RDK

Someone mentioned the site being very slow today. My guess is that everyone's trying to download their old "unlimited" limit before the new limit goes into effect next month.

Here's the recent e-mail from e-music. These changes do suck in a lot of ways, but on the other hand the pricing still is very reasonable compared to most other legal on-line music sites. They claim that they are adding more labels in the future. We'll see... *********** Email from Emusic ************ "Dear EMusic Subscriber, Over the past several years, EMusic has stood alone in its commitment to providing digital music consumers a service that offers flexibility and portability. We remain the ONLY service offering downloads in the standard MP3 format. We are also unique in our focus on music from the leading independent labels. Unlike other services, we understand that many music consumers want to go beyond the Billboard charts. We remain firmly committed to continuing to provide avid music fans an alternative to the mainstream. The digital music industry continues to change rapidly, and EMusic also continues to evolve. The purpose of this letter is to inform you of a number of important changes that will affect EMusic Subscribers. First, we are pleased to inform you that EMusic.com Inc. is being acquired by Dimensional Associates LLC ("Dimensional"), a private equity group focused on providing innovative online music distribution services. Dimensional shares EMusic's consumer focused philosophy of providing low cost, convenient access to great music. Dimensional plans to continue enhancing the EMusic service with new features and content and you can look forward to hearing more once the acquisition has been completed. Although our current privacy policy remains in effect, http://www.emusic.com/help/privacy_policy.html when the acquisition is completed, EMusic's privacy policy will be changing to reflect Dimensional's ownership and your Personal Information (as defined in the privacy policy) will be transferred to Dimensional. Please take a few moments to review this our new policy which will take effect around October 30, 2003. http://www.emusic.com/help/privacypolicy.html As always, EMusic is firmly committed to consumer privacy and we believe the new policy continues to reinforce this. As an avid digital music fan, you are also aware that the music industry continues to suffer under intense financial, legal and technological pressure. As a provider of music downloads, EMusic is subject to a complex system of intellectual property rights and technological challenges that impose high costs and often uncertain risks on the company. In order to respond to these ongoing challenges and maintain a compelling service for our valued customers, EMusic will be making a number of significant changes in the coming weeks and months. As part of these changes, we will be discontinuing the unlimited service plan and replacing it with a new service offering. Unless you visit the link below: http://help.emusic.com/cu/index.cgi?cmd=st...categoryID=1198 and notify us of your intention to cancel your subscription prior to November 8, 2003, your EMusic subscription will convert into EMusic Basic. Under EMusic Basic, you will be billed $9.99 per month for access to the service with no minimum monthly commitment, but you will be limited to no more than 40 downloads during your monthly billing cycle. In addition, EMusic is pleased to present a special, limited time offer available exclusively to current subscribers - EMusic Premium. Designed for our most active subscribers, this plan allows you to download up to 300 tracks per month (approximately 25 albums) for a monthly charge of $50.00 - a price of just 16 cents per track - with no minimum monthly commitment. If you are interested in registering for this subscription plan, you must complete the EMusic XL registration form no later than November 8, 2003. http://help.emusic.com/cu/index.cgi?cmd=st...categoryID=1998 You will still have unparalleled access to the best MP3s available from independent music labels around the world. You will continue to have the ability to download this music, take it with you and play it wherever and however you like. And, over the next several months EMusic will be adding significant new labels, artists and releases as well as enhanced features. EMusic remains committed to providing the best MP3 service on the Internet. We continue to believe that EMusic is the best value available and like you, we are passionate about our music. We believe that the changes we are making today will enable us to provide an even more compelling service. To learn more about the new service offering, please go to http://www.emusic.com/messages/qanda.html and read our revised terms and conditions at http://www.emusic.com/bem/new_signup/terms.html which will be effective as of November 8, 2003. If, for any reason, you decide that you do not want to become a member of the EMusic services as described above, you may cancel at any time during the trial period. As always, if you have a specific question about these changes or need additional help with your service, the following site will guide you through our customer service process. http://help.emusic.com/emhelp/ Thank you for being an EMusic Subscriber."

wow. Well, I guess all good (great!) things must come to an end. I was starting to feel a bit guilty for downloading several hundred albums during my recent 4-month stay there and then canceling - but now I don't feel so bad. That's quite a throttle they've thrown on their site - going from 2000 tracks per month down to just 65 for the same price.

