clifford_thornton

John Fahey -- Requia -- (Vanguard, 70s pressing)

Awful. Goddamn. RIP.

Seems like they definitely missed some titles with these more recent bootlegs -- neither Coursil's Black Suite nor the Arthur Jones have been reissued (although the latter did get rereleased by P-Vine in Japan some years back). Maybe it's because they were snapped up by Musidisc/America?

HA, perfect response.

Agreed. Same with Tina, no?

Yep. No lip at all, barely any lead-in groove. I obviously dig rawness too but since the issue of 'fidelity' came up...

Yeah, I'd heard that. I can't imagine it happening but then again I wasn't thinking a pandemic would hit this year either.

Indeed. In terms of audio quality, I'd argue that some of the best sounding BYGs aren't jazz releases.

not ideal, no.

as to the original article, that's just horrible. Fuck.

Not a mastering engineer, but I suppose it depends on how good the transfer & remastering is. If it is indeed true that the tapes are long gone, these are probably done from MP3s ripped from other reissue copies. For what it is worth I have only owned original Actuel pressings (other than the Sunspots CD of Seasons) and they are extremely variable in sound quality.

Scorpio is a bootleg operation out of New Jersey with massive distribution and reach. They've done everything from Sun Ra Saturns to Blue Notes and Atlantics. Truly shameless. I have seen the records you mention in stores and they aren't Get Back bootlegs. Scorpio is a likely culprit since they're so plentiful around the US. I'm sure they are needle drops from Get Back reissues, whatever they are. Pirate editions are worth avoiding if you can (even if BYG didn't pay the musicians either).

Scorpio boots most likely.

I never heard their CD of the material; only ever had the Fontana LPs, which sound excellent (was lucky to grab those very early on). Revenant were an excellent label -- Rick Bishop's "Salvador Kali" is among my favorites of their releases. They were supposed to do a boxed set of all Crime material (the S.F. band) but the project fell apart once the label went under. Most of that material has been rereleased by Superior Viaduct and other independents since.

Yeah, man, the whole Revenant thing was such a disaster. Sad. I think these comps that Hat are doing seem odd -- the Marion Brown makes no sense -- but at least they are probably legit (which was my original concern when the Brown was announced).

Exactly. Major loss.

I'm liking Murder Most Foul.

It is aiiit. I like the music better.

For vinyl I had an Excel spreadsheet that I moved over to google sheets a few years ago, and then put all that info gradually into Discogs, checking pressing details where I could. One thing that's annoying is that that info changes within 'scogs -- usually where there was just one "master release" and no variations, and now those variations have been added in. Most of my collection is in 'scogs, but there are still some outliers. I'm slowly -- very slowly -- adding CDs to 'scogs as well, though most of my CD collection is in storage.

There's some video on YouTube of recent/ish live performances that really cooks.

Regret passing on a couple of opportunities to see him at the Baha'i Center. He was really good.

yeah, that makes sense. the limited edition pressing is nasty-looking.

I'm told it will be pressed on some sort of red/orange/yellow splatter colored vinyl for a "special edition." Saw a pic on instagram and it looks fuuuugly!

wonderful LP. Now spinning: Musiques du Gabon, Ocora 41

Great record -- have the original on Debut, as well as his album on Metronome called Ashoka Suite (not quite on the same level, but good). He was quite involved with the Radiojazzgruppen at the time, appearing on at least a couple of their other releases. Don't know his later work nearly as well, but an interesting figure nonetheless. I'll have to check out that Rypdal -- looks cool.