Kevin Bresnahan

I agree that some of those guys go a bit overboard. Many of them are great guys whose opinion I value. Don't put too much into reading one thread, particularly this one. Why? This thread is an example of when it's a bad idea to solicit an opinion over at the Steve Hoffman forums: when SH has worked on the master for another label. NEVER talk about another version of a session if there's a SH version. You'll never get anyone to agree with you and you'll likely get booted for disagreeing with Steve. In my experience, Hoffman never seems to "like" any other version of a recording he worked on. Proof? Check his post #172 in the thread in question. Hoffman says, "Well, I have not heard the new mix but I understand what you mean by "space" or lack of it." Say what?? He's posting on a thread about a newly remastered CD and comes on and tells everyone, "Try and find the common and cheap "old" Fantasy CD", when HE'S NEVER HEARD THE NEW REMASTER?? I love Steve Hoffman's work but sometimes, he's wrong. I have to say, this may be one of those cases. The worst thing about topics like this is that you simply cannot argue this with SH. If you do, you'll be "gorted" off the site quicker than you can say, "Steve, aren't you wrong to...". That's a big weakness at those forums. Steve's opinion is gospel, even if he has never even heard the CD being discussed. Kevin

RIP Steve. Live it up, everyone. You only get one. Sounds like Steve got use his wisely. Cancer. I hope our society gets better at battling this disease, which seems to affect every single human on the planet.

JJ Johnson's RCA big band recordings would fit the bill. I really dig "J.J.!", recently reissued as a Mosaic single. Tubby Hayes's "Tubbs' Tours" and "100% Proof" should still be available. Very nice hard bop big band. I prefer "Tubbs' Tours" ever slightly. Kevin

Well, I did it... LCD for me. I just decided that I'd rather pillar-box 4:3 content and I didn't want to chance burn-in. Maybe I made a mistake, maybe not. I went with the Mitsubishi LT-46131 1080p 46" model. My last Mitsubishi CRT set lasted 17 years. Hopefully their quality is still there. Kevin

I e-mailed Hiroshi and pulled Timmons' "Got To Get It". I thought it was just a trio date. It doesn't sound like something I'd like. Thanks for letting me know. Kevin

I put my order in with Hiroshi. I ordered: VICJ 41811(16 bit) Criss,Sonny(as)/Sonny's Dream 1000 VICJ 41812(20 bit K2) Terry,Clark(tp)/Serenade To A Bus Seat 1000 VICJ 41814(16 bit) Fuller,Curtis(tb)/With Red Garland 1000 VICJ 41817(16 bit) Griffin,Johnny(ts) & Eddie Davis(ts)/Lookin' At Monk 1000 VICJ 41820(16 bit) Jordan,Clifford(ts)/Spellbound 1000 VICJ 41831(16 bit) Jones,Sam(b)/Soul Society 1000 VICJ 41862(20 bit k2) Ammons,Gene(ts)/Goodbye 1000 VICJ 41863(20 bit k2) Stitt,Sonny(as)/So Doggone Good 1000 VICJ 41887(20 bit k2) Roach,Freddie(org)/My People 1000 VICJ 41890(20 bit k2) Timmons,Bobby(p)/Got To Get It 1000 VICJ 41894(16 bit) Stitt,Sonny(as) & Jack McDuff/Meets Brother Jack 1000 VICJ 41896(16 bit) Griffin,Johnny(ts)/Grab This! 1000 Some of these fall under the "I've always wondered...." banner, others are ones that I've been meaning to buy for a while but I just haven't gotten around to it. I had several others that I wavered on but when I checked into them many are on two-fers in the US. Offhand, do I have any real stinkers in here? Kevin

Any opinions on the non-K2 versions here? I have several of these titles on my want list, and the price is right. Are the "normal" CDs using the same mastering as their US counterpart or does it have a unique mastering? Quite a few of these are CD-only compilations that would appear to have been done originally by OJC in the US. If Sonny Stitt's "Soul People" is simply the US-mastered CD with an obi stuck on it, I don't need it. If it's differently mastered, I would want it to compare to the US CD if only because it's one of my favorite Sonny Stitt dates. Kevin

If you got the money, there is a solution to add a headphone jack to any audio gear with line outputs. $399 is the price you'll pay.

