just hit me (aurally) in a way that always seemed interesting and challenging. And the richness of Chuck D’s baritone seemed way more musical to me than most rappers back then, and even now.

Isn’t that the same(??!!) cover that was on the very first mention of this release well over 10 years ago — over 15 years ago even?? — on Tolliver’s own really basic website?” (Like almost exactly the same??) Back before anyone had any idea what year the release had material from. Edit: ok, found it... http://www.serecs.com/coming.html I’m gonna go out on a limb that and say this probably ISN’T the actual cover for this release. I think someone from Dusty saw the “cover” on Tolliver’s ancient website, thought it was the legit cover for this concert finally seeing the light of day... But I just don’t think this will actually be what the final product looks like. Only time will tell.

Gobble, gobble!!

How are we doing on donations? The board auto-widget suggests we need another $850 or so just to get even with 2020 board expenses (to say nothing of 2021). I leveraged a $200 donation to the board last month (I gave a board member 9 fairly minty OOP Masada CD's, vols 2-10 -- all of the series he was lacking -- in exchange for his gracious donation of $200 to the care/feeding/maintenance of the board). And how are you doing, Jim? You've only posted twice since March, and I often hope you and your lovely family are doing well / are safe and sound. Many thanks for all you do around here, keeping the lights going and all. I'm sure I'm alone in saying how much we appreciate it!! Stay safe, and thanks again!

Playing a little catch-up, but I wanted to say that these 3 titles in particular were among the very strongest highlights of the Bee Hive box for me -- a box I bought partly out of loyalty to Mosaic (and wanting to be supportive of them with my $$), even if I really only felt like I was especially interested in about half of it (at most) -- and I also wanted to vote with my $$ to say that I *really* appreciated content from the 70's. But the box really had a few more surprises that I was expecting -- the two biggest being... 1. Sal Nistico!! -- I have to confess I'd never really heard any Sal before the Bee Hive box -- and it was this Curtis Fuller album (with Sal) that really made me first take notice. I'd gotten the Bee Hive box on the eve of a 2-week road-trip/vacation with my wife and then 91-year old father in the midwest (all around Arkansas, jumping off from St. Louis in my father's car, thankfully with a CD player in it). So I listened to the entire box for the first time on the road with them. And when I got to this Curtis Fuller date, my ears completely perked up -- and I literally sat up in the driver's seat when one of Sal's really fast and articulate solos came on. Holy crap! - this guy plays with the fluidity of a Tina Brooks (darker tone, obviously), and a little bit of the sort fast UN-syncopated approach of a Gary Thomas or Billy Harper even. Anyway, I was driving, and had my wife dig into the CD-case insert for me to help me find out who the heck it was I was hearing. Sal Nistico? Who the hell is THAT? -- I remember asking her -- and we were in an area with spotty cell-phone coverage, so it took 20 more minutes before she got enough of a signal to pull up Nistico's Wikipedia entry for me. Then it turns out Sal features on a couple other Bee Hive dates on the box too (iirc), maybe three? - so another good reason to have gotten the box (even if I didn't know it at the time I decided to buy it). 2. To my great surprise, I was really taken with Johnny Hartman's lone Bee Hive date ("Once In Every Life" - 1980). I'm normally not one for real traditional jazz singing (or too much jazz singing in general), but even my father -- who has NOT a musical bone in his body -- asked me who was singing / liked the album. I'm just seeing this Hartman album falls just outside of your 1970's focus of your blog/this thread -- but I thought I'd mention it anyway, an album I really love. That Bee Hive Box turned out to be such a nice purchase. Not everything is a home run, but the whole thing is really of a quality that even most of the more staid Bee Hive dates are really quite enjoyable.

So literally... ”Thanks, don’t mention it!” (All in the same breath, same speaker.)

You don’t say!!!

As someone said not too far back, it's a crime that Charles Tolliver and Billy Harper aren't better recognized for their contributions to the decade (and more generally) -- and of course, Woody Shaw too. Cripes -- how any "top-whatever" list from the 70's would leave off Woody Shaw is astounding.

Haven't read it myself, but I got to hear Harry Sparnaay perform with a new music ensemble (New Ear) back in Kansas City, probably 15 years ago.

Discs 1 & 3 -- both for the very first time today (thanks to the help of a kind board member, who traded me his copy, which just arrived in the mail hours ago)... And Mrs. Rooster really dug disc #3 -- i,e, the Tristano-heavy disc with all the solo-piano and manipulated piano-trio material.

Not sure what time of day you were at the post office on Tue, but it was dropped off at the front desk of our apartment bldg at 12:15pm Eastern (so 9:15am Pacific). That HAD to have been well less than 48 hours — I’m astonished!! — and all for just $3 and some change. BTW, thanks again!!

Silly Billy, *IF* Bitches Brew is a 70’s album (not saying you said it was!) — then Miles’ Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About that Time is a 2001 album. Maybe it’s a factor of my only getting into jazz starting in the late 80’s — but when particular albums were released is really quite a secondary data-element, though I’ll admit it can be interesting to look at the history of the PUBLIC’s experience of someone like Miles, through the lens of when THEY first got to experience particular albums — particularly when they came out 2-3 or 5+ years after they were recorded. But that’s an entirely different lens than when/how/why things actually got recorded at the time, and what preceded and followed what, and by how long — weeks, months, half-a-year, etc. And what tours might have interceded between the ventures into the studio — particularly with someone as “evolving” as Miles.