DrJ

Actually (and I'm serious here) if you listen carefully to that "block that kick," it gradually starts to sound like "block that Nixon" which is weird, but was it intentional?

...and THAT ain't right!

"YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELLED OF ELDERBERRIES!!!!!" - The Abusive French Knight (aka John Cleese), top o'the castle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

My Mommy and Daddy are RELATED!

Oh NO NO NO - that's a GREAT one to me, Eric. Spooky as shit too, love the way it's recorded, you have to kind of strain to hear much of it but then there's those great Ringo drum bits that pop through. And that ghost sound at the end. Yikes - "Revolution #9" is funny, this one is plain scary. There's some creepy stuff on THE BEATLES..."Cry Baby Cry" has always been one of my favorites, with an Addams Family vibe, excellent tune.

Somebody mentioned Elvis Costello as maybe not having anything quite popular enough, but two he was involved with were: "Every Day I Write the Book" - a great one that I think may have cracked the American Top 40 and with Squeeze (Elvis on backing vox) - "Black Coffee in Bed" another favorite that I think had a fair amount of success in the U.S.

I am very superficial when it comes by my understanding and knowledge of Jamaican music. But I will say that Black Uhuru was one of the best bands of the 80's, period, regardless of genre. I'm sure they are probably more crossed over/pop-influenced than some, but I loved that group. RED is a pinnacle, one of the greatest pop albums of all time. I haven't yet gotten around to picking up the new CD remastering yet, still love my vinyl. Anyone reading this thread looking to get a sense of how great the band was and wanting a sampler instead should pick up the 2 CD compliation put out by Island a couple years back called LIBERATION: THE ISLAND ANTHOLOGY. For people in the U.S. who never got to hear the original mixes of stuff off the album ANTHEM, as well as some of the other 12" and other material, it's a real gem.

Yeah, Waters was kind of a loon and turned out some overblown music for sure. But David Gilmour's glorious guitar playing made life worth living as a teenager - love the huge sound and drama of his two leads on "Comfortably Numb," plus I dig his singing. More than made up for Waters.

I'll second "Tempted" - Squeeze, a masterpiece "Raspberry Beret" - Prince (you could pick many by him) "The Look of Love" - ABC (followed closely by "Poison Arrow")

"Why Don't We Do It In the Road" is pretty bad...I like most of the little ditties/psychedelic stuff on THE BEATLES but that one is just plain annoying. I agree with Jim that around mid-65 the Beatles were sounding MIGHTY tired and burned out. Some weaker stuff then for sure - such as "Mr. Moonlight," which may be the worst ever (although I don't think written by them). Thing about the Beatles is even stuff that would probably have been horrible in other hands was usually elevated by SOMETHING - a fantastic vocal performance, great production, a nice riff, something. So you take a piece like "Only A Northern Song" off the YELLOW SUBMARINE soundtrack, and in lesser hands it would be flat our horrible but it actually sounds pretty cool in the execution there. Plus there's that wonderful "It doesn't really matter what clothes I wear..." part, a little song within a song, the kind of thing they used to just toss off as a secondary part of a tune, like eating doughnuts.

The only one of these Classics DADs I have is the Red Rodney 1957 date (originally on Xanadu I think). Two separate sessions actually, both recorded by Van Gelder, and it sounds fantastic, although I don't have any comparision with a prior verison.

If you like Cables you DO NOT want to miss NIGHT AND DAY (DIW), a fantastic trio album he led with Billy Hart and Cecil McBee also making strong contributions. Excellent recording, but the music is really what matters here. Boppish, full of fire as well as sensitive playing. Also (and I'm reading into B. Goren's original post that he's not into electric piano etc) it's all acoustic piano all the way.

Couple of last issues: 1. Anyone out there with either the Meridian G07 or G08 CD player (the latter upsamples)? I heard the G07 and was impressed and there are raves about the G08. 2. How about B&W 804 speakers? Heard those today too - purty to look at, plus remarkable clarity, sense of space and separation particularly in the mid and high range, not the most full bass but still remarkable. Anyone with favorable or unfavorable comments?

Thanks for the ongoing comments folks, nothing's decided yet so much appreciated. I had figured the pre-amp option would be a good way to go for remote, and hadn't realized about the biwiring options. Re: the "match" of the Esoteric DV-50 with my budget, well, the budget may be getting revised up a bit wolff - as I mentioned if I can hear an appreciable difference I'm willing to pay more to a point, just not wanting to pay more just to say I did. Haven't made it to our local tube amp dealer (closed on Sundays) but did audition some nice integrated solid state stuff - was particularly impressed with the Meridian G51 which is unfortunately about 2-3 times the cost of the tube amps being discussed here. Still, it sounded awful good, and I'm thinking that I might be open to increasing my budget two-fold from what I'd planned if necessary (and only if necessary). I will also say that I'm rethinking the universal player approach, may just sit for a while with my Pioneer DV45A and put as much as possible into a killer standard CD player - Meridian also has an outstanding option there, the G07, sounded much better than a Mark Levinson player that was twice the price. Hope to get in some tube amp auditioning next weekend on Saturday, there's a local shop here (one) in Sacramento that specializes from what I hear. And I'm definitely checking out Audiogon for purchase, folks, registered yesterday.

