Kevin Bresnahan

Well, for one thing, we're talking about 33 RPM Music Matters LPs that were cut fairly recently, versus Acoustic Sounds SACDs that were mastered and issued many years ago, so there's no way that these Acoustic Sounds SACDs were done at the same time as the current 33 RPM Music Matters LPs that we're talking about here. Now, if you're talking about the Acoustic Sounds 45 RPM LPs and SACDs that were issued concurrently, I was told by a member of that team that there were 2 passes with the master tape to do this. One pass for the LP cutting and another pass for the creation of the DSD master. It made sense to me since the LP is EQ 'ed in the analog domain, which is not something you would normally do for a DSD master. If Steve Hoffman is saying otherwise, I can't argue that. I can only tell you what I was told when I asked how it was done. Again, Music Matters did not issue SACDs. Acoustic Sounds did. Acoustic Sounds only licensed 25 titles for SACD. They licensed 50 titles for LP. I specifically asked if Acoustic Sounds made DSD masters of all 50 titles, hoping for another batch of SACDs in the future, and I was told by the same member of the team a flat, "No".

I have been told that the LPs and SACDs were not cut at the same time. While it is true that the SACDs were made by the same team, it was different pass on the master tape with different EQ settings. You have to EQ the master to overcome vinyl's shortcomings (the needle would jump out of the grooves if you don't sum the bass). You don't have to do that for DSD. I don't even think the two were done in the same mastering studio. Also, not every MM LP was released on SACD, so they did not create a DSD master for every MM LP they cut.

Are the track timings listed anywhere? Sometimes, soundtracks yield truncated performances and I wonder if that's the case here.

Is Davis still active at 86? I don't think I've ever seen him in the 27 years I've been going to gigs in Boston.

Connelly/Bosch did turn me onto one of Art Pepper's recent Widow's Taste releases in one of his last books, so he does have some good recommendations.

I just finished Michael Connelly's latest Harry Bosch book last night, "The Other Side Of Goodbye". It was one of his better efforts. It was not easy to figure out who the criminal was this time. One complaint is his continuing pushing of Grace Kelly as some great Jazz musician, especially since he continues to push her as a saxophonist. She's really become a singer who occasionally plays a sax solo.

After all these years, I still haven't found a reasonably priced set. One of these days....

Yes, Ron was the lead guy for this series. As far as I am aware, Don Was didn't have anything to do with the Music Matters reissues. Am I missing something here?

Lesser known titles most likely would not sell in the quantities needed to make their business model work. I believe they license a title for 3,500 copies but it might even be 5,000 copies. I don't know what their break even point is, but it's probably more than 1,000, which is likely the most copies they'd sell of some of the more obscure Blue Note titles. A lot of the obscure Blue Note LPs are obscure for a reason. No one bought them. And by the way, according to Michael Cuscuna, most of those old sales trends are still valid today. There are a few exceptions but in general, if it didn't sell well when it was originally issued, it won't sell well today. To get an idea of what I mean, look at this reissue program. They released the "standard" big sellers, i.e. "Blue Train", "Soul Station", etc. Boring, right? They sold out of these "standard" titles! That's how you make money in this business. It's not by selling 600 copies of some Don Cherry LP. It's by selling out of all of your inventory.

Interesting posting name - Joe Louis. Hmmmm, the first name of the guy I used to get these sessions from was Louis. I wonder if it's him? If so, it would be very surprising considering how closely he used to guard these session tapes. Maybe he's just getting to that age where he realizes that he won't be around forever?

His widow Patti seems to have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/patti.migliori You could try to use this to contact her to see if she still has the master or if anyone ever issued the music on it.

The Planar 3 isn't a bad choice but I'd recommend a Ortofon 2M Red or Blue over the Shure.

I'm with you on direct drive but be aware that direct drive tables are an either or proposition right now. They're either entry level or super high end. There are no "middle of the road" direct drive turntables any more since Denon exited that niche. I'm not with you on moving coil though. They're much harder to match to the preamp and some MC preamps have too much gain for some amps, causing distortion. I've yet to run into a problem like this with any MM cartridge I've used.

A total budget of $750-1,000 makes it tough. Most nice cartridges cost >$500. Check out The Needle Doctor's on line store. Looking there, I would look closely at the Pro-Ject Xpression Classic for $999. It comes with an Ortofon 2M Silver cartridge. I have the 2M Black myself and I think it's a great cartridge. Unfortunately, I would think you'd have to look into the used market to get something really nice for under a grand. The Marantz TT-15S1 is a very nice mid-level turntable to consider. It's made by Cearaudio for Marantz and comes with a Clearaudio Virtuoso Ebony Wood MM Cartridge, which retails for $900 by itself. Too bad it's $1,500 at most places so he'd have to stretch his budget for it. BTW, what preamp does he have? Does it have a built-in phono preamp? Does it accept both MM as well as MC cartridges? That may limit his choices as well.

