Kevin Bresnahan

I was told that these are bit-for-bit copies of the original CD. From what I was told, the company doing it is going to continue to add titles as they acquire hard-to-find original CDs. These are not created from mp3s.

Sorry to pick on you so much, but I can't help it. There have been studies done that show that CD-Rs are not any more prone to read errors than regular pressed CDs. In fact, in one study I read, the CD-R had less read errors than the factory pressed CD that it was made from. If you have stuck a few CDs into high speed drives (like in your PC), you probably hear different sounds. Some older, heavier CDs sound like a helicopter is landing in the room. The ability of the CD player to spin the disc up without wobble is one of the most important aspects of good digital playback. As for bad 1's and 0's resulting in "overall poorer sound", that just can't happen. If a bunch of 1's and 0's were read incorrectly, the resulting music would not have reduced bass or rolled off highs. Enough bad data and you get clicks and drop outs. The flipping of a few 1's or 0's cannot alter the frequency nor the amplitude. That isn't how the audio D/A conversion process works.

What is a "damaged part" of a CD?? A little CD101 is in order here. The 1's and 0's on a CD are NOT a linear representation of the analog signal. After the analog signal is digitized, those 1's and 0's are mixed up in a special way and moved all over the CD to prevent a small scratch from obliterating the complete string of data. When a few 1's and 0's are "scratched out", the error correction uses the 1's and 0's from other parts of the CD to fill those "blanks" back in. What that means is that every "sample" does not have to extracted with 100% accuracy. It's better if it is, but it doesn't have to be. The only other thing I can add is to never use iTunes if you want the best possible copy. Always use Exact Audio Copy. It reads and re-reads individual bits off of the CD to make sure every bit is read accurately. As for CD-Rs going bad... if this is happening to you, I'd suggest: 1) Keep your CD-Rs away from high heat and bright light. Never leave a CD-R laying on your car dashboard. 2) Buy better blanks. I only buy Taiyo Yuden or Mitsui blanks. Yeah, I pay a bit more, but I worry a lot less about the longevity.

I don't see one valid point in this sentence. 5 talking points in one sentence, all with no validity in my real-world experience. 1) If a system is "extremely good", it would have no problems extracting the 1's and 0's from CD-R media. Therefore this "extremely good stereo" would be less able to discern a CD-R. 2) What is the definition of an "extremely good stereo"? An expensive one? Who defines "extremely good"? What piece of the playback chain makes it "extremely good"? 3) CD-Rs don't "disintegrate". There is a slight chance that if one was subjected to high heat and bright light, the dye layer could fade, but the CD will never disintegrate. 4) I have several music and data CD-Rs that are over 13 years old. Not one has failed. I have never had a CD-R fail. 5) Pressed CDs will last much, much longer than 20 years. Where on earth did you come up that number? I have hundreds of CDs that are already well over 20 years old.

Does anyone know where I can find out how and/or where I'll be able to get this in the Boston area?

Where are you buying these? I'm buying them at a local store called Bull Moose Music for $18.88 each. They are listed all over the web at the usual places for around $20-22. Your local shop should carry them. Kevin There is no local shop anymore. Acoustic Sounds has them for $22. New Blue Note LPs or Dusty Groove has them for $18.99.

Where are you buying these? I'm buying them at a local store called Bull Moose Music for $18.88 each. They are listed all over the web at the usual places for around $20-22. Your local shop should carry them. Kevin

Just finished: McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy (Blue Note) Now up: Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil (Blue Note) These new LPs are a steal at under $20. It includes an RVG CD that you can give away to someone to try and gain a new fan.

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder (Blue Note) I got a copy of the newest reissue cut from the analog master by Ron McMaster. Sounds awesome and a hell of a lot cheaper than the $50 45 rpm version out there. Best part - not having to get up every 10 minutes.

The Classic DAD of "Lou Takes Off" is one of the few Classics DAD discs that I liked more than the TOCJ CD. BTW, these DAD discs will play in any modern DVD player. The only DVD players that balk at it are first-generation players without 24 bit/96 kHz DACs.

Just finished: Tommy Flanagan - Nights At The Vanguard (Uptown). Boy, I wish that there was a "Complete Nights At The Vanguard". Two nights of recording should have resulted in some more great stuff. Now spinning: Mulgrew Miller - The Countdown (Landmark). Looks like a promo that someone got, opened and never played. Joe Henderson, Miller, Ron Carter and Tony Williams - what more needs to be said about this one?

