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I ran across this very unusual item in a store the other day. I have only listened to a bit of Piazzolla (mostly Zero Hour) but thought it was pretty cool. I simply couldn't resist when I saw the price was only 7 pounds. It's on a dodgy German label (Membran Music) that is now putting out large box sets of material that have gone into the public domain. Strangly enough, nearly all these tracks are from the 1970s or 1980s, so not in public domain. On the other hand, they are mostly live, so may well be taken off the radio or some other grey market source. Still, very entertaining stuff. The track listings are generally fairly complete in terms of musicians on each track, though no indication if anything is taken from an official album (I'm assuming not). Worth looking for if you like his approach to the tango. So far, I've only seen it on European websites, but I suspect Dusty Groove would carry it once they've been hipped to it.

Yeah, I don't mean to imply the choice of material is musically weak or anything. Certainly not. It's just strange that they didn't choose the material never out on CD before. Though there was some talk that there would be further joint ventures between Mosaic and Strata East. Maybe this is just testing the waters, drawing on some of the strongest material to see the sales potential when linked up with the Mosaic merchadising arm.

The Harold Land looks great. Any reviews? Amazon says it will be released Dec. 5, so I may wait and order a few Mighty Quinn CDs at the same time.

I guess I am just really torn on this set, since I have a fairly new issue of Slugs v. 1 (this version has 5 of the six tracks on disc 1 of the Select - and the timings are slightly longer, though mostly this appears to be the triming of crowd noise, some extra introductions, etc. (I think)). And I have Live in Japan. However, I don't have any of the unreleased material on Disc 3. I suppose if I was able to unload the other two discs there wouldn't be a problem. I'm still not clear why this was the material chosen for the Select, particularly as it had just come back on the market through Strata East, i.e. it wasn't exactly easy to get but it wasn't truly OOP as most Select material has been. Ah well, mysterious ways and all that. Anyway, it's towards the bottom of my list of Selects to buy, given the large overlap with stuff I already own. Same with the Tyner, which I don't plan on getting at all, since I have all the material either on CD or LP.

Except that in this case the folks involved (Cuscuna, Belden, etc.) strike me as being more-than-sensitive to such wishes, and (in my reading, anyway) it seems clear that there are some underlying issues with the "aggrieved" party. Why did Wilburn wait this long (five years) to suddenly scotch the release? It's one thing if he were saying, "Miles would never want this released, he told me so," etc.... but we're getting borderline-insane nitpicking instead. ← Both good points. I suspect that as fans, we care more about getting the music than anything else, or Lonehill, Proper and others wouldn't be quite so successful. As a secondary consideration, most of us feel that musicians should be compensated fairly. And a few far-sighted souls remember that the music companies need some financial incentives to keep this going. What is so upsetting from a fan's perspective is an estate that goes off the rails and doesn't seem to really be representing the interests of the departed musician (and cutting off their own nose financially). Surely Miles wouldn't have waited 5 years to throw a spanner into this project. Either he would have approved it and gotten things to his satisfaction or he would have cancelled it. I suppose we only really hear about the horror stories. Most estates appear to be far more reasonable (and even helpful) about getting unissued music out. Motivations are always different, and some estates perhaps err more on the side of he/she would have wanted this music out there and some are more on the side that the record label/the world didn't treat him/her with respect and now I'm going to insist on doing things my way. And unless it is an extremely valuable assett, record companies quickly pass on doing business with the difficult estates. From my limited perspective, I certainly prefer the Monk/Coltrane type of estates where they make a concerted effort to get the music out, but clearly I don't know the inside story on any of this. I do know that I wish for long and prosperous careers for our remaining jazz masters, and that estates don't come into the picture until much later.

I guess it's worth checking I didn't get charged twice.

Yeah, I noticed the other day they charged my credit card, so it should be on its way! Not sure why it is a 2-disc rather than 3-disc set, but if everything fits and it includes the Coltrane material, it's ok by me. My one suggestion to improve the release would be to indicate where each track was taped. It would be quite cool if one of the tracks was recorded in Chicago! Anyway, it looks like they will be touring again in the spring and coming to London in April, so I will definitely try to make it.

This is the latest list of Sony CDs with XCP protection (should be only US titles or CDs imported from the US. Slightly over 50, and some that were probably big sellers. Still no word on how the recall will work, particularly for those who bought over the internet or used. I imagine this will hurt them in the long run. It has certainly changed my buying habits.

I'm currently trying to access the FAQ about the CD recall, but there must be tens of thousands of people trying to access it all at once. (Sony BMG - ever heard of a mirror site - these guys need to stick to entertainment and get out of the technology business!). If I ever get it, I'll post it here. Update: The current FAQ on the XCP is useless - don't bother. They haven't yet updated the site to deal with the recall, other than to say it will happen. Probably won't be updated for some time. I bet there are a lot of Sony execs staying up late, trying to figure this out. And somebody had better lose their job over this, since they just cost Sony a few millions dollars.

I suspect Switzerland and other countries show up because people ("music terrorists") get impatient and import XCRs from the US. Same way people try to circumvent DVD regional coding. Interestingly the new blue-ray DVDs or whatever they are calling them are supposed to be locked down much tighter with some reports claiming that the players themselves will have a backdoor to let companies know if you try to change regional coding. Not surprising that Sony is involved in this as well. Definitely something I will avoid and I may simply stop buying DVDs a few years down the road if this comes to pass. At this point, I probably have enough DVDs to rest me the rest of my life anyway. On a side note, I did see one blog mention that Sony BMG UK is defiantly going to stick with XCR technology, but I just can't believe this is anything but bluster. The UK/EU laws for fucking with people's computers are much stronger than in the US and some poorly written EULA just is not going to cover them. So I hope the blogger was misinformed.

