RDK

Enjoying emusic, huh? Since I don't care to listen to the stuff I download on my computer speakers, I tend to burn most of my emusic stuff to CDRs so I can listen anywhere. But if you're just getting started and only want to archive these then I'd recommend getting a DVD burner and save them as mp3s. You can probably get around 50 albums worth of music on each DVD-R.

Though a bit technical, this thread over at the Hoffman forum might interest a few RVG fans over here (especially if you're into vinyl)... http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthre...20&pagenumber=1 Steve's initial post: There is something about Rudy Van Gelder master tapes from the late 1950's and early 1960's that Neumann cutting lathes HATE! There is a very high frequency oscillation in those tapes that loves to burn up cutter heads and cutting amps. I was cutting LUSH LIFE today with Kevin and I couldn't believe how crazy the equipment was getting. We slowed down the master tape to about 5 inches per second and FOUND IT! A pesky tone, embedded in the Van Gelder tapes that is around 20,000 cycles. ONLY on the cymbals, or when the cymbals hit. I have no idea why this happens, but we speculate that it is some kind of RCA limiter reaction to the crash sound; much worse than limiter splatter. As Kevin and I were pulling out (just his) hair over this, we were talking about the Neumann cutting system he has. Get a load of this: It is a Neumann SX-74, built in West Berlin, Germany in very late 1973. It was shipped new to Whitney Recording Studios in Glendale in 1974 and was sold to LRS (Location Recording Service) in 1976 where it stayed until 1999 when Kevin Gray bought it For AcousTech Mastering in Camarillo. Kevin estimates that (conservatively) he has cut 40,000 sides with this unit since 1978. An amazing amount of vinyl! Now, here is the blow-mind part: The unit cuts flat from 2 hz to 27,000 cycles! Imagine that. So, in the 1950's and '60's, the Van Gelder stuff was cut with Scully/Westrex systems that started rolling off around 12k. No one had any problem cutting these tapes. With the advent of the Neumann system (which had to be able to cut an RCA CD-4 quadraphonic carrier tone on the disc with no problem) things got bad, quickly. I remember when I cut the original DCC LUSH LIFE LP with Stan Ricker we were both dumbfounded at the wacky things the tape was doing to the machinery. Today brought it all back. Oh, we finally "got it", but it was tough! Love that Neumann SX-74 though!

I read the answers mere minutes after Dan posted them, but only now have a chance to respond. I actually did better on this, my first blindfold test, than I would have expected - though I only correctly guessed parts of a few of them. 1. Since I have "Live at the Light House" I knew this wasn't the Three Sounds version. I'd actually been listening to the Ramsey Lewis trio just before hearing this disc and this sounds just like their Argo albums. I'm shocked that this is Jack Wilson - never would have guessed him in a billion years. 2. Like Dan, I was surprised that anyone thought this was someone other than Joe Williams. I was actually getting psyched out by the other guesses and started to think that it wasn't Joe after all. I'm relieved to learn that it was - now I don't have to eat my hat. And that's Shearing on the piano? Holy cow - I've never heard Shearing like that before. 3. Okay, now I'm embarrassed. I actually have this album on CD. I even suggested that it might be a Donaldson Argo. But that damn title threw me off. I was thinking it a cover of "Stand By Me," and failed to recognize it as something I had under a different name. 4. Other than knowing the title, I was way off on this one. But i did download it from emusic the other night after someone suggested that it was Red Holloway. B) 5. Never would have guessed this one. I recognize all the players but I'm not familiar enough with their identifiable styles. 6. Same as #5. I've gotta get out more... 7. The recording is so obscure that I shouldn't feel like an idiot, but I do anyway. 8. I told you I was no damn good at blindfold tests! 9. This I gotta get. I only saw Teddy Edwards play live once, about a year before his death, but the more I hear of him the more I think of him as an underappreciated giant. Absolutely lovely tune. I downloaded his earlier version of "Afraid of Love" from emusic, but I much prefer this one. 10. Never heard of Eastern Rebellion (the group) and don't think I have anything by Ralph Moore in my collection. A nice greasy track. 11. Never heard of Cochrane, but I'd like to hear more of this disc. I really liked this version of "Footprints." 12. I guessed Jimmy Smith and Oliver Nelson but only because of the big band context - I really don't like those Verve albums all that much. I don't know organists enough to tell Smith from Holmes (obviously). 13. Along with 9, this might be my favorite track on this disc. I don't understand the criticism of it. Different strokes I guess. I'm so proud of myself that I actually guessed Junior Mance! B) (Maybe not with a lot of conviction, but I'll take one any way I can.) Again, Dan, thanks for the really cool disc. I'm gonna have to hunt me down a few of these.

How can you tell? I don't see her ass anywhere in that picture.

It's been my impression that most music fans/fanatics - i.e., those who care enough to particapte in an on-line music forum - are also collectors at heart. Whether it's jazz fans and their Mosaic sets or JRVG collections, or Beatles fans and their 50 different copies of Sgt. Pepper, if you care enough about the music you're not gonna stop with just a handful of discs. It's a different story if one is just accumulating LPs or CDs just to have them, but everything I own (or at least 99% of it) is stuff that I intend to listen to. The other problem, especially with jazz reissues on smaller labels, is that one never knows how long something will remain in-print or otherwise be available. There have been plenty of things that I've bought simply because I'd never seen them before and might never see again. Other things i've bought simply to expand my musical horizons even if they aren't albums that I particularly like (a lot of avant-garde stuff for example).

