DrJ

Interesting range of opinions on the "extra" date on the new SONIC BOOM. Personally, I really like it - there's a gorgeous version of "Stormy Weather." It is certainly somewhat more subdued than many Morgan sessions but I find it very enjoyable, showcasing the more lyrical and "arranged" side of Morgan's talent. If anyone has the STANDARDS date that was issued in the U.S. a few years back, it has a comparable feel to it in many ways despite the different lineup of players.

BruceH - what can I say, the new Conn of FUCHSIA just sounds way better to me than the Mosaic, can't say I can explain it except that the Mosaic box is now 7 years old and remastering techniques have likely improved. There is no comparison - more alive, better balance and dynamic range, less tinny. Really a fine job, Ron McMaster deserves props for this and I've often been a vocal detractor. I've been listening and relistening to this old favorite, what an amazing album musically - spans the gamut of jazz history to that point, adventurous while definitely accessible. Love it! Malcom Addey did the Andrew Hill and it's SUPERB - the impact of the tuba in particular is shocking for a recording made in 1969.

I have to say it - why not just take the CDs out when you get them and put them in thin-line or regular jewel cases on your shelf? (Obviously that wouldn't help with vibes problem, but I've found it's a great way to lower your blood pressure in the years after purchase).

It's a real good one - have been enjoying it as part of the Mosaic for the past several years. Can't wait to hear the sonic upgrade.

Ah, DANCE WITH DEATH is another great one and a personal favorite. You're right, the playing is just as passionate, but there I do think Hill's composing was not quite as uniformly excellent as on PASSING SHIPS (although a few of the cuts on that one are among my favorites of his - "Yellow Violet" in particular is one that I will get in my head and can't get out for days). I'm glad you mentioned that one too, because it actually is "darker" than most of his dates from around that time, almost a throwback to the feeling of the earlier dates. It's all kind of nitpicking, though, because I have yet to hear a truly bad Andrew Hill album, or even one that is short of excellent.

I definitely think PASSING SHIPS highlights the more melodic, less "dark" side of Hill's work, but to my ears calling it less "complex" than his mid-60's dates is not accurate. Some of the arrangements are frankly astonishing in their complexity, ever-shifting and as the liners correctly point out many of the little bits woven in and out of the "main" melody line are like mini-compositions in themselves. They are also amazing in that Hill captures the weight afforded by having a larger ensemble at his disposal (particularly with the savvy inclusion of the tuba) while maintaining an incredible sense of space and air and lightness. As I mentioned, despite the nine piece configuration, this music is much brighter/lighter/airier than some of his smaller group work (e.g. SMOKESTACK, BLACK FIRE), which in the mid-60's had a decidedly heavy, dark flavor. The difference I hear between this session and some of his other LATER 60's dates is that while they all have a "sunnier" disposition, on PASSING SHIPS Hill's compositions are uniformly superior, and he's for some reason gotten much more passionate and sympathetic performances out of the musicians (the right mix of guys? better rehearsal? blind luck?). Not to sell short excellent dates like GRASS ROOTS and LIFT EVERY VOICE, but for me PASSING SHIPS gets the edge for those main reasons. So overall I agree very much with BruceH's assessment of the music, which I just went back and re-read more carefully. I would give PASSING SHIPS two thumbs WAY up, easily up with his best work and rivaling POINT OF DEPARTURE in terms of compositional quality. In fact, it makes a nice, on the surface "friendlier" companion to sit alongside that darker, outwardly more "difficult" masterpiece. But first impressions will deceive, and PASSING SHIPS is definitely in the same league musically. If nothing else, hearing this date simply drives home how important it is for Mr. Cuscuna to periodically revisit some of the dates in the BN vault that sounded to him on first listen to be "train wrecks" (he notes PASSING SHIPS was one of those for him initially, although he was also listening to a rough mix that basically omitted several of the instruments, which could barely be heard in bleed over echo). Time to once again dust off the Tyrone Washington "train wreck" session tapes, anyone?