I'm pretty sure Drum Suite needs to be on there as well. As obnoxious as this whole thing is, I am glad Sony is getting it with both barrels right in the ass. This recall will surely cost them more than the "casual pirating" they are so concerned about. One commentator said that this will set back DRM by at least a couple of years, so I am certainly glad of that. On a side note, the NYT has some really annoying habits, particularly for sticking up for the NY property owners above citizens and apparently being uncritical on these digital rights stories. If you compare the coverage in the NYT vs. Wash Post, not only does NYT completely drop the ball, they then uncritically accept Sony's side (in an earlier article) and even now that this has blown up, they keep claiming it is a "minor security risk." Fuck that -- they need to fire whoever writes on technology issues and hire somebody like the Wash Post guy, who's really on the ball. Now some questions about this recall. What about people who imported these to Europe -- am I going to be able to somehow replace the CD? Or what about people who bought these used? Do we just send in the CD? Lots of kinks to work out. (I know I was going to boycott Sony (other than the Cellar Door), but I got a great deal on Blakey's Drum Suite (used) and I thought this was as good an opportunity as any to install Linux and break the CD.)

Curiously enough, I ran across Orpheus in the Underworld/Improvisations by Don Shirley but just wasn't sure if I wanted to buy it. Perhaps I was correct in not pulling the trigger. Any thoughts on this one?

On the other hand, for regular BBC shows, nearly all of them were wiped.

It looks like I will miss most of the London Jazz Fest. I thought pretty hard about McCoy Tyner (tonight) and Archie Shepp (the 11th I think), but just couldn't swing it. I think parts of the fest are on BBC Radio 3 for a week or so (maybe longer since they have 2004 still archived). I am leaning towards going to see Uri Caine on the 20th, though I must admit the fact it is being broadcast on the 24th does reduce the chance I will go. Anyway, just wondering if anyone else had gone or was going, especially to the Uri Caine. I see Joshua Redman and the SF Jazz Collective is coming in April and Sonny Rollins in May, and those are do-not-miss shows for me. Hopefully someone else will make them as well. Eric

I'm sure this has been suggested to MC, but now that Blue Note has partnered with iTunes (which frankly surprised me), why not try the Vault thing and release these 10" as iTunes only? I could see it might dilute the market slightly if BN planned on reissuing them, but if they really don't intend to do so again, I think this would be a way some economic return on these sessions and undercut Lonehill/Fresh Sounds, etc.

Just waitin on a friend?

Would that be Bethlehem material? I have a Freshsound LP with one of those albums, "Tribute to the Greats" - very nice album! ← What else is on the Lonehill? Yes, it is mostly Bethlehem material. Here's the run-down from the Dusty B*%&#rds. including the Capitol album Kenton Presents Sal Salvador, the Bethlehem record Frivolous Sal, and the 1956 session Shades Of Sal Salvador. Remaining titles on the set are from the Salvador/Costa quartet album Tribute To The Greats -- and the brilliant Bethlehem sextet session by Frank Socolow -- entitled Shades of Socolow. It does have the entire original Shades of Socolow LP, but is missing three bonus tracks from a Fresh Sounds "release" of the Socolow. Mighty tempting.

Whoops. I don't have the Sal Salvador after all. After much poking around on the web, it appears that the BN quintet session is on the Conn, by itself on a Japanese import and on a truly rare Japanese BN CD "The Great Guitars" issued in 1990, which appears to have completely disappeared. Has this session shown up anywhere else? I see that the longer session with Costa has shown up with a lot of other material on a Lonehill CD Eddie Costa & Sal Salvador Quartet -- Complete Studio Recordings. I agree that supporting Lonehill is dodgy, but I don't think any of this material is out in a legit format currently.

For those in the UK, the Tate Modern has an exhibit on Jeff Wall running through early Jan. Here's a link to an article in the Guardian: Jeff Wall story

Yes, I've got both CDs. Fine stuff. Sadly I had to leave them in storage, so can't say too much more about them. I learned about Mabern kind of late in the game. After I saw him live with Eric Alexander, I was quite impressed and sought out some of his hard to find CDs on DIW.

Am quite surprised but there are a handful of the Foster/Wallington CDs floating around at UK on-line sellers. I ordered one and it is on its way! I think that completes the set (just in time for Blue Note to start re-issuing them I suppose). My favorites are the Watkins and the Gil Melle.

I so hope this comes out on DVD, but I am not holding my breath. As discussed on a thread about rights and documentaries, all the rights have lapsed and it currently cannot be reshown on PBS and certainly not sold. I'm not sure if the videos were ever sold other than to schools. Definitely a case where we as a culture are worse off due to an overly stringent application of intellectual property rights. From the sublime to the ridiculous, Red Dwarf 7 just came out in the UK, and I picked it up.

Well, let me know if really, really late pledges count. I've finally been able to listen to several of the programs in your archives -- Coffee, Juneteenth and the Subterreanians. Great stuff! I should contribute something.

Sorry if this was already mentioned, but there is an unusual Riverside album called John Benson Brooks' Alabama Concerto Featuring Cannonball Adderley / Art Farmer, which doesn't really show up if you are doing a search for Adderley (easier to search by title). I was hipped to this album, which is sort of a jazz/folk/classical thing, by David's Night Lights' program called Juneteenth in the archives. Cool stuff, though I can't download the rest of the album for another couple of weeks.

I have a better photo of this, as well as a second piece I bought in Chicago. But this is what was at hand. I can't recall the name of the artist, but I bought it in an Old Town gallery in Chicago. I went back three times before finally buying the piece. I did paint the walls that color, however.