Unfortunately, Chesky is not very well distributed around my area. I've only found them at one store, Integrity 'N Music in CT. I have the Hazeltine and I agree that it is one of his best dates. The SACD layer sounds phenomenal. I want to pick up several more of these. Maybe after Christmas.

I have a 36" Sony 4:3 CRT XBR TV now. I've become an HD junkie. I watch it almost exclusively. Georgeous picture. Unfortunately, the 16:9 picture is only 33" diagonal. It's big, but I want bigger. The biggest 16:9 CRT TV ever made (and still being made) is a 34" by Sony. When you pillar box a 4:3 show, it's 22" diagonal. Microscopic. BTW, Sony still makes a non-XBR 4:3 36" diagonal CRT. If you don't need or want one bigger, it's a great bargain at less than $900. Be aware that it weighs 216 lbs (75 kg)! Kevin

I'm agonizing over this very thing right now. Rear projection TV, especially Sony's SXRD set, can have great pictrure quality. However, their off-axis viewing, both vertical & horizontal, leave much to be desired. They all suffer it to some degree and many truly stink unless you're sitting dead center in front of the thing. To me, here's the differences between LCD and plasma. LCD Pluses 1) No burn-in - LCD can burn in images; I've done it on a PC monitor at work. But it takes much much longer than a plasma. 2) No reflections in a brightly-lit room 3) Less power than a plasma 4) No burn-in - Watch 4:3 SD channels with side bars 5) Long life - Replaceable back-lighting can extend the TV's life 6) No burn-in - Play games with static images without worry. 7) Beautiful picture 8) Can be used as a PC monitor. 9) Decent viewing angle - Maybe > 100 degrees off axis and you still have a good picture. Not great, but watchable. 10) No burn-in - Did I mention burn-in? Minuses 1) Poor pixel response time - Even with today's 4-8 ms response time, I still see "motion blur" in every LCD TV today. This is particularly annoying with sports. Watch the sidelines during a football game. They blur on LCD. They shouldn't. 2) Poor blacks - Blacks look "gray", particularly in a dark room. The darker the room, the more the backlight has to work, lightening the overall picture, including "black". Plasma Pluses 1) Beautiful picture - Truly amazing picture on many of these TVs. 2) No motion blur - Although some people can see another artifact, which I think is from plasma's "pixel shifting", that can annoy them as much as motion blur 3) Great off-axis picture. Just like a CRT TV. You can still see the picture even if you're 179 degrees off axis. Minuses 1) Burn-in - Although the latest sets have nearly eliminated this problem, you still have to run the set for about 100-200 hours with a constantly changing screen. 2) Power hog - Most plasmas use about 1/3 more power than the same size LCD. In the size I'm looking (46"-50"), the Pioneer 5070 is very good, using only 351 Watts. The Panasonic plasmas are above 500 Watts. 3) Glare - Glass screen. Reflections in a brightly lit room can be distracting. 4) Not good for gaming - Burn-in potential 5) Life - ? Supposedly, they've upped the life expectency of plasma to 60,000 hours. The thing is, by then the phosphors will be so dim, who would want to watch the thing? You can't recharge a plasma screen. I go back & forth between the Pioneer 5070 plasma (5071 at Best Buy) and the Mitsubishi LT-46131 LCD. Motion blur annoys me a lot. I watch a lot of football. I am going to go watch some football on the Mitsu to see how bad the motion blur is. If it's as bad as it has been on the Sony, Sharp & Samsung LCDs, I'll likely go with the Pioneer plasma. BTW, regarding your inquiry about a "pure" monitor. This seems popular in the plasma industry, but not so in the LCD world. Almost all the LCDs are TVs. Kevin

I love the Johnny Hodges set. It is probably my favorite Mosaic right, but just by a bit. I may even buy a second box as a back-up. Later, Kevin

Well, I got one for all you... if he's not crazy for planning to do this, am I crazy for going with him? God, we're gonna be wrecked the next day. I don't care how old you are, you gotta get sleep. But it'll be worth it for this special night. I remember pulling regular all-nighters in college. How did I do that?

