RDK

I think the "coolness" has to do with several (many?) of these sessions being already widely available as regular OJCs, K2s, and SACDS. Do we really need 3-4 different masterings of the exact same material out at the same time? (Though at least the SACDs will likely be cutouts soon.)

Another Rouse fan. Maybe we should do a poll...

I'd buy it just for the cover! Love that kitshy shit. But, yeah, it otherwise sounds way down the list for me.

Damn, looks like he was pulled from a fire.

I'm never certain these days that the sound will be better. I hope so, but there's so much compression and eq'ing going on...

Good hack, but we shouldn't have to do any of that in the first place! If I want inconvenience, I'll spin an LP...

I'd see him if I could - especially for free!

While it's the cheapest way to go, the cassette adapters usually sound the worst. I haven't had any problems with "clicking," but the sound quality is limited by the cassette deck head and I've found the stereo separation to be very weak - at least when compared to CDs played in the car (or even radio). The FM adaptors should be better, but the best way - if available of course - is to use a direct line-in nto your car stereo.

That, and definitely return any unplayable CDs to the store...

slap! ← Ditto. I love that album!

Listening again just now, I have to say I like disc 1 even more than disc 2. My first impression a week or so ago wasn't as good, but further listen has won me over. Not a bad track in the bunch, and only a few (relatively) weak ones. But again, Marty has really stumped me... 1. Sounds like Duke’s band, but why do I feel that Marty’s trying to get one by us? 2. Like this a lot! Great Caravan-y rhythm. Love the bari sax. Maybe a Duke small group date? 3. Just a touch modal in the beginning, but then more bop-ish. I’m digging this trio quite a bit. No ideas, though. 4. Great guitar sound – very percussive. My first thought is Pat Martino. 5. This has a Blue Note sound to it, and for some reason I’m thinking of Lee Morgan’s Delightful-Lee album. 6. Geez, rhythm section at least sounds like Basie’s band… 7. Very solid playing, but doesn’t really grab me. I’m sure I’ll be embarrassed when I learn who it is. (I wrote those comments earlier; listening again, I’m digging this much more.) 8. Ah, some old boogie-woogie jass. How can anyone not like this? 9. I first thought Gary Burton, but the piano doesn’t fit. Lem Winchester? I love the sound of vibes. So delicate, but percussive. Love the rhythm created by the left hand of the piano. Really great track! 10. Sounds rather West Coast-ish – maybe a Giuffre or Shorty Rogers arrangement? 11. Familiar tune – I either have this or have heard it before. Really like the bass work here. I’ll guess Lee Morgan again since I dig this and he’s one of my favorite trumpeters. 12. Neat, very atmospheric piece, like a 50’s film noir score. Vibes. Possibly one of the albums that Oliver Nelson did with Winchester? 13. Don Byas? Another solid track. 14. Another good one. I’m thinking Herbie on piano for some reason. 15. I should know the title of this piece as it’s very familiar, though perhaps not this version. 16. When I think of the big bands I know and like, this sounds closest to Duke’s but I don’t think that’s it. Maybe Woody Herman? Tune sounds familiar. 17. Again, the bari sax really gets me. Nice track! 18. Clarinet? But the music feels too “modern” for most of the clarinetists I’m familiar with. Don Byron maybe?

Nah, I'm just too embarrassed to go into details about that long-coveted Herb Alpert LP that I finally - finally! - found in the thrift store last week. Who would've expected to find it there? Seriously, though, i've found that most long searches, when finally completed, end up being more disappointing than anything else.

Track 8, which i recognized but couldn't place, is track 7 from this album

Wow, I'm kinda surprised that T1 isn't "Ain't Necessarily So" (albeit a rather warped rendition). But then I'm the guy who liked the version of "St. Louis Blues" that sounded like a squadron of dive-bombing fighter jets...

The Ammons in question was issued as an lp in 1967 but is a reissue of 78S. You will kick yourself and curse Verve when you go to their site and examine the contents of an Ammons disc called Young Jug. It contains 8 of the 10 tunes you downloaded plus 12 more. I can't believe they did this. ← Ah, thanks for the info. Makes sense now. But I'm okay - I only sampled the tracks and didn't download anything. Hmm. I guess liner notes would be handy with this on-line only release... Yeah, I can't believe they did this either...

I've stopped double-dippin'...

I know that most of them sound very good, Lon - as you say, straight transfers (most likely) from Japanese releases, but the Ammons in question is from 1967. It's actually from a Cadet/Argo LP. It just seems odd that they'd release a needle drop, at least without saying so.

