Shrdlu

I don't think emails get through either. I sent a test one to myself which did not arrive. I don't have any pressing need for this facility, to be honest.

Thanks, Brownie. You mention Prestige. In the 60s, and, I think, into the 70s, you could order LPs direct from Prestige in North Bergen, New Jersey. (This was just as well, as I don't remember seeing many of them in the stores.) I remember the name Marcia Weinstock on one letter that I received from them, so this was very much a family operation. How different from today's system, with its Universals etc. It reminds me of a comment by Al Lion: "We don't hire nobody. It's just Frank and me."

I found one anomoly!

How about Red Trumpet's price for "Goin' West" - in the thirties!! (Dusty's seems to have run out of it.)

I enjoyed "Reach Out", too, and it even got the TOCJ treatment.

Silvertone! I love it! I remember a stylus that would play mono and stereo in about 1962. I converted our mono player to stereo after I noticed that there were three wires in the tone arm. With both channels sharing the ground wire, I replaced the mono cartridge with a stereo one. The output from one channel was hooked up to an old radio, which became just an amp (with speaker). It was all very primitive, and I'm sure that the weight of the tone arm was now far too great, but it worked and it was all that we could afford at the time. My first stereo LP was "Time Out". A collection of friends came around and we all listened to this with great excitement.

Daß ist ausgezeichnet!

I wonder if this affects the CD mastering process.

What a huge percentage difference between the prices of the stereo and mono LPs in 1959! Most of my LP purchasing was from about 1962 onward, and, as far as I can recall, there was by then no difference in price between mono and stereo. (This was perhaps just as well, as by then, the fake stereo LPs were a serious hazard to one's health. I still can't listen to "Milestones" without remembering the terrible version that I heard on a bad LP.) I do remember the Impulse LPs costing about $1.00 more than most others in the 60s, but their gatefold covers were very attractive, and, of course, the music was generally terrific.

Chaney, I get excellent coffee with the kettle and filter-holder method, and it doesn't suffer from standing on a hotplate that way. That Capresso machine sounds good. I am tired of having to replace heating elements. By the way, there is an excellent, affordable (ground) coffee called Hill and Brooks. I've only seen it in Dixie, especially Alabama. It's sad that it isn't more widely known. (Not to be confused with Hills Bros battery acid coffee!) Up in le Canada, we always liked Nabob (ground) coffee. When on the road, I always find the coffee good at the Waffle House.

The weak link in the chain is that, unlike other countries, America still honors the older bills. It has to, as there are millions in circulation all over the world. At least it is much better than the Europeans losing all their currencies (and autonomy) to the blasted euro. I was delighted to see that the Swedes, and, earlier, the Danes, had the wisdom to say a clear NO to the euro. But we all know that the politicians will keep coming back at them until they are badgered into saying yes. This happened with the Irish, who said NO to further expansion of the European Union. This answer was not acceptable to the powers, who made them vote again. Real democracy, eh what?

Dan, you might find this translation website handy http://www.systranbox.com/systran/box You can copy and paste paragraphs into the box and it gives reasonable results. I find that their translations need a bit of fine tuning, but it is a handy tool and it saves a lot of hunting on my keyboard for umlauts, circumflex accents etc.

JS, that "Chamber Music" cover is one of the ones that I have (see my initial post), and it was used for real mono LPs as well as the fake stereo version (which my first copy was - I sent it back to the retailer). The mono LP was Argo, and the fake stereo was Chess. And yes, that is the cover of my Epic LP. It's the only one that I have seen. It is a stupid, irrelevant cover that is more suited to a car wax label, and the liner notes, such as they are, are garbage. Most of the back is devoted to a listing of other Epic LPs, few of which are of interest to jazz collectors. Argo and Epic sure did not have the class of Blue Note when it came to both cover art and liner notes. Oh, for a Leonard Feather or a Nat Hentoff. One copy of the Argo LP came with a loose sheet, listing other Argo LPs.

I wonder why they don't keep these and the "Blue Note Works" CDs always in print. They could achieve this by pressing a good number of them upfront. It is clear that there is a lot of interest in them.

On the subject of playing records at the wrong speed (and I do remember the chipmunks!), we used to play a 45 of Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" at 78, which improved it no end!

