Kevin Bresnahan

Van Morrison - Moondance (WB). This was reissued in 2008 by WB with mastering/cutting by Steve Hoffman & Kevin Gray. It does sound very good. Better than an original? Maybe, but it's not night & day better. It's certainly a quieter pressing than those old WB pressings from those days.

Bill Hardman - Focus (Muse).

Cued up next for me!

I actually liked this a lot more than I thought I would when it first came out. My thinking was, "If it was so good, why did it take so long to come out?". How wrong I was. I was able to get Lee to sign it at one of the many times I saw him perform.

Lee Konitz Nonet - Live At Laren (Soul Note). Killer band. Red Rodney, John Eckert, Jimmy Knepper, Sam Burtis, Lee Konitz, Ronnie Cuber, Ben Aronov, Ray Drummond & Billy Hart. Great playing all around. I can't help it, but I get a feeling that I'm listening to a Mingus date at times. My copy has a cut corner and a sticker that says, "Distributed by Polygram Special Imports, 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, New York 10019".

Somehow, I managed to catch Lee Konitz live many times. He was a master. RIP to a Jazz legend.

Andrew Rathbun - Shadow Forms (Steeplechase). Rathbun on reeds, George Garzone on tenor, Scott Lee on bass & Jeff Hirshfield on drums. Interesting post bop date. I was able to see this band live at a "CD release party" show and they were better live.

RIP Kawasaki-san. I listened to some of your music but I wasn't a huge fan. I never was able to confirm if it was actually him, but I once had an E-mail dialog with him about CD audio stemming from a post he made to the old rec.music.bluenote newsgroup. He claimed that every time you played a CD, the laser burned off some of the plastic. I tried showing him the science to prove that this was not possible but he said he could hear the difference in his CDs every time he played them.

This is from that second super-duper deluxe box set that Blue Note put out a couple of years ago: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Spirit-Time/release/12972018?ev=rr It included "A set of 20 Topps Blue Note Trading Cards based on Topps’ 1959 Baseball Trading Cards featuring artists including Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Grant Green, Hank Mobley, Freddie Hubbard, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Charles Lloyd, Robert Glasper, and more"

Hank Mobley - Hi Voltage (Blue Note). I do like this funky side of Mobley. I picked this LP up and it looked un-played. My least favorite BN label. BTW - why is it "Hi Voltage" on the cover and "High Voltage" on the track title list, the label & in the liner notes?

Clint Hopson, who used to post here as clinthopson but more frequently on the old Jazz Corner's Speakeasy, has died. He had been in hospice for a bit so this was not unexpected. I always liked Clint. He knew his stuff and his posts were often insightful. He was pretty funny and cantankerous at the same time. I always liked the guy. Edited to add a link to his profile.

I know! I bet I looked at this cover a hundred times and never saw it and then when Aric brought it up... it might've even been on the Blue Note forums... I was like, "What the heck?" Now I can't un-see it.

My biggest concern about the records in your picture is that some of that might be mold. Mold is not easy to get out without some scrubbing. Have you experimented with straight dishwashing soap and some light scrubbing? I'd try that before investing in a cleaning machine. If you can't get this heavy dirt off by scrubbing with soap & water, I doubt that a cleaning machine can do it.

When you see this cover all blown up, you can kinda see why some people thought that there might have been something racially motivated here. It was a very weird choice to break apart "messengers" by separating it the way it was done on this cover. Strangely enough, I never noticed it until Aric brought it up here many years ago. Now I see it every time.

Next up - Booker Ervin - The In Between (Blue Note). Not my favorite Ervin date but it has it's moments. One of the few records I have with Bobby Few at the keys.

Eric Kloss - Essence (Muse). I swear that Buster Williams is playing an electric bass but it could just be the way they recorded it. Pianist Mickey Tucker is listed with "appears courtesy of Bluenote Records". Tucker never recorded as a leader for Blue Note Records that I am aware of. Was there a Bluenote Records as well? As I listen to this, I am reminded that I'm not a huge Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson fan.

Which is why Renee is pronounced Ree-Nee and not with the French accent at the end. I once asked Renee about this all female rhythm section with Joe and she lamented the fact that it never made a record so I doubt that this is a legit release.

I do like Albam's 2 tracks on this one. But the players on those tracks have a lot to do with it.

No idea where I was when I last saw Onaje, but he was a great player.

97 points for a straight Granache? That's unusual for a grape that's normally blended. It must be a good one. I've tasted several of K Vintner's wines and have not been overly impressed for the price. They've all been tasty, sure, but they've also all been between $50-100. That's a lot of money. Sometimes, I think that Charles Smith takes his "rock star" reputation too seriously and prices his wines accordingly. He dumped his "affordable" label a few years ago too.

I was just thinking about Gumbs last week, wondering if I would get to see him again. It had been so long since I last saw him perform that I had forgotten where I saw him. I know he's been having severe health problems for many years. In fact, I have not heard that his death was virus-related, so I was thinking maybe he had another stroke.

Now playing: Louis Hayes - Breath Of Life (Muse). This is an interesting date. It moves outside of where I thought Louis would go. It's not free but it's not your typical hard bop date either.

Just finished: 80th Anniversary version of Art Blakey - Indestructible. Now playing: David Schnitter - Goliath (Muse) Two things... First, WTF is up with this cover? Am I missing something here? Is he supposed to be praying to his saxophone to help save him from those sheep? Second, why does bass sound so terrible from this short period of time in Jazz? McBee's bass sound is so whiny. It's like a big mosquito buzzing around my head.

Amazing to realize that she was 39 when this was filmed. She doesn't look it to me.

I finally started cracking open my Black Saint/Soul Note boxes today and the first one I got open was Gianluigi Trovesi's box. I got to "Baghet" and discovered that it won't play the last track. Is anyone else finding this to be true?