Still shopping and learning...a couple more questions for the gallery: 1. Anyone heard the Jolida JD302B integrated tube amp? It has gotten some rave reviews from just about everyone and seems like an incredible bargain at about $1000, in the same ballpark as the Cayin TA-30 based on price and per the reviews I've seen. The Decware SE34-I integrated tube amp isn't too far out of that price range either at about $1500, and looks like a contender, but I am concerned about the much lower output rating (7 W per channel, versus 50 for the Jolida and 35 for the Cayin). I have a nice older pair of Infinity Crescendo 3009 series speakers that I think would handle the other two without problem based on their spec sheet I just re-reviewed, but might not do well with the Decware. Not a "deal breaker" problem as we need to buy a second pair of speakers either way (whether I use the Infinity's in my listening room or leave them with the home theater and get new speakers for the listening room) but this decision will obviously impact on my speaker shopping goals/strategy. The YBA suggestion was appreciated, but at more than twice the cost of these others with no clear consensus I've read about it being any better, it's fallen down on the list. 2. A more general question - are there any quality integrated tube amps in the price range of those that come with a remote? It's not an absolute necessity for me but would of course be a nice feature. I know the Jolida doesn't have one and it doesn't look like the Cayin does. 3. Coming from having a home theater combo listening/viewing/surround rig, I'm used to my receiver having digital inputs...but of course tube amps like the Jolida and Cayin don't have 'em. With a high quality front end combo player, and really good analog connectors, will I be missing anything (e.g. in terms of sonic detail) by not having direct digital ins? I'm assuming not and that I'll gain in warmth, spaciousness, midrange and high end clarity without harshness, etc, but just checking! 4. What about biwiring capability on the Cayin and Decware? It appears that the Jolida supports it, but can't tell about these other two. I am NOT interested in a debate about whether it makes a difference or not - on my current rig, my ears tell me that for me it makes a pretty substantial difference, so I'm interested although again this is not a deal breaker one way or the other. 5. Finally - Still leaning toward the Teac Esoteric DV-50 for front end...the Denon 5900 and Pioneer DV59-AVi look like great players for the price but don't come anywhere near the upsampling capabilities and flexibility in algorithms offered by the Esoteric machine. Anyone who has one that can comment?

Haven't yet made it through the full recording - with the baby, much of my listening is in 15-20 minute chunks in the car during the week. But partly this is because I keep restarting the disc as I've enjoyed the first 2 tracks so much I want to keep hearing them. Just Friends Star Eyes Are there any two better tunes for a great jazz improviser? There's two of those here. Every time you listen you hear something different, and the remarkable degree of interplay becomes more and more apparent. Some day I'll make it to the rest of the disc. So far the only slight down side is the recording - like a few of the Hat archival live recordings I've heard this sounds like it must have been cleaned up from either a cassette or otherwise not top of the line master, and there's far too much ambient "big room" sound for my taste, which puts a dent in what is clearly (from a musical standpoint) highly intimate music. It's not overly distracting but certainly unfortunate...I like this type of jazz with a much "closer" feeling in the recording, a la Getz/Dailey's POETRY that I've been raving about recently. Musically though, while clearly quite different in the approach of the artists, STAR EYES sits right up with that one.

No problems with my copy either - finally made it through, listening to multiple segments over about a week in the car. Outstanding stuff, with a really nice "you're in the studio" atmosphere and overall feeling of good cheer. With this and my slightly earlier purchse of APOGEE, I continue to thoroughly enjoy gradually discovering this musician who on my first 10 years of serious jazz listening I managed to largely overlook. Fun to wade ever more deeply into Marshville.

