Indestructible!

Hi Jim, I don't have the Brooks Mosaic set (just the individual CD's), but damn... I'd love to hear either of the 1956 or 1966 sets! You're right about the fact that the 1966 set would just burn... I know the Blue Morocco was still around in the Bronx at that time, so maybe that date is correct. Would be great if it was! Cheers, Shane

Hi All, Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but there are some killin' new Blue Note shirts for sale at Ropeadope... they've got sweatshirts, track jackets, and other stuff as well. I'm diggin' the True Blue, A Night at Birdland, and Best From The West shirts... and that track jacket is callin' my name! http://store.ropeadope.com/index_bluenote.jsp And no, I'm not affiliated with these cats... I just buy stuff from 'em. Cheers, Shane

Thanks! This'll go great with the Complete Atlantic set I'll be picking up shortly! Cheers, Shane

Hi Nate, Hey, thanks for that! I'll look around and see what I can find... I don't typically think of DVD's when hunting for live shows, but now I will! Cheers, Shane

My favorite Parker disciple - Jackie McLean!!! I know they didn't really play "together" all that much... just the occasional mentor/mentee stuff. Wish there was some stuff circulating that had Parker and McLean together! Cheers, Shane

Whatchoo talkin bout! I cheer for the Lansing Lugnuts. Look here: An organ trio in the crowd ← Hi Chuck, Yep, I've been to a couple of their games in the past. Hell, ya gotta love a team that encourages you to yell "GO 'NUTS"!!! Cheers, Shane

Tina of course plays on Kenny Burrell's "On View At The Five Spot Cafe", and on Jimmy Smit's "Cool Blues" which was recorded at Smalls Paradise. Nothing else that I'm aware of. ← Hi Bertrand & Mailman, Yeah, that gig with Herbie and Roswell would be something else, I'm sure! If Tina plays on that the way he played (at times) on Cool Blues, it would be a damn fine set! Different groove, I know, but I really like the sound that Tina gets on Cool Blues, and the RVG remastering (and pitch correction) really brings it out! On View At The Five Spot is a real nice set as well... I wonder if a remastering could clean up the sound on that one as well? Cheers, Shane

Hi All, I was spinning the RVG of Jimmy Smith's House Party last night, and was reminded of how damn good Tina Brooks was... his solo on Confirmation just cooks! I'm constantly amazed that a solo recorded almost 50 years ago has the ability to grab my attention and make me utter those immortal words - Fuck, that was great! I think I have most everything Tina played on, but wasn't aware of how good he was on House Party until last night! I'm not saying Tina was a legend, or a genius, or anything like that... but he was damn good - excellent, even - and I wish things had worked out for him a little bit better than they did. It's tough to know that just a few years after this session he didn't record anything further. Anyone know of any live shows circulating out there? Cheers, Shane

GG Alvin and the Chipmunks! Ball in the Sack!

Not Yet! Man, Blue Note needs to RVG Back At The Chicken Shack and Midnight Special, and do it quick!!! Look, I dig SOJS... but it ain't no Chicken Shack or Midnight Special! Please, Blue Note, release these as RVGs soon! Cheers, Shane

Hi All, Another vote here for the Fuji and/or TY CD-R's... they always work great for me! And, I always check the packaging just to make sure they are made in Japan. Got burned once with a stack of Fuji's made in Taiwan. Cheers, Shane

Hi All, I was in NYC last weekend for the Sept. 11 memorial, and saw the Motian/Lovano/Frisell group play on Sunday night (Sept. 11). I was only able to catch the first set, but they played very well! The first song was a little rough in spots, but after that they picked it up and laid down some nice grooves. It was just what I needed after a highly emotional day... Plus, I snapped a great picture of the twin beams of light from Ground Zero rising directly over the Village Vanguard sign. Actually, the beams each seemed to rise out of the "V" in the neon "Vanguard"... was really great! If it comes out OK, I'll post it here! Cheers, Shane

Hi Hans, Thanks for the list... the Shepp looks like it's right up my alley! Cheers, Shane

