Jim Alfredson

Funny story. The second half was cringe inducing. Whoever that chick's producer is... well, I'll shut my mouth other than to say her statement that if you listen to the "great" singers for intonation, you'll be disappointed is crazy. Who does she consider great singers? Aren't the great singers the ones that can sing? I hope they use autotune on that 22-year old singer because that was cringe inducing. Or maybe make her do another take until she can sing it... novel concept. SIDENOTE: Jim, any chance of getting NPR to do a story on the home studio revolution? I have the perfect band/project for them to discuss. Using modern technology to record in an "old school" way, in the basement of a 100-year old house and getting professional results. Sounds interesting to me.

Both Michigan and Michigan State got drubbed. Still a good season for MSU though at 9-3.

Which four more pages than the Best of 2008 Jazz list thread. While the op's writing style is very awkward it does seem strange that on a Jazz Discussion Forum their aren't a lot of people that support new Jazz artists. Seems to be more bashing of anybody that gets any type of positive press/ promotion than support. I know that isn't entirely true but it seems that way here sometimes. And four more pages than the thread about organissimo's videos on YouTube... you know, the band that actually owns this board. I have been frustrated by the lack of discussion of new artists on this board for years. What I have found is that younger people are generally more open to cross-pollination of musical ideas than older jazz fans, which is ironic considering jazz is supposed to be "free" and "expressive" and all that. Before anyone gets defensive, I'm not singling out anyone here. Just a general observation from being in the trenches, so to speak.

The union is certainly not faultless in the equation. Not by a long shot. From a post on another board I frequent, by a fellow Lansing resident: That describes EXACTLY my dad's experience with the unions and working in factories. Don't work too hard or you'll make the others look bad and they don't like that. The unions got greedy. Both the management and the unions are at fault here.

The short-term, only thinking about the next quarter era must come to an end. They have no long-term plans. Everything is about the upcoming quarter and pleasing the shareholders. You have to have a long-term plan and stick to it, despite the ups and downs. Anyone remember the big announcement of a new electric platform by GM back in... oh, 2003 or so? I worked the NAIAS that year (North American International Auto Show) in Detroit and they made a big hubbub about it. They had spent billions on this project. It was a platform for electric vehicles, several of which were built on the same frame. A few months later they had a big media blitz and I saw a long interview on 60 Minutes with Wagoner and Dan Rather where Rather actually drove one of the test vehicles. Wagoner was talking about how this was the future and the technology was sound and ready, blah blah blah. A few months later, the entire project was scrapped, no explanation. It was just completely dumped. All that money down the drain. Hey, they were raking in the money hand over fist from SUV sales! Why waste resources on developing new technologies? I have no sympathy for the Big 3, at all.

No.

I find it ironic that a board that produces a 5 page thread about 40-50 year old Blue Note recordings losing their charm is so quick to dismiss this thread.

Just put up a vid from our show at Founders this past June: Blessed Relief by Frank Zappa.

Deja vu.

That would make for good TV. There are a bunch of videos up from our gig this past Friday at the Jazz Kitchen as well. My wife said some guy had a tripod and video camera on the table! I didn't even see him.

From a gig we did up in Traverse City in September of 2007. It was frickin' cold that night and we were on an outside patio (this year they put us inside, thankfully, because it rained all night). My hands were killing me! So that's why I botched the head. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Hey, at this point in the game, considering this is our third record, I'm just happy to finally have a review. Three stars, four stars, I don't care. It was a good review and if people read it, hopefully it will pique their interest.

Cheap Trick - Live At Buddhakhan Oh the humanity! Jazz related, that McDuff Live album on Prestige is pretty bad (as far as the editing they did in order to make it appear like it was really "live", that is).

You rock, Mark. It was great to see you again. Thanks for taking some photos. I think I might be looking painfully at that incredibly loud and obnoxious table in that shot of me you posted! I tried everything in my bag of tricks to get them to shut the hell up, short of just saying "Shut the hell up!" on the mic (which would have been rude and unprofessional), but they were having none of it. Did the "Waiting For The Boogaloo Sisters..." 2008 Rewind Shots come out?

I was playing the Jazz Kitchen tonight so I didn't see the Pistons/Lakers game. I have to say I'm shocked the Pistons won. And the Nuggets beat the Celtics. Perhaps this trade was a good thing for both teams. I still miss Mr. Big Shot.

Not sure if this has been discussed here before or not. When I was a kid, my dad and I were really into electronic music. Not electronica, but electronic music, ranging from old Tangerine Dream to Vangelis to Wendy Carlos to Tomita to Steve Roach to a million others I'm forgetting. When I was a boy, I used to fall asleep to the program Hearts of Space that used to be on WKAR here in Lansing. My dad made hours upon hours of his own "ambient music" as he called it that I've started to go through since his passing. It's pretty interesting stuff; very minimalist and meditative. Anyway, I recently downloaded (from iTunes) two fairly modern Steve Roach albums. "Possible Planet" is my favorite so far; it was creates solely on an analog modular synthesizer system with no MIDI, no keyboard interface, no sequencers. It's a collection of self-oscillating patches run through various reverbs and delays and filters and it sounds really organic. It's just textures and sounds floating in and out. My wife hates this stuff, but I find it very interesting. The other is "Proof Positive" and it's more rhythmic than the other, but I think it was still created on an analog modular. Just wondering if anyone else is into this stuff and what you might be listening to.

Jim, congratulations! That's fantastic! I hope to come to an AES convention someday. My good friend and studio-owner Glenn Brown loves going (he met you at the convention in 2006 in NYC). Sidenote about high sample rate digital audio: Do you agree with Lavry that 192kHz is pointless and that really a sample rate of 60kHz would be more than adequate for digital audio? Do you use 96kHz because of the compatibility with DVD?

Well, Stevie Wonder proved in the 70s that you can make great sounding records that still have soul... ...until you hit the 1980s, that is. For some reason, that decade brought out the worst in just about everyone.

He's one of the best PGs in the league, hands-down. Trade RIP, trade Sheed, trade Prince, trade anyone else... Ugh. Between this and losing Dice (who, if he was smart, would sign with the Celtics because they will probably win it all again this year) and signing Kwame Brown (that guy is absolutely terrible), I don't even want to watch the games anymore. Maybe things will work out... it's just depressing to see a team that once was smooth and efficient turn into this.

Pistons finally won their first game since the trade. At the beginning it looked like it was going to be another blow-out loss. They got down by 15 in the first quarter. Stagnant offense, settling for jumpshots, no defense. I thought to myself, "What happened to my team!?!?" But they suddenly came alive and started driving the ball to the hoop, instead of standing around like meatheads. I think the trade was awful. Billups was the most important guy to that roster. You could've traded ANYONE else and it would've been a much better trade, with less impact to the team chemistry and offense.

Jim, when you re-do an older album for surround, do you have to upsample the audio or where you prescient on most stuff and recording at higher bitrates?

Sounds like the playlist at any given hour on the local classic rock station sans the obligatory Floyd tune.

She's beautiful. I'll email tech support and see what they say. Thanks!

You guys hip to Penzey's? http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html There's one in Grand Rapids. I've used their Indian spices before; good stuff!

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index....-toots-to-poots