Teasing the Korean

To be clear, I like both vinyl (analog) and CDs (digital), and can objectively appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of both. The impetus for my post is that I suspect that many of these overpriced vinyl reissues use basic digital sources, meaning that you get the disadvantages of both. So I would rather have either a CD or an analog LP, not a digital LP.

So it sounds like there are a lot of factors involved in why a digitally sourced LP may or may not sound better, as good, or worse. One link in the chain changes everything. Certainly not worth my stressing about, especially considering how cheap used CDs are these days.

Thanks, just as I'd suspected.

I am quite sure that the vast, vast majority of the overpriced vinyl reissues that we're seeing these days are mastered from digital sources. (I realize that there may be exceptions, like the 45 rpm audiophile albums.) I have always bought and loved vinyl, but aside from the currently-in-vogue vinyl fetish, what is the point of these digital LP releases? It seems to me that you are getting the drawbacks of both platforms and the advantages of neither. Now, I suppose you could argue that with a CD or digital file, you have a digital source and digital playback, whereas with a contemporary LP you have a digital source and "analog" playback, but is there really a difference? It would be one thing if these were priced at $5.98 like the OJC reissues of the past, but given that these go for between $30 and $50 a throw, it seems silly to me. What are your thoughts?

For a while we had both Netflix and Hulu. Anytime we wanted to see a film, it was never available on either. I guess it's good for mainstream stuff, not much else. We cancelled our membership.

Very informative and confirmed a lot of my suspicions. One thing that was not addressed, unless I missed it: One of the reasons for placing the bass and piano in the center had to do with the fact that the ratio between center information vs. side information increases when you collapse a stereo signal to mono. So in such a situation, it makes sense to place the louder instruments that cut through off too the sides, and the quieter instruments that are more likely to get lost, i.e., the bass and piano, in the center. I am sure that this played a role in the thought process, in addition to the fact that bass and piano typically form the rhythmic and harmonic foundations in most jazz settings.

Off topic, but I loves me some Lalo Schifrin! I think I may have about 40 or so albums, either under his own name, soundtracks, and arranging for others, especially Dizzy.

Whatever the hell the cat did, this baby is glowing like the control panel on a 1950s space ship - or the dashboard of a 1959 Buick. It makes me want to post all sorts of ridiculous nonsense just so I can bathe in the otherworldly, Silicon Valley glow…

One more reason to love cats. I don't know what the hell he did, but it's much easier to read.

Some claimed that the Trib was better for Tampa/Hillsborough coverage (as opposed to St. Pete/Pinellas coverage), but I never got that. Back to Kenny, I am wondering if the details are holding up the coverage.

The St. Pete Times rebranded itself as the Tampa Bay Times. The Tampa Tribune is currently in its death throes, barely hanging on as something with the size and depth of a neighborhood weekly.

Still nothing in the Tampa Bay Times...

You're either with us or against us. Which is it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNxUMiunrX8

I've not seen anything in the Tampa Bay Times. And it's not like they couldn't just run Philip Booth's piece. What gives?

I realize that jazz is pretty much under-appreciated across the board, but what is your sense of how the Tampa Bay region did or did not recognize that an artist of this calibre was their neighbor?

Hearing and seeing him in person playing solo piano was an unforgettable experience. RIP.

One more reason to love him.

The sample has the solo but not the head. I confess that I've never heard of this artist, so I don't think it is him.

No, not that one either. Thanks, though!

Picked up this CD. Thanks for the heads up! It does indeed sound like it's from a tape source and not vinyl. "Latin Bag" is great. I love the track "Triste," which I first heard on a Verve CD comp. I liked "Blackhawk" more than I expected to. I have about 50 Cal Tjader records by now, but I never think to spin any that don't have Latin percussion.

I remember the lines more than the instrumentation. One instrument is playing the melody, and a second melodic instrument is doing an 8th-note counter-melody with descending lines and baroque ornamentation. Drums and bass are fairly minimal IIRC, until the solos kick in. In my mind, I can hear Milt Jackson and John Lewis, but I can also hear Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan. Sorry to be so vague...

"Songs to fit any mood" - The Skip-Jacks, Sweet Hot & Blue, LPM-2200.

We can split hairs over how things can be categorized. If you change the phrase "easy listening" to "mood music," which was in vogue at the time, I would say that exotica is a sub-category of mood music and that Jade fits there. I'm not sure that "world music" as we understand it today existed back then. There were field recordings of indigenous music, and there were western releases of pop music from other countries/regions, but the kind of explorations and cross-collaborations that we think of today as "world music" were pretty minimal. I would say that some of the differences between exotica of the postwar era and what we today call "world music" would include the impressionistic nature of exotica. Also, exotica is less focused on "authenticity" - and let me say here that I have a real issue with the concept of musical authenticity - and that it was more about taking particular aspects of music from other cultures - scales, rhythms, etc. - and then filling in the holes with more familiar conventions. I have a very extensive postwar exotica collection/accumulation, and I can say that Jade, based on a number of characteristics, fits neatly into the genre. Again, we can obsess and split hairs over these kind of things. But then again, categorization and ability to recognize patterns got us where we are today, for better or worse...

Thanks for trying. This kind of thing drives me crazy! Could it be Dave Brubeck, on Fantasy or one of his Columbia "Jazz Goes to Rehab" concerts?

Someplace I have a jazz version of "All the Things You Are" in which the group had done a baroque arrangement, e.g., constructing a counterpoint melody to the baroque-esque chord progression, adding baroque ornamentation, etc. I thought it might have been MJQ or Lennie Tristano, but I listened to those versions and they weren't the ones. It must have dated from the 1950s or 1960s - certainly not by a jazz artist coming of age in the digital era. Maybe George Shearing or Nina Simone? I know this tune has been done to death. Can anyone help me remember which version this is? Thanks in advance.