sidewinder

Cal Tjader Quartet 'Saturday Night/Sunday Night at the Blackhawk' (Verve gatefold stereo). Very nice location recording by Wally Heider and Val Valentin !

Thanks for that. All very true - particularly the comments about the virtues of Holland, Corea and DeJohnette in this band and the incredible mastery of time by all. I don't think Chick ever did anything better than his work on these live recordings. Astonishing. I notice that CD6 (which I'm just trying out) was recorded at Ronnie Scott's, allegedly as part of a TV broadcast. I was under the impression that the master tapes for this one had been wiped by the Beeb (like so much 1960s BBC jazz) - anyone know if the video still survives?

Tony - having saved the Torrent detals you then need to run file transfer software to actually transfer the files. I use 'Bit Torrent', which is available on the net as freeware. The Miles set is 12CDs and about 3.5GByte in size so it takes a wee while, to say the least. The files are transferred in 'Shorten' compressed format so you will then need some software to decompress to 'wav' format to transfer to CD. I've found the 'mkw Audio Compression Toolkit' does the job nicely as it allows drag and drop instead of nasty DOS command lines. All in all a real pain ( ) but the music is truly worth it in the end. The Duffy's Tavern CDs (first 2 in this set) are truly amazing stuff, really lo-fi but quite fascinating. Some good cover art to run off on the printer too, making this collection something of a 'DIY Mosaic'.

I have Mosaic prints of these two in my lounge. Never tire of either of them.

B.B. King Muddy Waters Blind Lemon Jefferson

Just listening for the first time to this material. Mind blowing stuff ! Makes you realise that good though the studio sessions were, to a degree they were just scratching the surface. This material also emphasises the major impact of the avante-garde on Miles (via Holland and Corea) around the time of the Bitches Brew recordings. More so than I had previously realised.

Bob Hayes Isaac Hayes Isaac Newton Albert Einstein Max Planck Neils Bohr

Gave up on Amex years ago as half the retailers don't seem to want to take it. Not sure about the Travellers Cheque option though. ATM route usually works fine for me, right across Europe. Thankfully long- gone are the days when you used to have to stock up on currency and travellers cheques before the trip.

I'm sure Rearward's vinyl reissue is also stunning, having heard what they did on the other reissues. The Black Lion 'November Girl' lacks depth/soundstage and makes Boland's electric piano sound like a wind-up toy.

Daniel - I'm just listening to the gatefold issue right now (a good excuse) and it sounds absolutely wonderful. It is the red Polydor label, although the gatefold sleeve is white (typical Black Lion format) plus piccie with Polydor label on lower LHS and Black Lion on lower RHS. The vinyl is quite substantial, wheras my later issue copy from about 1977/78 has thinner vinyl and no mention of Polydor. Both LPs sound good though. Incidentally, I've seen numerous copies of this gatefold LP in shops over here in the past at around the £5 mark. It seems to be the most prolofic CBBB vinyl in the UK, along with 'Sax No End'. Strange.

Nero at the ready if you give the word !

Yep, 'Hamish Grimes' of the McNeill Press Ltd is credited in the sleevenotes. Images of tam-o-shanters, haggis and sporrans.. Just given the gatefold LP a spin and it sounds pretty nice Pre-oil crisis (1971) so the vinyl was still good. It has the red 'Polydor' label, whereas my second copy has the Black Lion. I think the switch happened around 1974ish.

Didn't Alan Bates (owner of Black Lion) have an arrangement with Polydor back in the late 60s/early 70s. One of the old Jazz Journal issues has an interview with him where he talks about the licensing of this - I'll have to dig it out. I've got quite a few of the Black Lion UK issues. Actually two copies of 'At Her Majesty's Pleasure', one being gatefold. Both sound pretty good. I would suspect that the German vinyl is even better thanks to the early 70s Teutonic quality control ( ). The CBBB 'November Girl' is not so good though - a lot of surface noise on that one (I suspect Rearward's reissue is much better). Also have a couple of the Monk albums which were issued in the Mosaic. The original versions have pretty 'colourful' sleeves, sound is not bad at all. Also have several of the Charles Tollivers on this imprint, although I sold 'Live at the Loosedrecht Jazz Festival' in a moment of madness..

I'm listening to the wrong stuff..

Poor Stephan is probably now run off his feet 24/7 sorting out orders and queries from Org board members !

An interesting subject. Here in the UK there has been some academic research at UCL to genetically map areas of the UK for evidence of 'Viking' DNA imprint, against present-day samples from Denmark and Sweden. As expected, parts of Yorkshire, East Anglia, Cumbria and Scotland definite correlation, although the results are inconclusive because of similarities between the 'Viking' (Scandinavia) and 'Saxon' (Germany/Holland etc.) DNA signatures and a significant level of 'dilution' over the thousand years or so since the Viking invasions. DNA samples were taken from males in sample areas who could demonstrate at least 5 or so generations of ancestry in the locality. If you are from Yorkshire and your name is Sven then you may have the gene !

I'm happy to run you a copy and post it over, Tooter. Won't arrive before Easter though. Let me know if you need it.

Thanks Tooter - Your reply received. I probably need to empty my inbox..

Hank Jones 'Have You Met Hank Jones' (UK London mono). Nice solo session, released in US on Savoy.

I've had mine for a couple of days now, evan. Many thanks ! Will post thoughts over the next few days on the music. So far I'm completely stumped though..

Hi Tooter - I'd like to partake, many thanks. Like the cover art ! PS - did you get my message about the Ronnie Ross LP finding?

Seemed OK when I called last year in but maybe I caught it on a good day?

'Lee Morgan Sextet' (BN Lexington DG mono) Miles Davis 'Kind of Blue' (Classic Records 2LP reissue)

Bobby Hutcherson 'Total Eclipse' (BN Liberty stereo blue label) Big John Patton 'Let 'Em Roll' (BN Liberty mono). Considering these are fold-downs, these Liberty monos can sound awesome !

Have a great birthday !