DrJ

His run at BN was pretty damn remarkable. No bad ones to my ears, not even close, and way more than his share of classics (CAPUCHIN SWING, DESTINATION...OUT!, ONE STEP BEYOND, LET FREEDOM RING, IT'S TIME, NEW AND OLD GOSPEL, and DEMON'S DANCE are all personal votes for dates that belong in that category). The range of sounds and approaches in those recordings I've just listed also says volumes about Jackie's restless creativity during that magical time.

I would agree with what's being said here, but only to a point. First, I think you're neglecting to consider the older BNs that have been reissued as RVGs, like the Bud Powells, Monks, and Milt Jackson date. On those, RVG truly worked sonic magic, spinning those after living with what was available before is like really hearing the music for the first time. Second, to my ears there are maybe only 1 or 2 U.S. RVGs that sound worse or no better than prior CD reissues, and those were many batches ago when it seemed there was some type of technical bugaboo. So I think you can feel pretty safe buying an RVG feeling you'll hear improvements over not only late 80's CDs but also earlier 90's Conns.

There's a huge gap in my Holland collection between CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS (anyone calls that one boring needs to have their head examined - Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altshul, and Holland for God's sake!) and POINTS OF VIEW, the first of what I consider the "current" Holland sound (save for the big band, which I haven't heard but supsect sounds like the smaller group but just scaled up) - although arguably DREAM OF THE ELDERS was in the same vein. The difference between these two recordings is instructive. Holland is simply not the overtly renegade type of player he used to be. CONFERENCE is a stone classic, one of the best recordings in my collection, but much of that is down to the other players. Not to take anything away from Holland as a bassist and even as a composer (I think he's great in both categories), but he was in some VERY heavy company at that point. The company is still excellent but inevitably a little lighter on POINTS OF VIEW. Still, I absolutely LOVE that album. Everyone sounds razor sharp and I think anyone who feels there's no passion or fire on this record is listening too much on the surface. To me it gives the lie to the idea that all ECM productions sound cold and dull. The passion is definitely there, simmering below the cool-ish vibes (which I think work tremendously well in this group) and spacious, slightly detached studio sound. Robin Eubanks stakes a major claim to being king of the young trombonists on this recording, absolutely on the job with a huge sound and ideas to spare. I could kick myself for never seeing this configuration live. Thing is, I totally agree with people dissing Holland's current work when we come to the more recent follow-ups on ECM. PRIME DIRECTIVE was a MAJOR disappointment, I bought it but have seldom listened to it, and have NOT sprung for NOT FOR NUTHIN' or the big band date, so stung was I by this comedown. I have to attribute this drop-off largely to Chris Potter, whose playing does very little for me in any context, whereas I am a big fan of Steve Wilson who was on POINTS OF VIEW and takes second honors there to Eubanks. Also, it seems to me that Holland has mined this seam thoroughly already, as the compositions are all starting to sound basically like variations on two or three themes. So time to shake things up again, perhaps, Mr. Holland? BTW, I am looking forward to going back to some of the ECM's in the gap between CONFERENCE and POINTS OF VIEW...I like Steve Coleman and Smitty Smith a lot.

I don't have a power conditioner, but do think wiring makes a huge difference. First, we lived recently in a 50 year old house with the original wiring. The main breaker blew, at which time we learned that there had been a prior repair where the wires were literally left hanging on by a thread. When we fixed all that and had it done properly, my stereo sounded remarkably better at once, although the other wiring was still 50 years old. Now we recently moved to a brand new house and it sounded even better (this was before I started upgrading to tube stuff, so it's not the upgrades I'm hearing). I don't think it's the room; if anything my current room is a little less favorable for sonics as the back wall is unavoidably close to the listener's ears so you get some reflection whereas in the old room you sat right near the middle. So anyway, I'm a firm believer about the importance of good wiring. Someday I'll start playing with power conditioners to see if I can hear an improvement.

I think the Hal McKusick material compiled (incompletely) on NOW'S THE TIME (Decca/GRP) is SERIOUSLY underrated. I don't know if it's one of the "most" underrated groupings of recordings, but it's certainly unjustly neglected. Not only was McKusick in his prime, playing a very unique and thoughtful alto, but you get prime Art Farmer and Bill Evans too. We need a non-Procrustean reissue of these dates. Zbigniew Namyslowki's work is definitely unjustly obscure in the U.S. LOLA from the 60's is seminal, and WINOBRANIE from the early 70's is quite a ride. Great jazz and saxophone playing from Poland. John Lewis' solo work is also underrated. Not the MJQ or even his classic Atlantic recordings or the justly mentioned Verve date with LT/Getz/et al, but especially for me those solo dates he made right near the end of his life. The history of jazz piano emanates from your speakers when you listen to those EVOLUTION recordings. His capacity to say volumes with just a note or two never ceases to amaze me.

