Shrdlu

Yeah, this is all very interesting! I was going to ask you to re-post the Jimmy Smith settings, Jim; you put them on the old BN board, but ... An obvious question is: can you still get parts for the B3, or do you have to get custom-made parts? I suppose, as with a vintage car, you could get another purely for parts.

Only recently did I get to hear Fats Waller's twenties recordings on the pipe organ at RCA Victor's Camden, NJ studio. (As you may know, they acquired a disused church auditorium that had a pipe organ - obviously you could not have a pipe organ in a regular studio. Camden is right next to Philly, and it would have been a bit of a pain to have the New York guys travel all the way there for a session, I guess.) Fats sounds fantastic on the big monster. There is one session with the organ and two horns, on which Fats gets a sound like a big orchestra. Apparently, there is a delay between the player hitting a key and the note coming out, so it is hard to make pipe organs swing, but Fats was totally in command of it, and swings like crazy. After those few recordings, Fats did not record on the pipe organ again very much. There was one thirties session with the "Rhythm" at Camden, but only two selections used the organ, one being the classic "Night Wind". If only there were more.

'Cos Ron McMaster did the transfers!

The recent RVG of this is now to hand (and, to ear!), and I must say that I'm very pleased with the sound. This music is an old friend, and it was good to have an excuse to play it again. In the living room, on the speakers, it sounded so clear that I almost felt that Bud, Paul and Art were right there with me, or that I was in a chair in Rudy's living room during the session. I could even picture Rudy, Al and Frank sitting opposite me, Rudy perched behind his tape decks and Al with his owl-like glasses looking across the room. Oh, Frank's flash just blinded me temporarily! There is still absolutely no tape hiss or dropout, and the music is so realistic. I can almost see Art's drum skins during the solos. Someone once said that Rudy remasters Powell sessions extra well. I'm not sure about that, but he certainly did a fine job with all the Powell reissues. As for the music on this album, it tends to have the same kind of feel throughout, but that is not a fault, as it's all so good. Just about all BN albums are excellent, but here we have one of the few real giants of the music that they ever recorded. Bud is just on a different plane than nearly every other BN artist. This is something very special. Paul Chambers gets drawn in by the special nature of this occasion, and plays at his most exciting. There are several moments on this album that just grip me, and really hold my attention. Definitely one to get!

"Hub Tones", with the silly outer cover, which I still dare not discard.

You may be right, but they did say that the U.S. RVGs are not limited editions. And Fantasy has never deleted any Original Jazz Classics. I would imagine that most of us BN fans have pretty well all of the RVGs that we want, especially if you're talking the earlier ones, now that we can pick them up for about $7.50 in various sales. The way the RVG program is going, it may kind of diffuse itself into oblivion. There are now so many that it is hard to keep up the original concept/aim/purpose. They might as well just call them Blue Note CDs anymore.

That pious liner statement is total rubbish, as the artists don't get anything from these reissues of old recordings. My evidence? Someone recently got McCoy Tyner to autograph their copy of the RVG of "The Real McCoy". The guy said to McCoy that it's a very popular album. "I wish I got some royalties from it", groaned McCoy. And what of reissues of Hank Mobley albums? I don't think Hank had a family of his own, so who would get the royalties if any were paid out? Now, the artists may get royalties from new releases (that is, recent sessions being put out for the first time). And I'm sure that "In Sink" and the other pop stars get royalties.

You wouldn't be sorry if you got the Byrd/Adams set, Bev. Although everyone's good on that set, Pepper pretty well steals the show. That set has a lot of variety, a lot of excellent sidemen, very good production (of the original sessions, that is), a fine selection of tunes and lots of good solos. You can't go wrong. Even Ron McMaster plays well on it. My favorite of the sessions is the one with Duke Pearson. It gels very well, with Philly Joe in fine form. There is also a stunning perormance of "I Will Wait For You" (on the late session with Chick Corea) which is worthy of Miles at his best. Just about the best Byrd I have ever heard, and it would be hard to find outside the Mosaic set.

I think you guys have just saved me $16, or whatever this CD costs.

I got my earthquake insurance in October, 1983, praise God. It's just about my 20th anniversary. (I don't remember the exact day, but that's not necessary.)

Songs like "To God Be The Glory", "The Haven Of Rest", "I Know Whom I Have Believed", and so on.

Tell ya what: Mr Sumner sure is a fine musician. Gil Evans backed him with his band in the 80s - I have a video clip of one tune from a concert that they did together. That would make a nice CD.

