Kevin Bresnahan

Wally Traugott knew how to cut vinyl, that's for sure. He died in 2010: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/wally-traugott-obituary?pid=146907958

If you do get back to Dry Creek, try the Lambert Bridge winery. I went there in February and tasted some wonderful (if expensive) wines. It's literally up the street from Rafanellli, so you can "kill two birds with one stone" as they say. BTW - I get you on the high ABV thing. I am finding that I'm not liking much of Turley's offerings lately. Just too much ABV in their wines. Like you, I enjoy Rafanelli's Zins more than their Cabs. My favorite Zin these days is Peter Seghesio's San Lorenzo. When his family sold their winery, he kept their original Zin vineyard and is making some wonderful Zin there. Next time you grill up a ribeye, try a Pride Mountain Merlot or Shafer Merlot. The acidity of Merlot seems to complement the rare steak better than a lot of Cabs.

I'm actually finding myself swinging the other way - I am enjoying big, bold Californian Cabs that are ready to drink now. While I have not really enjoyed many of the aged wines I've opened recently, there have been several 2014 & 2016 wines that have been simply phenomenal right off the shelf. I wonder if you need to look around a bit. Some of the big Napa names from 30 years ago are not what they were back then. Caymus is making so much wine now, there's no way they can be that cult wine that they used to be. Look to Paso Robles. Try a Justin Isosceles Reserve. Or a Daou Soul of a Lion Reserve Cab. Or go to Sonoma... try a KInsella Cab - so drinkable right out of the chute. One of my favorite Californian wineries is in Sonoma - A. Rafanelli. Their Cab is superb and it won't cost you an arm and a leg (if you can get it). Napa is a bit over rated.

I have 2 bottles of 2012 Dominus in my cellar but I just don't know when to open them. I opened one a couple of years back and it was definitely not ready. I actually hate bottles like these - I never know when to open them! Last night, I opened my last bottle of 2009 A. Rafanelli Cabernet Sauvignon. While still very good, it took a while to open up and even then, it wasn't as good as it would have been had I opened it several years ago. Aging wine is a difficult task, especially when you start acquiring a lot of wines that need some time in your cellar.

On sale for only $1300! http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UCCO-8007

It still bums me out that the starter of this thread, "stevebop" Steve Schwartz, died in 2017. He was one of the nicest guys you could meet and a huge advocate for Jazz.

Ah, yeah , that sounds right.

It's been years but wasn't his inability to play somehow related to an event and not a loss of chops? Was he the one I heard got caught messing with the wrong woman and got his jaw busted for it? If so, I wonder if he kept his band together because he thought maybe he could get back to playing?

I somewhat surprised that I don't still own this. I know I owned it at one point but i can't find it for anything. Time to search under Hagans or Printup.

This looks like one I would file under V for Various Artists.

My 82 year-old mom fell again last week and split her knee open. Rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. 17 stitches to close the 3.5 inch cut and she's back home alone - AGAIN. She's had 3 fairly serious falls now in the past 3 years, with one resulting in a broken femur up near her hip. She still refuses to consider moving into a senior residential apartment building. She's got all her mental faculties so we can't make her move. I was actually hoping the doctors were going to refuse to let her go home alone again after this fall but nope - home she goes. Can you tell I'm frustrated?

Thanks Dan & sonnymax. It's too bad I had to switch to an anonymous account name. Work stuff. I have to minimize my social media profile.

Add at least another $50,000, because that's what was pulled out of it at one point. I wonder why they haven't pulled out more? BTW - does anyone know how taxes work on these things? Does Kenny and his wife have to declare this as income?

They are not common but I've seen several. You'll know one when you pull the record out of the sleeve. It's a definite double take when you see it. I imagine most cutters would take one look, say "Oops" and take another try rather than press it like that but if the schedule's tight...

Bernie's mastering is not what I'm talking about. Cutting is the potential issue. If you use Bernie to master in analog and then he cuts using a cutting lathe with a digital audio look ahead system, the analog signal will get converted to digital before the cutting head. I believe that this is so the cutter knows when to start the cut and how far apart to space the cuts. As I understand it, these digital look ahead systems allow for a much more consistent cut. Cutting in analog requires a bit more skill by the cutter. I've seen some LPs where I've wondered "what the heck?". They're the ones when you pull it out and see 20-25 minutes of music squashed into about 2 inches of vinyl area with a huge runoff groove. That record will likely not be considered audiophile and I highly doubt that it was cut with a digital look ahead.

