Kevin Bresnahan

I put in our requests. We'll see what happens. Some notes: The Kenny Cox material wouldn't fit onto one CD without dropping one tune. He might do that but then he figures the complaints would start rolling in for that one tune. He doesn't think Cox justifies a double because doubles carry a higher list price that many people won't spend. Frank Foster's "Manhattan Fever" isn't his favorite... nor mine, truth be told. It's pretty far down the list. Andrew Hill's fans seem to really want "Andrew!!!". That one might make the list. He was intrigued by a two-fer of Quebec's 45 sessions. Once again, two-fers typically don't sell well. He will look into doing Tyrone Washington's "Natural Essence" with any extra material from the "trainwreck" session. I told him he had to call it "The Trainwreck Session" in his notes or no one would know what session he was talking about. Booker Ervin's unissued session in on the short list as is Cherry's "Where Is Brooklyn". Young's "Contrasts" seems to be a possibility too. If I hear back with anything, I'll let you know. Oh yeah, one more thing... there's a chance they might license out a couple of PJ titles like the Pepper Adams and Ellis sessions. This same (un-named) label is also trying to license some of Bobby Watson's later material. Later, Kevin

I forwarded Claude's initial post in this thread to Michael Cuscuna to see if he could ask Ron McMaster about this. Obviously, Claude is not the first to note a preference for the TOCJ CDs to the Mosaic Select and I thought it merited sending off. To preface Ron's response, this is what I said in my E-mail: "I know that one of the remastering stations out in LA has a NoNoise plug-in. It's listed on many remastered CDs of older material. Does Ron use it on his station? I ask because of a thread that someone started on the www.organissimo.org board." Following this, I inserted Claude's original post. After adding Claude's original post, I said: "So what do you think of his analysis? I tend to doubt Ron used NoNoise but maybe it was turned on by accident? Does Ron list what mastering station he uses on his masters? I see on their website that Ron usually uses Mastering Suite 2 (as shown on their website at: http://www.capitolstudios.com/capitolmastering/ms2.html). Maybe for the Moncur set he used Mastering Suite 1 ( http://www.capitolstudios.com/capitolmastering/ms1.html ), which is where Bob Norberg usually works. BTW, others have commented on the Grachan Select sound and the general consensus has been that people should keep their TOCJ copies if they have them. I imagine that's why Claude went out of his way to get one. I never thought it sounded that bad but I will admit that I never did an A/B comparison." So, that's what I sent. Ron McMaster replied back: "Claude compared the Mosaic Select release of Grachan Moncur III's "Evolution" to the Japanese TOCJ release of the same track. He states that there is tape hiss on the TOCJ version while my version is "dead quiet", therefore confirming his suspicions that I use NoNoise filtering on my remastering. This is completely untrue. The version that you hear on the Mosaic Select is from the original RVG master tapes. The track (as well as all the others on this release) are just ever so slightly eq'd so as to sound as they did when they were originally recorded. They contain no NoNoise processing of any kind. This is the closest to the original as you can get. I'm sorry that Claude does not like my mastering job on this release as he feels that the "treble on the Select seems capped", however this is the original RVG sound as it was intended. As you know it was intended to be heard on vinyl, not digital but that is another sonic argument in it's own right. However, when I hear people say that "the Mosaic Select sounds like it was made from a multi-generation tape copy" I must set the record straight. I keep notes on every project I do and I can tell you that all of my sources on this Mosaic Select were original analog masters from our vault. Now if the Japanese license the music and decide to put their eq'd version of it out, then that's up to them. I always discuss with the producer what they want and how they want to approach the project. We don't just master songs and put them out without getting final approval from the producer of the record. We have a few simple rules that we go by when we remaster any original tracks. We always try to stay as close to the original sound as we possibly can and we never use any NoNoise processing unless I have the consent of the producer. I hope I have helped clear up the "Mosaic Select vs TOCJ" questions for now." BTW, Michael Cuscuna also E-mailed me. He said, "Tell the guy it's a known fact that the Japanese overdub tape hiss to trick audiophiles". Although I have to say, I read this as a joke. Maybe Chuck Nessa could tell us if this was a joke or not? Later, Kevin

Reinier, I don't understand... Ron McMaster's bench is also 24 bit, 44.1 kHz. I believe one of the differences is that his station has SBM. SBM may be the root of this. I've read where a lot of people don't like the sound they hear with SBM. Remember those CBS gold CDs? They were touted as superior because of SBM. Most people today consider them inferior because of SBM. Only a couple, like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and Roger Waters' "Amused to Death" get written up as "best available". A good question would be, "Can SBM be turned off on a Sonic Solutions remastering statyion"? Later, Kevin