Ah, yes - I knew I recognizd this. Great album!

Lots of good stuff on here, Marty - thanks for the discs! This BFT stumped me far more than most of them I've participated in. Disc 2 1. A rather weird version of “Ain’t Necessarily So.” I sorta like it, sorta don’t. I like the middle section the best, beginning with the trumpet solo, but that jittery opening and closing annoys me. 2. Again, a rather percussive piano playing style. No clue, though, as to this trio. 3. I know this tune, but its title escapes me (which I guess means I don’t “know” it after all). Really like this one. 4. Good playing but the tune’s not doing much for me. Okay. 5. Marimba and piano makes for such a unique sound, especially when played a bit free like this. I like this more and more… 6. Good, but no idea who. Really like the sound of that sax. 7. Great trio track. Sounds a bit like some recent Andrew Hill that I’ve heard, where he’s playing fairly inside (but not entirely). There’s an off-beat thing going on with the rhythm that I’m really digging. Most interesting! 8. Another familiar tune, though not in this version. Like this one a lot too. 9. Same gang as Track 1? I’ve come to really like jazz violin after being burned out back in the day by 70’s era Ponty. This one sounds a bit too electric though – but maybe it’s just how it was recorded. I dunno – Regina Carter? Also harmonica in there – sounds like Toots. Like the second half of this track with the back-and-forth much more than the first half. 10. The sax player sounds familiar – playing so fast – but no good guesses from me. I know I’m gonna kick myself when I find out who this is… 11. This reminds me of some of those J.J. Johnson Verves, but there’s not enough bone for a leader session. Good, not great, track. 12. Damn, my brain’s friend today. A very familiar tune, but I can’t place it. This version with organ is new to me, though. Very good. 13. Very atmospheric and interesting, but also a bit all-over-the-place for me. The instrumentation – love the bari (or bass clarinet?) – sound a bit Randy Weston-ish, but I don’t recognize the piece. This one runs out of gas for me, but much of it I like.

I found the highlighted bit about the Accord Hybrid quite surprising... By Anne Thompson Correspondent NBC News Updated: 7:30 p.m. ET Aug. 16, 2005 Clay Chandler is looking for his second hybrid, this time an SUV, because as the owner of a Toyota Prius, he’s one of the few people smiling at the pump. “It’s especially nice when you go into a gas station and everyone else is going past $30 dollars and mine stops at $10 or $11,” says Chandler. That’s the promise of these vehicles with electric motors and gas engines — but what’s the reality? David Champion tests cars for Consumer Reports. The government says the popular Prius gets 60 miles a gallon in the city and 51 on the highway. But in real-world driving, Champion, got less. “We found very similar results on the highway,” said Champion, “But instead of 60 miles per gallon we only got 35 miles per gallon in the city. So it’s a huge difference.” And not all hybrids are the same. While they started out emphasizing fuel economy — by using the electric motor at low speeds — today, some cars like the Honda Accord hybrid emphasize performance, using the electric motor to boost the gas engine. “The Honda Accord hybrid gives you almost a second quicker zero to 60, but only gives you maybe 2 miles per gallon overall in terms of your fuel savings,” says Champion. There’s more to consider than just gas savings: This technology is expensive — adding $3,000 to almost $12,000 to the price. Automotive analysts say these green vehicles depreciate faster and, because they are more expensive, cost more to insure. "Hybrids make great sense if you want to make a statement," adds Champion. "If you purely want to save money, they’re a little less defensible.” In fact, after crunching the numbers, Edmunds.com found only the Prius saved the buyer money after five years — just $81 over a conventional Camry. It doesn’t matter to Scott Neal, who’s about to buy a hybrid SUV. "I will have fun driving it," says Neal, “And I will be helping the ecology and keeping pollution down.” And that, he and other hybrid owners believe, makes all the sense in the world. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8975473/

I was sampling some of the new Verve Vault albums on iTunes and was surprised to find at least one album - Gene Ammons' "Makes It Happen" - that seems to be a needle drop. Listening through phones on my 'puter I can clearly hear vinyl pops and ticks. I was shocked, given that they want nearly $10 for this download. Does anyone who uses iTunes more than me know if this is a fairly common or rare thing?

To the best of my knowledge, and I have researched this some, the answer is no. Frederick Wiseman, documentary maker, owns it, and only distributes it as a print through his personal distribution company. (And we're not talking about the Ralph Bakshi animated film, for those of you who are wondering.) ← Available here: http://www.zipporah.com/filmindex.html But It'll cost you!