Thanks for all the great info, Jim! The combo approach (mic'ing of the Leslie plus a direct feed) doesn't surprise me and can be a very effective approach to recording in general (often works real well for creating a good guitar sound, with a nice crisp attack and transparency but also depth and room presence). Just would have been very surprised to hear that it was all "direct to the board," I would expect a rather different sound to result as you indicate.

While I won't debate the issue of THE WAY I FEEL tape wear, I would definitely take exception with the notion that all the Japanese BN CDs are "superior" sounding compared to recent American editions. In fact, I routinely trade in TOCJs and JRVGs for US reissues these days. Almost always I find the U.S. RVG's to be better than either of those formats, and many of McMaster's recent 24 bit remasterings are quite good. Not surprising, since the Japanese versions are to my understanding NOT from the original master tapes. While occasionally you run into a tape wear issue like this, mostly I'd prefer to have all the sonic detail of the original rather than a second generation source (which may give the TOCJ's a bit mellower, LP-like sound but sacrifices a lot of detail to my way of hearing). Now as far as the older U.S. jobs, that's a different story...

Congratulations!!!!!

My local Tower had several copies of each...but at $18.99 each! Ouch. Still want to support the local bricks and mortar stores when possible, so I plumped for two: FUCHSIA SWING SONG and PASSING SHIPS. On quick listen, FUCHSIA sounds superior in sound quality to either the Mosaic box or the 1995 TOCJ I have. Glad to have the upgrade, one of my top BN recordings of all time. PASSING SHIPS sounds like it's going to be intriguing, and also great sound quality...could this be the best batch of Conns yet in terms of remastering? Could be...can't WAIT to get the others, but at a better price (CDUniverse, here I come).

Just like kids at Christmas we are, eh?

I'll take a look - but without even looking, I'd be shocked (and dismayed) if anyone recorded the Hammond exclusively by going direct to the board...would seem to be an instrument for which the fine art of mic'ing would be MOST important in capturing the complexity and beauty of the sound, not unlike a really excellent guitar sound.

I haven't taken the plunge yet. I have the slightly older Rykodisc reissue of TRUST and have to say that, on balance, the Ryko's are superior to the new Rhinos in terms of sound quality based on an A/B comparisons of the two versions of IMPERIAL BEDROOM. Still, it IS nice to have the whole extra bonus CD of stuff that is included in the Rhinos. My approach, since doing the A/B comparison, has been to go for the new Rhinos in cases where all I have is old, worn out vinyl (e.g. GET HAPPY!) but not for those where I have the Ryko CDs.

And what of the Giants? A team that leads from wire to wire and can't advance past the wild card team in the first round? Damn, this HAD to have been their year, but yet... Not that Alou had anything to do with their losing (rather their pitching let them down to some degree and their defense, almost airtight all year, became shoddy all of a sudden at the end), but...I bet Dusty Baker is gloating.

There's some nice comments by Jackie about his own playing (and the whole in tune thing) in the liners for the new RVG of LET FREEDOM RING. These liners are superb and give the lie to the recent flurry of posts that accuse Bob Blumenthal of going through the motions in his RVG notes. Anyway, as Jackie puts it, he basically hears things differently and is "a sugar-free player," as good a description of his sound as any I've heard. So don't believe for a minute that just because a jazz player sounds a bit "off pitch" that it may not be an intentional thing they're fully cognizant of. Not to mention that I actually don't hear any intonation or pitch problems with Strozier's playing and I'm pretty sensitive to that kind of thing (it bothers me in the playing of some others where I don't think it's intentional, based on context and variability from tune to tune, but more limitation in ability, say for someone like Sonny Red).

