Kevin Bresnahan

Just played my copy and yes, I agree, too "relaxed" for my taste, nice playing, but the choice of the tunes is definitely on the dull side. I remember being all excited to hear this date when I finally found a copy and how disappointed I was when I finally played it. Snoozer is right.

Now spinning vinyl on my new VPI Scout SE turntable that my wife got me for Christmas. Gerry Rafferty - City To City

Tonight at the Regattabar, Ron Carter, Donald Harrison and Billy Cobham. Should be a good one!

I went there quite a few times in the 90's and it's looks very different. Also, there used to be an archway about halfway down the wall that led to the LP section, which was another room by itself. Of course, I could be remembering it all wrong too.

Herb Geller - Fungi Mama (Comet Records). Live date from Siegen, (West) Germany in 1984. Looks like a boot but sounds like a professional recording. Polite playing by all. I've never heard of anyone in the rhythm section: Hartmut Sperl, paino; Bernd Wolf, bass & Achim Brauer, drums.

Next Thursday, March 20, 2014, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur is bringing a killer band into the Scullers Jazz Club. Unfortunately, the club's webiste hasn't spelled out the band members too clearly. Roni Ben-Hur - guitar Freddie Hendrix - trumpet Grant Stewart - tenor sax George Cables - piano Santi Debriano - bass Victor Lewis - drums After hearing about the band Roni's bringing, I bought a couple of tickets. If you're in the Boston area next Thursday and looking for a great night of Jazz, I suggest buying a ticket or two for yourself.

CD Baby cancelled my order saying, "We've tried contacting the artist multiple times to request more copies, but unfortunately, we're having some difficulty restocking this album. Because we don't want to leave you in order-limbo forever, we're going to cancel your backorder for now."

John Coltrane and Lee Morgan - The Best Of Birdland Vol. 1 (Roulette/Birdland). Original issue. Coltrane on Side 1, Morgan on side 2. It's interesting to hear this as it was released instead of broken up and combined onto other CDs.

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