Bev, I wouldn't bother with the Chambers/Kelly Mosaic. I love both of these guys, but they are on plenty of other sessions (as you know), and I found a lot of this Mosaic kinda boring. I don't usually mind alternates, but the Mosaic overdoes it, and I find my attention wandering as the umpteenth take of "Scotch And Soda" plays. I also don't like the Strozier session, as he can't play in tune - a requirement for a musician, surely. The Kelly sessions would be better if there were a horn or two present. I would recommend the other Vee Jay Mosaic, the Morgan/Shorter collection. That's very exciting and interesting (some very nice Clifford Jordan, by the way) and Kelly and Chambers are on a lot of it anyway. Paul's BN sessions are excellent, so I'm glad that you got the Select - dependent on how the remastering sounds. (I have other versions of all of that collection, so I won't be ordering the new box.)

... and there was I, enjoying the schnapps version without even knowing that there was an issue ...

The way it's going, they'll soon have an RVG of everything from 1501 through about 4300!

I posted this ahwile back, but about 6 months ago, a hacker got into my eBay account and the email address which I was using for eBay. As they changed the email password, I lost that email address. I'm glad that I did not use that email address for anything but eBay. But I am enjoying the 200 soup bowls that the hacker bought using my eBay ID.

I've seen MANY photos that are mirror images, that is, the wrong way around. The Impulse digipacks do this a lot. As a sax player, I don't appreciate seeing people like Trane playing the top end of the tenor with their right hand. (George Braith, yes, but not regular sax players.)

Isn't that awful, Undergroundagent? Just when you wonder if stores and service could possibly get any worse, something like this happens. Definitely cut loose from that store. Most things that I could say have already been well said. Also, I was surprized the see the cost of the glasses. Perhaps it's a complex prescription. Is this the going price these days in Canada? Another thought: you need these quickly. What about those "next day", or 4 hours places?

It is amazing that a man who is as busy as Michael Cuscuna finds time to reply to our emails - I've had several replies, too. Not only that, but in 1997, I wrote to Blue Note at a California address that I saw on one of their CDs, and the reply came from Michael in New York (or Connecticut). Mike, when I first read your thread, I thought that you meant an empty Mosaic box! I have purchased a few of these, as you can store four 4 CD jewel cases in them in a compact space.

David Newman is the cousin of Anthony Williams and Bob Crenshaw.

I expect Hiroshi Tanno can keep you supplied for a while. Nice one, David Bach!

Now that sounds like a close shave! Someone find this man a razor!! Then there was the man who fell out of a 100 storey building. "So far, so good", he said as he passed the 50th floor window.

Odd idea for a thread, but here goes. I use the little black Remington battery shavers. They are so good that someone else bought the company! The thing about these is that they cost only about $10, yet have the same business end as the $60 "rechargeable" model. But you can make them rechargeable by simply using rechargeable batteries! So, they are a $60 value for only $10 (not that I'd pay $60). The replacement cutters and foils cost as much as a new shaver, so guess what I've been doing ... These are excellent shavers, and really do shave "as close as a blade", and I don't want my money back. Well, all good things come to an end. About two years ago, they discontinued this model, and its replacement is lousy. I bought as many old ones as I could find, and am now on my last one. When it wears out, I shall jump off the Empire State Building.

Crop rotation - that's a great parallel, Bev! I also get played out, or "listened out" on some tunes and albums. For example, I don't think I'd like to perform "Good Bait" or "Impressions" again. A lot has to do with one's memory. I happen to have a good memory for tunes and solos, and I don't like to hear a performance 50 times in a row. One set of work that I will probably not listen to again is that of Bird. When I first heard him, I devoured everything that I could find, and soon had all the Dial, Savoy and Verve items, plus tons of live tracks. It's all in memory, and, brilliant though it all is, I just don't need to hear it again. I am not recommending that YOU don't hear it, of course. Some players and albums have a special something about them that makes them sound enjoyable and fresh no matter how many times you play them. Red Garland has that for me (and for many others). Ralph Gleason once said that about Red's albums. A lot of Blue Note albums are also in that category. BN's catalog, though excellent of course, includes few "best ever jazz" albums, but the production and work that went into them makes them good for many listenings. "Silver's Serenade" is typical in this regard.

Thanks for the post, Soul Stream. It's very interesting. I recently dug out "Hootin' And Tootin'" and played it a lot - I then started a thread in appreciation, and found that I am not alone in liking that album. As it happens, I'm also re-listening to the Braith 2 CD set that Michael Cuscuna put out a few years back. When it arrived, it got lost in a pile of other things and only got a brief hearing. I didn't like it much at first. I found that John Patton's "Blue John" was a key to appreciating George's work, and really like that album (in its TOCJ version). Now, I've had a chance to go over George's own BN albums several times, and I think they are excellent. That two-horn sound (on some tracks) is an acquired taste, and is a little sour at first. If anyone has not yet got into those three BN albums, give them a try. The 2 CD set ought to be around - I think True Blue still has a few left. Or, there are TOCJs and (new) JRVGs. Please tell George that he has another admirer! P.S. At the risk of sounding like an old marm, may I say that some of these posts are extremely vulgar; this is uncalled for, and spoils what ought to be a pleasant discussion. Grow up, kiddies!