Off topic a bit, but this tempo thing is damned interesting to me. I suspect Jim is right about it being a "different time, different experiences" thing, the ubiquity of rock and other strongly backbeat-oriented music has to have had a huge influence on all the post-rock and roll era drummers. One of the things that bothers me most about a lot of recent jazz is the tempo...I'm not a fogey who hates all things rock, but one thing that DOES often bug the heck out of me is the unmistakeable rock feel that some younger drummers impart in otherwise more "classic" or "straight ahead" jazz sessions. It just don't jibe, folks. Partly it's the emphases and rhythmic displacements they use, but tempo is definitely also an issue. It's either far too slow, in which case the backbeat they're either riding or strongly implying comes WAY too much to the fore and everything sounds lethargic and plodding, or too fast, in which case it sounds like an acoustic jazz group with an inebriated thrash metal drummer sitting in. A good example for me was McCoy Tyner's LAND OF GIANTS on Telarc recently. Tyner and Hutch are all over the job, and Charnett Moffett sounds good, but I just can't warm to Eric Harland's playing on drums...it just never sounds like a cohesive date due to this tension between what he's doing rhythmically and what the songs cry out for, at least to my ears. Anyway, some of the young guys would definitely have trouble with the type of stuff Eldridge did I'm sure, and they also seldom get right that kind of medium up hard bop, lilting, almost "floating" tempo exemplified on a lot of dates led by Sonny Clark, and on dates where the Kelly/Chambers/Cobb axis was involved. There are exceptions of course - real students of the "old school" like Kenny Washington for example. And I'm not saying I don't like rock-influenced jazz, but the thing is EVERYONE has to be playing in that mode for it to sound right.

INNER URGE is indeed a nice upgrade in sound quality (and even cover image - the blue/black mess from the old CD has now become the photo of Joe Henderson I suspected it was all along!). So is BREAKING POINT, my favorite so far of the batch. This is a date I forgot how much I liked - but then again around that time for me Hubbard could do no wrong. Spaulding is hot here too, playing with more creativity than on just about any date from around then. And always good to have more Joe Chambers on record, including a definitive rendition of his great "Mirrors." I also picked up BUHAINA and one from the last batch of RVGs, NEWK'S TIME - neither of which I'd ever heard (was waiting for remasterings). Both are outstanding...but NEWK in particular, wow - that was a date where everything just seemed to have gone right, it has rocketed up into my list of top "classic hard bop" dates of all time. Worth the wait.

Karen Borca's playing is simply awesome on the dates included in the Jimmy Lyons boxed set. That's my only acquaintance with her, but I'm looking forward to more. In that context and with her technique, the bassoon has an arresting sound.

I don't remember names, but there was a good vinyl place down in the "old town" part of town, which is TOTALLY touristy, but it's worth a trip down there just to catch this place. They had some rare stuff - although I will warn you not all pristine, much of it in only fair to good condition. If you can live with that, though, might be fun. I am still kicking myself for passing up a copy of the rare Chico Hamilton trio recording on Pacific Jazz - it wasn't in mint condition but would have been well worth it, still not sure why I didn't take the plunge except that I had already bought a bunch of other stuff. Lots of Blue Notes there - mostly late 60's to early 70's stuff. If you like that period - they had Lou Donaldson, Turrentine, etc titles. There's another vinyl place somewhere near Robson St, it's on the second floor of a building if that helps you find it. I found Kenny Cox's two Blue Notes there. Finally, there was a good vinyl store out in one of the neighborhoods near the downtown area - I'm hopeless with remembering names - it's to the South of downtown I believe. Found a few good things there too and that was the most reasonably priced place, plus they were in good condition. I believe I found all these places either on Web searches or by looking in the phone book once there, they've not hard to locate. Other than a Virgin Megastore in the Robson area, not much great shopping really for CDs I'm afraid to say, unless I missed something.

Hell, good to give Stateside the business anyway, Peter was incredibly friendly despite my pestering him every couple days before it was finally released! I like the music so far, very dense Hill, even more so than the large group recording he did for Palmetto from a couple years back. I like it, it sounds more "dangerous" than anything he's recorded for Palmetto so far (fine as those recordings were) - maybe than anything he's recorded for even a lot longer than that. The proceedings are sometimes more ragged than his U.S. stuff of the past few years, with the horn players sounding a bit less accomplished, but they also seem maybe a little more jazzed just to be there, if you dig, and it comes across appealingly in the sounds.

