Kevin Bresnahan

I have no idea which forum this belongs so Miscellaneous Music seems as good as any... My Facebook friend Pete Cherches learned that an old Internet friend of mine from the Jazz Corner forums, Jose Domingos Raffaelli, died in April in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro at the age of 77. I had a fairly long E-mail chat with Jose once. He was a very nice guy who knew more about Brazilian music than anyone I ever met. His obituary can be found here: http://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/morre-aos-77-anos-critico-jose-domingos-raffaelli-12311791#ixzz3GFhRwnXO but it's in Portuguese. A Google translation brings up this: RIO - died on Saturday at age 77, the music critic José Domingos Raffaelli, considered one of the most important names in Brazil in the analysis and dissemination of jazz. According to his son Flavio, music critic struggled against a tumor on my spine. He was buried on Sunday at 16h, in St. John the Baptist Cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Botafogo. Instrumental music enthusiast, Raffaelli learned to value and point out new trends. According to the Brazilian Press Association, it was the first article on the bossa nova published in newspaper ("Last minute") in 1959. As a journalist specializing in jazz, appeared in GLOBE, from 1987 to 2002 also wrote for the "Jornal do Brazil" (1972-87) and "Time", from Belo Horizonte, between 2002 and 2003, as well as collaborating with several national publications and foreign magazines. Closely followed the Brazilian instrumental scene as drummer Pascoal Meirelles remembered on his Facebook page: "Our Raffaelli was one of the most important people to embrace the work of the performer, encouraging, positive weaving every critical work released, appearing in all concerts on his meager time allowed." Raffaelli also had a long career in radio, producing programs and debates. His dedication to jazz earned him awards as granted by the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) in 1999 as the best critic of country music outside the United States, and another at San Martin Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, in 1989. In 1976, he won a competition of international scope of the American magazine "Down Beat", a leading publication dedicated to jazz.

If you do go for an acrylic platter on the Debut Carbon, you might want to consider one from Tizo Acryl out of Germany. I bought one from them a few years ago and it's a heavier platter that looks very nice. It's about the same price as the Pro-Ject one. http://www.acrylteller.com/epages/es122814.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es122814_acrylteller/Categories/ACRYLTAUSCHTELLER/fuer_ProJect/Debut__Line Remember to subtract 19% (VAT) from their prices for US customers.

That was a hard one to find.

They're running a special. Find 2 other discs and you get a 30% discount on the Gonsalves. The shipping for the US is the same whether you buy 1 CD or 3. It is 1600 Yen either way. I added a couple of Venus CDs and the 3 discs were about $56 total.

I came home to a package from HMV and I'm happy to say that after 7 years or searching, I am finally spinning Paul Gonsalves' "Boom-Jackie-Boom-Chick". It came to ~$20 with the discount, including the shipping. It sounds very good to my old ears. The piano sounds out of tune or like some rinky-dink piano in a couple of places but that's probably on the master.

Pardon my French, but I'll stick to my opinion that this is merde. I've tried to get into these two dates many times and I've just given up. To my ears, they really aren't very good at all.

I've always been a fan of "The Book Cooks" on Bethlehem (which is what my copy is called). Of course, I love the blues and this disc has several great ones, particularly the opening "The Blue Book". I remember having to search for this CD for many years and finally paying quite a bit of money for it. Even paying more than I should, I've never been disappointed in the purchase.

This is a bit confusing so let me ask a few questions to (maybe) clarify some things. Are the masters no longer available? If they are not, who has issued the best sounding versions of these sessions? If they are not, what versions were used to make this set? Were they "masters" from another company's release? Which company? When were they mastered? What did this company use for their sources? If most of this material was issued on 78 rpm discs, why wouldn't these become the new "masters"?

The flipside - oh man... gack, gack: http://wanted-records.com/blogs/daily-discovery/10681085-do-not-disturb-by-don-snyder-jazz-vocals-45

I know RVG CDs seem to have fallen out of favor among most of us, but I found that this Sonny Clark set sounds great. Much better than the old Ron McMaster versions. Of course, YMMV. I'm still looking for an affordable copy of the double RVG of JJ Johnson's Blue Note recordings.

I got an e-mail notice that my CDs were shipped. Yeah, I said CDs, plural. It turns out that they're having a sale and if you buy 3 CDs of a certain type, you get 25% off. I added a couple of Venus CDs and they all came to less than $60 including shipping - less than $20 each!

RIP Hans. I enjoyed many of his posts. He definitely had good taste. Cancer strikes again. It sucks that this disease kills so many of us.