Does anyone know what Rudy Van Gelder uses as his digital remastering station? He may use a Sonic Solutions station himself. I'll try to ask Cuscuna what RVG uses. Now that'd be interesting.... The only other thing I can add about RVG CDs is that I have had a couple that I tried inverting the polarity and I thought they sounded much better. Maybe a placebo, but no matter, I thought Shorter's "The All Seeing Eye" improved dramatically when I inverted the polarity. Too bad it's such a pain in the ass to do. Impossible in a car. BTW, I think Andrew Hill's "Dance With Death" Connoisseur CD is one of Ron McMaster's best remasters. Later, Kevin

Jack Woker told me that these Scorpio LPs are supposed to sound OK. I was pretty interested in Mobley's "Dippin'", cause it's one of my favorites. But I still haven't tried it yet. I'm still debating whether to start buying stuff on vinyl that I already have on CD. Right now, I'm not but I may just to experiment. This weekend, I once again had a flashback as to why I hated vinyl. I was spinning one of my latest Euclid purchases, "Xanadu at Montreux, Volume Two" when right in the middle of a nice Barry Harris trio track, pop... pop... pop... for about 2 minutes! Arrrgggh. Ruined the whole track for me. I put it onto CD-R and I'm trying to cleam it up but it's a pain in the ass. Later, Kevin

I've been told that these Blue Notes are being made by Scorpio Records out of Philadelphia. Supposedly, this is the group that ran Evidence Records which is now defunct. Later, Kevin

Excellent site! Many of their titles show at Stereo Jack's in Cambridge for a bit less but if you don't have Jack's place, this website would be a godsend. Those Epics are well worth the $9 or $10. Those Donald Bailey discs are both great. Ditto the Charlie Rouse. Curtis Fuller's "South American Cookin" is very good... Zoot Sims plays his ass off on this. I see they have Fuller's "The Magnificent Trombone". I don't have this one. Any good? Later, Kevin

I hope to be able to post more of Ron's words on Claude's thread about the "NoNoise sound" of the Moncur select. Ron's a pretty nice guy to talk to. He swears he is only trying to get us "master tape sound". I go back & forth with his work... ditto RVG. I tend to dig RVG's remasters for the piano and maybe organ, but the cymbles sound like crap on quite a few of his remasters. RVG also has missed on a couple that sound like AM radio. I don't know... I can't say for sure which I like better. FYI, the latest batch of Connoisseurs sound very good to my ears, even Mobley's "The Flip", which I though sounded bright on vinyl. I thought Ron McMaster did a good job flattening that out. Lon, there seems to be a lot of us that think RVGs are bright, and since I read where you felt "The Flip" sounds better on LP, is there a chance that your set-up has a high fequency dip? I mean no disrespect, but it would be worth checking out. If it turns out to be true, I may try to dupe your set-up. I find a lot of today's rock & roll remasters are too bright as well. Later, Kevin

It's unfortunate that some of the biggest proponents of EAI over on the Jazz Corner are also some of the most arrogant people on Jazz Corner. Their put-downs of fans of stright-ahead jazz get old fast. This board, while open to all styles of Jazz, is much more into straight-ahead styles. If the less open-minded EAI fans from other boards drift on over, I can see this discussion going nowhere but downhill... and fast. Look, I ain't gonna stop ya, and I ain't gonna engage ya in it either. Every EAI disc I've sampled just hasn't been my style at all. I don't dig it. Hey, if the discussion stays in this thread and I simply ignore it, I guess I should ju...............

Sonic1, isn't there plenty of discussion about this over on Jazz Corner? It has become a contentious topic over there. It seems to start up the same ol' "What is Jazz" stuff. Why bring that over here? I'd just as soon see it stay over there. If anyone wants to do some research, the first thread they started over there about this music can be found here. They eventually closed that one (because it got too big) and started a new one here. Later, Kevin

It depends on which redbook CD you buy. If you buy the old, pre-SACD remasters, the SACD hybrids sound much better, even the redbook sector. If you're talking about the new remastered CDs that just came out last year, those are simply the redbook sector of the SACD hybrid discs. They sound identical. The thing is, these latest remasters seem to be priced about the same as the hybrids. I'd get the hybrids just in case your next player has the capability. Later, Kevin

For the record, there is one LP in this set that has never been on CD, "Midnight Sun". I know I've gone back and forth on this set just because of this. I like the "Midnight Sun" session quite a bit but if I pick this set up, I'll have a bunch of TOCJ CDs with the same material. I still may bite. Later, Kevin

I'm sure I've told the story before, but my introduction to Mosaic was pretty wild. First, back in the late 80's, I saw an ad in Downbeat and called the phone number to get a catalog. When it came in, I saw a few great looking sets like the Ike Quebec 45s Sessions, the Tina Brooks set and the Freddie Redd set. I called to order all three but the Redd was sold out. I ordered the other two and was about to hang up when I was told something weird... "Call back for the next few days and we'll see if we get any returns on the Redd set". I was saying to myself, "Who the hell returns one of these?" Well, for the two weeks, I called. I called one day and by that time they knew who I was... the guy looking for the Redd set. The person on the phone (Scott maybe?) said, "Nope, no returns... oh wait a minute... there is one in the return bin. Let me check." A few anxious minutes went by. They came back and said, "Someone's supposed to have that set on hold." I was crestfallen. I joked, "How much were they willing to pay? I'll pay more." The guy laughed and said, "Kevin, tell you what, the person was told the set was in and they didn't call back so the set is yours." But wait, the story gets more twisted... I asked why it took two weeks to get a return and I was told, "This set was returned from Italy. The buyer died." Talk about a crazy way to get a Mosaic! Later, Kevin

