robert h.

I've had it for a few days now (Japanese version with a bonus track that could easily have fit on the US version), here's my imprsssions: 1. Same boomy bass typical of Verve in recent years. Otherwise very clear and crisp sound. 2. Much more Soprano than Footprints Live. 3. Too much noodling and abstractions going nowhere for my tastes. Generally, Wayne doesn't bear down and dig in very much anymore. 4. Wayne's soprano sound is the bright Yamaha sound and that's a pity, but hre does put more into that horn than his tenor now. I have a feeling that Wayne should move off that Link 10* to something a little easier to blow at his age, his tenor tone is too light. 5. Danilo Perez bugs me. Too much of the neo-classical and Monk with-a-latin-touch stuff, too many dazzling runs out of nowhere that are lovely but add nothing. Danilo seems to be too self servingly virtuoso for my tastes. A lot of flash that goes nowhere. All in all, I thought this one was quite inferior to Footprints Live. Just not in the same league.

Tete Who?? Right.......

Heh-heh...doubters of Dexter's period on Columbia simply haven't heard Homecoming yet. Go out and get it. Dexter at this point had achieved a virtuosity that completely eclipses the rather simplistic (by comparison) Blue Note era stuff. And the Steeplechases simply didn't, for the most part, have the level of supporting cast Dexter had during the Columbia years. I saw Dexter live during this period, I still have vivid images of it in my mind decades later - he was, as usual, stoned, and he absolutely was the best tenor on the planet at that time. No live date I've seen before or since - including Rollins, Mclean, Shorter, etc. - came even close. Say what you will about Manhattan Symphonie (yes, it's a bit polished, but magnificent nonetheless), without it to bring Dexter back to the attention of the public, many thousands would never have had the once in a lifetime experience of seeing Dexter live during those years. For that, I'll gladly give Sony a few bucks to pay my tributes when Manhattan Symphonie is reissued again.

The notion that tubes sound "warm", or that this warmth is a "distortion", is fundamentally wrong and belies a deep lack of understanding. The entire point of a GOOD tube amp is the very high linearity of good output tubes combined with the LOWER distortion of tubes. A really good tube amp will sound fast, clean, detailed, but will not have the switching distortion of SS nor the grain of transistors, in other words, it will have high linearity and low distortion - which a good SS amp should have too - but also, it will be free of the SS artifacts such as grain, high end glare, and other aspects of SS which are fatiguing, and unmusical. Also, a good, simple tube amp will have vastly better timing - a better sense of integrated sound - and superior depth. There are some tube amps that sound warm by (defective) design - the designer deliberately allowed harmonic distortions to remain, which IMO is a stupid thing, it masks all the advantages of tubes and turns the tube amp into a big filter. Good tube amps also will sound slightly warm, but that's because without the distortions of SS they represent the tone of the recording better. You'll never convince a die-hard SS man, though. I don't bother, the loss is theirs, many never understand why they reach for the 'off' button because they're tired of listening far before I do.

Jeez, a tube preamp hardly has enough voltage to light a 100 watt light bulb, let alone take out a power amp, blow a woofer AND trip the main breaker!! That can only be a massive surge, coming from a lightning strike, power company large surge, or possibly a major fault in the amp. No way is it the preamp problem. Have the amps checked out, but don't neglect to consider a fault in the power company.

"There's also a remastered 'In the Wake of Poseidon' from 2004 which includes the single version of 'Cat Food' and 'Groon'." Nope, the latest reissue of 'Poseidon' with the 2 bonus tracks uses the 1999 remastering for the 30th anniversary edition. Not much point in upgrading as the single version of 'Catfood' is at best a curiosity and 'Groon' is a throwaway. The 2004 remastering of 'In The Court Of The Crimson King', though, is a big improvement over the anniversary edition.

