Man with the Golden Arm

Gotta be one of those double sets like the recent Shorter and Gordon...just so you could put the Rumproller in there. So I guess that opens up disc two to his compositions done with other folks.

YowsaH! Thanks for the props on this on DrJ. Just picked up 'FSS' and have to reitterate that this is one of the finest sounding Connoisseurs yet. McMaster has virtually eliminated all of the hi shimmer from the Mosaic. The opening of the title cut lets you hear the earthiness of the keys against the pads, the cymbals are taken down a step which to me provides more clarity than the crispiness heard previously. Byard's phenomenal solo on "Ellipsis" just rocks and Williams' solos throughout seem to bounce that virtual VU needle all over the place rather than the consistent topping out of the Mosaic!! Zip straight to "Beatrice" for an A/B and there is NO tape hiss at all. Warm as that sepia-tone liner photo. I haven't listened fully and have just been skipping around with these two discs but have to hand it to Ron for nailing this one big time. An RVG of this could never have sounded this good. Outstanding!!!

Sounds like it might be some pretty heavy stuff and from the AMG review it sounds like it's the second coming of the greatest record of all time (I'd like to buy into this review but it's like a Dusty Groove blurb in tome form and I just can't get into another Love Supreme riff-lift): Since the beginning of the 21st century, David S. Ware's recordings have moved more toward the notion of composition than free-blowing improvisation. The album Threads is the most fully realized of his scoring attempts yet, and stands out from his catalog as a work of great innovation and emotional power. The David S. Ware String Ensemble is comprised of his quartet with William Parker, Guillermo Brown, and Matthew Shipp, and is augmented by microtonal violist Mat Maneri and classical maestro Daniel Bernard Roumain on violin. Ware's compositions are not subtle by jazz standards. They involve stridently stated rhythmic arrangements, such as those found on "Sufic Passages," which inverts and extends part of the line from John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," and is eerily reminiscent of the intro statement of the 1960s Ramsey Lewis Trio with Maurice White in live settings — check out "Hang on Sloopy," "Wade in the Water," or "Dancing in the Street" from Cadet Records for reference. Ware sounds nothing like Lewis, of course, particularly with this instrumentation. Shipp uses a Korg synthesizer on the entire album, and the rhythmic patterns but forth by Brown and Parker are mere jump-off points for explorations in tone, color, and texture. Ware's melodic sensibility is never quite revealed, though it is never absent, either. Here, once a pattern is stated and developed, it is extrapolated upon first by the string players creating modal passages in the middle. Ware and Shipp function either as soloists or contrapuntal rhythmic foils on the track. On "Ananda Rotation," co-written with Shipp, Ware delves into the sonority of Parker's bowed bass as the entry point into minor-key journeys around a noir-ish thematic. The other strings join in, droning across the background and Shipp colors the entire proceeding with washes of unidentifiable sonics. Brown hovers over the cymbals and tom-toms like a ghost as Ware delves into the heart of these different tonalities and opens them onto a new sonic landscape where Maneri moves across the drone to improvise alongside him. The album is broken up in the middle by a stomping blowout entitled "Weave I," where the strings never make an appearance; in fact it is a duet between Ware and Brown, taking an Afro-Cuban rhythm and turning it inside out on a theme created by Ware, who also roils through its variations until it returns toward the end. The same thing happens at the album's close. But it is on the title cut and the shimmering, melodic restraint of "Carousel of Lightness" that Ware makes his true sensibilities most plain. His acceptance of sonic ambiguity and harmonic opaqueness are brought under the command of dynamic on these tracks, and from the crack in the tension comes some of the most beautiful, intuitive, and forward-thinking ensemble playing in a decade by any American jazz group. Threads is easily Ware's classic thus far in that it showcases the musician at the height of all of his powers: improvisational, compositional, and as an arranger and bandleader. This is Ware's masterpiece and the first really new compositional statement in jazz in years; if this record isn't — at least — nominated for a Grammy as 2003's best jazz record, then the entire category deserves to be struck from the ballot. — Thom Jurek All Music Guide

Not much of a surprise to surpass the hissyness of the Mosaic. How so is this one superior to the TOCJ sound?? ---but do tell---DrJ Out of all of the new Connoisseurs I think this is THE classic of the batch. Imagine cracking this open and hearing this for the FIRST time! Now if they could have only tacked on what was muted on tape but probably rolling through the studio at the end of at least one of the takes of "DBU".

I think they are inflatable. ...And hopefully washable... I don't know who would know this but in Japan they also call these a "Dutch Wife".

Sad to hear as I think these guys are much a part of the positive force to help these great beasts while, unfortunately, at the same time making a glittery pant-load of mulah off of them. Let's hope nothing bad happens to this tiger. This is on my short list of reads> Has anyone picked this up?

For my money thus far Ken Burns has kicked Scorsese's butt. and on top of that I just got a software download prompt for my Mac that adds "the Ken Burns effect" to iMovie? then I'll be able to do everything in blase sepia-tone.

Does one need to accompany these Jaspar discs with Phenil Isopropil Amine to get the full effect?