My latest automatic machine has a thermal carafe, too, which is a great idea that I had not seen before I got this one. The main problem with all electric makers is that limescale builds up on the heating elements, even if you clean them out with citric acid, and they burn out. I have replaced several heating elements myself, but the parts cost nearly as much as a new machine. Most times these days, I just boil some water in a kettle and pour it through one of those conical Melitta filter paper holders directly into a cup. I have a single cup size, and also a large contrabass size in Eb (with apologies to Gerard Hoffnung). It gives more flavor if you pour just a little water through, then wait, and then pour the rest through. My current favorite coffee is Costco's "San Francisco Bay" beans. I also have a Krups espresso chemistry set to intimidate vistors.

I don't understand why you are puzzled, Alfred. Rudy engineered the LPs that Mosaic issued (but did not do the recording sessions). Of course, Rudy used to master the LPs for Blue Note etc.

I remember Midge Pike visiting Jo'burg when I was there. My musical buddies knew him. Also, the name Maurice Gavronsky rings a bell. A drummer with whom I frequently played, Joe Latronico, spoke of him. Joe was a very close buddy, and a fine drummer, who could emulate Elvin very well, which suited me as I was into Trane a lot. Joe had to play dreadful gigs with a Greek band in order to make a living. Most of the corner stores were run by Greeks, and they liked to party late at night. They would dance to those difficult time signatures like 18/4 and toss plates onto the floor!

Thanks, YMB. That's ironic, as Universal has never reissued the "Chamber Music" LP, which must be the most important Argo album, historically. I don't think they have reissued the "Live At The Pershing" album, either - the 1958 one with the famous version of "Poinciana" with Vernell on drums (not to be confused with the earlier Columbia version with the guitar trio, which was the model for the version on George Braith's "Two Souls In One" album).

I really enjoyed these reminiscences, Garth and Jazz1, having lived in Jo'burg from 1972 through 1976. By the way, I bought my current Selmer Mk VI tenor there, and I think it was from Bothners. I only got to Cape Town once (it is about 1000 miles from Jo'burg!), but don't recall any jazz players there, or from there. In the 70s, the main jazz venue was Johannesburg, no question. There was a little bit in Pretoria, which was surprising as the vibe there was like 30s Germany. I played for years alongside a Pretoria trumpeter called Charlie Sayers, who was excellent and doubled on trombone. I also played with a Pretoria pianist called Robert Payne, who was also very good. But we mainly played in Jo'burg, at such places as "The Red Lantern" (Mynpacht Hotel) and the Alba hotel in Braamfontein (a Jo'burg suburb near downtown). Robert was the first guy I knew who had a Fender-Rhodes. He was once approached by the U.S. Information Service in Pretoria to do a gig in the Embassy, and he used me for that. Later, he went to London, England. That guitarist Johnny Fourie is sensational, and easily as good as John McLaughlin. As I recall, he played in a very similar way. If Johnny had made it to the U.S., I'm sure he would have become famous. A bassist with whom I played a lot was Art Kelly. His family once owned a big music store in Johannesburg, and Art had a Steinway baby grand at his house, so that's where all the "blows" were held. He had an antique flat-back bass (a wonderful instrument, which we all called the Mother) as well as a blond Kay. One of the guys who used to hang with us used to play bass and piano. He was called Kim. Kim amazed me, as he started writing to and phoning Bill Evans in New York, and he got replies. When Kim went to New York, Bill actually came over to the place where Kim was staying and took him out shopping for a day. Then, they went back to Bill's for dinner and Bill played some solos for him! Talk about Hutzpah!

From the U.K. HMV website, for "Pure Desmond" Track Listing 1. Squeeze Me 2. I'm Old Fashioned 3. Nuages 4. Why Shouldn't I 5. Everything I Love 6. Warm Valley 7. Till The Clouds Roll By 8. Mean To Me Bonus Tracks 9. Theme From MASH 10. Wave 11. Nuages [Alternative Take] 12. Squeeze Me [Alternative Take] 13. Till The Clouds Roll By [Alternative Take] and they only want 6.99 pounds for it right now (about $11.50 in real money). They also have "Skylark", for the same amount.

Jim, ... , please get this fixed, har, har!

As the British say, "It'll be repaired on Thursday"! Actually, they would say "I will make arrangements to look into it."

Interestingly, these are RVGs! (Not the original recordings, I mean the remastering.)

I lived through the 50s, and I remember feeling excited (as a little boy) at the news that four speed record changers were coming out. Coincidentally, automatic washers came out, which fascinated me. I actually saw a specimen of a four-speed changer once - a friend's parents bought one (made by an outfit called Collaro). We turned it on at 16 2/3 (without a disc!) and watched it go around. I never saw any 16 2/3 discs though. I wonder how many were ever made.