I can play all songs in order or shuffle them. I can also hit the "Browse" button and sort by genre or artist. I can also drill down to individual albums. So if I want to to hear "Soul Station", I just click Browse>Artist>Hank Mobley>Soul Station. I can play all the tracks in order or I can shuffle them. BTW, the only way that I can get the tracks to play back in album order is by naming the tracks "01 - Remember", "02 - This I Dig Of You", "03 - Dig Dis", etc. Most players play back in alphanumeric order. Starting the track name with a number takes precedence. Be sure to use 01, 02, 03, etc. If you use 1, 2, 3 instead, track number 10 will play after track 01. Also, the reason I drop in individual tracks instead of keeping them in their perspective folders is because of filename length restrictions. Some car players limit filenames to 72 characters. You would think that is enough. But if you put Dexter Gordon's track "Until The Real Thing Comes Along" from the album "A Swingin' Affair" onto a USB stick in folders, the actual track name the player sees is "Dexter Gordon/A Swingin' Affair/01 - Until The Real Thing Comes Along", which is 70 characters.

Yes. I used to use Q2 but I switched to Q1 a few years ago. Both are indistinguishable from the CD used to create the file to 99.9% of listeners.

From http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=LAME#VBR_.28variable_bitrate.29_settings VBR (variable bitrate) settings VBR: variable bitrate mode. Use variable bitrate modes when the goal is to achieve a fixed level of quality using the lowest possible bitrate. VBR is best used to target a specific quality level, instead of a specific bitrate. The final file size of a VBR encode is less predictable than with ABR, but the quality is usually better. Unlike other MP3 encoders which do VBR encoding based on predictions of output quality, LAME's default VBR method tests the actual output quality to ensure the desired quality level is always achieved. Usage: -V <number> where <number> is between 0 and 9, 0 being highest quality, 9 being the lowest. (Note: The "V" has to be a capital letter.) Example: -V Q2 Fractional values out to three decimal places are also accepted, with 9.999 being the absolute lowest quality. Example: -V 2.75 Note: The switch --vbr-new, which enabled a superior VBR mode in LAME 3.97 and some previous versions, is no longer needed with LAME 3.98 and higher, as it is now the default VBR mode. However, if you're still using LAME 3.97 or older, you have to add --vbr-new to your command line to use that mode. The target bitrate and actual typical bitrate for each VBR quality level is shown in the Technical details for recommended LAME settings section below. If you need a predictable bitrate (in a streaming application, for example), use ABR or CBR modes, described below.

I convert all of my music to mp3 at VBR Q1. I don't mind that the files are a bit bigger, I just want the best sound. I don't like the sound of the cymbals on many Jazz mp3s encoded at lower bit rates. They sound weird - all swishy and unnatural.

2012 Toyotas and 2016 Subaru USB playback has a shuffle option. I switched over to mainly USB playback in my cars. I have two 64 GB sticks (1 for Rock, 1 for Jazz) in my Camry. You can put a whole lot of music on a 64 GB stick. There is a trick to get glitch-free playback with a large USB sticks like this though. You need to minimize the number of folders you use because then the file name gets too big. What I do is just copy the individual tracks onto the stick. I haven't had any problems since.

This series is only 25 titles so it was almost done. It certainly does seem like Audio Wave/Elusive Disc is taking a long time to get the last 5 titles out. Maybe the sales on the earlier titles was so poor that they stopped? As sonnymax mentioned above, these are being released by Elusive Disc (Audio Wave) so you could e-mail them to see what's up.

The article says that he has had 6 (!) heart surgeries, 2 of them "major" and he is 74, so I would guess that his health is probably the most important factor in his decision to take it easy.

Gary Burton to retire after 13 concerts in eight cities across 17 days in March. From his website: http://www.garyburton.com/news/this-is-it-gary-announces-his-retirement-from-the-jazz-world/

Contact Dusty Groove (www.dustygroove.com)/ They would probably be able to help you out with distribution in the US.

I like how the artwork mimics the original 1987 Beatles Revolver CD, from the obvious cover art to the not so obvious layout & font of the back cover. Most people would mimic the LP. I like how this mimics the CD.

Do a Google image search and you'll get an idea of the place. Since it's tent that is open on the sides, the audio all comes from the speakers that flank the stage. They seem to crank it up to get it out to the tables outside the tent so it is always loud. Personally, I would not want to get too close to that stage. My ears ring enough already. I saw the J. Geils Band there a couple of years ago and it was too loud. I saw Huey Lewis recreate his "Sports" album there as well and it was so loud I had to wear earplugs. Hopefully Jarre is able to tone it down.