Jim Alfredson

My dad Jim Alfredson Jr (1940-2008) and my mom Verna Cogswell (1951-1997) in 1970 at the station my dad worked at for a short time.

It's possible to an extent with current software (and even hardware), but not to the extent of the Marvin Gaye tracks. It depends of course on the source. A lot of Beatles stuff was released in that weird "split" stereo sound where different sounds are hard panned to one side or the other. For instance, drums on one side, vocals on the other, and guitars in the middle. It would be a lot easier to take that "apart" than a full mix.

I believe Motown was one of the first studios to have an 8-track machine, which was custom built for them. They had it as early as 1964. According to this article with chief Motown engineer Bob Ohlsson, the first song recorded on it was "Where Did Our Love Go", which was released in 1964. The Beatles were still working with three to four tracks up until the late 60s, but American tape technology was quite a bit ahead of our British counterparts for some time. The first commercially available 8-track was from Ampeg.

As far as I know, these are from the original multitrack tapes. There is a lot of stuff out there in this category, including stuff by Queen, The Jackson Five, Beatles, etc. That said, there is new software coming as an update to Melodyne that will allow you to manipulate the individual parts of a single wave form. In other words, you could put in a stereo mix of a tune and actually change the notes in the guitar part. It's pretty amazing. However, it's not fool-proof and having the multitracks would still be far easier and reliable.

I've been in contact with him. He's fine.

Too bad it's just the guitarist's solo. I want to see Lonnie burn it up on the Korg.

So when is Apple Computer going to sue for trademark infringment?

I thought that was you! I had just taken the pre-orders down and put that new listing up and someone ordered it. That was funny! A new article about the CD and our appearance this weekend at the Old Town Jazz Festival is in the local alternative paper: http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/index.php?...3&Itemid=63

That's good; I was beginning to get worried.

Yep. After trying to find someone for years I finally gave up and basically do everything myself except book, which my friend Greg handles because he's better at it than I am. Even local booking agents don't want to mess with jazz; there's no money in it. It's better to just do it yourself.

Uh.... http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/bestbuy/mellencamp/

I disagree with Soul Stream that it doesn't affect small-time musicians. If you're producing and releasing your own CDs, it certainly does hurt financially. But there's nothing that can be done about it, so you have to factor that in as a "cost of doing business". I would hope that if someone downloaded one of our CDs for free from where-ever, if they liked it they would buy the actual CD. But that probably doesn't happen very often. As far as the links go, I still think posting and dicussing links to copyrighted material is more trouble than it's worth for me and this site.

Yes, it is. As CD sales slump lower and lower, we are forced to find other ways. Fortunately, the same technology that is robbing us of CD sales also allows us to have our own recording studio with results that rival or sometimes surpass the recordings of the past. The new organissimo CD was recorded in my basement. I don't even really have a great room (which is more important than all the technology in the world for this kind of music) and I think the recording sounds excellent. By tracking the album myself, I cut our production costs in half. That's pretty significant. Of course, the downside is that I'll probably never have the chance to record at RVG's.

I paid $3.65 in Pennsylvania on the way back home.

Yep. The other ironic part of his blog is that the guy probably spends more on his audio gear than he does on going to see concerts / gigs or buying CDs. It's a funky situation. I'm curious if the new organissimo CD is out there yet. I would not be surprised, although we have not serviced DJs yet, so maybe not. Before we officially released the new Root Doctor CD, we serviced the DJs and the CD wound up on the torrent sites within days, which would be funny if we hadn't spent $12k on the record.

Just learned we were "Song of the Day" on Jazz.com http://www.jazz.com/page/2007/12/17/song-of-the-day

Holy shit. I just saw him last year at the Park City Jazz Festival and we talked quite a bit. The year before that he was at the Detroit Jazz Festival playing with Will Lee's tribute to Jaco that went on right after organissimo. Wow. RIP. Terrible news.

This kind of thread puts me in a tough place. I know that people want to talk about this stuff and share links, but unfortunately the line between legality and illegality, not to mention the ethics of it all, is very blurry indeed. What's the difference between this blog and the one posted a few days ago that was offering downloads of Nessa Records products? Some of Chuck's catalog is OOP. Does that mean you should be allowed to download it for free from a blog? I'd like to continue to discuss this, but for right now the rule still stands and I have deleted all links to the blog from the posts in this thread.

It's not on vinyl, so probably not. Seriously, this is in extremely bad taste. Since we're doing things in bad taste in this thread, should I reveal who this poster actually is, since this is not his first time on this board? He's not a new member, and he knows perfectly well that Chuck Nessa posts here. I suggest you delete this thread yourself, "noodlespoodles", and cut the bullshit.

We were there two years in a row, which is abnormal. I doubt they'd do three and if they haven't contacted us by now, I'd say it's pretty certain we're not playing it.

Level 4 CDs and posters are going out today.

Whatever, Ron. I'm sure the "check is in the mail", right?

I actually do play a bit of "clavinet" from the Motif on live gigs here and there. The problem with piano and clavinet is that they are instruments that sound best when played with both hands and a lot of my basslines are with the left-hand, with the pedals accenting. Also, piano is kind of a drag to play on a non-weighted keyboard. But it's definitely something to think about. I also use my Moog now and again live. I'd like Joe to play more acoustic too, but it's a matter of space in the van and amplification. Acoustics tend to not sound very good even through great PA's and we often times play through downright crummy PA's. Joe did take his acoustic to The Jazz Kitchen, who has a nice sound system and house engineer, and it was a lot of fun. We recorded that gig; might see release one of these days. Thanks!

Jim, thanks for the memories about David Baker. His work is exquisite. I'm sitting in Glenn Brown's studio right now, mixing a live Root Doctor release. Glenn met you in 2005 at the AES convention in NYC. We're mixing on his beautiful 1978 32 channel Neve 8068.