As I said in the Audio Forum thread, I'd certainly order one! Regarding the gauging of interest, isn't that what Kickstarter is all about? You don't have to move ahead with the project if you don't meet your goal. The only other thing I can add is that "all analog" cutting is not automatic depending on where/how it is cut. I have heard that some cutters convert the audio to digital prior to the cut so that it makes it easier to cut. I know that Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio has an all-analog cutter and because of that, he is in demand from the audiophile labels. I found this over on the Hoffman forums: Neumann introduced new cutting equipment using digital delay instead of tape read-ahead in the late 1970s. Not everyone used those lathes, not everyone used the digital delay. It's the same now. There are a few cutting studios that have customised their Neumann lathes for analog look-ahead. It's complicated because doing all analog means having a custom tape machine. With the digital delay any source can be used. There is also a custom digital look ahead system used by GZvinyl, that digitizes the master then syncs that to the analog, with the true analog signal going to the cutter and the digital driving the look-ahead. Lots of ways. Most records state something like 'cut using the original analog tapes' and this could mean anything unless a better description can be coaxed out of the engineers. FWIW, I doubt you'll find a non-analog cut from any major audiophile label. 'audiophile' labelled disks from major labels, that's another thing. I've never tracked down the (very proprietary) details of the Neumann delay. I don't believe that initially it was even actually digital, (as in A>>D>>A) but was a clocked analog delay line.

I've thought about buying this many times but not at $35 per disc. That's a lot in today's market, even if they are gold plated.

I'd certainly order one! Regarding the gauging of interest, isn't that what Kickstarter is all about? You don't have to move ahead with the project if you don't meet your goal. The only other thing I can add is that "all analog" cutting is not automatic depending on where/how it is cut. I have heard that some cutters convert the audio to digital prior to the cut so that it makes it easier to cut. I know that Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio has an all-analog cutter and because of that, he is in demand from the audiophile labels. I found this over on the Hoffman forums: Neumann introduced new cutting equipment using digital delay instead of tape read-ahead in the late 1970s. Not everyone used those lathes, not everyone used the digital delay. It's the same now. There are a few cutting studios that have customised their Neumann lathes for analog look-ahead. It's complicated because doing all analog means having a custom tape machine. With the digital delay any source can be used. There is also a custom digital look ahead system used by GZvinyl, that digitizes the master then syncs that to the analog, with the true analog signal going to the cutter and the digital driving the look-ahead. Lots of ways. Most records state something like 'cut using the original analog tapes' and this could mean anything unless a better description can be coaxed out of the engineers. FWIW, I doubt you'll find a non-analog cut from any major audiophile label. 'audiophile' labelled disks from major labels, that's another thing. I've never tracked down the (very proprietary) details of the Neumann delay. I don't believe that initially it was even actually digital, (as in A>>D>>A) but was a clocked analog delay line.

I recently reacquired a record that I have yet to keep after playing it a few times. I've probably owned it 3 or 4 times by now but this is the first time I've had it on vinyl. Weirdly, I'm enjoying it more now than I ever have in the past. It's not great but it's not as bad as I seem to remember it. I still don't like when Washington hits one of those falsetto notes and I'm not a huge fan of the cymbal work by Chambers. Tyrone Washington - Natural Essence (Blue Note). I think this is an original pressing.

Great music, not the greatest sound. Workman's bass does not sound right here. Whiny sound.

I haven't spun this one in a while. Time to rectify that... playing now,

Last night, it was Carl Allen, Cyrus Chestnut, Yasushi Nakamura & Vincent Herring at Scullers. Tonight, Scullers is bringing in Harold Mabern, John Webber & Joe Farnsworth. I got Harold to sign a great photo taken during his last trip to Boston:

The stories I heard about his lack of playing time in the late 50's to early 60's centered around the color of his skin.

I can certainly hear George Coleman in Alexander's playing but Alexander just sounds different to me. He hits certain notes and I can tell it's him. He seems to glide along the notes more than George, who seems to chop off his notes more abruptly.

I did forget that one, which may be because I actually don't own it. Re-reading the blurb about this release found on the label website: https://www.giantsteparts.org/news/2019/3/5/eric-alexander-leap-of-faith-release where it says, "He has rarely played in, and almost never recorded in, a chordless trio setting. It also marks the first time, in a discography that counts more than 40 releases, that Alexander has recorded an album consisting solely of his own original tunes," I see that I mixed up the parts about "original tunes" with "chordless trio setting". Mea culpa. I ordered it as I am interested to hear what a Jazz Times reviewer calls a "freer, rawer, more searching, more relentless" Eric Alexander. While that may be true, I can still call a Dex tune in 2 or 3 sax notes, be it from 1962 or 1979. Dex was Dex all the time. Having said that, Eric Alexander is one of the few modern tenor players where I can usually tell it's him in 4 or 5 notes.