Kevin Bresnahan

Baritone Madness - Heavy Berries (Swing Master n.m. 004). A Dutch band of Henk Van Es, Jenne Meinema, Alan Laurillard, Hans Bosch & Frans Vermeerssen on baritone sax; Kees Post on Roland piano & synth; Gerry Arling on bass and Harrie Arling on drums. Recorded in Groningen, Netherlands in 1987. Some good stuff, some not so good stuff. The couple of vocal tracks really aren't for me. I can't complain too much for $3.

I let him know but I doubt there's much he can do. He hasn't worked for Blue Note for a couple of years now.

I actually had an application filled out but never submitted for BLUNOTE in NH. I see where it's still available.

Nice ! It was awesome. Mike Stern & Sonny Fortune played some incredible solos. Buster's bass had an electric pick-up that ruined his sound. All twangy and whirring (from his fingers sliding on the strings, but other than that, well worth the trip.

Tonight at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA - Four Generations of Miles Davis with Mike Stern, Sonny Fortune, Buster Williams and Jimmy Cobb.

Billy Higgins - Bridgework (Contemporary). Nice LP made up from a couple of different dates. One session has Harold Land and Buster Williams and the other has James Clay and Tony Dumas. I had Billy sign my copy when I saw him play with Charles Lloyd at the Regattabar shortly before he died. What a nice guy to talk to and a great drummer. I miss this guy a lot.

Different mastering on all three versions as far as I can tell. Now that I think about it, the 3rd mastering might not have had "SBM" written on it. I seem to remember that difference between the 2nd and 3rd masterings is the location of the alternates. The 2nd remaster had the alternate following the issued take and the 3rd remaster had them at the end.

Usually when Faddis is involved, it's too hot for my ears. I've attempted to see him live twice and both times, I left with a feeling that my ear was bleeding.

Whatever happened to Reinier? Did someone drive him away or did he just decide not to visit any more? He was a great guy to talk to.

Peter Gabriel/Various Artists - Scratch My Back... And I'll Scratch Yours (Real World). Includes the music on CD (nice touch). Unfortunately, some of the artists scratching Peter's back are not ones that I've heard much from before. Truthfully, that's what makes it interesting. Peter seems to have lost a lot of range. He doesn't hit those high notes too much any more. Still worth the $25 (for two LPs & 2 CDs).

Years ago, I received a CD of "The Believer" from Billy's fan club, who manages his official web page. It was a CD-R. I didn't think too much of it being a CD-R until I went to play it many years later and it was dead. It wouldn't even rip in any of my PCs. CD-Rs can suck.

I picked up a record collection from a co-worker's house. The stuff has been stored in the attic and basement for decades. All classic rock. I'm going through it and almost half of it is warped. It must be the stuff that was up in the attic. Some cool stuff in the warped pile. The Stones' "Sticky Fingers" with the real zipper. A numbered Beatles White Album (trashed vinyl anyway). Spinning some seldom heard stuff (for me). I'm now remembering why it was seldom heard in my house back then.

Nope. I have the two Henderson "State of the Tenor" discs in my cart at CD Japan but I haven't pulled the trigger. I guess I'm a little sick of re-buying this stuff. I was looking at my Dexter Gordon section the other day and realized I had 2 or 3 CD versions of several titles. Why? I don't play them all. I typically only play the TOCJ version. I rarely play the RVG or McMaster. I am likely going to pare down my BN CD collection rather than add to it. Kevin

I hope people are aware that this thread over on the Hoffman forums has more than likely been well scrubbed. Those threads are almost always censored when the discussion touches on Steve Hoffman's work. I am surprised that some of the posts in that thread have remained but I know that several critical posts have been removed. I don't even comment on threads like that over there any more. Any real discussion about the sonics of a session that Steve Hoffman mastered is pretty much impossible, unless you don't mind getting banned. You really can only say, "It's great," or heavily qualify "It's not so great". You cannot say, "It's bad".

Which McMaster "JuJu" do you have? The 1st (no alternate takes), the 2nd (alternate takes) or the 3rd (alternate takes with SBM) remaster?

Red Rodney - The 3 R's (Muse). This sounds a bit tired which is weird 'cause it's a killer band. Red Rodney in particular sounds pretty weak. Roland Hanna's piano/keyboard sound is rinky-dink and George Duvivier's bass is recorded in that typical late 70's/early 80's twangy style. It might be why it wasn't released right away. The funny thing is, I bought this record mainly because Malcolm Addey was the recording engineer. I guess he got better with time? EDIT: AM I the only one who found it funny that a schoolboard has the band listed with improper capitalization?

I haven't heard Vienna Acoustics speakers in many years but the last time I did, I thought they sounded great but they were pretty expensive. Music Direct has several inexpensive bookshelf speakers on clearance from Focal. I've never heard nor seen them in any stores around here. Has anyone? Kevin

I haven't heard the CM1's but I do like the 685's. I think they look better too.

I love B&W. I have a pair of Nautilus 805S speakers that you might find used for under $1500/pair but it's gotten harder since B&W's latest 805, the 805D with a diamond tweeter, is almost $6K/pair, making the older models more desirable. These things look pretty sweet: http://www.needledoctor.com/Gamut-Phi-MK-III-Speakers. I wonder how they sound?

Harry Allen's "Day Dream" has some great playing by Tommy. One of the biggest regrets of my Jazz listening life was that I avoided Flanagan's trips through Boston because I am not a big fan of seeing piano trios live. Truth be told, it's not a piano thing, it's that I don't like all the bass solos. After many years of my old friend Rob bugging me to go and telling me I was missing a great show, I finally went. It was awesome. I went the next year as well. Then he was gone. I probably skipped 6 or 7 years of shows. Bums me out to this day and I thank Rob for finally getting me to go that first time.

I would like to find that in a bin someday.

Eddie Lockjaw Davis - Smokin' (Prestige). Dark blue/silver label Van Gelder pressing. It's pretty beat up but plays OK (so far).

Sonny Criss - Out Of Nowhere (Muse) - It looks like an original Bell Sound pressing. I'm not a big fan of the bass sound from this era in recording history. Twang, twang, twang goes the bass.

Chet Baker - Smokin' With The Chet Baker Quintet (Roulette). Chet on flugelhorn and some nice George Coleman on tenor. This is a Roulette pressing with a barcode. I see that it's been issued a few other times. I hope the other issues sound better than this one. Very muffled.

I wonder how Eric Kloss is doing these days. Remember our fundraiser for Eric? (http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=17357)