David, I love each and every one of those, don't miss a one of them. Although if you had to get only one, I'm particularly partial to BOOGALOO, one of my favorites of Big John's (right up there with GOT A GOOD THING GOIN'). First off, there's the music - that great mixture of the down home and the free-ish, modal stuff never worked better than here. As a bonus, there are truly touching liners done by John Zorn - his affection for Patton is totally apparent and these are some of the finest liners around IMHO (and usually I could care less). This is one of those Patton albums that is savaged by AMG - 2.5 stars. Yeah, right - what HAVE those people been smoking? SUPERB album.

Elvis Costello - GET HAPPY! (Rhino) Bob Dylan - BLONDE ON BLONDE (Columbia/Legacy SACD) The Jam - DIRECTION CREATION REACTION (Polydor), the whole thing but particularly the mighty ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS EP material, over and over ("Absolute Beginners," "Tales from the Riverbank," "Disguises," "Funeral Pyre," and "Liza Radley" - one of the most perfect pop tune sequences ever) In the jazz world: Duke Ellington - REPRISE RECORDINGS (Mosaic), AFRO-BOSSA stuff Eric Dolphy - COMPLETE PRESTIGE RECORDINGS (Prestige), the 5-spot live stuff Lee Morgan - SIXTH SENSE (BN) Wayne Shorter - ADAMS APPLE (BN) Joe Williams/Harry Edison - TOGETHER (Roulette)

Well, it sure ain't been a great week for Bay Area baseball fans... On the other hand, I can now be a little less dispassionate in rooting for a Cubs-Bosox series - which will no doubt be known as the "Cinderella Series" PS - "weak" was the Freudian slip of the "week" - corrected now!

You're actually right Big Al, the RVG still ain't exactly a pristine sounding CD, but there is a HUGE improvement compared to what was available before. Enough to make the impact of the music totally different on me. RVG worked some magic.

At times insufferably smarmy, no doubt, but Sting is a talented man and one whose music I often enjoy. If the only musicians I listened to were the kind of people I would want to hang out with, well, I'd seldom listen to music and would have very few people to hang around with to boot.

Sure, I'd like to see all of these get reissued. But at least a few of those listed are very unlikely candidates for the RVG series, just based on likely sales...the Kenny Clarke, for example, I'm sure is a fine session, but more of a Conn candidate for sure, if it gets reissued at all. And on that topic: I think most will eventually appear in either that series or the RVG. Look, the Conns are including some really obscure stuff - Rouse's BOSSA NOVA BACCHANAL, frankly I was pretty certain that would NEVER be issued in the U.S. but here it is. On the other hand, I'd bet we'll see many of these as RVGs (TRUE BLUE and THAT'S WHERE IT'S AT seem like eventual shoe-ins). The point is, what's wrong with being patient? We're seeing some stuff in the planned RVG list that people have been clamoring for now for years, and they seem to work in at least a couple each time that are pretty darn obscure. Given that there is also (IMHO) a pressing need to update the portion of the BN catalog that are good-selling staples (Dex, Green, Rollins, Silver, etc), and the RVG is simultaneously trying to fill that need, I think the number of more obscure titles that have appeared is pretty fair, and again the Conn series is ongoing for those that don't quite make the RVG list. All in good time.

I really like CAPRA BLACK, found the CD used about a year ago in Berkeley. You won't be disappointed. Not "horns plus voice" but more great Billy: Lee Morgan's last album for BN (titled simply LEE MORGAN). There's a wonderful version of "Capra Black" on there, btw, sans vocals (I dig the singers but the tune stands up just fine without them too, thank you). Anyone into Lee, Harper, or just great music should check that one out post haste...Morgan went out in top form, and who knows what heights he might have reached next?

So far it hasn't grabbed me, but I wouldn't be surprised if COOKERS does make more of an impact in an RVG remastering. I never could really warm much to Rollins' live Vanguard dates for BN until the RVG came along. Again, I don't want to make it sound like I'm overly fussy about sonics, 'cause I'm not, but for some music a certain minimal level of clarity and presence is really needed. Rollins' tone, the nuances in his playing, they just came out of nowhere on the newer version, at least on my mid-level stereo system. Much the same could be said for the wonderful upgrades Rudy achieved for the Blakey Cafe Bohemia and Birdland recordings - you can now hear all kinds of subtleties that were buried before. So I look eagerly forward to revisiting COOKERS.

