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Only this week 50% off Sextet (Parker) 1993 with the code Romance Without Finance. Welcome news for cash-strapped Organissimo Braxton fans!

This a superbly produced box set. Beautiful non-fatiguing warm sound (now listening to disc 1). Excellent booklet. Many here would enjoy this if they could scrape the cash together. If you can occasionally spend $150 on a Mosaic set, you might as well get this New Braxton House release. Similar value for money.

There are plenty of people who think the so-so sentimental pop tunes from their youth is the greatest music ever. They feel they are right because there is strength in numbers, right?

I think a lot of Lee Morgan albums are quite dull. You know, starting with a funky track. I know Search for the New Land wasn't released immediately although it did get a catalog number. I have only a couple of Morgan albums and love them all: The Sidewinder, Search for the New Land, The Gigolo, Live at the Lighthouse, Lee Morgan (1971). BUT previewing Tom Cat and the likes bored the shit out of me. On the other hand, the alternate takes of Out to Lunch and Mode for Joe released only recently in Japan for Blue Note's 75th anniversary are very dear to me. I also agree Matador, Etcetera, etc. are great albums.

Absolutely! Hallelujah! I picked up this set in Amsterdam today. I am happy that the Paris concert sounds even better than the original release on Trema ( the 1994 fat boy case and 2000 digipaks had the same mastering). There was some static/buzzing noise at one point that has apparently been removed. Don't get the Copenhagen LP. You need all three concerts, especially Paris. Apparently Kind of Blue was only just released (see picture in booklet on page 14) and nobody in Europe had heard Giants Steps and the likes yet. Most in the audience hadn't expected this.

Just cave in. These are essential recordings. I have been obsessing over them ever since I read Porter's Coltrane biography and bought the Paris and Stockholm discs around 2000.

Dull. Too much stuff that was eventually released might as well have stayed in the vaults.

€175 at Jazz Messengers. I just ordered a copy. https://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/76198/anthony-braxton/sextet-parker-1993

That's disappointing. I really wanted Ready for Freddie. On the other hand, I just found a near mint copy of the mono Platinum SHM-CD of Blue Train for $19.95 on Discogs.

I have listened to the first 23 tracks now, and think this would be a good purchase for me. I'll pick this up at the end of the month. Hopefully Jazz Messengers will have stock by then. I never bought the 2CD set on Hathut Records, by the way. And as a Dutch national, I have almost no Misha Mengelberg in my collection.

Dear Friendly Experiencers, We are happy to announce that our new website and our new Bandcamp pageare now live. Our first new offering, released today, is the long-awaited Sextet (Parker) 1993 - an epic 11-CD deluxe box set documenting Braxton's legendary European tour performing music composed by and associated with Charlie Parker, featuring Misha Mengelberg, Paul Smoker, Ari Brown, Joe Fonda and Pheeroan akLaff (drummer Han Bennink substitutes for akLaff on one disc). This reissue greatly expands upon the original two-disc set released in 1995 by Hathut Records under the title "Anthony Braxton's Charlie Parker Project 1993." It captures every note played by these musicians, live and in studio, during the week of October 18-24, 1993, traveling between Cologne, Amsterdam, Zurich, and Antwerp. However the music is not presented simply in a documentary fashion gig to gig - Braxton himself sequenced the recordings, album by album, to create one massive artistic statement. The box set, with a 26-page booklet including Stuart Broomer's insightful essay, will be solely available in a limited-edition run of 500 copies. (The music will also be available for streaming or digital download via Bandcamp.) Glenn Ito, who accompanied the band, has kindly shared with us rare photos from the tour. Now we share them with you. All photos in this newsletter were taken by Glenn M. Ito. Enjoy, then visit our Bandcamp page and listen to a few tracks from the album. Best regards, Tri-Centric Team You can listen to the whole thing on Bandcamp: https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sextet-parker-1993

R.I.P. Moose

No. No HR Cutting statement either. The EU CD was on sale in the Netherlands this November and December. I bought a copy, was impressed, gave it to my parents for Christmas, and ordered the SHM-CD for myself. Why? Because I hate the flimsy digipaks DG uses in Europe these days, and because the album was recorded in Japan. I want the CD to look the same as it did today in 30 years time. Booklets are the same except the interview is now in Japanese only. Same photos. Same mastering credits. I have no reason to suspect this sounds different given the great control Zimerman exercised over the recording and mastering process (see interview in booklet). The disc I gave to my parents will now be in heavy rotation for a while, so no way of comparing one against the other.

Again Scott's tired old tirade against high def. releases. The reason to buy these audiophile Hybrid SACD reissues, whether one listens to the CD or SACD layer, is the superior mastering by people like Kevin Gray. Something he wouldn't have any knowledge of because he never invested in such releases. Kevin Gray's 1998 mastering of Thelonious Monk's Monk's Music (mono) on CD for Analogue Productions, for example, is so much better than the later 20bit K2 release of the mono recording it is impossible not to notice. It all comes down to whether you are willing to pay premium for a reissue that makes classic albums sound as good as they possibly can. Craft Recordings is of course not an audiophile reissue label like MFSL, ORG, etc. so at $70+ this Way Out West is indeed a major rip off. And there are only two new alternate takes here.

There are only two new alternate takes compared to the OJC 24bit remaster from a couple of years back. Like Mike Weil, I's prefer a release on Hybrid SACD. Just the original album in pristine sound is often enough for me.

Funkadelic Maggot Brain (CDSEWM 002) The old UK CD with the bass intact.

Billie Holiday - Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles Disc 4 from this 4 CD set mastered by Vic Anesini.