Kevin Bresnahan

I think there were several things that could cause wrinkled tape. A dirty head or capstan could easily kill a tape but crunching it up. Also, you had to wind the tape carefully onto the feeder reel. Too tight and it would bind up. Tape stretch or crunched tape could follow. Too loose and it "snapped", which was where the tape relaxed off the feed reel and snapped tight as the loose section played back. This could also cause tape cause tape stretch, snapped tape or a crunched tape as well as a pulsing sound. Most experienced users were well aware of these problems and took care to avoid them. FWIW, cassette tape only did a better job of masking these reel to reel problems but it couldn't get rid of them Tape is tape.. The cassette shell helped keep the tape wound onto the reels properly and the head/capstan area was smaller, making it less likely, but not impossible, to get a tape crunched in there. I know it was possible because I had it happen to a couple of cassettes. With cassettes, all you really had to do was make sure the heads & capstan were clean and you were pretty much all set. Oh - and buy good blanks and hope that any prerecorded tapes you bought used a decent blank supplier.

It's been almost 14 years and I still get sad on Father's Day. Time has blunted the loss but it's still there.

I'm a little interested in this recording. I didn't know that Hollyday got back to recording in 2018. I thought he had retired from the scene entirely. That he just turned 50 makes me feel pretty damn old.

This is a fun date. I haven't spun it in a while. Thanks for the reminder.

2014 Justin Savant

The Don Redell/Ian Carr Quintet - Change-Is (Columbia/EMI/Jazzman). Another record from the box set. Not a fan of that harpsichord but other than that, nice record.

In the many years I've been flipping through records, I've never even seen that version of "Orgasm". When did it come out? UK release?

Not hard to beat an old Admiral console for sound! But you could stack as many as 6 records on that changer! Number 7... or was it 8... always seemed to catch the needle when it swung over to play it. You know, I knew someone was likely to come into this thread to defend the format. It has its fans. I had to chuckle when jazzcorner came to the format's defense but then added qualifiers to allow you get the best out of it and then swung the discussion right over to a cassette set up. Point proven. And I almost joined the reel-to-reel crowd in the mid-80s, when their fan base was probably at its peak. It was (is?) considered "audiophile" by many people and back then I was always willing to try "audiophile" anything. But as Jim mentions, they are not very convenient and other formats came along that were much more convenient with satisfactory sound. Convenience matters.

Are you sure it's not being returned to the sender? "Out for delivery" would seem to indicate it's on your mail carrier's truck. Maybe the mail carrier saw something they didn't like and returned it to the sender? Do you know your mail carrier? I would ask them what happened yesterday.

Yeah, they are cool to look at for sure and there is some ceremony to the playback process akin to LP playback. I don't remember great sound. I remember very good & clean sound. Yeah, it didn't have the surface noise of an LP but it did have hiss, crosstalk and warble. Warble was a bitch if you didn't stay on top of the maintenance. I remember one time when I was over my friend's house and he was playing a reel-to-reel tape when we started noticing a bad warble. He jumped up and ran over to the deck - too late - it crunched up the tape in seconds. The tape was toast. He had to clean and align that thing all the time. Maybe he had a bad deck? The fear that your precious tape could get destroyed by a second of inattention... nah... not for me, at least back then when I was young and unwilling to commit to that much maintenance work and it became moot once the cassette tape came out. Cassette tape killed reel-to-reel more than anything else.

According to Woody's son in the liner notes for the Mosaic box, "The Complete Muse Sessions": "Cassandrite is Woody Shaw's first actual record date as a leader. It was to have been the start of Woody Shaw as a Blue Note recording artist. But a full album was never completed. Within weeks, Alfred Lion completed the sale of Blue Note to Liberty Records and was already regretting the decision. He gave these tapes back to Woody and cancelled deals with a handful of other artists with whom he was in discussions." In the discography of the booklet, these sessions are listed as being recorded at Van Gelder Studio in December 1965.