Great pop artist, Mr. Rundgren, and I agree with the fundamental sweetness of his music at the core. WIZARD is WAY overdue for a decent remastering for CD...the old Bearsville vinyl sounded like crap, or at least pressings I've heard, and that one had so much music on each side that by the time you got toward the middle of the side the distortion from the too-small grooves was really amazing (or maybe it was SUPPOSED to sound that way... ) I'm a big fan of A CAPELLA too, mentioned before, some great tunes there. Let's not also forget some of his Utopia stuff, I love their little pop masterpiece singles too (check out the great compilation TRIVIA that was out on Passport Records, still have my vinyl of that one - "Hammer in My Heart," "Feet Don't Fail Me Now," "Crybaby," and about 10 or so other gems). I even like spottier stuff like HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW and HEALING and NEARLY HUMAN. I saw him on tour with (as I recall) a nine-piece or so group for the NEARLY HUMAN album - horns and backing vocalists and all. It was a great show. He was funny, gracious, and played and sang his ass off, seeming to really have a great time. If only there were more rock musicians still around like him. He totally lost me with the computer nerd stuff of the past decade or so, I have very high hopes for LIARS. Please come back to pop, Todd!

WP - I'm pretty much convinced now it is a slightly later reissue, but it does definitely have all the full track lengths. Which to my knowledge has not been commented on previously, so kind of an addition to the twisted story of this album!

I really like this film overall, there are some absolutely priceless performances like O'Day's justly celebrated one. The Chico Hamilton and Giuffre stuff is amazing, too, really cool and captures a certain vibe well. Louis always great to see, and Monk too, and Mulligan. Hell, there is some great music here. That said I find the film too self-consciously arty, trying too hard with all the cuts away from the performers. There are some amazing musicians that we only hear, never see or see for only a fleeting moment. Not only frustrating personally to me, but it just seems inexcusable with this much hindsight, although I know it may have felt different then. I think the cuts to audience and the sailing etc should have been kept but reduced greatly, with more shots of the action, and the film would have been stronger.

Makes sense, both in terms of its location and also in terms of Hall's sound. Thanks very much for the information Mike.

One question about the cover - I never noticed from the small version of the cover photo on the CD, but on the LP it's more visible - what the heck is the metal hardware Hall has attached to the guitar near the nut? I've never seen anything like it before.

One of the great "undersung" Blue Notes. Not just good, a fantastic date. Everyone shines, including Duke and Johnny.

This is the best of Freddie Hubbard's early Blue Notes, which is really saying something in my book. The RVG is a strong improvement over the old Connoisseur version. Not much to add to what's been said here, except to say that the alternate takes are fabulous, some of the best to be included on a BN CD. Particularly "Arietis," listen to the incredible drumming clinic Elvin Jones puts on behind the soloists, particularly towards the beginning of the track. It doesn't say so in the liners, but my guess is that it's Elvin's work that was the reason Alfred Lion opted to pass over this take...it's not as "clean" or maybe even as cohesive but with 40 years hindsight I think the alternate is by far the more exciting version, much of that due to Elvin letting a little more loose than in most of his appearances on BN hard bop dates. All the soloists sound way more "on the edge" too.

I enjoy all these sessions. Not anyone's greatest day, but some great musicians having perfectly fine days. The Red Allen set is kooky, but it works for me.

Good sound (though with the usual Columbia/Legacy harshness at the high end, characteristic of their reissues in the past few years), great music, lousy boxed set packaging (as noted, basically a bunch of individual CDs bundled together). Should have received more of a "Miles" type treatment.

You can the 2 CD set pretty readily a bunch of places...do an Amazon search and a bunch come up: Farlow

I am starting to become a firm believer that it really doesn't matter too much what the enhanced CD format is, if you have a good transport and DAC combo and a nice amp and speakers. I have all these in place now in my new listening room except the amp (tube amp is on order - but my old Denon is a workmanlike piece, not bad at all). What I've noticed is that with a good combo like this, regular or CDs can sound really amazing, and the enhanced format discs not always substantially better. You do probably get a little more detail out of HDCD and XRCD but not a ton and it varies from recording to recording. So I agree with the general comment that a well-remastered CD is a well-remastered CD, regardless of whether it features these format tweaks or not. A corollary - with my new system, SACD no longer sounds like a huge improvement to me like it did before...redbook CD on a good system is remarkable and approaches SACD. Now I will admit that one issue could be my SACD player - it's not a high end one, nowhere near the level of the rest of my system. But regardless, I don't have any plans to buy a bunch of SACD format stuff in the near future, except maybe hybrids where the regular CD layer is an improvement over prior issues too. Not when redbook CD can sound this good. I'd highly encourage people to put some time in listening to a good transport/DAC pairing (or a good all-in-one player of comparable quality) before committing to a lower-end player and going for more expensive "higher resolution" CDs. You might pay more up front for such a system but over time who knows, if you are a recording junky (who here isn't?) you could even save yourself some money.

