Kevin Bresnahan

While I have enjoyed many of the titles mentioned in this thread and I do play some of them quite a bit (Pepper Adams), I haven't been all that thrilled with the CD masterings I've heard on quite a few of them. I don't know if the masters are lost or if some of these recordings were just badly recorded, but I haven't been able to find a decent version of several titles. Many of them sound muffled while others are overly bright. I think some of the worst reissues were the mini-LP versions I bought from Japan in the early 00's. Stan Levey's "Grand Stan" and Howard McGhee's "The Return of Howard McGhee" sound particularly harsh, especially if you crank them up a bit. Almost painfully sibilant.

In 2001, the Classical Jazz Quartet created an interesting version of The Nutcracker. The Classical Jazz Quartet is Kenny Barron on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Stefon Harris on vibraphone and marimba, and Lewis Nash on drums. Bob Belden was the arranger. Well worth picking up if you're a fan of these songs. You have to get yourself a copy of Scott Hamilton's "Christmas Love Songs". Great "late night" Christmas Jazz. It gets regular play at my house around the holidays. Also, both Milestone and Uptown did nice Christmas compilations that have some nice tunes. Milestone comp is called "Christmas Songs" and the Uptown Records comp is called "An Uptown Christmas".

Well, since Brubeck introduces "Take Five" as a song that "I am sure most of you have heard", the date of this Hollywood Bowl date must be wrong since nobody would have heard in 1958.

Dan, If they're still available, i'd like the Art Blakey and Junior Mance discs. Kevin

When did Blue Note fix the typo on the cover of "The Sidewinder"? There was a time when I thought there were two bassists - one named Bob Cranshaw and another named Bob Crenshaw.

If there was, be careful if ordering on the used market. My one fanclub CD-R stopped playing years ago and after several e-mails to the fanclub, I've come to the conclusion that I'm SOL (shit-outta-luck) with this disc. Needless to say, I won't ever use that avenue again. Kevin

I always wondered if these simple step/step down converters do anything with the frequency and if this affects audio gear at all. The US uses 110-120 AC Volts at 60 Hz. The UK uses 230-240 AC Volts at 50 Hz.

Can you really use the word "mixed" when describing the sound of a majority of mono Blue Note recordings? If something is a simple fold down, there's no real mixing involved, is there? Don't most fold downs "center" the music?

It seems weird to see a recording studio with a wall of glass windows in it. Isn't that a bit too reflective for a studio or do the baffles around the individual players prevent these windows from coming into play?

There was some talk that this would also be issued on vinyl. I wonder if that was cancelled?

I don't know about that. I have found many Prestige pressings from the mid-60s, like the one you're talking about, that look absolutely terrible. Some of them have been practically new and still look terrible. "Orange peel" and bubbles in the vinyl are quite common for these pressings. Orange peel: Bubbles:

Same stampers and probably the same shitty pressing quality. Were there any bits of paper showing in the vinyl? How about orange peel? Non-fill?

Harry Allen is playing at the Sahara Jazz Club up in Methuen, Mass tonight. Harry always swings his ass off. Should be a good night.

There's something very wrong here... why is an "orig. tape! not a copy" in a box from the United Artists Recording Studio in LA? Plus, that's an Ampex Grand Master Gold 499 tape box - a tape that was around in the 1990's.

Carl Hiaasen - Razor Girl Funny as hell (as usual) with the expected gross caricatures, That's what I like the most about Hiaasen. He has characters do the stupidest things, but by the time they do these stupid things, you almost expect it because he'll have crafted their character flaws to the point where you go, "Yeah, he'd do that".

George Garzone is playing at the Sahara Jazz Club in Methuen, MA tonight. I've managed to catch him the last few times he's played there and it's always interesting to see/hear him play this club as it compares to his gigs with The Fringe. At the Sahara, he's straight down the middle. Nothing like his work with The Fringe.

I'm trying to see if I can get Scullers Jazz Club in Boston to bring Heid in for a gig. I don't know if he's ever played Boston, but if he did, it was either a long long time ago or at some venue far off the beaten path. Kevin

Aw hell... I knew this was coming soon but it still sucks. Thanks for all those great recordings Rudy.

Most memorable for me as the pianist on Nick Brignola's "Baritone Madness". Hard to believe that he was 85.

I'll never forget the concert I caught at the Aaron Davis Hall in June of 2000. The Times reviewer panned it a bit, but other than the corny rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, I thought it was incredible. The lineup? Bobby, Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Scott Colley & Billy Higgins!

How do you make a million dollars selling Jazz records? Start with two million.

No blame intended. Just remember that back in the early days when Hoffman was working with them on "The Sidewinder", they also brought up this "found" master tape. FWIW, they did find the lost master for Dolphy's "Out To Lunch" and their LP pressings are superb. So there is a chance that they aren't making this up.

Let's hope that this "newly discovered master tape" isn't like the time when Music Matters "discovered" the master tape for Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder".

Always a fun show when Toots was on the bill. He was 94? I would not have known he was that old. The last time I saw him, he was still pretty good.

I used to love the Red Sox radio broadcast so much that I used to play the radio while watching the TV with sound turned off. The delay made it even more fun. I used to do the same thing with the Celtics... there was nothing like hearing Johnny Most call a Celtics game.