Hi Noj, I've only had a chance to listen to a bit of "The Bright Side" (work has been crazy lately), but I just want to say thanks for the discs! I've only made it through the first few tracks, and I'm still at work so I'm going off the top of my head here, but I'm glad you put some Pharcyde and De La Soul on that disc! They take me back to my younger days when I was first getting into rap and hip hop (late 80's, early 90's). I was/still am a huge fan of the "Native Tounge" stuff coming out of NYC back then... De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, and hell, even Queen Latifa and Leaders of the New School! That, and the jams Public Enemy were throwing down, was some great stuff (how fuckin' good are It Takes A Nation Of Millions..., The Peoples Instinctive Travels..., The Low End Theory, etc.!?!). Looking forward to digesting the BFT in more detail this weekend! Cheers, Shane

Hi Noj, Great! I've got a busy week of work this week, but I'll try to listen closely this weekend. BTW, the explicit content of the tracks you included (as per your description) doesn't bother me a bit... I was/still am one of those "angst-ridden punks" that Jim described above, so I'm pretty sure I've heard it all! Cheers, Shane

Hey Noj, Count me in as well for the BFT! PM is coming down! Cheers, Shane

Yeah, that really is a "surprise" that the Stones played the standards Brown Sugar and Jumpin' Jack Flash... I've never seen/heard a Stones show that hasn't included these tunes since they were written! More poor writing on the part of the reporter... But what the hell: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Cheers, Shane

Well, it sounds like Stan the Man had some significant influence on Ari if he's playing like you say he is, Jim. I'm going to have to check him out... Cheers, Shane

Ummmm... HELL YEAH! Cheers, Shane

Hell yeah it would! This Tolliver set has me really fired up... and I don't even know what the hell is on it yet! I look forward to seeing the description on Mosaic's website (soon, I hope!). Cheers, Shane

Cheers, Shane

Hi mjzee, Nope. I'm not a Mac user, so everything was uploaded using MusicMatch on my VAIO laptop, which has limited memory. It was pretty tough for me to justify keeping 19 GB of MP3 files on my laptop, since I use it for so many other things. And since I needed the memory space, I had to delete a huge chunk of those 19 GB's of MP3 files... so if I want those songs to go back into my iPod I'll have to re-rip them into MusicMatch. But, as Guy mentioned earlier, a lot of those songs won't be going back onto the iPod, since I never really listened to them anyway. And, no offense to Apple, but I never anticipated having to re-load 5000 songs onto my iPod... You'd think they would have designed a product that wouldn't be succeptible to crashing like that (I've since heard from a lot of other folks who've had this happen to them), or would have some mechanism that would allow for those files to be recovered more easily - without having to reload them. But, as much as I want to say "fuck you" to the good folks at Apple... I really can't, because I've had a good run of use with my iPod. I'm trying to view this as positively as I can! Cheers, Shane

AND they can benefit from royalties. This is always a concern for "good" producers. I can site dozens of reissues dictated by royalty concerns. ← I know Michael tried like hell to get some John Patton out on CD just for this reason. He died with a pile of medical bills. I hope his wife has been able to cope with them. That's one benefit concert I'd try to make. Kevin ← Kevin, I would definitely hit any benefit concert for Big John, or at least try to help out if I couldn't make it there myself. I didn't know Patton's wife had a pile of medical bills to deal with... sounds like you've got a good idea there! Cheers, Shane

Apparently your moniker had no desired effect. An a more serious note, I'm sorry to hear about your trouble. ← Hah! That's a good one Dmitry! I guess I've moved through the stages of the grief process pretty quickly if I can laugh at that! Cheers, Shane

Hi gslade, You know, I just bought a Seagate 160 GB external drive a couple of weeks ago to back up a bunch of other stuff on my computer, and I hadn't yet had the time to back up the few MP3s I had on my laptop. I will definitely be doing this from now on, though! I heard about the iPod "damaged battery" settlement... I actually am holding off loading much onto my iPod until I get the battery replaced, so I've seen the news. It still seems like a pain in the ass to get reimbursed for the battery replacement (the length of time more than anything else), but if it'll save me $50, then I'll go for it. Guy, You're right about "cleaning house" now! There are lots of songs that won't be going BACK on the iPod, since I never really listened to them that much. Frees up some space for new things, I guess.... Cheers, Shane