vibes

I decided to take a chance and order Vaughan Williams "A Sea Symphony" on DVD-A and Shostakovich's Symphony no.7 on SACD. I'm really looking forward to hearing both, as I've only heard bits and pieces of each in the past. Anyone have these? Any comments on the performances or sound?

I went wireless in 2001, and it was one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I spend most nights laying on the sofa, surfing the net and listening to music over my network while my wife watches her inane TV programs. I always enjoy seeing where I can pick up wireless connections when I travel. Sometimes I find them in places I would expect them, like airports, and sometimes in very unexpected places, like in mall parking lots (picked one up on a recent trip to Utah).

I have the Analogue Productions "Moonbeams," and it's excellent - very realistic bass and drum sounds. The other SACD I have from them, Vince Guaraldi's "Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus" is also excellent. I've heard wonderful things about their other Bill Evans releases, and intend to pick them up.

I picked up Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphonies nos. 7 & 8 on Naxos today, my first Naxos purchase. The quality of the sound and the performance are much better than I expected. Looking around naxos.com, I see they have both DVD-A and SACD's available. Does anyone have any experience with these? How are they?

I have a little more than 50. I'm trying to buy as many titles as I can that interest me, since they seem to be getting harder to find. Like Claude said, many of them are classical issues, but that's OK by me. I would like to see more rock issues/reissues. Some of the few I have, like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" or Godsmack's "The Other Side" are among my favorite SACD's. I'm quite pleased with the few rock DVD-A's I have as well. The recent re-release of Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral" is also impressive. Great multichannel mix. If you're looking at an SACD player, I would still put the music first. SACD seems destined to remain a niche format, and if there aren't enough titles to interest you, maybe it's not worth the investment. Or, you could just get a cheap multiformat player, like I did (I have a Pioneer DV-563A for my listening room and a Sony 755-something-or-other in my living room). I'm pleased with what I have.

I posted a couple pics from Fred Anderson's set at the Iowa City Jazz Festival in this thread. I really enjoyed hearing Fred Anderson live, but have never heard him on record. Watching him and listening to him play, I can honestly say that that was the first time I can remember ever being moved by "out" music. I should buy a CD or two of his.

I'd never even heard of Sam Cooke until recently, and have never heard any of his songs, other than small samples online. Even with this limited experience, I decided to pick up two Sam Cooke SACD's I saw at Best Buy. I'll have to open them up and give them a listen.

The wife and I went to Portillo's when we visited Chicago last spring, and we thought their hot dogs were great. Chicago-style hot dogs are quite interesting. Good, but take some getting used to. I can eat everthing except the tomatoes.

I think my record is something like 35 CD's on one order. Special thanks to Tower Records and their big sale on Blue Notes a couple years ago. I'm trying not to do this any more. The backlog actually makes me feel really uncomfortable. I feel a great amount of pressure to listen to everything and to get to know everything I've purchased really well, just like I did when I was a kid and could only afford to buy one CD every month or two. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days, because back then I knew the music I purchased extremely well. These days, I'd be hard pressed to tell you the name of even one track on an album, or who the sidemen are. My backlog is around 100 CD's, not including the Seven Steps, For All Time, Kenton Presents, Monk Riverside and Pepper Galaxy boxes. I'm glad I have so much wonderful music, and I hate the fact I have so much wonderful music.

Nice to see that someone enjoys this box as much as I do. It seems to be rarely discussed or listed amongst people's favorite boxes.

Dimebag's brother, Vinnie. God help their parents (if they're still around) and any other of their family. This is sad. That sucks. Vinnie is still alive. He was reported to have been among the victims earlier today, but those reports turned out to be false, thank God.

This is terrible. I was a huge Pantera fan in high school and have been listening to their albums quite a bit lately. I saw them on the Extreme Steel tour back in 2001, and it was an amazing show. Dimebag has always been one of my favorite guitarists...He's the only confirmed death so far. RIP.

I guess they hid their arrogance well. The word 'Monster'? Give me a break. No, I said nothing about hiding arrogance. But, since I am Monster's biggest customer, I probably shouldn't say more.

Monster is a very interesting company. As a part of my job, I've dealt with them quite a bit over the last 18 months. I've been to their headquarters, walked through their factory, even met Noel Lee. Regardless of how one might feel about their products, their employees are pretty impressive, in terms of how much they know about Monster products, their capabilities, and what Monster products work well with other products. What's amazing is that it's not just their salespeople that have this knowledge - everyone I've dealt with there, from logistics managers to bean counters, has this knowledge. That's where I find them most impressive - they're a big marketing machine. These lawsuits are extremely unfortunate, IMO.

I gave my wife a list of 10 Mosaics in which I'm interested. I think I have a good chance of getting at least one this year, since she said "the last of my Christmas presents came in the mail today." If I don't get them, I'll be ordering the Gordon and Pullen Selects after Christmas, and will probably pre-order the Andrew Hill as well.

Vince Guaraldi - Charlie Brown Christmas Kenny Burrell - Have a Soulful Little Christmas

"Sunshine of My Soul" was mentioned as the first Jaki Byard to get. Can anyone comment on the other Byard titles in the Fantasy catalog? I've enjoyed what I've heard of Jaki Byard as a sideman, but have never heard any of his work as a leader, and would appreciate some comments. Comments about any of the Yusef Lateef titles would also be appreciated.

"Jazz Impressions of Lawrence of Arabia" and "Unity" are excellent. I don't know who owns the Audio Fidelity/Dauntless labels, but I would love to see these two albums reissued. "Relativity" is my favorite of the OJCs.

I'd love to see "A Slice of the Top" as an RVG. I've wanted to hear it for a long time.

I hope this won't affect Fantasy's SACD program. It's nice to see a label reissuing albums in this format on a somewhat regular basis.

Thanks very much for the song, Jim and company. That was a beautiful rendition of one of my long time Christmas favorites. I've saved the three tracks from last year, and together, they make a nice EP. Happy Holidays to you.

Bill Evans played a Rhodes on a few dates, and I actually like it quite a bit. I much prefer him on a traditional piano, but he's not bad on an electric. "From Left to Right" is a good example of Evans on a Rhodes.

He sux.

I just listened to this one again, and it's really not that bad. It's just a really laid back date, and that's not a problem for me (except when I'm at work - I can remember feeling a bit drowsy while listening to this one on a few occasions). If I were to look on the shelf for a Grant Green date with a similar slow vibe, however, I would definitely reach for this one first: AMG actually rates "Am I Blue" higher than "Street of Dreams," but I definitely prefer the latter, and I allways have. The instrumentation works better for this type of material, I believe.

Interesting how some of our friends who speak English as a second language seem to recognize these spelling errors more than many of us native English speakers. While I hate spelling and grammatical errors, I would never correct anyone on the internet. At work, on the other hand...