Kevin Bresnahan

I already have the excellent-sounding UCCU-5669 CD as well as the Music Matters 33 rpm LP versions so I don't think I have inferior versions at my disposal. In fact, the Japanese CD I have has 2 alternates that aren't available elsewhere.

I just can't justify $38.50 + shipping to find see if there is an incremental improvement in the sound quality. As I get older and my hearing gets worse & worse, I think my days of buying audiophile reissues are over. In this particular case, I have audiophile reissues of many of these titles. I have to wonder if I could even hear the slight sound differences.

If these were worth releasing legitimately, they probably would've come out a long time ago. You might love them, but I'll tell you straight... I would not like these. The recording quality will be so terrible that you'll miss most of the music. They're certainly not worth the >$100/LP that they're getting.

I love Rouse but I can see what Jim means in that clip he posts and I think it has something to do with how Rouse changed the way he played (just a bit) when he was with Monk. I find his playing style "choppy", in that he seems to bite off notes... sorta like Dexter Gordon does at times. In the video Jim posts, he bites off phrases while playing off the bass line, who's walking to a rather slow beat. There's a long drawn-out sameness to it. But like Jim says, *seeing* it makes it rather enjoyable. I wish I was there myself.

Aric - If I ever met you, you'd know. I am not what anyone would call "shy'. At this point, I have to say that I've lost count in the number of posters I've met. There was a time when I had a job that included travel. I met Jazz fans all over the world and I always recommended this place as a great place to talk about Jazz. I imagine several of those people are reading this and saying, "Is that the guy I met who recommended I come here"?

I am Spartacus.

Common problem with contractions... the "'ve" contraction has somehow morphed into "of", so "should've" gets typed up as "should of". I've been seeing this more and more these days. Drives me crazy too.

Jim - You are a moderator. You should not be shitting on my thread. You should be preventing this. That's what moderators do. Could you at least stop being a turd in the punch bowl? CLEARLY, you don't believe in DownBeat or their Hall Of Fame. We get it. We don't need our noses rubbed in it over & over.

Last year's vote totals: Hank Mobley came in 9th place, behind Wynton Marsalis, Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Les Paul, George Benson, Jack DeJohnette, Toots Thielmans & Phil Woods. Not counting the recently departed, who usually get a lot of votes the year they die & the odd inclusion of DeJohnette, am I the only one who sees a trend here? Why the hell are guitarists so overly represented in this poll? My guess is that there is a concerted effort of these guitarists' fans to get them in there. So why is what I'm doing any worse?

Is the umbrella popped inside out from the wind? Nopity nope nope...

Normally, I'd agree with you, but as evidenced by several contributors to this thread 1) most people can't believe he is not already in, so who cares how it happens and 2) 28,000 people vote every year and Hank Mobley only gets a few hundred. Without a real effort to get extra votes, he'll never get in. BTW, I don't think the Veteran's Committee considers anyone who got a certain number of votes so he either gets the votes and gets in or next year we start a thread "2019 Downbeat Hall Of Fame - Don't Vote For Hank Mobley". 😄😄😄😄😄

Tell your friends... they don't have to be Jazz fans... Tell them to:

So we're supposed to discount the word of the entire band Los Lobos because Pail Simon has written some great tunes? Notice how Simon never sued them for libel. I think that says a lot more about what happened than anything.

I wonder if I can get Eric Alexander to pull for some DB HOF votes on his Facebook page? Hmmmm... maybe I should ask? He certainly appreciates Mobley's work as he has recorded quite a few of his compositions.

Clearly, the number of recordings means nothing to the poll creators. How else can you explain the absence of players like Billy and Eric Alexander, another player who has put out several records recently. As I said earlier, DownBeat doesn't seem to favor the straight-ahead players these days.

If what I've read is true, many believe that Hutcherson's "Live At Montreux" was released directly into the cutout bins.

