T.D.

The only Rotel CD player I ever had was a cheaper model (I forget model #), but it was a real lemon, one of the worst I've owned. Build quality was poor, and the drawer assembly was extremely flimsy and shaky. The unit's laser had a very short life (perhaps related to the crummy drawer). Doesn't mean the model you're looking at is bad, but I'd want to give it some serious testing before buying...

James Osterberg Mitch Ryder Wayne Kramer

Happy birthday! I'm a relative latecomer to jazz, and read a lot of your posts on the rec.music.bluenote archives.

Judge Felix Frankfurter Mickey Spillane (author of I, the Jury) Mack Bolan (...)

Sorry, I think I was incorrect about Pepper: he actually served in the US Army in World War II, and the "cocktails" he described may have been designed to mislead parole boards about heroin use. Re. the other point, many many American novels, particularly from the Vietnam era, described leading characters' efforts to obtain 4F exemptions, thus avoiding wartime service. I'll check my shelves to see if I have any quotable novels around...

And what is that cocktail? Just curious... Me too, an exaustive explanation, please. I need it for my novel. And what was a 4f deferral? I am serious. Art Pepper describes at least one such cocktail in Straight Life iirc... I think a 4F deferral is being excused from military service for medical (incl. psychological) reasons. It's figured in scads of American novels.

Not very (I hardly ever read editorial/op-ed pages of newspapers), except that I recall it as decidedly "right-leaning". I'll take your word for it, the editorial p. must be very different...

I'm surprised that the WSJ printed this screed...Teddy must have a good press agent.

What's a "5.1 system"? Is this a double shill, for both Concord and some audio manufacturer?

Peter Wolf Wolf Blitzer Dave Krieg

Yes, a very long musical career. I vaguely recall his music as being kind of the epitome of kitsch (compilation albums were frequently flogged on cheesy late-night TV commercials, and his vocal delivery would get spoofed by comedians to almost Wayne Newton-esque proprtions), but I think it was targeted at older generations (I'm almost 50, fwiw).

I think it's a relatively new online sale. I ordered a bunch of OJC (and one Blue Note, Burrell On View @ the Five Spot) @ $6.99 late last week. Just today I got e-mail from J&R touting a "Blue Note Jazz Sale". I clicked on the "See all Blue Note $6.99 CDs" link in the ad, and 445 titles came up! So I think the site's had some BNs @$6.99 for a while, but recently (greatly) expanded the number.

Sadly, I'm not optimistic for "niche" areas like jazz, given ownership by a private equity firm... This is a great slate of RVGs, though. I'll be getting "Davis Cup" for sure, but I already own quite a few of the other discs in prior incarnations, so may not "upgrade" unless there are significant bonus tracks or sonic improvements.

Tanya Roberts Mel Queen Jungle Jim Rivera

Mardy Fish Robert Donat Mike Bratz

Peter Benchley Greg Norman Richard Kiel

Pooh Richardson Deng Xiaoping Dan Shittu

"Blue" Gene Tyranny Marc Bolan Dino Valente

I'm a big Roy DuNann fan. But I recently got a TOJC CD pressing of this sleeper, and it really sounds great!

Harry Nelson Pillsbury [Conn's avatar...] Charles Nelson Reilly Ignatius J. Reilly

Chess.

Whitesnake Tawny Kitaen Chuck Finley

John Akii-Bua Edwin Moses Edwin Starr

What jostber, Chuck and HP said. I'm not sure it's necessarily a function of the cost of the player. Long ago, I had a Revox (very sexy name, though I bought it cheap) player. The innards were made by Philips, and shared with many more "pedestrian" models. BTW, the laser on that unit crapped out after 10 years or so; a cheaper Magnavox unit that used the same Philips hardware lasted almost 20. -_-

Yeah, it's probably the hardware. I've had a number of lasers go bad on old CD players. A few discs don't play in the manner you described, and gradually the problem gets worse and worse. One quick thing to try is cleaning the laser using one of those CD/DVD lens cleaner discs. That sometimes clears up skipping/tracking problems. If that doesn't work, your player may be on the long slide to oblivion...