Those look like bad seats. :)

I seem to have passed that age... the age where my hearing is simply not acute enough to hear the major differences between these SHM-CDs and their older counterparts. I'm kinda bummed out right now. I bought a bunch of these discs and compared them to my old CD versions and I have not had one "sit up and take notice" moment. I really have to think about staying out of strict audio discussions on line. I just can't hear the differences that well any more.

That sort of thing used to bother me too. In fact I passed on the two VeeJay Mosaics because of this. However now that I rip all my boxed sets losslessly it's not an issue. It actually makes it easier to tag the files if they are in date order. I've never had any need for studio chatter and false starts, however. Today they seem like a very Nineties CD-era thing. I passed on the Mosaic Ike Quebec/John Hardee & the VeeJay boxes for that reason as well. I don't mind an alternate take here and there but to have 3 or 4 takes in a row of the same song or an alternate for *every* track annoys the heck out of me. I don't know why but it does. False starts are just plain annoying. I imagine musicians find them fascinating but I don't share their enthusiasm. The worst were those Verve CDs (form the 90s ) that had someone shouting take numbers from the booth before each false start. The shouting was usually louder than the music and had me jumping for the volume knob half the time. When I rip CDs with alternate takes, I generally don't rip them at all.

I ordered it from HMV. I am not making the same mistake I made the last time it was in print.

This is good news but why doesn't CD Japan have them? I still need the Gonsalves CD but I've never used HMV. How's their service? Are they are good as CD Japan?

I am not a fan of any releases with track lists like this: 8. Congo Blues (false start 1) (A) 1:04 (Red Norvo) 9. Congo Blues (false start 2) (A) 1:14 (Red Norvo) 10. Congo Blues (tk A) (A) 3:59 (Red Norvo) 11. Congo Blues (tk B) (A) 3:51 (Red Norvo) 12. Congo Blues (tk.C) (A) 3:51 Give me 8. Conga Blues (released take) any day. They probably could have made it a 4-5 CD set if they did.

Last night, I saw a great show at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA: Kenny Werner's Coalition band with Chris Potter as a last minute sub for David Sanchez. They only played about 6 tunes but they were all very well done. I was riveted to my seat for nearly 2 hours by this band. Highly recommended if they come through town. Hopefully, Potter has to keep subbing because he was truly great, although Miguel Zenon gave him a run for his money, especially on his own tune.

I don't know if I'm going to continue with this series. They press at RTI and I've had 3 out of ten records with noticeable dish warp and in my last shipment, Kenny Drew's "Undercurrent" has a glob of some gooey stuff on one side. After a nightmarish return sequence with my copy of Tina Brooks' "True Blue", I haven't even tried returning this.

Ken(ny) Werner - The Piano Music of Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and James P. Johnson (Finnadar Records). It was a dollar so why not? It's actually very good if you like this style of piano music. I wanted to hear Kenny's first recording so I grabbed it.

Bill Barron - Variations In Blue (Muse). Nice date with some great soloing all around. Jimmy Owens plays his ass off on a couple of tunes. Unfortunately, the record is pretty beat up, with a heavy scratch through most of Side A.

Go next Thursday. Kenny Werner is bringing in a killer band with Miguel Zenon on alto and David Sanchez on tenor. Heck, next Tuesday (Eric Harland with Julian Lage and Walter Smith III) is looking good too but heading into town on a Tuesday & a Thursday in the same week is a bit much when the alarm goes off at 5:00 AM.

Some nights, delays don't bother me much but last night's delay effectively doubled my ride home. It turns out that the Mass DOT guys decided to pave route 93 North last night and they started closing lanes about a half hour before I got there. I had to detour into the side roads. Ugh. No matter, I wasn't as bummed out by this delay as I was by Turner's seeming lack of interest in interacting with the people who paid $35 to see him.

But he is billing this as a "CD Release Tour" and the Regattabar advertised it as a "CD Release Show": As such, attendees should expect the artist to have that CD available for purchase or at least offer to personalize this new CD for fans that have already bought it. Like you, I have seen him many times, including a few times as a leader. I have never tried getting him to sign anything before so I don't know his personality quirks but when you are there specifically to push your new CD, you should at least make yourself available to the people who came because of that new CD. I mean, maybe he doesn't have access to any stock of this new CD? Well, tell us that. But if people like you already have it, why not personalize it or at least accept our thanks in person? What's the big deal (for him)? He can say, "no autographs". Several artists have said that lately. But to basically run off the stage and down the hall into a closed room? That's actually a bit rude for a Jazz artist. I expect that with rock bands but not Jazz guys. And why do you think the band ignored the audience's encore request? What Mark Turner personality trait caused that? BTW, I thought Avishai stole the show. His solos were fun and inventive. I was really digging him.