DrJ

So Dmitry, are you taking orders?

Wow, I missed this thread for a LONG time...until today in fact! I was gonna nominate Grimes myself. I scored the Hardee/Quebec BN Mosaic LP box a while back and in making a back-up CD-R copy listened again to all the material. What struck me this time through (possibly due to the better sonics of the LP set) as it never had before was the quality of Grimes' playing. It really made me sit up and take notice, this guy was phenomenal. I more recently found an LP called SOME GROOVY FOURS led by Grimes, a session from the 70s recorded in Paris that is a neglected gem. So nice to be able to hear his wonderful tone and ideas in good sound. Tiny was the stuff, no question. Paul Secor mentioned Oscar Aleman, and I'd agree with that one too. A contemporary of Django, but really sounds very little like him. This is a thread dense with info, so if this next one was mentioned already I apologize for missing it - I didn't see Sonny Greenwich (at least not a lot of discussion). I'll relook and edit my comments if I find them this time through. He deserves comment regardless.

I have been thoroughly enjoying a couple of Denny Zeitlin's early trio recordings for Columbia, mid-60s: CARNIVAL and SHINING HOUR: LIVE AT THE TRIDENT. This was a fine trio with Charlie Haden and Jerry Granelli, and Zeitlin has been a revelation for me. There are some inevitable Bill Evans influences, but he sounds very much like his own man, really I have a hard time comparing him to anyone else going at the time. I am hoping to track down the rest of his Columbia LPs - there were 4 or 5 altogether. This collective body of work would make a fine collection (Mosaic Select) although it's probably too little-known to attract much attention in that manner. I understand Zeitlin just recently did a new recording after some inactive years - I'm glad to hear it and look forward to hearing it!

I hear you Scott...but for me it's been hard to outguess BNs RVG plans using this approach.

I thought size didn't matter... -_-

Last Night: Steve Kuhn - LAST YEAR'S WALTZ (w/ Sheila Jordan)(ECM) This AM: Art Hodes Mosaic - Disc 1

The thing is, the whole "bit" thing really isn't so much the issue...resolution is part of the story, but even if you compare 24 bit remasterings by two different engineers they may sound a lot different. RVG versus Addey versus McMaster - to my ears - you get very different sounds even when stuff is done at 20 or 24 bit. Probably the biggest factor is whether or not they went to the original tapes, but there are a lot of other things...so all I'm saying is probably not a good idea to base "upgrade" choices on "bits."

To be honest I think this is actually a positive development. Water gives the "Rare Groove" type of material its proper due, with much better remastering quality (to my ears) and deluxe CD booklets (heavy, glossy card stock and extensive notes). The volume of releases seems to be quite steady too. So I think a win/win, good for the "little guys" to get some of the action.

I got both of the U.S. CDs OLD WINE... and GREAT JAZZ STANDARDS - back when they did the "Collectors Choice" reissue series in the mid-90s. The sound is pretty bad (sounds like source material problems) but certainly not unlistenable. The music is fantastic, my favorite of Evans' recordings I've encountered outside of his collaborations with Miles.

I would agree with Lon's assessment -those Katz collaborations represent a pinnacle of Merrill's artistry and of jazz singing in general. I also think her run on the Emarcy and affiliated Universal labels in the 80s through now has been pretty fantastic, too.

Up as I just discovered some of this material myself - picked up the CARNIVAL and SHINING HOUR - LIVE AT THE TRIDENT LPs last weekend. Really, really remarkable stuff - Zeitlin is amazing, really sounds - well like nobody I've heard. And Charlie Haden and Jerry Grannelli were really sympathetic partners. I am eager to track down the other dates including the two sidewinder mentions ZEITGEIST and CATHEXIS. This material would make a nice Mosaic Select...

As a corollary to what B-3er says (which I agree with): It's also ridiculous that the mass-produced CD playback stuff out there is so crappy. They've up and oversampled themselves into oblivion. Just design a nice simple 1x oversampling unit that has quality electronics throughout the whole chain, thank you.

Pretty funny stuff! Now if they would have just placed the word "Foxtrot" underneath the song title, it would've been even funnier...

Leeway beat me to it - I was just going to say, for the type of movies my wife and I generally watch, surround sound is useless (but hey, if you really want to hear those wine glasses in the European cafe clinking behind you it's neato!). But we do enjoy surround when we watch the occasional "big Hollywood job." Having a child, it's pretty often we do that now - FINDING NEMO does sound pretty spectacular in surround, I must say. I've come 180 degrees on the SACD issue. A couple years ago I was convinced it might fill a niche, but now I'm firmly in the "get stuff to make your regular old CDs sound as good as possible" camp.

Amir if I can respectfully but firmly continue to disagree with you: seems to me that the strong reactions (agreeing and disagreeing) with Metheny are more about the people having the reactions than Pat. I think this should be obvious to anyone...for example, speaking for myself, I was using his quote as a springboard for discussion of my own impression (not attributing my ideas to Metheny), as were others. I honestly do not get what your issue is with this, you're in fact the one who is overreacting in my view. It seems you are arguing that the use of quotes made by celebs/artists/politicians/whatever as a launching pad for discussion - something that has been done since the beginning of time, and when it does the quotes are nearly ALWAYS taken far from their original context as the years go by - is to be abandoned. I'm not buying it.

