vibes

This is not accurate at all. Our clerks are supposed to know much more than their discount retailer counterparts, and are supposed to be able to give much more personalized service too. The company is currently doing tests in some markets with having employees that receive much more training and leeway to do their jobs, and the results have been fantastic thus far. I know there are some boardmembers that live in some of these markets, so they may have seen these special-format stores (I'm not at liberty to say where they are). It's best to keep in mind that at this time of the year, chances are very likely that you're going to run into seasonal employees - those hired just for the holidays - when you go into a Best Buy. We have plans to hire more than 20,000 this year, chainwide. Anyway, seasonal employees aren't going to know much, especially about something more esoteric like SACD. I should also note that SACD is not a focus for Best Buy, so I'm not at all surprised that the clerk wasn't able to give STAX accurate information. Most people have still never even heard of SACD. I'm glad to see that the company is giving the format a chance, but offerings are slim - we used to carry two Sony DVD players and one Sony home theater-in-a-box that had SACD capability, and I think we're down to one Sony HTiB and one Pioneer DVD/DVD-A/SACD player. I've been told the Pioneer model sells pretty well, which is good. The two Sony models we used to sell didn't do so great. On the brighter side, SACD offerings in the Best Buy stores in my area are about 3-4x bigger than they were when I bought my player earlier this year. Most of the SACD's that have been released that have piqued my interest (mainly jazz titles from Universal, Blue Note, Fantasy) have been available at my local store, which is nice, because the standard CD format jazz section is pathetic at the local Best Buys.

Teddy Charles - Coolin' Eric Dolphy with the Latin Jazz Quintet - Caribe Tal Farlow - The Return of Tal Farlow Nat Adderley - Work Song Stan Getz/Cal Tjader Sextet Barney Kessel - Feeling Free

Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane Anything by Wes Montgomery The Book Series by Booker Ervin Anything by Bill Evans Anything by Walt Dickerson

Here are some more good deals: John Coltrane Atlantic box - $49.98 Sonny Rollins RCA box - $41.99 Miles Davis/John Coltrane Columbia box - $54.98 Miles Davis/Gil Evans Columbia box - $54.98 Miles Davis Quintet '65-'68 box - $54.99 Miles Davis Bitches Brew box - $34.99 Charlie Christian box - $19.99 Miles Davis Complete In A Silent Way - $24.99 Bill Evans Complete Riverside Recordings - $88.99 Charles Mingus Atlantic box - $37.48 Thelonious Monk Complete Riverside box - $149.98 I'd be all over these if I didn't have most of them already, but I hope some other people will pick them up.

A lot of box sets are on sale right now at Columbia House. I just ordered the complete Miles Davis Prestige box and the complete Led Zeppelin box for $65 each - both excellent deals. Saw the BITCHES BREW and Sonny Rollins RCA boxes for good prices, too.

Don't know if this is related, but the board time is off by an hour. I live in Central, but can't get the time correct unless I switch to Mountain. And yes, the daylight savings time box is unchecked.

Glad to see the board is back. It was down for about 4 hours.

Many thanks, Lon. Would it be safe to assume that the first 76 CD's listed in king ubu's list are the ones that appear in the box? That list makes this box sound like a very worthwhile purchase, considering the amount of variety.

Very cool, Chris. Thanks for sharing.

I just listened to "Merry Go Round" again and it's a good album. "The Children's Merry-Go-Round" was the clinker for me. "La Fiesta" doesn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the tracks, but I still liked it. All in all, this is a great set. My favorite album in the set is "Poly-Currents," by far. If anyone is thinking about this set but isn't convinced, I have the US CD release of "Poly-Currents" that I'd be willing to sell pretty cheap. PM me if interested.

I'd find Albert Ayler's "Music is the Healing Force of the Universe" a lot more appealing if the vocals could be edited out of it. Does anyone actually enjoy them?

I'm largely unfamiliar with this series. How is the variety, in terms of different styles? Sound quality? Is picking up this behemoth of a box worth the investment? Also, does anyone know of a website that contains a complete artist/track listing for the box? I haven't been able to find much information on this one. Thanks in advance.

Can anyone comment on the Gato Barbieri "Yesterday" CD? I've been enjoying the recent US release of "Under Fire/Bolivia" and am wondering if "Yesterday" is at all like those albums, or better.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Wes Montgomery's later work yet. Wes's small group work was fantastic, and while some of his albums with strings aren't too bad, they're just not on par with his earlier work. Take away the strings, and we might have something much better.

Best Buy has it on their website for $479.98: Jazz in Paris box

Nice to see you posting in a non-political forum, John.

Jim, I think you should consider doing this, regardless. There have been times where I've thought it would be cool to make a donation to the band or to the site, just as a way of saying "thank you" for making this a great place to hang out, and to lend a little extra support. Having a little PayPal icon or something like that wouldn't be a bad thing, and I'm sure there are other people who feel the same way.

I don't know if it's up your alley, Hans, but the "Charlie Brown Christmas" CD sounds excellent. I picked it up today and have it on right now. The main thing that has caught my attention thus far is the quality of the bass sound - to my ears, far improved over the previous CD edition. Just comparing this with the other Guaraldi SACD I have (Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus), I think they did a better job with that one than the Christmas one, but both sound great, regardless.

No kids came to our apartment, and none ever have. I was never a big fan of Halloween, so that's alright by me. I took my wife to an oral surgeon to have her wisdom teeth that afternoon, so she was pretty out of it for the rest of the day. She had general anesthesia there, and then 800mg Ibuprofen pills after that, so that was it for her for the rest of the day. We just watched the first season of "Alias" on DVD. Nothing too exciting...

Kit Kat Bites rule! I sit near our food buyer and Hershey keeps sending him Bites. The diet goes out the window when I see them sitting on the table.

Blasphemy! This is my favorite of the Hancock BN's. I hope you'll listen to it some more and learn to enjoy it. The music strikes me as very contemplative, very introverted. I enjoy that quality in music. Anyway, happy listening!

I just spoke with my father again and he said everyone in the evacuated areas of Claremont had been allowed to return home. He said he knew a couple people that had lost their homes, and expected that to rise. He did say, however, that the fires in Claremont had mostly died out. The only damage to his property, he said, was all the ash in the swimming pool. I hope the rest of you in SoCal make it out of this OK.

I hope no one has been affected by this. My parents live in Claremont and everyone in their area was evacuated (the fire department apparently forgot their street, so they stayed). My father told me that no one he knew had their house burn down, but that some family friends' solar panels melted . My parents have important things packed into their cars, should the need to evacuate arise. Pretty scary stuff.

I too post far more here than at AAJ. AAJ is OK, but for me the major difference is that it has a much more "sterile," much more regimented feel to it. Organissimo feels very free, very organic. Threads of all kinds pop up out of nowhere, and have almost always been allowed to go wherever the posters wanted to take them. I like that - it makes me laugh, and I often learn something in the process too. This feels like a home, whereas AAJ often feels like a library or a museum or something like (if that makes sense) to me.