The Don Grolnick two-fer was his complete output for BN which consisted of two septet dates that produced "Weaver of Dreams" and Nighttown". It was not a compilation, they were complete. $24.99 was list price, which I thought was pretty good for two complete albums. I paid less, maybe $19, but no matter, it wasn't a "ransom". If I had bought these two sessions by themselves when they came out, I would have paid a lot more than this. I rather doubt these would be considered for reissue again. They've been out twice and not sold too well. FWIW, I see that two-fer in the used bins around Boston often. I wouldn't consider that to be hard-to-find. Later, Kevin

I sent this to Michael Cuscuna and he forwarded it to Ron McMaster. If I hear anything back, I'll let you know, If you check out Capitol Mastering's website, you can see that they have two mastering benches, one with NoNoise and one without. I specifically asked Michael to see if maybe Ron used a different console for this title. Later, Kevin

Kevin, Do you want to forward the information here (at least suggested titles) to Cuscuna? Let us know how we might facilitate giving our "dibs" a voice. Thanks! Sure, I do it all the time. Keep 'em coming. I was going to try to give him a call today but with the storm... Later, Kevin

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't care if it was or wasn't a fumble. It was balanced the karma for that atrocious "roughing the passer" back in '76. And remember, the league reviewed that "tuck rule" fumble in the offseason of that year, said it was called correctly and even refused to modify the rule. It's still in place. Later, Kevin

Is that Atkinson? Yes it is... right over the border from Haverhill, MA, who reported 34 inches on one channel tonight. I think the snow drifts are messing up some snow totals. Luckily it was fluffy. The snow blower ripped right through it. Shoveling the dog path was a PIA. Later, Kevin

If you refer to Blue Note LPs 1512, 1514 and 1525 all titled "A new sound, a new star, Jimmy Smith at the organ: These were on a double CD in 1997 in the Doubletime series: Nope, I've got that one too (thanks Erik!). JS at the Organ with Blakey, Burrell and Donaldson was part of the Smith Feb '58 Mosaic, but otherwise has only been out on disc in Japan. Jimmy Smith at the Organ Vol. 3 is one of the ones that they're thinking about for the June RVGs.

I just finished clearing the driveway. It looks like we got around 20 inches. I even had to clear a path out the back door for the pooch. Here's a (rather dark) picture out the back door. Later, Kevin

I have anywhere from 18-22 inches outside my door this morning and it's still coming down pretty hard. My poor dog had a tough time "takin care of her business" out there! I'm just glad that this stuff is of the "fluffy" variety. If this was heavy, we'd have roofs collapsing. Later, Kevin

Michael Cuscuna sends me titles and he'll either say, "These are OK to post," or he'll say, "Don't post these yet." These RVGs titles came into my E-mail box with a "hold off on posting" note. The weird thing is that the list included catalog numbers, usually a sign that it's pretty firmed up. In looking at the list, I have to wonder if Michael isn't trying to get a couple of changes. When I asked why one title was on the list because I thought it was a poor seller, he responded something like, "These titles were already done for the Japanese series." Maybe US BN doesn't want to spend the dough to get RVG to do new titles? I don't know. I hope to get the OK early next week. BTW, in the last E-mail I got from him, he said, "Starting to plan the next Connoisseur series. Get your dibs in now." Later, Kevin

Lately, a lot of the places I like to chat have switched over to canned software. I believe 3 of them, Jazz Corner, All About Jazz and Steve Hoffman's forum use vBulletin. It has a nice feature that changes the icon for a thread if it's a thread you replied to. Does the Power Board software have options for stuff like this or is that a vBulletin "special"? Kevin

They upped the forecast for my area to 18-24 inches. I'm just glad it's supposed to stop around noon tomorrow. I have quite a few people coming over to watch the Pats (in HD - yeah!) and I gotta get the driveway cleared. I'm lucky I got this Honda snowblower. This thing just eats it up. Highly recommended if you're in the market for one. The variable speed is a must. I used to snap shear bolts all time before I had this machine and variable is key, especially when you get to the pile at the end where the plows leave you a nice "present" every storm. Later, Kevin

I did get a preliminary list of June RVGs but I haven't been told that it's OK to post it yet. None of the titles mentioned here are in that RVG list. I did ask why he hasn't done "Where Is Brooklyn" and he replied that he was planning to make that a Connoisseur release. Later, Kevin