DrJ

Well I've been really enjoying this one for the past couple of weeks. The remastering is quite good - in fact I'm not sure that the more recent "audiophile" versions of some of the albums (e.g. WITH JOHN COLTRANE, BRILLIANT CORNERS) are really any better sounding. They do sound different - a bit more full on the low end, but to my ears somewhat artificially so, like they've been boosted with some studio gimcrackery. The boxed set remastering sounds less colored, more honest in regard to some of the limitations of the original recordings, but well-transferred within those limitations. Notes are fun, and I LOVE having this stuff in recording order. The albums really often made little sense as albums, they were certainly one man's attempt to make coherent discs but no better or worse than anyone else's. I like being able to see things develop chronologically. Really glad I took the plunge!

I think it's about as good a movie centering on jazz and the "jazz life" as we're ever going to get, largely because of Dex's incredible turn (but also the heavy involvement of people like Herbie Hancock). Hey, you can tell from my avatar (one of the people pictured is Dex...I'll let you guess which!) I dig it.

Yes but isn't the difference here that they're only charging the price of one CD? So it doesn't matter much to me. If they had listed it at the price of a double, I'd be PISSED.

Will definitely post my impressions!

Nope, that's Long Tall Dex (captured in the film ROUND MIDNIGHT). BTW the little bald cat in the front row asking for another scotch (OK, breast milk) is not a movie or music critic, just our little 4.5 month old...although he does appear to have discerning taste.

Vibes - not even close to $700! Including shipping, mine were $400 almost to the dollar, ordered from Etronics yesterday and they've already been shipped. http://etronics.resultspage.com/display.ph...=dynamic&Store= I note they are now listed as "not available" at this link but you might check back sometime soon, probably they only carry a couple pairs at any one time but I'm sure they'll restock. Do a search on My Simon or C-Net and you will find other places selling them for almost as low a price. Not to be a wiseacre or overly critical, but $700 seems like WAY too much. I did a lot of comparison between Grado RS-1's (which I initially really had the hots for) and the Sonys. From a comfort standpoint the Sonys win, sound is not necessarily better but just different, and most importantly I felt that there was just no way I could justify spending $600-$700 on a pair of headphones (I never could find the Grados for anything less than about $600)...hell, I feel guilty enough about $400, but it's my Christmas present and as I mention above, while fatherhood is the best it has put a serious crimp into my ability to listen to music. Cheap headphones give me a headache in about 15 minutes, so I splurged.

I agree with what Chuck says, to a point...for over 15 years I had a couple hundred dollar cheapie Kenwood "all-in-one" stereo and never felt I was missing anything. Still, having gradually accumulated a system that brings out the subtleties in the music without going all ridiculous sure is nice. Problem is "ridiculous" is in the eye of the beholder. Seeing what some folks will spend on a turntable ($10,000!!!) blows my mind, particularly when my Technics sounds just fine to me (just call me 'ol tin ears!). But hey, I don't doubt for those people, it's worth it. Denon AVR-3300 receiver Technics MK-2 turntable Esoteric Sound RA-6 turntable (for 78's) Infinity Crescendo front L/R speakers (2 mid cones, biwired) and center speaker Cambridge Soundworks Newton S300 rear L/R speakers Energy XL-S8 subwoofer Onkyo DXC380 6 CD changer Pioneer DV45A SACD/DVD/CD universal player Sony RCD-W1 component CD burner Monster Cable/Connectors throughout About the only remotely over-the-top items in terms of price could have been the Cambridge Newton rear surround speakers, but I got refurbished ones from half.com for a great price. These are truly cool if you have to make due with a "does it all" system...the only place for a setup in our house is our living room and it's small so I don't get to have a dedicated audio-only setup, mine doubles for home theater, PLUS the only place I could unobtrusively mount the surrounds was less than ideal. The Newtons have a switch to go between dipole, bipole, and monopole. Each setting disperses the sound differently and so is good for different things (monopole for example gives more accurate representation with surround mix SACDs, dipole is great for Dolby Surround or non-Dolby Digital stuff, etc). So I'm a big fan of reasonably priced stuff that sounds good...and this setup sounds real nice to me...WHEN I'm actually home AND the baby's not sleeping (READ: 5 or 10 minutes between 7:00 and 7:30 nightly!). SOOO with that in mind...I also just ordered some Sony MDRCD3000 headphones this week, can't wait for them to arrive so I'll be able to listen to more than one song at a time, after 7:30 in the evening!

