Teasing the Korean

Please extend my best to James Bond.

Very sorry. We lost our sweet cat Brigitte in late 2009. Here is a great quote from Jean Cocteau: “I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul."

Hopefully chewy will chime in, as he is the expert on Crown.

Been spinning various jazz, EZ, and oddball records, assembling my third volume of "Buried Treasures," an ongoing series of full-on exotica tracks that are not on full exotica albums. Some really great stuff here.

Yusef Lateef - Morning: The Savoy Sessions - Savoy (mono) 70s twofer of 50s material.

Is Flav-O-Flav playing Miles?

The balances and stereo placement are indeed both factors when recording a stereo session that will then be collapsed to mono.

Yes, I fully stand behind my previous post.

About which part?

Well, just because they were fold-downs does not mean that they were not balanced to sound good, or even superior, after they were folded down. And having it folded down prior to LP pressing is better than hitting the mono button on the stereo, because all of the information is spread out over the entire spectrum, rather than being read from one-half of the groove. No real difference, though, with a stereo CD folded down in that regard. I always prefer Blue Notes in mono, and would always spring for a mono LP over a stereo, fold-down or not.

Why?

And that's one million posts in the "What Vinyl Are You Spinning" thread alone!

Gene Lees wrote a book about reverse racism in jazz. The topic intrigued me, but I never read the book. Lees was so-so as a lyricist. His Jobim lyrics were about a thousand times better than Ray Gilbert's, but never up to the poetic quality of the Portuguese. It's a real crime that Jobim didn't get an English lyricist worthy of his music. Lees wrote a piece about the German and French roots of English words that was really interesting. He mentioned how rhyming words even affect word associations in non-rhyming contexts. HIs opinions and writing sometimes bugged me - He could come off as precious and snobbish. And the stuff he said about Les Baxter was total bullshit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042304839.html

Antonio Adolfo e Brazuca's track "Voo de Apolo" is one of my favorite decadent, delirious 70s Brazilian freakouts. It's one that I frequently spin in my DJ sets.

Yes, but it also mitigates the surface noise because it strengthens the center mono audio signal (+6db). Also, some of the stereo groove sound is out of phase and thereby cancelled when you collapse to mono. Mono records sound better with a mono playback.

I respect where you're coming from, but if you pay $30 for a mono record and don't even treat it to a true mono playback, you're not getting your money's worth. IMHO. It's well worth the $5.99 to spring for the Y adapter connections and hook them up before listening.

If your amp does not have a mono switch, get a couple of inexpensive Y-adapter patch cords from Radio Shack and plug your turntable lines into the Y adapter before going into the amp when playing a mono record. Playing mono records in mono significantly reduces surface noise and groove distortion.

Ferrante and Teicher - Love Themes from Cleopatra - UA (black label, mono)

I've always loved the TV Action Jazz album and didn't know there was a Volume 2. Who's on it? The usual New York session cats of that era - George Duvivier, Eddie Costa, Clark Terry, Phil Bodner, Ed Shaughnessy. Main difference with this album is that it includes a four-man trombone section with Urbie Green. Also, some of the tunes on this album don't pop up very frequently on crime jazz albums, like "Tightrope," "The Detectives Theme," "Markham Theme." Also, the full name of this album is "Themes from Mr. Lucky, The Untouchables, and other TV Action Jazz." I think "TV Action Jazz" has to be one of the greatest LP titles ever. It's like everything I dreamed of as a kid packed into three words.

No, didn't even know that one came out in mono. That must have been toward the end of mono in the US, right?

Phil Collins sucks.

Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley Sage - Columbia (2 eye, MONO) Mono blows away the stereo version.

THEE GREAT KENYON HOPKINS - The Yellow Canary OST - Verve (mono) With LALO SCHIFRIN on piano!!!

Mundell Lowe - TV Action Jazz Vol. 2!!! - RCA Camden (blue and purple label, stereo). Better than Vol. 1, IMHO. Though I would love to have both on a single CD.