Ike Quebec / John Hardee Mosaic - Record 4

Hmmm...so let's get this right. You have a public figure, a musician and entertainer - Metheny - giving a quote to a reporter or writer of some kind, who has asked him about something and whom Metheny I assume knows is going to disseminate said statement in an article or press release or the like. Thus I would also assume that he gave some thought to his statement, at least a passing one or two, knowing that it will be recorded for posterity. Sounds to me like this qualifies as a (ahem) "topical 'quote' conveying broad meaning or intent," one worthy of (mostly) thoughtful discussion as pursued here. Or do we go with your implied logic, and conclude that Metheny was just flapping his gums, making shit up, saying things without reflection and hoping that nobody would hear him babbling and put it down in writing? Talk about scary and ridiculous...

Check out some hilarity on an Epinions review (I found this in doing a search on Dewey Redman). Go to the following link... Don to Dewey to Joshua to Chance Then scroll down and read the comments regarding Track 12 of the CD being reviewed. Learn something new every day!!!

There was a typically heavily qualified review of this set in the new Jazz Times, where the reviewer basically spends the majority of the review afraid to say anything too positive about Peterson for some apparent fear of incurring the wrath of anyone hip or cool or "in the know" about "real" jazz. Even with all that baggage, he found it impossible to avoid saying some really nice things! I'm interested...not a huge Peterson fan but certain recordings really hit me and those I'd rank very highly indeed. This seems like a great opportunity to get acquainted with later period Oscar.

Yes, Mike, you have confirmed what I suspected based on people's posts - different remasterings altogether for the LP and CD. Thank you. And sorry about the confusion of terms "matrix" and "issue" numbers. Mea culpa, I learned something about the terminology, a finer distinction that I wasn't aware of. But unfortunately none of this actually sheds any definitive light on the central question here - mono versus stereo on the LP set? Have to say, though, if I were a betting man, I'd say it sure is looking like the LP set, not being from original tapes, would most likely be either true stereo (consistent with the Candid reissues of various vintages) or possibly really tarted up mono that would sound like stereo, consistent with what my ears are telling me. For my part, I'm really at this point only interested for academic reasons...as I said clearly in my first post on the subject, I could actually give a crap, the point is the LPs sound fantastic, whether mono, stereo, quadraphonic, whatever. RVG did himself a very fine job here.

Possible, but given that we're talking Mosaic, unlikely - that's the type of tweaking that they routinely "undo" by going back to original masters. So I doubt it. I just listened to a few tracks again. My LP set is stereo, no question about it - often you can hear a particular instrument in both speakers but there are huge differences in volume and tonality and "placement" in such cases. I guess it could have been done with EQ trickery but I doubt it...seems far more likely that it's a stereo mix and you're just hearing the natural placement of sounds at different points in the room. In doing some Web searches, the only time I've seen mention of "mono" attached to this set is in reference to the CD version, which as we know also added a couple of missing alternates. So it's definitely possible there could be a difference in terms of source tapes being mono or stereo between these recordings, too.

She has, already! Luckily I don't ever really have too much splainin' to do about my record buying habit with my wonderful wife.

I won't wade into this at a personal level, despite the obvious attempt to bait me into doing so. Call me lame as much as you want if I turn out to be wrong, but I am confident that I have quite good ears and that's exactly why I'm questioning the conventional wisdom about this supposedly being a mono remastering. It sounds obviously to be stereo to me - no matter what has been said. How could it possibly be mono when there are some horns whose sound is eminating from one speaker but not in the other? Seems like pretty clearcut evidence - but I was just trying to be nice so as not to embarrass people who at some point may have posted otherwise. I'm sure wolff was doing the same. Not everybody has the same tact and consideration, clearly.

Somewhat on topic - I've always thought he song "Too Close for Comfort" was incredibly banal, taken on its own terms. It's remarkable any jazz artist can do much with it, yet you get someone like Art Pepper and he turns it into magic. A gift.

Well, as a way to get my toe wet with this whole issue, I snagged the Japanese red vinyl Odeon edition of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT from 1986 (EAS 70132). Mint copy, with obi etc. This was of course originally part of the very limited Japanese MONO COLLECTION box which has widely been parcelled out and sold in bits and pieces. There are one or two people out there who seem to hold the impression that the 1982 Japanese mono pressings were somewhat superior to this 1986 batch, but the more broad opinion seems to be that they are both excellent and that you ought to snag stuff from either set if you get a decent price...and many who have A/B'd them say it's a draw, both are great. In Web shopping, I'd never seen this title from this series listed for under $100 anywhere (for mint copies, often much more - up as high as $250). I paid $65 which is still way more than is logical, but not bad to see if it's worth me spending large amounts of my precious remaining days on earth hunting down the rest of the Beatles audiophile mono editions (everything up through YELLOW SUBMARINE, so 10 titles - the later ABBEY ROAD and LET IT BE were originally mixed in/intended to be stereo, the mono stuff circulating is bogus as it's "collapsed" from stereo) - whether UK or Japanese, 1982 or 1986 reissue or mint original mono editions from either country) - hopefully for a little less than this per LP. Also I suppose this LP is only going to appreciate in value, given it's Beatles, it's a Japanese mono pressing, and it's mint...subsequent CD issues are not likely to change any of that, no matter how good. So I guess I didn't do too bad even at that silly price point, especially when you consider the complete box often sells for $1500-2000...at this price point I ought to be able to assemble the whole collection for well under $1000 (the general consensus on audiophile sites discussing this issue is don't pay for the boxed set as it's over-priced, you can piece it together for less). How's that for the world's lengthiest rationalization? If anyone around here even cares (!), I will post my impressions of the LP sonics when it arrives...if it's half as good as people seem to think, then it just might be that a large chunk of my jazz recordings budget will be siphoned off this year (I know, as far as jazz sales are concerned, it's like a mini British Invasion - 1964 all over again!).