Conveniently enough, I just read this today... Legal Urban Legends Hold Sway Tall tales of outrageous jury awards have helped bolster business-led campaigns to overhaul the civil justice system. By Myron Levin, Times Staff Writer Merv Grazinski set his Winnebago on cruise control, slid away from the wheel and went back to fix a cup of coffee. You can guess what happened next: The rudderless, driverless Winnebago crashed. Grazinski blamed the manufacturer for not warning against such a maneuver in the owner's manual. He sued and won $1.75 million. His jackpot would seem to erase any doubt that the legal system has lost its mind. Indeed, the Grazinski case has been cited often as evidence of the need to limit lawsuits and jury awards. There's just one problem: The story is a complete fabrication. It is one of the more comical tales in an anthology of legal urban legends that have circulated widely on the Internet, regaling millions with examples of cluelessness and greed being richly rewarded by the courts. These fables have also been widely disseminated by columnists and pundits who, in their haste to expose the gullibility of juries, did not verify the stories and were taken in themselves. Although the origins of the tales are unknown, some observers, including George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, say their wide acceptance has helped to rally public opinion behind business-led campaigns to overhaul the civil justice system by restricting some types of lawsuits and capping damage awards. "I am astonished how successful these urban legends have been in influencing policy," Turley said. "The people that created these stories did so with remarkable skill." The tales are making the rounds at a time when business lobbyists and conservative politicians seem to have gained the upper hand in their drive to rein in lawsuits — a campaign that they call tort reform but that trial lawyers and consumer groups say is an assault on the legal rights of ordinary people. According to the American Tort Reform Assn. — which is backed by insurance, drug, auto and other major industries — 49 states have enacted at least one measure on the group's wish list over the last two decades, including limits on punitive damages and caps on awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice claims. In February, President Bush signed a federal law that will make it harder to bring class-action suits in state courts. And some polls suggest that there is public support for further change. For example, a survey conducted for the American Tort Reform Assn. in 2003 found that by a ratio of 2 to 1, respondents believed that lawsuits were harming the economy and stifling job creation. In a survey released in June by Common Good, a conservative legal reform group, 83% of respondents said it was too easy to file invalid lawsuits, and 55% agreed with the statement that "many people use the justice system almost like a lottery — they start lawsuits to see if they can win millions." Such fears, fanned by anecdotes like the Grazinski tale, have no empirical basis, said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy, a consumer group that opposes the agenda of the business groups. "The data tends not to support the allegation that there is an out-of-control crisis with the legal system," she said. She and others point to surveys by the National Center for State Courts and the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics showing an apparent decline in personal injury suits and in the size of jury awards to successful plaintiffs. But advocates of reining in lawsuits say there is no need to invent fictitious examples of legal abuse. "All false stories should be exposed," said Victor Schwartz, general counsel of the tort reform association. But "you don't have to go to the surreal" to find dubious verdicts, he added. The group's website includes a link to what it says are real but "Looney Lawsuits," including a recent case in which a Portland, Ore., jury awarded $1.6 million to a woman who was seriously disfigured in a botched liposuction surgery. The jury imposed the judgment on the publisher of a phone directory after concluding that the company had knowingly allowed a dermatologist to falsely advertise himself as a board certified plastic surgeon. Whether it's the rich detail of the phony yarns that resonates or the fact that people are prepared to think the worst of the legal system, the bogus tales have attracted crowds of believers. The first time he heard of the Grazinski case, Cornell University law professor Theodore Eisenberg was a guest on a Rochester, N.Y., radio talk show. Annoyed by Eisenberg's defense of the justice system, a caller flung the Winnebago windfall in his face. "You're saying the system's not crazy," Eisenberg recalled the man saying, "but what about this case?" Besides the Grazinski saga, there's the mythical case of Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pa., who got into an argument with her boyfriend in a restaurant, threw a drink at him and then broke her tailbone when she slipped on the wet spot on the floor. Naturally, Carson sued — and won $113,500. Then there's Kara Walton, a Delaware woman so eager to avoid a $3.50 cover charge that she tried sneaking into a nightclub through a bathroom window but fell and lost a couple of teeth. Walton sued and won $12,000 plus payment of dental bills. A database search shows the Grazinski, Carson and Walton tales have been cited as true by a wide range of