BruceH

Yeah, GoM, considering that some thought Sonic Boom to be a distinctly second-or-third-rate Morgan album I'm enjoying the Conn a heck of a lot. I think I'll get Charisma. Nice to have a few opinions, though (and I wish the cover were better).

What are your opinions on this album? One of the seemingly endless semi-obscure Morgan Blue Notes that I didn't really know about (along with The Masturbator and The Certified Public Accountant) I noticed the other day that it's got Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean on it. How bad could it be? How good? Worth getting?

I'll go with what Dan said. Any Hank fan should have it. The album is not quite Hi Voltage but it's got more snap than Thinking of Home.

YES, I'm already getting that impression.

That like jazz? About 12. Kansas City used to be such a hotbed of jazz and jazz clubs---they named a style of swing after it, fer kripesake! All gone? If so, too bad. The once-vibrant SF jazz scene is not completely gone...if you count the one good jazz club in Oakland. Current listening: Sonic Boom, Passing Ships, Bossa Nova Bacchanal

Agreed. I didn't forget his creation of Shrek, but it seems like EVERYONE had been mentioning that. I'll keep an eye out for that coffee-table book.

I'm now on the chapter about state lotteries, which is riveting. The part about New York's first attempt at a legal lottery made me go back and re-watch one of my favorite films, Force of Evil, which is about the small numbers rackets ("policy") in NYC being swallowed up by a larger lottery before being legalized. I may look for that Warren Nelson book. That Sagan book----------whew! Depressing stuff! * * * Brandon--nice avatar!

I've been thinking of rereading Flow My Tears... for a long, long time. But I'm afraid it might not live up to the memory.

"We Can Remeber It For You Wholesale" -- one of the great sf story titles of all time. I still have some of my old Philip K. Dick paperbacks. Glad I held on to the Mid-70's Bantam "Best of--" collection. A lot of sentimental value in that.

Big improvement in the sound, to these ears. It sounds like a real album now, rather than something that was etched onto a tin can.

You've sold me on it!!!!! Actually, though I have the Rivers Mosaic I'd seriously considered getting Fuschia just to have it in separate, "album" form. Partly because I love the album and I'm conceptually wedded to the album paradigm, partly cuz I'm such a sucker. But if it has superior sound then all the better! I agree with you about the Hill---sounds great! An amazing restoration job, especially considering that the tapes were rumored to be a sonic mess.

Well...it would be nice.

I broke down and got Bossa Nova Bacchanal today. Nice album, but guess what the bonus track is? "One For Five," which was the best track from the out of print Lost Sessions Conn. It doesn't really go with the rest of Bossa stylistically, but it's seven minutes of really great music that should be available. Good move, Michael.

Bad Bet: the Inside story of the Glamour, Glitz, and Danger of America's Gambling Industry, by Timothy O'Brien. Will you find this book informative, fast-paced, and fascinating? You can bet on it.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Much better than the Harrison Ford movie. Eldritch, Flow My Tears, Martian Time Slip, and Ubik are all up there though.

If you don't have either of them (like I didn't), then the Sonic Boom Conn is the best buy of the bunch. 74 minutes of Lee Morgan for $16? Worth it!

Which is probably why I kept the box around for awhile after storing the CD's in normal cases. But my house is cluttered enough without empty CD boxes kicking around.

Damn you and your big city get-the-CDs-out-on-the-release-date record stores! Ouch! Hey, this city ain't that big. Just over 700,000. How many people in Kansas City?

I guess this proves that they really should put more padding in those helmets.

DrJ---Fuchsia Swing Song has better sound than the Mosaic?? That's a bit of a surprise.

I like it quite a lot, but I'm perhaps a bit of a hardbop fanatic. If you see the Conn at a halfway reasonable price, get it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Good point.

I'm certainly no Hill expert, as the only other album of his I have is Point of Departure (I managed to miss the Mosaic). But I like what I'm hearing on Passing Ships, whether or not it's prime Hill.

I tend to agree with you, but lately more old, OOP Conns have been popping up as new RVGs. As that happens, the aesthetic line between the two grows fuzzier. As the RVG's metastasize and, amoeba-like, absorb the Conns, eventually every BN album will become an RVG and the Conns will be gone. (Or maybe not.)

One of the dumbest packaging jobs I've ever seen. I put mine in two double-CD cases and store the booklet alongside them. I kept the empty box for a while (don't ask me why) then finally tossed it.