I never got into reel-to-reel and never will at this point in my life. From the limited interaction I had with someone who had one that he played regularly, they were much more of a pain to use & maintain than a record player and I didn't hear that much improvement over LP playback to make the commitment. Also, those reel-to-reel decks took up tons of shelf space, space that was already taken by the turntable.

Various Artists - Eight Trails, One Path (Three Lobed Recordings). A 2011 Record Store Day release. The LP is made like a matchbook, which is kinda cool if kinda impractical. The music has an acoustic folksy/country vibe. Here's the "matchbook look". Yes, the top half folds down and tucks into the edge below like a matchbook. The sleeve is stapled in place and doesn't come out. I'd never heard of one of these guys before I picked this up but I do play it every now & then. You can "You Tube" all eight tracks here:

The top one is a 4 track "Cine Reel" that is still considered "reel-to-reel" by most collectors: https://www.discogs.com/The-Dave-Brubeck-Trio-Featuring-Gerry-Mulligan-Compadres/release/12913753

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (WB). I actually have a couple of versions of this. I have a beat-up old original that somehow found it's way into my collection, a Nautilus "Super Disc" version and the one that's playing - a remaster/cut by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray from 2011 Record Store Day. It actually sounds very good.

And later in life, he had the audacity to call Bill Belichick "Bill Beli-cheat". I lost all respect for him after that. "Tape-from-the-wrong-location"-gate can't hold a candle to the stuff that was done to gain an advantage back in the old days.

Richie Cole and Return To Alto Acres (Palo Alto). I do like this one. Killer band and no goofy song covers to mess with us.

I've somewhat lost my taste for aged wine. I used to like them but I guess I'm more into the fruit-forward taste you get early on than the much more complex flavor palate you get with aged wines. I've also become sick of bad corks because I've had a lot. Too many actually. My oldest bottle now is a 2000 Guigal Hermitage. I just never got around to opening it back in its early days. Now, I need to pick the right meal to open it with before it falls off any more than it already has.

First time I'm seeing this cover. This looks like a CD of the bonus track found on Jackie McLean's "Jackie's Bag".

Benny Golson - Gettin' With It (Prestige/New Jazz/OJC).

Thanks for the reminder - I have this on vinyl too. Time to give it a spin.

I only have a couple of Cole's recordings but the one I remember the most was one he did with Sonny Stitt, which was noteworthy for having Jack Wilson on piano. It's been a very long time since I saw Richie live. He rarely came through Boston. I think when I saw him, it was with Greg Abate.

From Blue Note's Facebook feed, I've learned that Allen put out a 4 track EP for them in 2017. I never heard of it until now. It's pretty good too. Only available via download or an out of print LP.

I edited a Word document and removed "Proofing" from my ribbon. It was gone, but I didn't see "Editor". But when I clicked on reset, it put "Proofing" back into my ribbon. Even weirder is that I cannot find "Editor" as a command that I can add to my ribbon. When you click on your ribbon settings, can you see "Editor" on the left with it set to "All commands"? I've searched and searched and I don't have it anywhere. When you are in the Options screen, on the left side of the options window, do you see "General", "Display", "Proofing", "Save", Language", "Ease of Access", "Advanced", "Customize Ribbon", "Quick Access Toolbar", "Add-ins" & "Trust Center"? When you click on "Proofing", do you have "Check spelling while you type", "Mark grammar errors as you type", "Frequently confused words" & "Check grammar with spelling" all checked? Also, under the Proofing options, can you click on "AutoCorrect Options" and see what you have set there? Under the Autocorrect tab, I have all the options checked.

At the top left of Word, click "File". It will bring up a menu. Down at the bottom, it should say Options. Click that. Click on "Customize Ribbon". Scroll down to where it says "Review". There will be a check mark there. Click the word review to expand it. I am assuming that "Proofing" won't be in there. Down at the bottom, you should see a Reset button. Click that and reset All Customizations.