This would make a really nice Connoisseur entry some day...

I've been eyeing the new Atavistic Dodds...so now I got TWO of his CDs to pick up instead of one!

Check this recent thread out for more on Braxton: 3 Compositions of New Jazz

I found a used copy a couple years back for well under half the original list price...and that was on half.com, out in plain view! If you're interested, and can get a deal, I'd highly recommend it. While I'm sure there are some sonic upgrades with the newer Master Editions of some sessions, the remastering in the box is superb, holds up well, and the mini-book and LP facsimile sleeves are great. A killer set, and the more I listen the more I'm convinced this type of thing was Ella's best setting.

You beat me to it - I e-mailed them a few days ago and got the same basic message, but have been swamped and didn't get time to post here. Anyway - GREAT NEWS, eh?

Again, though, in California they are all over the place - Borders, Tower, etc. Weird.

WHAAAT? What a bummer! Man...I will drop them an e-mail (they sent me one when I ordered) to confirm this is true...sure hope not!

So I'll jump in with more detailed comment to get the dialogue rolling... This album is a classic for so many reasons. The things that continue to knock me out the most are: 1. The absolutely perfect mix of musicians. For that moment in time you simply could not have picked four more simpatico players, their concept and approach meshes magically. I'm not sure it would have worked nearly as well 5 or even 2 years later; by that time there was enough divergence and change in approach for at least some of the players that the balance would have been lost, I believe. Rivers' chops have certainly continued to grow, but I'm not sure he's ever played a better session start to finish, and it's nice to hear him sticking with tenor throughout. A lovely sound, full yet craggy, intensely personal. Tony Williams changed a lot over the next few years in particular - and personally, I don't think he was ever a more MUSICAL drummer than in that 1963-65 period. After that, to my ears, while obviously he was still a giant and played beautifully on so many occasions, he went in for greater and greater proportions of bombast and more rockish playing - not something I'm always against, but he had such a great thing going before, that ability to drive a group at will, steering it almost to his will, yet with great delicacy and taste. This music required that approach. His work on the title track is simply astonishing, as great as anything he recorded with Miles (including a tour de force like "Footprints" on MILES SMILES). It's certainly too bad Lion didn't put this configuration in the studio more often that same year, though, who knows how much great music could have been put down? Maybe Rivers just wasn't up for it at that time. Both Rivers and Byard have that thing where they sound modern and advanced yet there are readily audible references to the whole of jazz history in almost every measure. Probably has to do with how they came up, their formative influences, paying some dues playing more traditionally, etc. Byard is clearly inspired, just stoked by what's going on around him and stoking the fires in turn. I've never heard him play better...he was so damn adventurous that in his playing on some sessions things would suddenly fall apart mid-tune as he'd paint himself into a corner...but here the music just flows. Carter takes some hits on the board for his playing in other contexts, but I think he's the perfect man for the job here. His tendency to hold notes for a longer decay works in his favor for this music. As great as someone like Richard Davis might have ostensibly been here, I think he would have changed that delicate balance unfavorably, just as exchanging Williams for, say, Joe Chambers would have (another favorite of mine, but not the right man for this gig). 2. The "stick in the head" nature of the tunes...since the first time I played this album, they've become a permanent part of my consciousness. Simple and elegant melody lines, always kept in sight throughout the improvisations. One of the greatest jazz ballads ("Beatrice") ever written. The proof of this assertion is that Rivers (and others) continue to return to some of these tunes almost 40 years later. 3. Some would criticize the album for being too safe, not edgy enough...and certainly Rivers would range much further afield in the near future. But I think this wholly satisfactory straddling of past, present, and future is perhaps the greatest accomplishment of this session. This is the quintessential "inside/out" (rather than "outside/in") jazz album of the 60's, certainly one of the best of the rather large subset of Blue Note titles that fall into that camp, and the one I play for someone who has been bitten by vintage hard bop and then wants to start venturing beyond that. If it seems like I'm gushing, I am. I have loved this album from first listen and have yet to tire of hearing it. Masterpiece.