media outlets, including CNN; U.S. News & World Report; the American Spectator; the Oakland Tribune; the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram; the Deseret News of Salt Lake City; the Akron Beacon-Journal; the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record; and the Augusta, Ga., Chronicle. Some later issued corrections. Chuck Thomas, a columnist for the Ventura County Star, offered a mea culpa in a follow-up column, anointing himself winner of the "Chucklehead Award." Wide acceptance of the myths has been an eye-opener for Sheila Davis, public relations manager for Winnebago Industries in Forest City, Iowa. Davis says she has repeatedly had to explain that, no, there was no Grazinski lawsuit, and, no, the company did not have to change the owner's manual to avoid a swarm of copycat claims. "Unfortunately, we do have some people who write about it and don't call us," Davis said. The cases are often listed together on Internet postings as winners of the "Stella Awards," — supposedly a dubious achievement list of the nation's most outrageous and ridiculous lawsuits. Although entirely fictitious, the Stellas take their name from the real-life case of 79-year-old Stella Liebeck, whose hot-coffee case against McDonald's became the poster child for frivolous claims. According to popular accounts of the lawsuit, Liebeck coaxed nearly $3 million from an Albuquerque jury in 1994 after being scalded by McDonald's coffee she spilled on herself while riding in a car. These are the story's best-known elements, but filling in the missing facts puts the case in a different light. Trial testimony showed that at 180 to 190 degrees, McDonald's coffee was much hotter than that served by other restaurants or by people in their homes. The fast-food chain had received at least 700 complaints about hot coffee in the previous decade and had paid more than half a million dollars in settlements, according to trial testimony cited by the Wall Street Journal. Liebeck's injuries were hardly minor. She suffered third-degree burns on her thighs and groin area, was hospitalized for a week and had to undergo painful skin grafts. Before filing a lawsuit, she wrote McDonald's requesting that it lower the temperature of its coffee and cover her uninsured medical bills and incidental costs of about $20,000. McDonald's offered $800. Later, as the case neared trial, a mediator recommended that McDonald's pay a settlement of $225,000. The company refused. Jurors ultimately awarded Liebeck $160,000 in compensatory damages and about $2.7 million in punitive damages. "The facts were so overwhelmingly against the company," one of the jurors told the Journal. "Their callous disregard was very upsetting," another said. Soon after the verdict, the trial judge slashed the punitive damages by more than 80% to $480,000. Then the case settled for an undisclosed amount. "The irony about the McDonald's case is that it actually, in my view, was a meaningful and worthy lawsuit," George Washington University's Turley said. Yet advocates and pundits have "made it synonymous with court abuse." Unlike the popular version of the McDonald's case, the Stella Awards push mythmaking past mere exaggeration. Barbara Mikkelson of Agoura Hills, who with her husband, David, operates a website dedicated to debunking urban legends (www.snopes.com), says the Stellas have sometimes appeared with an e-mail chain letter in which the mythical law firm of Hogelman, Hogelman & Thomas exhorts people to "assist our law offices in a tort reform program" by publicizing "insane jury awards." Mikkelson noted that with the way information travels on the Internet, it would be impossible to determine the original authors. Randy Cassingham, a Colorado resident who also debunks the Stellas on his website http://www.stellaawards.com , says he is angry about the tales — not only because they are false but also because they divert attention from what he believe are real abuses in the legal system. According to Cassingham, the Stellas allow trial lawyers to say, "See, there is no problem with frivolous lawsuits. Our opponents have to make up cases to make a point." Although business groups are obvious beneficiaries of the fables, Schwartz of the tort reform association said his group had had nothing to do with them and was careful to verify all of its claims. "We try to be absolutely accurate in anything we're presenting," including examples of outrageous suits, Schwartz said. In fact, Schwartz said, over-the-top self-promotion by some trial lawyers have made the best case for the need for change. "Their ads making things seem as if it's just free money" have done "more to convince the American public that we have jackpot justice than anything put out by any tort reform organization — including the 'looney lawsuits' stories," he said. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tort...1,1359149.story

I've actually taken a tour of RTI and found their facilities and personel to be top-notch. I'm always shocked when I hear about defective pressings coming from them given their high QC, but I've also heard about problems with Classic's 200g LPs. (My impression was that RTI would rather not press the 200g but that that's what Classic wants and audiophiles buy.)

Yep. There are so many other discs out there that I want that I can easily skip anything that's copy-protected. The "protection" itself doesn't bother me - I rarely play them on computers or burn them - but it's the principle of the thing...