Teasing the Korean

Has anyone read the Gene Lees book that I cited earlier? I frequently disagree with his opinions and get annoyed with his writing style, but I was wondering how he handled the subject.

I would like to know what happened to the master tapes from the early days of these labels. Ever notice how vague the information is on the CDs? "Mastered from the best possible sources..." etc. I've encountered Verve/Norgran/Clef vinyl that sounds significantly better than the CD reissues - and not just in an analog vs. digital kind of way. I've also heard later pressings of Verve LPs that sound like they were taken from inferior sources (compared to earlier pressings). Any story here?

You may want to check out Gene Lees' book on racism in jazz. I don't always like Lees as a critic - there I times that I think he comes off like an embittered blowhard - but I give him credit for writing a book that addressed this issue.

I've never used a VPI, though a friend had one. I doubt there is a discernable difference, but then there are those who claim music sounds different depending on which color cables you use. I think the Nitty Gritty 1.0 is about $100 cheaper than the comparable VPI.

I almost agree with you; I'd keep "The Times They Are A-Changin'." But otherwise, you are RIGHT on the money on this one! (I'd even throw in "Stranger in a Strange Land," but whattyagonnado?) I love Dylan, but many of the Byrds' Dylan covers sound warmed over to my ears. The Byrds were never better than when they were doing Gene Clark's tunes, although Younger than Yesterday is a really solid record.

It DOES live up to it's title, if you're using "bad" in the right way. In the words of that famous tunesmith Huey Lewis, "sometimes bad is bad." This one caused my needle to jump off the record and scream "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO ME? THIS IS FREAKIN' TORTURE!" How much do you want for it?

Hugo Montenegro - The Man from UNCLE - RCA MONO WILD BIKE RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Byrds - Turn Turn Turn - Columbia mono Sounds TERRIFIC in MONO!!!!!!!!! Now if only they had ditched: "Satisfied Mind" "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Oh Susannah" and replaced them with: "She Don't Care About Time" "The Day Walk (Never Before)" and "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A PERFECT ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It DOES live up to it's title, if you're using "bad" in the right way.

Yes, when the song first broke, many assumed she was a black singer.

Well, I said "everyone," but it was a common assumption and was even reported at the time.

I largely agree with you, but it's too easily to overlook melodically/harmonically complex songs by people like Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Bacharach etc. As much as we love jazz around here, and as much as we admire jazz musicians, they can fall into familiar, comfortable patterns as easily as anyone. A lot of post Beatles pop songs don't have the type of harmonic structure that many jazz musicians like to blow over. I will admit that this is a gross generalization, but I think there is some truth to this. When I used the word "superficial," I simply meant that the first argument could be used as a smokescreen to mask some other reasons for the break between pop and jazz; I didn't mean to imply that it was superficial to believe that.

Everyone assumed she was black at the time, when the record first hit. It was a surprise to many when she was introduced on variety shows or whatever and a white woman walked out.

The more interesting question is why more of them haven't. The obvious (superficial) reason is that pop songwriting lost some sophistication in the rock era (a half-truth). I would think a secondary reason would be hardcore jazzers' mistrust of musical genres that eclipsed jazz.

Liebermann - Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra - Reiner/Chicago Symphony & the Sauter/Finegan Orchestra - RCA Red Seal. A 12 tone work that gets off to a good start but doesn't quite live up to its promise. Still, it has some nice moments and integrates jazz and symphonic music better than some third stream works.

People would actually pay eight dollars for a record?

The cheapest one (which I have) is less automated. All of the Nitty Gritty machines clean just as well; it just that higher end models are more automated. If you're planning on cleaning a ton of records in record time, you'd probably want a higher end model. If you'll use it occasionally, the manual models work fine. I probably clean one to five records a week.

Jobim - Lamento, Triste, Wave - all circa 1967 Legrand - What are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, Pieces of Dreams, Windmills of your Mind

Are we counting standards by the likes of Jobim, Legrand and Bacharach? While all of them were writing prior to the mid 60s, they all wrote tunes from the mid-60s on which both became standards and reflected a different sensibility.

I've been on a real spy music kick lately, and just today was compiling a bunch of spy music for a custom CD-R. I'll title it Miss Moneypenny in her honor...

Maynard Ferguson - MF Horn Once I was a jazz geek and only listened to "real jazz." If you'd have told me back then that one day I'd have a Maynard Ferguson album in the house and would totally dig it, I'd have said you were nuts. "Chala Nata" RULES!!!!

On Sunday mornings, it's usually Brazil or fake Brazil. Today's is "Blame it on the Bossa Nova" - Eydie Gorme, Columbia mono. The title track is pure crap (conveniently placed at the end of a side) but the other 11 tracks are pretty solid.

Thanks for the suggestsions. Dusty Groove has most of these for $4.99 a throw. I'll check 'em out.