Wait a minute. There are only about 150 titles on the first two lists combined. Are you saying there will be another 150 or so in early 2009? I don't know what time frame the 300 titles came from, it's just a number that Michael Cuscuna told me yesterday. It may include stuff that has already been deleted. I'm sure that if more titles get deleted, True Blue will let us know. Kevin

The other side of the deletion binge is the one we all want to avoid - what about future reissues? My guess is we may soon see the end of the CD reissue program. I wonder if these deletions are why Blue Note suddenly decided to license a whole bunch of classic titles to Analogue Productions for release on hybrid SACD?

In case anyone's interested in how these titles were chosen, I was told that some outside accounting firm was called in to choose the titles for deletion. The Jazz people were not consulted which is why some of the cuts seem so odd. I imagine the reason the latest RVG releases are meeting an early death is because they were released during the CD sales decline and at a time when the EU releases had copy control, making a lot of buyers opt out. With no sales history going back to the "good ol' days", they must look like anemic sellers. All told it look like they're dropping almost 300 titles, but there will still be almost 700 titles in print. On the bright side , at least Jazz isn't suffering as much as Classical. The cuts there are in the thousands. Kevin

I knew this was coming but it's still a shock to see it. All those Lee Morgan titles? Ouch. When all this is done, what *is* in print will likely be a very small list. I wonder if Amazon's "on demand" program is about to expand? Kevin

Ditto! I was psyched to open this thread and see "Roulette". These Columbia dates are easy to find on vinyl. Bobby Watson's Roulette dates are also MIA (and much harder to find on vinyl).

This story just proves that French men are the biggest *liars*.

Tweeter is going out of business and I stopped into the Salem, NH store yesterday to say goodbye to a few of the salesmen I've dealt with over the years. On my way out, I saw a Pro-Ject Debut III sitting all alone just begging to be looked at. It was missing a power supply and the anti-skate weight so I asked them how low they would go. I got it for $150. Once I get it going, it's going to replace my Denon DP-29F on my 3rd system. I might take the Denon into work and set it up on a PC in the lab.

A fool and his (or her) money are soon parted. If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. A sucker is born every minute. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. All of these sayings and many more, all with the same general theme, are drilled into our psyche from a very young age. Clearly, this woman is an absolute idiot.

Wrong. These were cut from the masters by Ron McMaster at Capitol Mastering a few months back. It sure seems like people just like to bitch. "Blue Note stopped making LPs! Waah." "Blue Note is making LPs again! Bah." Make up your minds. These are Blue Note's best selling titles. If they want to find out what the LP market's like, these are the titles to use. If these can't sell, there's no way they're cutting a Tyrone Washington date. Kevin

A few years back, I picked up a sealed LP of Jerry Bergonzi's "Front End" on Bruce Gertz's Not Fat Records label. It's trio date with Jerry Bergonzi, Bruce Gertz and Bob Gulloti. Great stuff. Last week, I saw Bergonzi and Gertz at a local club and I asked Bruce if he had any more stock of the Not Fat Records LPs since there were 5 other titles I was interested in. He got back to me yesterday. He had all 5! So I ordered: Con Brio - Con Brio (Not Fat Records 01-22) Gonz - Uranian Undertow (Not Fat Records 02-22) Jerry Bergonzi Quartet - Featuring Bruce Gertz (Not Fat Records 03-22) Con Brio - The Ray (Not Fat Records 04-22) Gonz - Caught in the Act! (Not Fat Records 06-22) All delivered new to my door for under $90. I can't wait to hear them. BTW, I would E-mail Bruce through his "Contact" E-mail rather than use those PayPal links. The PayPal links don't discount shipping for multiple LPs and if you click on a title with LP & cassette, it defaults to cassette.

I left years ago, don't miss and never going back as long as Mike Ricci is running the place. The guy's a jerk.

Just spinning Gonz's "Front End" on Not Fat Records. Gonz is Jerry Bergonzi, Bruce Gertz and Bob Gullotti. The only bad thing about this record is that it has me wishing I had the other Not Fat Records recordings by Gonz.

I just got an E-mail from AUM Fidelity that they are offering William Parker's latest recording "Petit Oiseau" in a 2 LP set. Only 500 copies will be pressed. After about 10 minutes ago, there are only 499. BTW, the band on this date: William Parker - bass, cedar flute; Hamid Drake - drums, balafon & frame drum; Rob Brown - alto saxophone, B-flat clarinet and Lewis Barnes - trumpet, is the group that made "O'Neal's Porch" one of my favorite recordings of 2001. The link: http://www.aumfidelity.com/aum050-LP.html Kevin

The only person who might know is Cuscuna. "Blue Note" the company, just went through a rather large workforce reduction. I don't know if anyone is even technically working for Blue Note any more.