NO NO NO NO NO! Methinks my comments have been used as a springboard to a discussion that I'd like to disengage them from, post haste! Seriously, I'm actually more than a little distressed to see this whole discussion degenerate yet again into an East coast/West coast thing. That couldn't have been FARTHER from my intention with my comments. Perhaps when I said I felt some of his PJ stuff lacked fire, people thought I meant "fire" in the stereotypical "hot" sound of a group like the MOANIN' era Messengers. But that's not what I meant. Miles, to me, played with fire even when he was picking his way through a fragile ballad...so did Bill Evans on "Peace Piece." It's not about the surface, it's what radiates from the core. Let me try briefly again: I'm talking about Shank as an individual, not as a school, not as a pseudo-evangelical movement, not as a geographic region. I have largely never bought into the East/West thing - far too many exceptions and differences among individuals about what even constitutes an East vs West coast sound and style to make the whole debate more than vaguely amusing talk over cocktails for a few minutes. Beyond that, it's a nonsense. So rather than trying to put him into some artificial category, I was talking about my personal impressions of Shank as an individual musician, and then simply tying them in with his own comments. But even if he felt the opposite of me - e.g. that his early playing was the stuff and he degenerated as he got older - well obviously I'd have to respect his opinion but would still personally much more value his later recordings. But from my standpoint, all of this should have NOTHING to do with the perception of him being "too West coast," which some appear to automatically associate with "effete." I don't make that association myself, never have, and that was NOT my point. There are many people who are just as ostensibly "mellow" sounding on the surface as PJ-era Shank, some also with styles that could be lumped in with the stereotyped "West coast" label, who I more thoroughly enjoy - such as Cooper, Jack Montrose, some others. All of these are people who to me seemed and, more importantly, SOUNDED far more comfortable in what they were doing - who seemed, well, more THEMSELVES - than Shank ever did in the 50's. In the Shank of that era, I hear a vastly talented but ultimately disatisfied and inconsistent musician, and while I can't point to notes that "say" this as plain as English, it permeates much of what he played. Not that I don't listen to it - as I mentioned originally the Shank Mosaic has helped me pass many a minute or hour pleasantly and I view that time as well spent - but it's way down on the list in terms of music that I would consider truly timeless and essential. Just so the point is clear!

Picked up CONQUISTADOR and CAPE VERDEAN BLUES, both upgrades from late 80's remasterings. Cannot wait to hear them. Also the SACD of BLUE TRAIN - and now I'll be able to find out which side of the heated debate about the SACD layer I fall in with! And with the 15% off/free shipping "taxday" coupon, threw in Jimmy Giuffre 3's 1961, which I've long been waiting for because I refused to pay the exhorbitant full list price on this ECM title. Still WAY over priced, but at least some off. About this one - I have and enjoy FREE FALL, how much similarity is there?

Great recording. I didn't find anything overly distracting on the Impulse! remastering but that is from memory, will listen again (once we get unpacked after our pending move).

Nicely put Stefan, although sometimes I must admit it's still fun to spin. One thing I want to say is that I disagree with the view that MERRY OLE SOUL is weak music - to me it's one of the stronger sessions in this box, and one of the most creative takes on holiday music I've heard by a jazz artist. It's Pearson's take on the Brazilian music that is definitely not going to be to all tastes.

I'll definitely pick up the Shank/Cooper and honestly I'm expecting I'll enjoy it more than the Shank Mosaic, mainly due to Cooper's presence...I like BLOWIN' COUNTRY a lot, if that's any indication. Older Shank I enjoy but do definitely have to be in the right mood to listen to that stuff...and probably as I've said before it's one of the lowest ranked personally out of a list of about 40 Mosaics I own, seriously lacking in my view in the heart and soul category (isolated contributions notwithstanding). The thing is, once you hear Shank from later in his career it's really hard to go back and listen to what I think is a really pale imitation of someone's full potential. I's not just me: even Shank himself pretty much has said over and over again in articles I've read that he was never fully satisfied with his playing in these early years, feeling he hadn't really matured yet. He also felt he was greatly hindered by being a multi-reedist and feels his improvisational playing suffered greatly as result of that and doing so much studio work. This is NOT to say that there's still not lots to enjoy from his PJ era, and again I do revisit it when in the right mood - obviously, as I have his first Mosaic and will be picking up this latest one. So this isn't an anti-Shank thing, but if you are intrigued by his earlier recordings, do check out his later stuff which has so much more fire and teeth to it - stuff like I TOLD YOU SO (Candid), which is outstanding stuff.

I'm with ralphie boy, I've always been puzzled by some of the hostile reactions to Disc 1 material from this box. I think it's exhilirating and uplifting (which is no mean achievement for funeral music - and that's the whole point really) and also like taking a time machine back in history. No, it's probably not the "best" music of its kind by a long shot, but the point is, it's just about the only recording of its kind. Thank God or whoever that someone had the foresight to do it.

Nice comments Larry - I agree, I just don't hear any of Konitz in Desmond and don't think that any kind of similarity (which is very much surface only) there is could plausibly be "influence."

Hmmm...notice that all Aric says is that he received the recordings, not that he had listened to them yet, but then he still reports he's off to "JIZZ ALL OVER HIMSELF." Hmmm. Hmmm. So...there's a name for this you know.... (wait for it...here it is...the punchline...gonna be good...drumroll...) PREMATURE EJACULISTEN!