Kevin Bresnahan

I had some cdjapan credit to use up so I ordered a few of these. I'll see for myself how they compare to the other issued CDs.

Ok Allen, you find Fred boring. But did you have to burn down Scullers to stop him from playing tonight? http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/09/19/doubletree-suites-hotel-in-allston-evacuated-after-fire-knocks-out-power/

Baritone sax alert! Gary Smulyan is coming to Methuen, MA's Sahara Jazz Club. Should be a good time. He's bringing me an advance copy of his newest CD, The Ellington Saxophone Project. Kevin

It doesn't happen often, but there have been a few times when I've forgotten that I was listening to an LP instead of a CD. I only fell asleep listening to a record once. It was a bummer to wake up to that soft whisssk-thump. That stylus is long gone now and my new one, an Ortofon Black, is rather expensive to replace. This is worth just for that.

I just got an E-mail from Music Direct and they just got in a new product called the Q Up. It's an automatic tonearm lifter. Neat little thing too. Unfortunately, it's also $60. It looks like a great Christmas gift idea.

I would return a DVD-R to a seller. It's not as advertised. In my experience, yes, DVD-R's do degrade with age. I don't know if I've had one DVD-R play cleanly after a few years. They seem far more susceptible to damage than CD-Rs. BTW, if this DVD-R is a copy of a commercial release and the supplier included all the protections of a commercial release, a simple "copy" is not straightforward. You can't simply insert the disc in one drive, a blank in the other a press "copy". You'll have to use a hacker program like DVDDecrypter. Kevin

There were some (very expensive) CDs issued only in Japan. I may have more but a couple I know I have are Billy Mitchell's "De Lawd's Blues" and Sonny Criss's "Saturday Morning". I think that Charles McPherson was one them too but I don't have it. They were priced around $30 each so I was very picky when buying them

I used to play parts of Fred's 3 disc set "Songs Without Words" quite often but I have to admit, I haven't spun it in a while. I prefer him with a horn so I really like the work he's done with Jane Ira Bloom. "The Red Quartets", "Nearness", Modern Drama" & "Mighty Lights" (with Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell rounding out the rhythm section) are all very good as long as you are not soprano sax adverse. Their duet album, "As One" is pretty but I can see it boring some people. I guess it depends on what you want out of it. If you want some mostly mellow noodling, it'll fit the bill. If you want steaming, foot-tapping music, it'll be boring.

No duplicate threads is especially important for "RIP..." threads. I have been a member of a forum, now defunct, that allowed duplicate threads and when a name player died, there were usually 4 or 5 simultaneous threads about it, each with several replies. It was stupid and annoying. I am glad that most forums today stop this kind of stuff.

Jack's is very close to being a vinyl shop too. The new CD section is only a few feet long and the used bins aren't nearly as full as they were during CD's heyday. I've been buying more and more vinyl these anyway so I appreciate the change. I imagine if people were still buying CDs, his stock would reflect that. He stocks what sells.

I have 2500 pts at cdjapan so I was thinking about ordering a bunch of these new LT CDs but I can't seem to find *anyone* who can tell how they stack up against other CDs of the same material. I love my Mosaic boxes but there are times when I want to hear one particular session and I don't want to figure out which CD to load and which tracks to play. In particular, I am torn on Jimmy Smith's "Cool Blues". The Ron McMaster CD was cut with the tape playing too fast (which is why it was deleted) and the RVG CD doesn't sound all that great. If this new LT CD sounds good, I'll be all over it because I think the session is very good. However, I don't want a compressed pile of audio goop. Kevin BTW, in the vinyl realm, I agree with Mike that these LT LPs don't sound that great. Most of them suffer from some sort of weakness that later releases have revealed. For instance, the Connoisseur CD & LP of Hank Mobley's "A Slice Of The Top" are much better than the LT LP. The LT LP suffers from a weird stereo spread and a weak audio presentation, particularly with regards to the cymbals. Kevin

Some photos of texts from McLean's Consequence,that are common to all these releases: Alex.- Since you have this new Japanese CD, are you able to compare it to the CD from Mosaic box or even the regular US Blue Note CD issue from 2005? Kevin

Has anyone had a chance to listen to any of these CDs and compared them to any other CD releases? I am considering a few just to have them outside of a Mosaic box but not if they sound lousy. Thanks, Kevin

Johnny Griffin - The Congregation (Connoisseur "Wally" pressing)

Shelly Manne - Shelly Manne and His Men Play Peter Gunn

Good to hear your Dad's doing well. I miss my Dad. He's been gone 6 years now and I still find myself thinking "I've got to call Dad and let him know"... then I remember he's gone.

Part of the reason for the demand of this CD, is that it was deleted rather quickly due to some problems with the release at the time. From what I heard, the reissue producer, Mike Berniker (also the producer of the original session?), apparently didn't get the clearance to release it because there were questions as to whether it was owned by Fontana or Epic. It is very hard to find. Quite honestly, I buy it whenever I find it because I know someone will be looking for it. From an earlier organissimo thread http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/36274-tubby-hayes-clark-terry-new-york-sessions/page__st__15 which quotes an allaboutjazz thread: "This absense may well be explained by the copyright issues surrounding exactly who owns the album. A CD reissue of the complete October 1961 sessions which appeared in 1990 on the CBS label (Tubby Hayes with Clark Terry - The New York Sessions; CBS 466363 2) was swiftly withdrawn after a bit of legal wrangling. Epic (part of CBS) may have recorded the album but technically it was a Fontana production, which must mean that it is now under the banner of Universal." Kevin

That CD did used to fetch big money back in the CD's heyday. I remember buying a copy of this for Michael Cuscuna because he couldn't find one himself.

Ah, I have fond memories of those CD Safaris. I met and interacted with a lot of great people at record stores in those days. But the writing is on the wall - I am one of a dying breed. Most people just don't buy physical product any more. My daughters certainly don't buy much these days and when they do, they rip it to mp3 and toss the CD on a shelf. It's harder today, but I still "make the rounds". Sadly, the search radius has gotten much, much bigger. Like you, I spend a majority of my money on Saturday mornings at Jack's... but it's almost all on vinyl!

spelt wrong (again) & he's not in the picture!! this album may have been printed before he changed the spelling of his name. That's probably true. BTW, that was originally released as "Playboys" and it also had Lawrence as the spelling.

So has anyone *heard* any of these reissues? Do they sound better than the Mosaic CD version or worse? Do they sound better than the US CD or worse? Anyone? Bueller?

Continuum: Mad About Tadd - The Compositions of Tadd Dameron (Palo Alto Records) Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter & Art Taylor. A very polite tribute LP. Nothing to blow your socks off but plenty of good playing. The band sticks to it so if you're looking for new interpretations of Tadd's music, you might want to look elsewhere. But with this band, it's an excellent LP.

There's also one of Stanley in a regular ol' shirt:

I was searching the web for something related to Francis Wolff when up pops a Flickr link for Fred Seibert of Mosaic Records. It led to this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84568447@N00/sets/72157602793374237/. Wow! Quite a few I've never seem before. I saved the largest size of each, found by clicking a photo, clicking it again, bringing up the "slide show" and then clicking "View all sizes". I plan to use them as a screensaver. BTW, Fred also uploaded some B&W Francis Wolff photos, but most of them are not as big and many have been on Mosaic's website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84568447@N00/sets/72157618341754741/. Stanley Turrentine in a Bill Cosby sweater:

I've heard nothing but good things about the Ortofon 3M Red. I have the Ortofon 3M Black and it's been great. Grado's sub-$100 cartridges are pretty good too but there are some complaints that they can hum on certain turntables.