I'm sure the Deckert would be an upgrade over a stock machine (including mine), either Sony or Pioneer, I do believe this type of modification makes a big difference. This is making me salivate, to be honest, because the stock Pioneer DV45A sounds so great even on my rather modest system...I can only imagine how much better the modified Sony would sound! The price for the Deckert seems VERY reasonable, too. I'm definitely keepin' this in mind for future upgrade (we'll be using the DV45A for a long time as a DVD player - I'm not a fanatic about having the best possible video quality - extra CD player, etc so it would be a win-win). I've been debating about going for some really high-end headphones (Grado RS-1's) given our little guy limits my music listening hours and will for some time, but I may just tough it out till he's a bit older and put the money into something like this instead, which honestly seems like a lot more potential bang for the buck in terms of system upgrade in the long run.

Glad to see this is getting good reviews, I'm looking forward to picking it up. As I've posted in another thread about this recently, I'm a fan of Muldaur's lived-in approach to country blues on the CD SECRET HANDSHAKE (Hightone). His music is worthy of a much wider audience.

Lon, it's interesting that Deckert lists his modified SACD player as a PIONEER but everything else (other links) says SONY. I wonder if he changed his mind? FWIW, I've been thrilled with my Pioneer Elite DV45A universal player.

This was in a previous thread a while back...I think Aric was the first to pick up on it and post!

I'm really looking forward to this box...I'd been holding out on getting a new remaster of TIME OUT because I figured eventually it'd be in a box of some kind. Re: diminishing returns, I wonder about that myself not having heard the later albums in the box. But TIME FURTHER OUT is in many ways just as excellent as TIME OUT, in some ways better because the material is generally more adventurous to me yet the playing is even stronger. Plus the material has not been as over-played as the stuff on TIME OUT (which I still enjoy but seldom feel compelled to put on because you can hear it even on lousy jazz stations). If the rest are even close to as good, it will be a fine box indeed. I'd just written the above before looking back and seeing Guy Berger posted basically the same thing!

From what I've seen in the advance ads, the 2 CD edition is a "limited" one, and if the 2nd disc is 20 minutes of crap it might be better to just go for the standard single CD edition (unless of course the price is the same for the 2 CDs...hell, the second disc might be crap, but in that case it would be FREE crap, and no self-respecting music fanatic would ever pass up FREE crap!).

I just did a pretty extensive look at the site and couldn't see a way to do this. Oh well, not a big deal...now that I can quit at any time, I will hang around for a bit and see how I like it. It sounds like a pretty great deal as long as the monthly selection thing turns out to not be a big hassle.

LORD, LORD AM I EVER GONNA KNOW...simply wonderful.

Anthony Braxton - 3 COMPOSITIONS OF NEW JAZZ (Delmark) Jackie Coon - SOFTLY (Arbors) Coleman Hawkins - RAINBOW MIST (Delmark) Wilbur Harden / John Coltrane - COMPLETE SAVOY SESSIONS Art Pepper - THE WAY IT WAS! (OJC/Contemporary) Been on something of a mini Eric Dolphy and Oliver Nelson kick too: THE GREAT CONCERT OF CHARLES MINGUS (Universal France) Dolphy - COMPLETE PRESTIGE RECORDINGS, Disc 5 (part of SCREAMIN' THE BLUES and part of WHERE?) Oliver Nelson - SOUND PIECES (Impulse!), some really outstanding and HOT soprano work from Nelson on this one

If you go into the surround mixes expecting them to sound like the stereo mixes, you're going to be disappointed. However, taken on their own, they can be fun for a change.