To address a concern raised above: I am pretty certain the RVGs of these titles will have the extra tracks on earlier versions. To my knowledge, in the U.S. RVG series so far they only left off extra tracks that had been on earlier U.S. CDs in reissuing THE SERMON and HOUSEPARTY by Jimmy Smith (to preserve original LP sequence...not sure exactly why). Also, some of the extras that had appeared on NO ROOM FOR SQUARES and THE TURNAROUND by Mobley were left off those RVGs, but then those tracks later appeared on the Conn STRAIGHT NO FILTER anyway. Morganized: regarding the crappy remastering, it's not that I haven't bought and enjoyed every one of those titles immensely (I'm mostly interested in the music, sonics are secondary but since they can so compliment music I don't think we can ignore them altogether), but to my ears the BN remastering from about 1994 and earlier generally were not well done, so it's always a real pleasure to hear an improvement!

I went through the entire list and have noted my observations on whether the title is OOP and what the sound quality on either the OOP or currently available older US version is like. Based on these criteria alone, the selections make a lot of sense. That doesn't even get into musical merit, and I would say each and every one of these is highly worthy of listening, with the possible exception of NIGHT OF THE COOKERS (and I'm curious to see if the sonic upgrade makes that one more listenable - I wouldn't put it out of the question). Really the only one that doesn't make sense on any level is HOME COOKIN' (and I could be wrong about that, the more I think about it, it may very well be OOP - chime in and correct me if it is). February Sweet Honey Bee / Duke Pearson OOP, crappy remastering on old version Ready For Freddie / Freddie Hubbard OOP, crappy remastering on old version At The Half Note Cafe Vol. 1& 2 / Donald Byrd (Double) OOP Rockin' The Boat / Jimmy Smith ? Never on CD in US? Goin' West / Grant Green Never on CD in US, long sought after Right Now / Jackie McLean OOP, crappy remastering on old version March Newk's Time / Sonny Rollins crappy remastering on old version Never Let Me Go / Stanley Turrentine OOP, crappy remastering on old version The Cape Verdean Blues - Horace Silver OOP, truly awful remastering old version Free Form / Donald Byrd crappy remastering old version Conquistador / Cecil Taylor OOP, crappy remastering old version Prayer Meeting / Jimmy Smith * crappy remastering old version * This was originally scheduled to be Breaking Point / Freddie Hubbard The following titles are scheduled to come between May and August of 2004 Breaking Point / Freddie Hubbard crappy remastering old version (crov) Dexter Calling / Dexter Gordon crov Home Cookin' / Jimmy Smith Inner Urge / Joe Henderson crov The Sixth Sense / Lee Morgan OOP Destination Out / Jackie McLean OOP (except in Mosaic box), fair remaster old Buhaina's Delight / Art Blakey crov Free For All / Art Blakey crov Blue Spirits / Freddie Hubbard OOP, crov The Thing To Do / Blue Mitchell OOP (except in Mosaic box), crov The Night Of The Cookers Vol. & 2/ Freddie Hubbard (Double) OOP, crov Serenade To A Soul Sister - Horace Silver OOP, crov Action / Jackie McLean ? Never on CD in US? Andrew Hill / Black Fire OOP, crov Doin' Allright / Dexter Gordon crov One Flight Up / Dexter Gordon crov In 'N Out / Joe Henderson fair remastering old version Tender Moments / McCoy Tyner OOP, crov I was just kidding in my last post about getting a real life and all - I am just as much a collector as anyone and always am impatient about my pet titles getting reissued - but given the success of the series and the list above, I think people can rest assured most of those pet titles will see light of day sometime soon.