Bev, I think more than the whole bad boy/good boy dichotomy, it boils down to rock for me needing to have what I'd call for lack of a better way of putting it "an edge." To me it's a defining aspect of the music. You can have good stuff without it, still music, but I can't really call it rock then. Now that might be an edge of lawlessness or even anarchy, but it can also be a deep, nagging, unmet emotional need or disturbing/unreconciled feeling that the artist expresses - not necessarily in over-the-top fashion, but something that is simmering just below (and sometimes just above) the surface. So in your list of artists who don't fit the "bad boy" mold, I'd take the example of Joni Mitchell. At her best (e.g. BLUE, HEJIRA, a few glorious moments scattered within the piecemeal DON JUAN'S RECKLESS DAUGHTER, NIGHT RIDE HOME) her work expresses a deep, deep sense of longing and unfulfilled potential and purpose. I think this applies too to what I'm familiar with from Fairport Convention, and DEFINITELY Nick Drake, and the best of CSN&Y. Taking CSN&Y as another example, the "edge" principle exemplifies for me perfectly why the first album worked out so well but the after that their recordings were spotty and inconsistent. Their "edge" boiled down to a sense of commitment to the work on the first album - and by contrast, you can almost hear the ambivalence among group members on their 2nd album, the lack of conviction that each seems to have about the other's whole approach and take on the world. For some groups, that inner tension would work, but it didn't really work for me with CSN&Y. So the second album is still a fun listen BECAUSE it's so spotty and multifaceted, but for me nothing on it approaches the level of "Wooden Ships" or "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." So back to the Byrds, by my read, the few true classics have that "edge" but much of the rest lacks it. Just my take on it, and I totally appreciate and understand your (equally valid) alternative viewpoint.

Without any recent, decent sounding U.S. issues of this material (and if I'm not mistaken these were kind of gray market recordings to begin with), I did what I normally would not do and went for the Definitive group's recent 2 CD issue of this material, THE COMPLETE 1956 PRIVATE RECORDINGS. While the sound quality is not pristine, it is definitely more than listenable. The music, on the other hand, is unqualified genius. I don't want to deflate any bubbles related to the upcoming Farlow Mosaic, but as someone who has 90+% of the Verve material that will be in the box and loves it (Farlow ranks in my personal "big three" of jazz guitarists along with Grant Green and Jim Hall), I have to say that Farlow and Costa both in these private recordings with a creativity, abandon, and relaxed quality that they very seldom reached on those Verve studio sides. Thus my topic description above - I bought this as the appetizer for the Mosaic (which I'll still be pre-ordering, thank you), but it's so rich and satisfying it's really the main course. The expanded track lengths are part of the issue, as these two improvising giants have adequate time to let their long flowing lines fully develop. But to me it's more a matter of circumstances - you can almost hear Farlow's relief at not being in front of a studio mike; he sounds, well, at home and in his natural element. Costa responds in kind, and of course Vinnie Burke is rock solid and mightily propulsive in support as always. I had read similar opinions before but never quite believed them - figured it was just the mystique of these being private, sort of gray market recordings - but it's true, folks. The only fly in the ointment for me is a slight nagging guilt about lining the pockets of the Definitive folks, whose business practices bother me in many ways. Still, they done good with this one, and if anyone in the U.S. ever gets off the stick and gets this material out in an even better sounding reissue, I'd upgrade in a heartbeat. These are desert island recordings, some of the greatest jazz guitar you'll hear.

Oh Marty Jazz, please don't misunderstand - PAGE ONE is a stone classic, no question. But Joe was Joe, and his genius was such that he actually TOPPED that amazing debut, IMHO, with his next few sides. Let me put it this way, PAGE ONE definitely set the mold, but then OUR THING cracked it, IN 'N' OUT broke it, and finally INNER URGE melted the damn thing altogether. So my comment was simply meant to reflect that these later releases don't seem to get the due or respect I think they deserve, next to the almost knee-jerk kudos showered on PAGE ONE.

As I look at this further and with Larry's input, I believe he's right - this does appear to be a slightly later issue in terms of the vinyl being on World Pacific. It was placed in what appears to be an original PJ jacket, but then the inner sleeve lists titles in the World Pacific "reissue" or repressing program! So a hybrid. But it's still interesting that the tracks are intact in terms of original length. So this adds some clarity to the picture, it's not necessarily just "first pressing" PJ issues that have all the tracks intact as Larry emphasized, which brings a little more hope to people seeking the unedited tracks. I also want to modify my assessment of the vinyl quality on my copy, after listening more last night I'd say merely "good." Quite a bit of surface noise, although mostly of the background murmur variety. No skips and only a few more distracting pops. So probably $30 is a fair price, I suppose they could have gouged a la Ebay prices, based on the rarity, but the quality I think warrants a substantial dock in price. So I'm happy overall, but unfortunately can't say this is anywhere close to a mint copy. If people are interested in hearing the original versions, I'd be happy to make some CD-Rs at some point. We're in the process of moving in to a new home so there might be a little delay, but just let me know.