Joe G

Is that true? I mean to say, did they ever? With CDs, all you need is a stereo and a cd. To download you need a fast computer and connection, and something to play the music on. I'm with SoulStream, Plan A sounds easier to me.

Big Stuff, actually. Great record. My response to the Purple Gazelle guitar solo was immediately positive. How interesting. I remember going straight to the musicality of it and not even being concerned with the fact that it was being played with distortion. Probably the fact that I used to be an Iron Maiden fanatic had something to do with that... :rsmile: I think the guitarist with the cleanest tone today would have to be Martin Taylor. He's using a Benadetto or something and combines the humbucking pickup with a transducer in the bridge, getting a very bright and pure tone, closer to acoustic than electric actually. Very nice. Tuck Andress goes for that kind of thing as well, I understand. Synths: Joe Zawinal, Lyle Mays, and Scott Kinsey are three guys that do them justice.

Shall we start a poll?

Now that I can deal with!

Like me? :rsmile:

An outspoken review. I didn't make it down for the fest this year, and that lineup did had me raising an eyebrow. Thanks for posting this, Jim.

Is this for real? Strongly held opinions are fine, as long as they are well informed. Edit: Check it out Peter: Good stuff

A slippery slope for sure...

CJ, I gave Where the Moon Goes a listen today after reading your post. That's a weird tune! Especially the vocals. Oh, the 80's <shudder>. I've been mainly listening to the first disc; all the stuff with Chester Thompson.

Interesting. It sounds like they came from the same source, as the perceived dropout is there on the vinyl too. There's a warmth to the vinyl that I like, but the cd isn't too bad either. Thanks for setting that up!

Listening on headphones as I type this... a pretty noticable dropout occurs at 6:54, and I think that's the one that caught my attention. But the crash cymbals seem to be in rough shape all the way through. I don't know the techical term for it, but the sound never sustains in a continuous manner. It just occurred to me that you might only have the vinyl, in which case the track timing wouldn't help. There's a theme that gets introduced at the halfway point and eventually is used to end the song. It's kind of a two part melody, and the first time through, part one gets played only twice, then the second part is played. Second time through, part one gets played four times, and it's during the fourth repeat that the dropout occurs. Sorry if you do have the cd, then all that was unnecessary. Although it did make me pay attention in a new way, so that was fun. B) Let me know what you find.

Barnes & Noble.com has the two disc set for $27.99 and free shipping. I just placed my order.

I had to chuckle when I saw the title of this thread and who started it, since I was the one who gave you the most flak! For me it all depends on the player and the setting. It would sound pretty strange to hear someone like Peter Bernstein suddenly kick in a fuzz tone on one of his straight ahead albums. I don't think I would like that. But for the more exploratory forms of jazz, in the right hands a processed guitar tone can work wonders. For this kind of thing I like Abercrombie, Sco, Metheny, Rosenwinkel, Frisell, David Torn, and quite a few more. There are also plenty of examples where it didn't work, including recordings made by these fine players. One problem is that many jazzers don't automatically have a good rig setup to create distortion tones properly. It really takes as much thought and effort to get good distortion tones as it does to get good clean tones. Maybe more, since you're dealing with an amp that's basically screaming its head off. It's also interesting to see how these guys go back and forth working on their tones. Abercrombie and Frisell used guitars synths in the 80's but both gave it up. Hell, Abercrombie even gave up the pick! In the mid 90's, Frisell had his pedal board get lost en route to a gig, and ended up liking the idea of playing without the effects. Lately Sco's gone the other way with his band, bringing in even more effects, but that's the kind of music they play. When he plays straight ahead, it's a more pure tone, with just a bit of grit. In my own music, I tend towards cleaner, more natural sounding tones. I do like a touch-wah on funk numbers, and distortion is fun to rock out with a couple times a night. At home I never use an amp at all, and most often play my nylon string acoustic. As far as jumping all over you in that other thread, jazz1, my main beef was your choice of words in that critique of Phil's album. You just kind of said it was "dumb" and left it at that. In your later posts you did a better job of explaining what you meant. I may even end up agreeing with you about the guitar tone once I get my copy of Playful Intentions, as I don't really like some of the choices Rosenwinkel made tone-wise on The Enemies of Energy. As I said though, I love his sound on The Next Step. Much more subtle use of distortion and echo. I recommend you check that disc out.

You do realize, however, that if you are listening to a cd, you're not listening to a "natural" sound. Doesn't matter if it's a recording of a string quartet or the Amazon rain forest, it's still a digitized version of the real thing... :rsly:

I'm with you on that. It's a beautiful thing. /Off Topic/ There's a couple of books you might enjoy reading: The Third Ear, by Joachim Ernest Berendt The Listening Book, by W.A. Mathieu. Some interesting insights into the art of listening. /on topic/

Yeah, I've got three or four freebies coming, and UAN will be one of them. A friend of mine had East Meets West on vinyl, and we listened to it one time several years ago. I remember the drummer stepping on some toes, but it was a fun session. The early date I'm keeping an eye out for is Out Like a Light. That's a burning date.

Now I understand where you're coming from jazz1. You are perfectly entitled to your opinion, and I'm glad you took the time to explain it. No hard feelings, really.

Next time...and there will be a next time...

Looking for the one forbidden thing, ay Rooster? Can't leave well enough alone...so typical.

The difference there was that we got an informed explanation as to why the listener thought the compositions were weak. He didn't just say they were dumb, he said that he wanted to hear something more harmonically involved to support the melodic developments in the solos. Or something to that effect. Be specific, is what I'm saying. But hey, I'm cool... B)

I'll take it off your hands Jazz1...

Obviously Phil didn't think they were weak, or else he wouldn't have recorded them. I know you said in your post that you're just expressing your feelings about the disc, but this statement sounds quite matter-of-fact, rather than mere opinion. There is the essential aspect of art known as "the process". It's very important that artists have the courage and patience to work things through, in private or in public. It might be that the next batch of originals Phil records will totally knock you out, and it would be in large part due to what he learned from making this record. So have a care before disparaging someone's efforts at crafting a personal musical statement. Be honest, yes. But tossing out vague descriptive terms like "weak" and "dumb", which are difficult to defend against, do far more harm than good.

I don't have this cd yet, so I can't comment, but having listened to some of kurt rosenwinkel's other recorded performances, I can say that the word "horrible" never once entered my mind. Some of The Enemies of Energy struck me as a little over-produced, but the playing was still good. And The Next Step is, to me at least, totally sublime. Makes as good an argument for the guitar in jazz as any album I can think of. If indeed that argument needs to be made...

Just wondering if anyone knows about the latest remaster of Mysterious Traveller. It has a very dampened sound compared to Tale Spinnin' and Black Market. Also I heard some dropout in the middle of the first track. It sounds to me like it came from a secondary source. Anyone have the scoop on it?

My wife came home from the store yesterday with three bags of Pepperidge Farm cookies. You know the ones? With the big chunks of chocolate? She explained that they were on sale 3 for $6. Last time I ate a bag of these things (and there really is one serving per bag, right?) I felt like crap for hours. So I took a bag over to B3er's and set it on top of the fridge. Didn't tell anyone, though, so there was a risk of causing a fight: Jim, did you buy these cookies? No honey. Well I sure didn't, so who did? I don't know. (Escalates from there). Spreading strife is my greatest joy. Sorry buddy!!