connoisseur series500

Easy for YOU to say ... It's HARD WORK for this group to select an album to listen to. Tough crowd ...plus the lengthy delays entailed waiting for BFrank to wind up his old record player.

Last night's playlist: Jazz Crusaders Mosaic disc IV Stanley Turrentine Mosaic disc IV Lee Morgan "Search for a new Land" Wes Montgomery, "Incredible Jazz Guitar" Steely Dan, "AJA" participants: Aggie, BFrank, Wesbed, Conn, Free For All.

"Nomad" track 4. Great mf tune. It's sorta loud? How'd the interview go, BTW? real good... likely making a change.

"Nomad" track 4. Great mf tune.

Yes, I'll get it when it comes out.

Got it SS1?

Agree with you on "Drives." It's a terrible cd.

It's a lot of fun but tough to find something in common to play. We all don't have the same collections, and Wes doesn't seem to have crap!

BTW, the extra track is not listed on the back of the mini-lp, but the tune is on there for sure. You have to open it up and look at the insert written in Japanese. Then you'll see the name of the tracks in English and Japanese.

I highly recommend picking up the JRVG version. You will find that it leaps out of the speakers as well. The domestic mastering sounds really lame. Worth the extra $, because "Sunshine Superman" has to be played LOUD! I'm thinking of taking your advice. I was disappointed in how quiet it was. When you say JRVG, is that the Japanese RVG? Isn't that version available yet in the US? MG Right, the mini-lp version. Sound is really muted on the domestic. What's a mini-lp? MG Edit - Oh, do you mean a CD in a paper sleve that looks like an LP? I guess it hasn't got "Dancin' in an easy groove" on it. Is that right? Yes, it does have "Dancin' in an easy Groove" Great tune. Yeah, it's the paper sleeve edition. Don't know if getting the superior mastering will lead to any upgrade assessment on your part for the session, but at least you can hear it better. I really think the domestic version is terribly muted. Can't hear shit.

I highly recommend picking up the JRVG version. You will find that it leaps out of the speakers as well. The domestic mastering sounds really lame. Worth the extra $, because "Sunshine Superman" has to be played LOUD! I'm thinking of taking your advice. I was disappointed in how quiet it was. When you say JRVG, is that the Japanese RVG? Isn't that version available yet in the US? MG Right, the mini-lp version. Sound is really muted on the domestic.

I highly recommend picking up the JRVG version. You will find that it leaps out of the speakers as well. The domestic mastering sounds really lame. Worth the extra $, because "Sunshine Superman" has to be played LOUD!

Gotta disagree here. I think this session is superior to Mozambique. I had the latter once and was so unimpressed that I traded it away. On the other hand, I love "Move Your Hand" so much that I bought an expensive JRVG version so I could really hear it. Sylvester Goshay may not be Joe Dukes but he plays just fine. Larry McGee on guitar is superb throughout, while I was unimpressed with Benson's work at the Mozambique. Most of the solo chores are taken up by Ronnie Cuber and Lonnie Smith, who plays some of his funkiest stuff on record. Lonnie's solo on "Sunshine Superman" is worth the price of admission alone. The tune is excellent. I also enjoy the groove on "Dancin' in an Easy Groove," which was the bonus track. These guys were really on that evening at Club Harlem in Atlantic City on August 9, 1969.

Lonnie Smith - Move Your Hand (click here to buy) Lonnie Smith's best, in my opinion. I'll post some comments later. What do you guys think of this cd?

The Super Bowl matchup is really tough to predict. There are strong arguments for either team. I wouldn't lose hope yet, SS1 of another Steeler loss. I really don't know who will win this game. Pittsburgh is tough when they can play their game, but if you stop their running game and jump on them quickly on the scoreboard, they aren't very good.

Interesting discussion. I don't burn cds. I don't know how, nor do I want to know how. But then that's a generational thing, I think. I don't imagine the recording companies are concerned about people of my generation. I have a friend who can burn cds, and we made some great compilation discs, which was a lot of fun to make and listen to. Maybe the future is for the recording companies to pay a flat sum to the artist taking into account that it would likely be further disseminated through downloads and burns. Sounds rotten actually, but maybe that's how it will go. I am personally very empathetic towards Jim and his profession. Despite financial demands, he and his band stick to the highest standards in making their music. I deeply admire and appreciate him for that. In some awful way, the great artists have always been accompanied by hardship, financial or otherwise. Perhaps it is the price of the muse, I don't know. I just hope Jim and his crew prove the exception to this.

Same here. I wasn't worth crap on Saturday; plus I stayed out late again on Saturday evening watching Organissimo live. I'll get hold of you on Friday... (I'm still laughing over some of BFrank's comments that evening.

What you talking about, SS1? The Steelers haven't won it in so long that they've become virgins all over again!

I came back from Asia 11 years later to discover that my parents had tossed my painstaking collection of 1,500+ handwritten scores of grandmaster chess games from the 19th century to Bobby Fischer. I had laboriously copied them for years as a kid, and went over the games. They aren't worth crap today! But it hurt in some vague way. I wanted to hang on to them as a testimony to teenaged monomania and studiousness. Maybe it was a good thing she threw away the evidence.

And she went with Sgt. Slaughter?

I had fun too, SS1. Wes and I have been doing this for a few weeks on and off now. It's fun, but the trick is to find music that everyone else has. I'll hang out again with you this Friday if you like, but it's tough with the different time zones. You go to bed at midnight while I stagger there at 4 am!

Firefly? I thought that place was a lost cause. It doesn't have the Baker's atmosphere, but it's certainly a lot closer for us. We might go to the next Baker's gig as well.

Got back late last night but it was worth it. Large and enthusiastic crowd at Baker's. People left but they were being replaced even into the third set. During the last tune, one guy in the bathroom told me he had just arrived 20 minutes ago! JamesJazz was there. It was a pleasure to meet you, sir! (though we never had a real chance to talk.) My group of 4 were directed to a little far-off corner where we were expected to be squeezed in, we sat there occupying more space than intended and the bouncer then moved us to a more appropriately-sized table which was next to the band. Baker's has a weird design; few ever face the band. We're all packed in on the sides. Still, I got a chance to view everyone play their instruments, since we were right next to them. Organissimo was recording, and the audience stayed responsive the whole evening. Hope it comes out nice. Joe was really on last night. Haven't heard him play with such fire. The band played up-tempo all evening. All the gigs are different. I've been to maybe 7 of them, and they are always different. One highlight was when Randy apparently spotted the aged but still very capable Lou Donaldson drummer, Drew Evans in the crowd. There was a chance to have him sit in on a tune while Randy blew his harmonica. Man, that was a great song! The whole evening was good. Really enjoyed it. Thanks again for a great evening, Organissimo!

Both of my parents are still alive. My grandparent's graves are buried under ash in the Caribbean island of Montserrat. When the volcano blew, a good part of the island was buried under a pyroclastic flow. Their graves were only a few miles from the soufriere volcano which had been inactive for at least 400 years. On my Italian mother's side, her parents are buried in Scotland and in Italy. She visited her mother's grave last year in Scotland. Don't know where her father is buried in Italy, but it's likely to be in the Tuscany area. I tend to visit the gravesites of non-family members...

Sorry to hear you cannot make it, Peter. Seems like you've got a good excuse. How about GregK? Any decision yet?