T.D.

Just recently picked up this set on recommendation; would not otherwise have considered it due to incomplete Sonatas. I agree that it's wonderful! Yowzah, Festetics on Harmonia Mundi's super-budget label! Will have to check Stateside availability...

Can't specifically comment, but... Some 20-odd years ago (maybe as many as 22), when I started reading classical Internet forums, Marc-Andre Hamelin was recording truckloads of Alkan and there was a lively debate. Hamelin was specializing in finger-breaking works by "minor composers" (Alkan; Godowsky also comes to mind), and had a number of ardent champions. On the other side, many dismissed Alkan (and to a large extent Hamelin) in terms similar to those applied above to O. P. Far more of the people I trusted were on the thumbs-down side, so I never listened to Alkan. I bought one Hamelin recording, Rzewski's "The People United...", but much preferred Rzewski's own version so never tried any more. OT and FWIW, Nic Hodges (a pianist and name familiar to Usenet old-timers) made some specific and fairly scathing criticisms of Hamelin's interpretations (not of Alkan, but better-known composers) on either r.m.c.r. or r.m.c.c. (sorry, I forget which).

I dunno, John...I live about an hour from Woodstock, and the Woodstock radio station has been replaying the entire event as it happened. As stated above in some thread (maybe this one; I'm too lazy to check), an awful lot of bad music (and many PA announcements, etc. that only the dedicated would care for) is included in those 38 CDs. Driving around the past couple of days, in a bit over 4 hours I heard a lot of stinkers, some mediocre stuff, and unfortunately nothing great. 10 discs would be more than enough for me.

Thanks, I decided to stand pat. Had to replace my CD player because the laser was failing. Even though I just use the player as a transport to a DAC, that apparently seriously harmed sound quality. With the new setup, the UA Budapest sounds OK, no need for sonic upgrade (which I practically never do anyway).

"Finif" is also used.

Going back to the original anecdote in the club...Did Coltrane know who Crosby was? Or was he just following some random long-haired doper into the bathroom?

Back in '94 (the liver transplant brouhaha), Crosby's assholicity came off as so extreme that he became somewhat of a public laughing stock and was extensively mocked in the media.

Agreed on trying here. I've pretty much given up on selling via eBay, Amazon; too much of a PITA. Maybe you could organize the collection into thematic subsets and offer spreadsheets to forum members, etc.

Thanks. It might come around again, or I can rent it. Quite a while ago, when Crosby needed a liver transplant iirc, he came across in the media as an extremely, shall we say, un-simpatico character and I developed an aversion. Somewhat a fan of his Byrds era, less so of CSN(Y).

How did you like the film? It was in my area recently, but I passed.

Thanks for posting that. The Lees piece: yikes. I had already been appalled by Maggin's bio.

I recently read Pettinger's Evans bio and believe there was mention of friction with Coltrane. But I've returned the book to interlibrary loan and can't look for a citation.

I recently saw a film on Hendrix (Electric Church) which stated that Jimi was rock's highest-paid concert act in 1970 (date of the festival filmed). I figure he was right up there in 1969.

Maybe Joe Henderson. There's a passage in Mark Stryker's Jazz In Detroit, p. 133: He [J. H.] also began to get a reputation as an odd duck in Detroit...Bassist Marlene Rosenberg recalled how on the road he once tried to engage her in a game of "air chess" without a board by calling out moves...

Took a flyer on this, didn't like it.

And John Ore, same source.

I'm sure I've posted this link here before: Grandmaster Flashed: Kasparov attacked by flying penis-copter NSFW or various other environments.

I enjoy the String Quartet. My enjoyment of the Sonatas and Interludes palled after a certain number of hearings, and now they simply remind me of Schoenberg's famous verdict that Cage the student had no talent for harmony (granted it's probably unfair to judge the pieces by pianistic standards). I dig many of the "Number Pieces" - possibly (depending on realization) Feldman-like sound world, and the (somewhat limited) randomness works for me. Re. Cage's sense of humor, this funny passage from Feldman's Give my regards to Eighth Street (essay within book of the same title): John and I spent a lot of time playing cards. One afternoon my friend Daniel Stern came over with a pair of dice. John came down immediately, and we told him how the game was played. John made his first throw standing up and just dropping the dice to the floor. We explained the procedure was to bend your knees as far down as possible, then throw the dice. This he did. He also started to shake them (we hadn't told him to do that), and before letting them go he cried out, to our amazement, "Baby needs a new pair of shoes". !!! Big O'Brien fan here. I treasure the Everyman's Library edition of collected novels, though the late work The Dalkey Archive is not so good (possibly due to alcoholism). Have also read his short fiction and collected (under pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen) newspaper columns, though they're somewhat uneven.

Thanks, much appreciated! The parts I've read are excellent. I originally had the wrong impression (rectified upon reading excerpts) that the book was generally about Cage, rather than specifically 4'33". That may render it too specialized for me, but will seriously consider. Still, even the excerpts I've read have been informative. For instance, I had assumed that Cage had a well-developed sense of humor, and that (for instance) his stochastic pieces were disguised digs at Serialism and 4'33" was a joke on various levels. But reading Gann, Cage appears to have practically no sense of humor!

I put a brief 5-star review on Goodreads. Down on Amazon these days (crappy search engine, garbled database, dodgy price games) so not posting thereon.

Means that they don't have it in stock. FWIW, all of my Amazon "1-2 month delivery" orders went unfilled and were eventually cancelled. I would look elsewhere.

Regarding #1, a little Googling will reveal that Tencent already has done a share swap with Spotify "that saw each side take an undisclosed slice of the other for strategic purposes going forward". These were significant slices, 7.5 to 10% at the time. There's also talk that streaming is growing in China. Reuters article here. More analysis from a source unfamiliar to me here. I have no idea about #2.