The man himself (from his Facebook page):

I saw that too. Ben just e-mailed me about the availability. Ordered my copy. I've wondered about the viability of Newvelle Record's business model. If all it takes is waiting a couple of years and to get a CD version with extra tracks for about 25% of the cost of the Newvelle LP version, I would think many will wait. I can't see them gaining too many more subscriptions now that this is happening. Now, if they had launched their service with a much more reasonable price, I'd be a subscriber already.

Again Jim - if you don't believe in it and (clearly) don't care one iota about it, can't you just ignore us here and let us have our fun with this? I really didn't expect my simple request to fill out a survey would break out into this. It's going off the rails. My wish was simple really. It certainly wasn't to start a debate about the benefits to those elected nor to debate the usefulness of Downbeat and/or their polls.

In case you're wondering, here are the DB HOF members as voted in by the Veteran's Committee: Gene Ammons (V 2012) Eubie Blake (V 2017) Jimmy Blanton (V 2008) Hoagy Carmichael (V 2016) Harry Carney (V 2008) Paul Chambers (V 2011) Bing Crosby (V 2014) Tadd Dameron (V 2009) Baby Dodds (V 2010) Billy Eckstine (V 2010) Erroll Garner (V 2008) George Gershwin (V 2017) Robert Johnson (V 2013) Jo Jones (V 2008) Philly Joe Jones (V 2010) Jimmie Lunceford (V 2008) Herbie Nichols (V 2017) Oscar Pettiford (V 2009) Sonny Stitt (V 2012) Dinah Washington (V 2014) Muddy Waters (V 2015) Chick Webb (V 2010) I read it cover to cover almost every month. I still discover some new music by reading it so it has value to me. I don't like their polls a whole lot nor do I agree with their HOF, due to some serious omissions, like the great Hank Mobley , but it has value for me.

This is funny as heck but... you really cannot equate an RVG CD to that picture on the right. I get it that you think they all sound like crap but you are not in the majority on that, at least for every RVG CD. Look, I am not a huge fan of the sound of many of these RVG CDs either, but quite a few of them presented the recording in its best sound on CD at the time. I would also note that these RVG CDs are nowhere near as hot as many of today's remasters, particularly in the rock genre. Those TOCJ-9XXXX remasters are ear bleeders in comparison to the RVG CDs.

That's exactly what I want. "Hey, Hank Mobley's in the DownBeat Hall Of Fame," would suit me just fine. And no matter what you & I think of Downbeat's Polls, Artists of the Year, Album of the Year and, yes, even the Hall Of Fame, the Jazz world (artists, labels, critics, etc) generally eats it up and let's face it, the DownBeat Hall of Fame is, by default, the Jazz Hall Of Fame. As such, it will be around a lot longer than you & I and if I can say that I saw Hank Mobley listed there, I will be happy.

Buyers certainly did "ask for it". The Rudy Van Gelder series was born in Japan. The Japanese paid Rudy to remaster a small number of titles as a limited release. Demand was so high there and here, that they removed the "limited release" from it and sold a bunch. I recall a lot of people who had previously complained about Ron McMaster's CDs buying all of these up - pre-ordering them, in fact. It got to the point where the US arm of Blue Note couldn't ignore the demand. As a result, the RVG series was born. In fact, the first batch of US issues were taken from the Japanese masters, right down to the near mono sound. Michael Cuscuna had to have RVG re-master them for US release to widen the soundstage. So to put it this way - US buyers caused this series to cross over the Pacific. We "asked for it" by buying so many of those mini-LPs from Japan.

I don't understand where you're going with this exactly but I'll answer anyway... Hank Mobley is dead. He gets absolutely nothing from here on out. Ashes to ashes and all that. This is true for anyone who is already dead. Posthumous honors are for the living, in this case, his fans. I am one of them and as such, I would really like to see this underappreciated artist finally get his name listed there. If you don't think he belongs there, don't vote for him. I started this thread after searching for the DownBeat Hall Of Fame and found that quite a few here never voted at all. I saw this and thought I would ask if my fellow board denizens would do me a favor and click through a few screens to help get Hank the honor I believe he deserves.

Hank gets overdue recognition. We get Hank Mobley in the Jazz Hall Of Fame.