Just another shout out of thanks to Dan for putting this disc together. It's already caused me to download a couple of things off of emusic by artists I was less-than-familiar with and there're a couple of other things that I just have to track down. More importantly, based on some of the perceptive comments listed above, this has really gotten me to think more about listening to the tones and phrasings of different musicians. It really amazes me how Jim and a few of you others can so easily identify someone by their playing - I can only do that with a small handful of cats. I'm eagerly awaiting hearing the answers. And participating in the next test... B)

As to your other question about deleting or saving... I don't like to listen to music on my computer so I burn as many albums as I can to CDR so I can listen to them at work or in the car. I find with many of the shorter OJCs that I can double them up by putting two on one disc - often making my own mini-Mosaic sets. B) I generally keep the mp3s stored on my computer as long as there's room for them - just in case I lose the CDR and have to burn another. But if it turns out that I don't like a session all that much or if I'm simply running out of room I'll simply delete them as I need. Of course if you're a subscriber you can always download the album again...

SS1, depends how fast your connection is. If it's slow you'll need a year to download everything; if it's fast you can do it in a few months. B) Seriously, I canceled my subscription just this morning after four or five months (though I was also a 3-month member about two years ago). Not because I wasn't fond of the service, but because I realized that I downloaded over 600 albums in that time - most of them jazz - and that I didn't have time to listen to a fraction of them. There is so much great material on the site that it's mind-blowing. If they add some new labels or upload a lot of new jazz titles, I'm sure I will join again in the future.

I can't complain getting a zero. The last test like this that I took - one that made the internet rounds a few weeks ago - said that I was "30% gay." I don't mind that, so long as I get to choose which 30%.

For anyone scoring higher than a zero, I think it means that you've been watching too much "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"... and taking notes.

I'm still not quite sure what a "metrosexual" is, but I'm clearly not one of them... I scored a ZERO!!!

Yeah, AMG helps, but it's not as easy as you might think unless you know the song title or are *sure* of an artist. I posted my initial thoughts last week, without reading any other comments on this thread or refering to AMG. That's the only fair way to do it as far as I'm concerned - despite my now being embarrassed by a few of my guesses. I actually didn't read (or remember) that someone already suggested the album above. But this morning while listening to the disc again I cross-checked it with something I found on emusic - 'nuff said. Now, in between real work, I'm trying to narrow down some choices and start listening more to how different players *sound* on their instruments - something that I'm not really very good at. For while I see these blindfold tests as fun, I also see it as a learning (and listening) experience for me. It's not really a surprise to me - though the test confirms it - that I'm better at recognizing songs and musical styles than the sounds of individual artists. I'm also rather Blue Note-centric and need to open up my ears to other labels and other (often less familiar) artists. I'm eagerly awaiting the answers later in the week - as well as hoping for more in-depth discussion here - as I'm about through with guessing. I'm digging these tunes greatly, but it's getting frustrating because I dn't know who's playing! B)

Here's track 4... http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&u...l=Afd5gtq9zmu42

Yeah, the sound of these remasters is highly dependant on the quality of the master tapes... and Dylan's been known to be eccentric in the studio. So far I've heard BOB and Slow Train - and both sound superb. The only one that's been getting some bad press is Desire, though it's still reportedly an improvement over the older version.

But to get back on point, what I said about this same topic once before was that the JATP was both magic and circus. And thank god for that!

It's too bad that Babelfish doesn't have an Aric-to-English translation option. For what it's worth, here's Aric's post translated into Spanish and then back into English... "This bar in Tacoma, Kellys, this Kelly red of the individual left the way with great Wendish them here and it then opened east place and hardly the seated night last was yesterday at night always and each one of Seattle as the Ramsey and Jay Thomas of the account came and were loose and each one obtained lost but each one had diversion does to anyone of you you know east place that was rad." I'm not sure which version is clearer...

The Coffee Table? Why that's just a short walk from my house! Hey Adam, do you ever listen to the band that often plays there on Sunday evenings? If so, we should hook up there some time...

Kari, nice job! Love the old BN logo at the bottom right.

I've heard rumors about Grimes moving back to NYC as well.

And here's a review for Hank Mobley's "The Flip"... The pirate speaks,"Hank Mobley recorded his second-to-last session in Paris in 1969, with a combinationo'European and American musicians. T'sextet on T'Flip featured Mobley, trumpeter Dizzy Reece, trombonist Slide Hampton, pianist Vince Benedetti, bassist Alby Cullaz and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Unlike its predecessor, Reach Out, thar's little attemptt'commercialize Mobley's sound, and he stickst'straight-ahead hard bop throughout t'session. " I must say, I agree!

Here's a pirate's review of "Kind of Blue" as translated from ye ol' AMG... The pirate speaks,"Kindo'Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, it's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as t'definitive jazz album, a universally acknowledged standardo'excellence. "

Ahhhh, Mark Twain was an illiterate. You're talking about Chris Marlowe.

my pirate name is: Mad Dog Rackham "Part crazy, part mangy, all rabid, you're the pirate all the others fear might just snap soon. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!"

"automagically" Whether typo or intentionally - I love it!

Dial "M" for Murder indeed! (just kiddin' - I shouldn't talk until I can contribute)