Tascam's CD-RW750 is one of the most affordable Tascams out there. It is discontinued so act now. They also offer a Hi Rez recorder, the DV-RA1000 that even records in DSD, the SACD format. Too bad it won't "make" an SACD out of this DSD recorded disc, but still, it has potential. Denon & Tascam still seem like the best of the bunch right now. Too bad about the HHB. It was "the one" for quite a while. Kevin

Times have changed since this thread was started. Word is that HHB was bought by Sennheiser and the quality has plummeted. I would stick with Denon or Tascam if I were to buy a CD burner right now. Tascam is a "professional" unit, meaning it doesn't have SCMS and can use PC blanks. That pushes it to the front of the pack. However, it is expensive. Kevin

Can you hear Mark Elf's Keith Jarrett-like whining? Great guitarist but the whining drives me crazy. Don't sit near the stage.

Michael Cuscuna may have been in charge of the reissues in 1980 when this was released on LP, but I wonder if it wasn't someone else who worked on it. Michael's made it clear enough that he doesn't think this session is "Blue Note material". That's why he let Water reissue it. He didn't want to. It's OK, but I'd certainly grab one of Harold's Contemporary CDs over this one any day. Later, Kevin

When I was a kid, Mitch Miller's Christmas sing-alongs were our family favorites. They were easy to sing along with since it was about 40 guys singing at full volume. No matter how badly you sang with them, they would easily cover your boo boos. BTW, this thread is bumming me out incredibly. In the past few years, I've burned a lot of old C&W stuff for my Dad. He was a huge Hank Williams fan. When he first asked for my help, I used to gack at some of the stuff he had me convert from LP to CD. Since his death in July, I no longer have this onerous task. I wish I still did.

A .pdf cannot infect your computer (as far as I know) but the term "self-extracting" is scary, scary. That means the file is an .exe file. NEVER click ANY .exe files! All .exe files? I think my Nikon View shortcut desk icon is an .exe -- that's a bad thing? Never click any .exe files in E-mails. There are other extensions that can do damage as well, but .exe is easy to spot. About the only file that I open in E-mails is .jpg files.

But John, they most certainly do! All you have to do is forward that e-mail to spoof@bestbuy.com. Believe me, they will shut down any websites linked to that e-mail. They will likely send you a nice "Thank you" e-mail as well. NO! Even if you KNOW the sender, do not open ANY .exe attachments unless you speak with the person over the phone to find out what they sent. Many viruses send themselves out via E-mails to everyone on the infected person's address book. The E-mail from a "friend" may be from the virus. Later, Kevin

A .pdf cannot infect your computer (as far as I know) but the term "self-extracting" is scary, scary. That means the file is an .exe file. NEVER click ANY .exe files! Definitely a nasty spammer. I shudder to think what that attachment would install. It's probably a keylogger. Keyloggers are getting more & more prevalent. These applications record everything you type and send it to the thieves, who go through it looking for usernames and passwords. FWIW, I was very upset when my Mom decided to get off the web when my father died. Now, given how poor her PC skills are, and how prevalent these scams are getting, I am so glad she made this decision. One less PC mess I have to fix. Later, Kevin

I have seen both and I have a copy of the artwork. I bought the John Hardee CD that came out at the same time (called "Tired"), but I didn't buy these because I had the material on the Classics CD and I didn't feel I needed the alternates. I'd love to go back in time and get those now. I just love the way the Japanese remastered stuff back around then. Kevin

A Tina Brooks two-fer - "The Waiting Game" combined with "Minor Move". Oh, wait a minute... Wayne Shorter - Adam's Apple, Eve's Plum (you have to be over 35 to get it) Stanley Turrentine - My Prostate Never Lets Me Go Larry Young With Cannonball Adderley - Into Somethin' Else

Grant Green - Am I Blue Or Is It Just Cold In Here?

That was great! Love stuff like this. Too bad work blocks youtube.com or else I could show it to some co-workers. Later, Kevin