Kevin Bresnahan

Inexpensive decent direct drive turntables are a bit of a rare breed these days. Depending on your budget, there are a couple of Technics direct drive TTs and Cambridge Audio's Alva TT is a nice-looking option... except that it has a non-defeatable phono preamp. There is an inexpensive Pioneer direct drive built for DJs, but I don't have any idea about its quality. Other than these few options, the major players have mostly gone belt drive. No Pro-Ject or Rega direct drive TTs. VPI makes a direct drive TT but it's $15,000. Have fun with that. You'll have one poster will post something as an absolute and then the rest of the posters will take sides and gang up on anyone who doesn't agree with them. Belt drive vs direct drive is like "Tastes great/Less Filling" for those people. And don't even get me started about some of their recommended accessories. There are a lot of snake oil advocates over there.

It might take that long to get them to cut this material onto Edison cylinders.

You made it to 66. Why not try retirement? If you have ever given any thoughts at enjoying your retirement, now is your chance. You're still young. You're healthy and financially OK. At least try taking a nice long vacation. Start a hobby? Volunteer? My dad died at 70 of a sudden heart attack, so I saw someone make all the best retirement plans and "poof", it was all gone in an instant. Even though I am not even 60, I have already had one health scare. On top of that, I have had quite a few high school classmates die of various causes so I've really started to think about this. You only get one shot at the rest of your life. You don't know when your number is up.

I did order the Kenny Werner & Frank Kimbrough LPs but at $65, I didn't take a chance on that Pablo Ablanedo date and the Andy Zimmerman was sold out before I got a chance to visit their store. BTW - there are still copies available for those looking to splurge to treat themselves.

Newvelle Records is supposed to be offering individual LPs for sale tomorrow for Record Store Day. This is the first time I've been able to look at this catalog with the thought that I could buy a record or two that piqued my interest. I have one of their LPs, Noah Preminger's "Some Other Time" & I have the CD version of Ben Allison's "Quiet Revolution". Has anyone been able to hear more of their catalog and offer recommendations? I am thinking about Frank Kimbrough's "Meantime", Andy Zimmerman's "Half Light" & Kenny Werner's "Church On Mars". I am also curious about Pablo Ablanedo's "Octet" which has a pretty good lineup: Anat Cohen, Jenny Scheinman, Chris Cheek, Jerome Sabbagh, Diego Urcola, Ben Monder, Fernando Huergo, Franco Pinna and Daniel Ian Smith. Thanks, Kevin

Immanuel Wilkins - Omega (Blue Note)

Kisor is great but again, I think Weiss' piano is a big plus.

Great record. Several tracks showcase Ronnie's affection for the Latin side. Michael Weiss' piano playing stands out to me. The closer, "Better Git It In Your Soul" is great, with Ronnie going to town in his short solo. Weiss' bouncy piano sets a mood that just makes you want to get up and dance. Worth the price for that track alone. Another great track is Cuber's "Humacao". Weiss' solo here has a little of that locked-hands style that reminds me of Garland. I wonder if that was what he was going for there?

Abercrombie's recording debut... I don't think I've ever heard that one.

That is correct. Even in the EU, post-1962 recordings are under copyright protection. However, I was once told that Andorra, where some of the Fresh Sound family of labels reside, are not part of the EU, so they are supposedly still using a 50 year copyright. I have no idea if that is true. I think it's sad that the US will eventually have an infinite copyright due to Mickey Mouse whereas the EU will have one due to The Beatles. Public Domain is going away.

BTW - I did give Udiscovermusic.com a second chance and it was even worse than the first. I never received any records from that order after about 4 months so I had to cancel that one too. If this box is at all limited (I don't think it is but you should verify), don't order from them because you might not recieive it and it might go oop waiting for them to ship. They have one of the worst customer service groups I've ever dealt with.

Don't you have a stereo/mono button on your amp/preamp? If not, you could buy a couple of Y adapters and get mono, no problem. One of these: Connected to one of these: And then run the "regular RCA stereo cables into both sides of this combined adapter thing, running one side to the preamp input and the other side to your source source. You got mono. https://www.showmecables.com/rca-female-to-dual-rca-female-adapter https://www.showmecables.com/by-category/adapters/audio-video-adapters/rca/rca-male-to-dual-rca-female-adapter

Those states that ended their mask mandates earlier than others got the benefit of having a vaccination program rapidly ramping while they did this. There is also the simple fact that vaccinated people who get COVID might not even know they got it and would certainly not get tested. And let me ask a simple question: Isn't it a good thing that the Biden administration was wrong about this? This situation is like two guys driving a car toward a wall. One person says to slow down and turn and the other says screw it and drives right up to the wall and locks up the brakes at the last second. Both avoided hitting the wall, but there is a safe way and a less-safe way to do it. Thank god for them that the brakes worked as designed.

I'll never order from udiscovermusic.com again. In late 2019 (pre-pandemic), I ordered several Blue Note LPs. After several weeks, they e-mailed that one title was out of stock, so my order would be delayed. I E-mailed them to ask if they would send the other LPs in the order. They never responded. I kept contacting them and only got automated responses. Finally after 5 months, I cancelled the order.

The 1989 US pressing may say "Digital Transfers: Ron McMaster", but that's just copied over from the CD artwork from the CD that was released concurrently with this LP. This is an analog cut. Ron told me that he always cut Blue Note LPs from the analog masters back then and to ignore that digital typo.

This sorta bugged me at first, but then I realized that those liars are only putting themselves at risk so it's their own damn fault if they get COVID. It's not on me.

I thought this quote was even more eye opening: "We sell a lot of vinyl, but it’s all one of this and one of that. It’s 1,000s of things, but one of this and one of that. A really big vinyl seller for Wayside Music is three or four copies. That’s great. And since I am buying them one at a time, that’s fine. But if they cost me a fortune, and my minimum quantity is 250, selling four copies kind of sucks."

Great music, but for some reason, I've never liked this cover. It looks like something I would've done and I suck at that stuff.

Let's not get started on Jerry Lee. He married his 13 year old cousin when he was 22.

I hope you are not a big fan of the Seinfeld show then.

Do you really think this is true at Blue Note today? After they released that Jazz Messengers date that no one would release for decades, it would seem that they are no longer honoring those old rules. I expect the Tyrone Washington "Train Wreck" to get released any day now. "Discovered in the vaults - a long lost session!"

Edit to say: I called Mosaic back to find out if they lost my order and found out that anyone that gets a shipping notice now is simply getting an automated E-mail and that your box has not really shipped. They have hundreds of backorders due to this SNAFU with the company supplying the outer boxes.

Mosaic is preparing an E-mail to explain the delays that are happening right now. Apparently, they have the CDs, including the artwork, for their current orders, but the outside box order got delayed so they can't ship yet. I was told that they are expecting them within the next two weeks. Scott also assured me that this is not sold out and that he expects that Jazz Messengers will be getting more.

I don't like that this story has gotten so much traction with #MeToo headlines. To my eyes, it's really not. #MeToo is really for all the women who have been forced to remain silent in the face of sexual harassment and even rape. To be clear, if Grand had come out and said that Steve Coleman asked her for sex as payment for sax lessons and she had to walk away without getting those sax lessons, she could post away with that #MeToo hashtag and we'd likely all be behind her. I know I would be. But that's not what happened here. The jerk inappropriately propositioned her and she said, "Sure," and then kept at it for 6 years. 6 years. That sounds more like #WeToo.