Yeah, it's gonna get weird around here real soon. As has been noted, Universal Music is not part of the GE/NBC deal, and GE is likely to sell off the theme park division asap. The "new" company will be named NBC-Universal. On the plus side, I hear that one of the new perks for us Universal employees will be free NBC-TV. Is there a smilie for sarcasm?

Well, I bought the box and then sold it after I found a promo copy that came in a 4x jewel box.

I'm up for a challenge! Actually, I recently downloaded Jackson and Message from emusic, but have yet to spin them. Now you guys have really got me interested... B)

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I'm familiar with the AEC only from a few of their ECM albums - which I generally dig. How do those compare with their earlier albums? From what I've read, their earlier recordings sound "freer" and that's partly what's kept me away from them. I remember hearing the one (on DIY?) that they did with Cecil Taylor and that one I didn't like so much...

As the proud "owner" of twin girls - or do they "own" me? - my sincerest congratulations to you!

All I can say is... and...

This latest RVG was my first experience with this Powell session. I've loved the other three discs, but this one left me a bit cold. Not as much variety in the tunes as the other ones, and my favorite tune - "Comin' Up" - goes on way too long. But yes, it sounds very good.

When i first started downloading albums (first from Napster, then legally with emusic ) I would make labels and design cases for all of them.... But then it got much too time-consuming. So now I just write on the CDRs with a black or red sharpie and file them away in those white paper CD sleeves. I know I should organize the discs together with my "real" CDs, but I just can't bring myself to do that. Part of it's because I'm still a CD-CDR snob, but it's also due to the fact that I know what I downloaded from emusic and where to find it... so I generally keep the CDRs separate. (Not unlike how I keep my Mosaic discs separate from the rest of my collection.)

I really dig that "Mothership" cover, but why does it look like someone penciled in the insides of the "O"s, "R"s, and "P"s?

No better or worse than this...

What's ironic is that George Coleman, the center of so much discussion here, didn't even appear on the blindfold test disc! B) There's something really cool about that...

It sure sounds funny that a Scrabble tournament will be on ESPN2, but they do the National Spelling Bee each year and it's remarkably compelling. Good luck, Randy!

I agree with b3-er's assessment of Jon Spencer and Lucinda Williams. It's not really about whether or not they "have no business" performing songs -- it's about being faithful to the original composer's vision of the song. IMHO, what they were doing was so *far* removed from the original that it was pointless. In Spencer's case, I'd even call it "masturbatory" -- especially shown in glaring contrast to the original. I think it was Jerry Coker that said (or wrote) that musicians should approach each song with a certain reverence and understanding of the original composer's intentions. It's that reverence that seems to be missing in many of those artists -- with the very obvious exception of Bonnie Raitt. Tell that to George Gershwin, Cole Porter and so many other pop music composers who saw their tunes "bastardized" by jazz musicians. As jazz fans, do we really want to go down this road?

Randy, you can't leave us hanging with just that nugget! Are you playing, judging, or just observing the Scrabble tournament? I'm intrigued and curious.... B)

I have a few of these 5-disc Hall of Fame boxes (bought through Zweit... for five bucks each). Most are pretty good comps, but the Lionel Hampton may be the worst of the bunch. I was just listening to it earlier today in fact... the first three discs cull from his 1936-1948 recordings, but the last two are from live European shows from the late 70's. At least part of it sounds horrible, as if taken from a scratchy cassette. The boxes are certainly worth $5, but I think the Proper boxes are much better overall.

You mean like this...

There're a few more comments about this on the Hoffman forum since this was posted last week. What I find really interesting about this is the idea that Rudy was probably unaware that this errant tone was even on the old tapes and that it wasn't a big deal at the time since the old record cutting technology didn't even recognize it.

Well I of course know Coleman from "Maiden Voyage" and have him as a sideman on a couple of other recordings (though, not, I believe, any of the Miles'). When I think of George I think of "Convergence," the duo album he did with Richie Beirach back in 1990. In fact, it may be here somewhere in my office...

This drawn-out Eric Alexander discussion has been a fascinating read, but in a way it makes me feel pretty darn dumb. Prior to this blindfold test I'm not sure if I ever heard *anything* by Mr. Alexander. And only a bit by George Coleman for that matter.

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.