LOL...12* soprano...might as well strap the reed onto an open rubber pipe!!! On another idea why there is a tendency for soprano playing to make animals run for cover - people like Lacy PLAYED the soprano...too many players today double on it but never actually learn it! That's another reason they use high baffle, narrow chamber, medium tip screechers. Limited embrochure development and maximum impact. You won't see the likes of Lacy and a 12* anymore, I think.

heh-heh...whatever happened to the good old days when tenor players tended to double on flute? Now it seems the soprano has taken the place of the jazz flute. Bring back the flute doublers!!

"I hate that damned instrument - I love the older players, and Lacy, Bechet, etc - but I cannot listen to the instrument post-1970 no matter who's playing it or how well it's played" I've got a theory about that. Pre-1970 there were very few soprano mouthpiece makers. The best was the Buescher with the large chamber, virtually no baffle and scopped out side walls & short shank. Big, warm, mellow tone. Post - 1970 post-Wayne Shorter/Liebman/Grossman etc. - they are using small chamber, higher baffle screamers designed to project, but do so at the expense of tone. Unfortunately, IMO today the fashion in soprano playing is to make it a piercing, cutting wailer, which is certainly cool if you like it, and has it's virtues, but I sure miss the 'original' sound.

I have no idea what this thread is about, maybe it's just a reading comprehension issue! The CD is available on Danilo's website for $12.99. $12.99. What's the problem with that?

Well...there is a new Wayne Shorter - called 'Breaking The Sound Barrier' - due from Verve on May 17...Yusef Lateef's Psychicemotus is coming July 12...Michael White's long OOP obscure 'Land Of Spirit and Light' is coming July 26 ...they just brought out the excellent Free America series...and John Coltrane's Live At the Blue Note is coming on September 20 from that "useless" label. Any of those are a bargain at any price.

The Don Cherry and Hutcherson - Oblique popping up on the US release schedule is a VERY strong hint that a new round of the Japanese RVG program will be starting this summer. Fantastic if so. And if there is, it will surely be heavily weighted to the late 60'e/early 70's era - even better. Some great stuff to come - Elvin Jones, the Hutcherson/Land stuff, Some later Andrew titles, and more Sam Rivers & Larry Young titles. Hope it happens. If there is a new JRVG series, sure bets are Natural Essence, Jody Grind, and Total Eclispe. Hope someone with the inside track can find out.

" Just an FYI: CD Universe has the Free America titles up for pre-ordering, available January 18, 2005. Cost: $29.99 (each)" The Free America titles were released here in Canada several weeks ago and are widely available at $14.99 Cdn. in local stores. No need to pay the CD Universe or Dusty Groove prices!

Received the 5 I ordered from France...the Rudd, Wright, Shepp, Thornton and Shorter. Haven't listened all the way through each, but my sampling already confirms - FANTASTIC job in every respect. The sound is fabulous, but the packaging is what blew me away - first, they are in cardboard slipcases which have a very good reproduction of the original covers, right down to the spine. There is NO print on the front cover showing artist or title. there is a cutout panel inside where the artist & title graphic can be seen through. The booklets are absolutely fantastic - lots of great info & rare pics. A model of a series. Too bad this kind of thing can't be done in the US. Get all the titles you can. Worth every penny.

All these have been available for over a year in the UK znd Europe, IMO the winner is Turrentine's Mr. T, a killer record - his last for CTI, and most straight ahead & hard blowing. Blues Farm is a nice date with Hubert Laws. Unfortunately, the very superior Spanish Blue, also a Carter with Laws record, remains unissued except for a long OOP - and very good - Japanese issie. The Farrel title that most needs to be reissued is Outback with Elvin Jones and Corea - the best Farrel date, alas, it too has only a very good Japanese version which is OOP.

If Mosaic says it shipped - IT SHIPPED. No point in bugging them. If I pay for standard shipping I know there's zero the shipper can do or tell me, if I pay the big bucks for courier, I can find out for myself. For the last two months, a progressively deteriorating situation has existed at the Vancouver customs agency, Canada Post's website acknowledges delays of over a month in receiving stuff due to the huge backlog at this screwed up facility. No doubt that is where the problem is.