I just received, and am very much liking, the new Marc Ribot Film Music II set. Two various scores and one remixed cut. No rhyme or reason or cohesiveness whatsoever. Just some nice sounding stuff. Only a couple of wacky tunes and he doesn't play the guitar with baloons on this one. More so his compositional side. Bernstein & the Rodriguez duo, the usual Tzadik strings, Peter Scherer & Coleman on keybs here and there, and some very timid Zorn sounding noise blues that isn't Zorn. It seems to go from retro guitar, sonic sci-fi bolly-funk, some al green philly-soul-cheese-steak, Rothenberg playing shackuhachi (always phenomenal), slack hi-life, some beautiful classical guitar and a bit of stax retro soul. Probably not all there is but it's just like one of those photo montages with all the cuts stretching from one or two minutes to five. Highly recommended and perfect sounding as usual.

good one MC. guess they forgot to put that one in the liner notes. the one they single out for distortion is "Dirty Fingers" which sounds like it's supposed to be there. Such a shame they didn't have the technology to splice up a good sounding segment courtesy of Japan. I suppose the new JRVG i see has this as well?

hh, I e-mailed yestersday as well so well see if there is some action. Too bad our man with the speed dial to MC left the board.

It's not organ distortion or the buzz of a hot recording at all. It's got to be simply a defective tape that was used. So why is it that the TOCJ is pristine? It's like the old old Japanese "Song for My Father" intro. It has absolutely no glitches at all on a 1985 import but raised it's ugliness on the RVG and everything since. Why is it that so many companies can pain-stakingly remaster stuff so perfectly and here we have yet another Blue Note hiccup. Could they not have seamed the intro from a regular old 16-bit disc into the salvagable masters for the final production of this? And why is it usually just on the start-up of a session? Listen closely to the RVG of "The Turnaround" it's got the same thing going on, but to a much lesser degree than "The Rock", and never had the glitch on the Collector's Choice issue. I got a feeling that all of these things are just plugged in and walked away from until the bell rings bringing McMaster or who ever back from break-time. I know...bitch bitch bitch...yea yea...it's all about the music. Well get the music right would ya! Just waiting for the next selects to have the booklets printed on tracing paper,too.

Regarding the sound quality: hutchhead had a good head's up here and Cuscuna gives it up in the liners regarding the set's foibles. So far I find the sound to be excellent save for a glaring glitch on "The Rock". It's even worse than some fuzz on the other cuts and is certainly not on the original masters. The 'Oh Baby!' sessions sound better than previous japanese RVG IMO and the 'Feeling' and 'Understanding' tracks, while hearing them for the first time here are hot. For the money it's well worth the tip especially if Patton's legacy is getting some 'grease' on the residuals. And Brad I asked for this one for my birthday as well. Happy Birthday

Man that's just freakin' terrible!!!! The distortion goes from the start of "Rock" to about 00:15 and peaks at about ten seconds. I guess that's why they threw the caveat warning into the booklet that there is "organ distortion throughout this set". WTF... if I want organ distortion I'll reply to some of that e-mail spam I get!!! I recall no such thing on the TOCJ (that now resides somewhere between here and reindeer-land that I stupidly sold off, but was never received, to a board member). So are Ron and the boys playing salt-water-taffy-store with the tapes or what? And I thought it sounded terrific when I first put on this set with discs two and three.

Scrawled thru Dusty Groove and see they have raised the prices of these newest issues to $27. Yikes!! They are now about ten bucks more than Hiroshi, with shipping, for just two discs and it goes up from there. Buyer beware! early records

LOL...nice example of the pot calling the kettle, black. perplexed as to what some people find funny? lots of great reading in there ubu. thanks for the work.

Having only heard "Minor Swing" on the DIW and "Congo Chant" on Blue Planet Man, listening to the originals right now is the coolest! B)

Yeah go ahead and pick an Anthony Braxton AOW?

I was bothered by these captions. The whole reason that the blues is, is that you need to listen hard. Not have it just put out there for us pasties to be able to 'see' what we are hearing. Truly better than most of what my 5 channels have to offer. I'll be watching and looking forward to more.

I have several of these as well. The Wilen and Jaspar from ubu's above are tops for me. Fine stuff and extremely cheap when they first came around at $7.99. I enjoy the 'cinema' series as well and am wondering if anyone has thoughts on the last volume #4?

Great thought for a thread. Thanks as well. Both of our daughters are now taking piano and the sounds of morning practice is such a beautiful thing right before you start screaming at them to get ready for school. A few years ago when my oldest was about 5 I had to educate her about the care and treatment of compact discs after she frisbeed the 'Jungle Book' soundtrack across the floor, rendering only "I Wanna Be Like You" completely unplayable. I showed her how to properly handle these things and played the skipping track a few times just for good measure. Well a couple weeks later we're sitting in the music room and I had some Grant Green playing. Sure enough he gets into one of his tension builders and my daughter happily admonishes me for scratching my CDs too. The education from both sides never ends ..thank God!

A little birdie sez that the Pattons should ship by weeks end.

I usually grunt to predict the next move!

Hey wait a minute. I was listening to Equilibrium this morning as well. How'd I get your keys? Specifically a Thirsty Ear mix MD: Ibid, Désmarches, Ibid, Places I've Never Been, Space Shipp, Staph, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, World, D's Choice, Reactive Switching Strategies, Stream Light, Equilibrium, Vamp To Vibe, Cohesion, Rocket Shipp, Select Mode 1, A Knot In Your Bop, The Root, The Key.

ss1, Wee Hoo....So we finally get a Brownies game on the tube out here and in the third quarter my 5 year old's on the phone with her grandad in Ohio and I ask her to ask him "...what's with this Holcomb guy?" and through the phone the reply is "He stinks!" Well not more than a half an hour later my kids get to see me jumpin' around the living room just like the old days!! Dems da Dawgs we love!