Jazzdude

I agree wholeheartly. Amoeba is THE BOMB! It is within walking distance of L.A.'s main jazz club, Catalina's, by the way. (To find anything in L.A. within walking distance of somewhere else that you want to go to is rare indeed). Also, Used all: Record Wharehouse on Pico two miles east or so of the Bundy exit from the 405 freeway. Small but fairly good seleciton. There are three used Record Stores within about 7 miles or so of each other on Venutra Blvd. in Studio City--Heavy Rotation, Second Spin and one more. Fairly good selection, especially at Heavy Rotation. Rhino Records on Westwood Blvd. in Westwood, a few blocks on the right north of Pico Blvd. Since they moved to their new location from up the street the quality and quantity of jazz discs has sharply declined. Aarons on Highland near the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. in West L.A. Good selection. They have a good separate section of free/avant garde jazz. Hard-to-find stuff. And there's a store in Silver Lake that I forgot the name of. In Belmont Shore on 2nd St. near Long Beach there is Fingerprints. Very good selection. Fairly large number of choices. Best bets: Amoeba's (the biggest used CD store in the U.S.) the used jazz section is larger than many stores new jazz section ; Aaron's and Fingerprints and maybe the three stores on Venura Blvd. Amoeba's is by far the best, though. Don't miss it. The others less important. If you have time (and money) for only one store, make it Amobea. It's on Sunset at Cahuenga Blvd. A few yrs. ago a used Tower outlet opened in the middle of Hollywood Blvd. a little west of Gruman's Chinese and the new Kodak Theater. I haven't been there in years though. There are no more outlet stores in L.A. to my knowledge.

I have the 5th edition. A new one already!! It seems like the 6th edition just came out. Props for the publishers! I just wish "all music guide to jazz" could get it's s__ togethter and regularly publish their guide like they are suppose to--one every other year.

I have a review copy of the new Alice Coltrane. All the tracks are outstanding except for maybe one, which is the shortest track, less than 3 minutes. It has a cheesy sounding '70's sounding synthisizer on it. Great playing by Ravi and especially Jack Dejohnette throughout. One cut, track 6 or 7, (I haven't got it in front of me) sends shivers down my spine everytime I hear it. Ravi blows allot in a modal manner without sounding like his father on it. This disc will be a biggie, I predict.

Oops. I did mean 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. I went back and changed it.

You CAN hear free jazz on the radio. Every Sunday nite Monday morning, 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. on KPFK 90.7 F.M., Los Angeles. On the web. The show is called "Rise." The host plays lots of Ornette Coleman, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Nate Morgan, McCoy Tyner, John Coltrane, Horace Tapscott and more. Very highly recommended. No, I am NOT the host and have no affiliation to the station (a Pacifica station). The theme of the show is jazz music of a spiritual and somewhat political nature. It accomplishes its goal. Great show!

Any KKJZ (FM 88.1, Long Beach) listeners on this board? What do you think about the station? Let it all out. The good, the bad and the ugly.

I have a dedicated listening room, too. Have had it for three years since I got this house. It's small though, 13 feet long, 12 feet wide. I have a PS Audio 300 which I've had for about 4 yrs. now. It's great. More detail and quiet in the music. One of the very best things you can do to upgrade your sound. Check out their website.

Oh, God...Jesus,give me strength...JSgry...your bio said you were born in 1955. I was born in 1953. That makes me two years older than you. I've been heavily into jazz since 1972. Enough of that.. .Brad Mehldau is one of my favorites. I have all of his CDs except for "Largo." He is rapidly developing, sounding less and less like Keith Jarrett.

XRCD is great. I have a few discs. I was turned on to it after buying a sampler on a lark. The air around the instruments and detail are amazing. I want to ge the 4 CD Miles set---"Steamin'", etc.,-- on XRCD. Also, I want to get this Japanese flautist, Nakamura, I think his name is, that I heard on the sampler. He does a great version of " 'Round Midnight" on it. I have two Bill Evans and one or two other things on XRCD. Highly recommeded!

WOW! You guys are fast. I've been hanging out allot at "all about jazz," but I will be visiting this site more from now on. Briefly, for Jsngy: Your assumption is wrong. Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not so young. In fact, I'm two years older than you. I've been listening to jazz all my life, consistently since 1972. I grew up with the music in my parents house. Lots of Ellington, Basie, Sarah and Billie. The artists I mentioned were off the top of my head. Allot of the pianists mentioned I have discs of: Paul Bley (love his "Not One...",) Michel Pilc--I have his last few discs, Martial Solal--too cold and clinical to my ears. I have much Hank Jones, Ahmad, Marcus Roberts, Nat King Cole (thanks anyway, JSgry), Tatum, Shipp, Allen, Hannah, Powell, Hancock, one Norris--don't like it, no Kevin Hays except as a sideman. I have a little Byard, Kimbrough, Zeitlin and Walton. Over the weekend, after seeing Kenny Burrell perform (disappointing), I picked up, on the strong recommendation of a friend, the previous disc, not the latest, by Jeff Hamilton, with Tamir Handleman on the eighty-eights. It's in my car now. Will listen to it more. Pianists who have been around, dead or alive, but I would like to check out more: Hampton Hawes, Amina Claudine Myers, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Vijay Iyer (keep hearing about him) Any suggestions? New pianists I've never heard of but would like to hear: John di Martino Eddie Higgins Mike Strickland Hugh Lawson Simon Nabatov Eduardo Simon Iansel Korossy Frank Hewitt Michael Cochrane--the Wayne Shorter tribute sounds intriguing. Suggestions of these, please I'll be back...

Oops, I forgot about them. I have most of Jacky Terrasson discs, two Chestnuts and two Green CDs. Of the three Terrasson is my fave. Green doesn't do much for me. Chestnut I like, too. How about some pianists on some independent labels who are not well known but still very good.

Piano is my favorite instrument and trio is my favorite format. I'm always on the look out for any new or little known exciting pianists on the scene. Can anyone hip me to some fresh faces? I especially, but not exclusively by any means, dig standards. Here are some of my current long-time favorites: McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Jason Moran, Andrew Hill, Bill Evans, Lynne Arriale, Horace Silver, Jessica Williams, Fred Hersch, Randy Weston. Bill Charlap New ones I've recently discovered: Chano Dominguez (fuses flamenco and jazz) , Junko Onishi (altho I heard she went back to Japan), Don Friedman, Warren Bernhardt, Peter Malverneri (spelling is wrong). I read somewhere about an Argentinian pianist who combines jazz and tango. His last names starts with an "I". Anyone ever hear of him? Any other suggestions?

I agree with Vincent, Paris. I am a HUGE McCoy fan. I have nearly all his albums made since 1972. This one is his worst. The tunes are mostly insipid (except for maybe one) and except for T. Blanchard the playing is dull and listless. A big disappointment.

Kind of an audiophile myself. Here are the discs I've been taking along for a few years now: Patricia Barber---Nightclub. Great vocals for testing the midrange of speakers Conrad Herwig---The Latin Side Of John Coltrane. Good for testing dynamics, imaging and soundstage. Anything by Charles Lloyd on ECM. For testing imaging espeically Andy Bey---Ballads, Blues and Bey. For detail. You can hear him take breaths and hear the piano bench squeak. It's like you are THERE.

OK, here's another dumb question. Can you connect the i-pod to your multi-disc CD changer to record? If so, how? Specifically, do you need a digital out on the back of your changer or can you connect the i-pod to the CD output on the back of the changer? Been thinking about the i-pod. What's the advantage of downloading mp3 files when you have over 1500 CDs and you want to hear them while on the go, especially while in the gym?