I haven't heard the last track on the US release, because I have the Japanese which omits that track in favor of a blistering 9+ minute take of Acknowledgement from A Love Supreme, in quartet with Ravi - this whole record is amazing, beautiful - one of my favorites of the year. Hope she does another soon.

"But when I see long lists of reissues, few if any of which are in SACD, I do have to wonder if the record companies are even considering the SACD format anymore. The few audio posts I've seen elsewhere from Greg over the past year or so have often included finger-wagging chastisements of others for not buying SACDs... He blames consumers for the format's failure (so far) to take off. " Greg's got quite a reputation for the chastisements. The consumer IS responsible for the failure of SACD...because so few consumers are actually interested. Given the relatively minor meaningful sonic improvement, the deep conservatism of releases, the fact that the record companies have gone to the reissue well so many times on these titles that consumers have turned away...it's no real surprise. And the wealth of really INTERESTING titles on CD just keeps on rolling. Looking forward to the new Alice Coltrane and the remasters from Japan...the new Jarrett...the new Kahil El Zabar with David Murray...the Joe Henderson Lighthouse reissue...just to name a few. SACD? Same old stuff that's been reissued dozens of times for the wankers that like to buy the same narrow range of titles again and again. The record companies laugh at those people. Pete Townshend: "There's another thread of those audiophile nutcases talking about Who's Next on the Hoffman site!" Roger Daltrey: "Great - when was the last time we reissued that one? Last year? " Pete Townshend: "Yeah, sounds about right - time to bring out a new one, innit?" Roger Daltrey: " You bet! I'll call Universal right away! Who should we get to remaster it?" Pete Townshend: " Doesn't matter, so long as it's not Hoffman. If that guy does it, those guys will think it's the greatest thing ever, and we won't be able to reissue it for at least a bloody decade! Guys like Hoffman kill the reissue business." Roger Daltrey: "Cool. Let's get Astley to do it. They love to talk about Astley, so he generates lots of publicity...and that means sales!" Pete Townshend: " Great, it's decided. See you at the bank!"

Oran is playing alto on the new Alice Coltrane CD.

I disagree! The worst Beatle song must surely be "Yesterday" - I prefer Revolution #9 by a long shot, at least it's able to sustain listening without vomiting.

The story seems to be that the master tapes are long lost. and not even an EQ'd cutting master exists. The TOCJ is from vinyl. RVG did a remastering, also from vinyl, for the Japanese RVG series, Michael Cuscuna was so blown away by it that he decided to release it in the US. So - all CD versions are from vinyl.

JRVG by a country mile. The huge increase in resolution, depth, tonality and sheer musicality leaves the mellow, fuzzy TOCJ's in the dust. I will admit, however, that people with poor digital and/or bright tweeters might prefer the rolled off, soft focus TOCJ's. The music is on the RVG's, that is closest to being in the studio.

My recollection is that Cosmic Music was originally released on the (now defunct) Coltrane Records label, so my suspicion is that Alice is holding it up, not that Verve is likely pushing very hard as the two 'Trane tracks are very far out recordings from Om vintage California acid trip sessions. Not exactly Coltrane For Lovers, if you know what I mean. But if Alice is becoming reconnected to Verve, it may be a very good step towards letting someone go through the tapes - yes, the 66 to 67 stuff particularly - and getting some of the unreleased stuff out.

Surprisingly, no one has brought up here two of what may be the most exciting CD's on schedule this year - a new recording by Alice Coltrane for Impulse/Verve due June 15, and a John Coltrane title "Live At The Half Note", again on Impulse due August 24. Anyone have info on these? I know Alice was recording with Jack DeJohnette and Ravi, I'm wondering if the new release is these sessions (which I had thought were to come under Ravi's name) or more recent new work? Anyone know what the Live At Half Note material is - when, what, quality of source? If these two turn out to be good, it's gonna be a great year.

Wayne Shorter "Speak No Evil" and Jackie McLean/Ornette Coleman "Old & New Gospel", fair price paid for excellent condition. Thanks!