Kevin Bresnahan

SS, man, you're posting with a bitter taste in your mouth and it shows. Chill out and stop looking to vent about the board's ugly death. I cannot stress enough to you how much Michael Cuscuna cares about his work. He is just as upset at any screw-ups as you are. You may not believe me or you may not care but I think it needs to be stressed that these mistakes have not nor have ever been "fluffed off" like the guys at Blue Note don't care. THEY DO CARE. But I'll leave this discussion this way: SHIT HAPPENS!! (Man, I always wanted to type that at the Blue Note board) IT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE. Are you trying to tell me that you can honestly sit there and say you've never made a mistake at your work? Can anyone ever make that statement? Cuscuna and everyone at Blue Note are human beings. They make mistakes. If there are insufficient checks and balances, be it man or machine, those mistakes will slip through to the final product. It's part of life... just like Blue Note's fucked up way of killing their board. Later, Kevin

According to my notes, this is what Michael told me about these two Mosaic Selects: The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Bennie Green – 3 CDs All three of his albums as a leader ("Back On The Scene", "Soul Stirrin'" & "Walkin' and Talkin'"), the 45s session plus the parts of Ike Quebec's "Easy Living" that Bennie Plays on (the sextet stuff) Randy Weston – 3 CDs 2 United Artists albums "Live at the 5 Spot" & "Little Niles" (the album "Destry Rides Again" will not be included per Randy’s request) 2 Roulette albums (one unissued) "Piano a La Mode" from the Jubilee label "African Highlife" from the Colpix label Later, Kevin

I think I'll pass on the Weston unless someone can change my mind. I bought "Uhuru Afrika/Highlife" disc and I hated it. Traded it in after a couple of listens. However, I love "African Cookbook" with that smokin' Booker Ervin so it's not like I hate everything he's done. Later, Kevin

I've been in Michael Cuscuna's office and seen all the shit he has to check out as reissue producer. I am not excusing him for the errors, it's his job to catch them all; however, I think he has too much to do for one man. The worst thing is that a lot of the errors are fixed and still get put out. For instance, most of the graphical errors happen after he signs off. They piss him off tremendously! "Along Came John" is a perfect example. Michael gets these printer "proofs". They look like the cover but there's all kinds of colored bars on edge of the paper. He approves it and off it goes to the printer. However, he approves a hard copy and a soft copy goes to the printer. If the keeper of that soft copy sends the wrong file... you can see where this goes, right? Like I said, the end error is ultimately his fault: he's the producer. What should have happened is that he should have checked the first production batch of discs and fixed any errors but I get the feeling that he doesn't always do a lot of "post-release" checks. That's also why "Dialogue" got screwed up. It was obvious when you listened, but does everyone listen? I don't think so. I don't know how anyone in his position could possibly listen to all the pre-CD mastered DATs, review all the copy, listen to all the post-production samples and re-read all the liners etc. of every CD he's got a hand in. On top of that, he's still in the studio on occasion (supposedly with Blanchard for his BN debut) and he has a LIFE. FWIW, I recently pleaded with Michael to send me some advance copies of these upcoming SACDs. I want to make sure these get done right. With their projected $20+ price tag, people are gonna scream bloody murder if they're screwed up. I like Michael and I'd like to help him avoid that if I can. BTW, those "Booby Hutcherson" and "Bobby Hucherson" spelling errors as well as many of the recording date screw-ups (like the RVG of "Midnight Blue") are correct in Michael's files on his computer so the process of getting what he has on his computer over to the printers seems to be the process they need to fix, if you ask me.... Hmmm... they need a good computer guy.... Nah! They couldn't afford me! Later, Kevin

I checked out www.coolsavings.com and they appear to be a legit e-mail spammer i.e. someone submitted your e-mail address to them and the actually think you really want to receive them. Generally, I say to never let the spammers know you are "live" but in this case, you may want to poke around and see if you can opt out of these e-mails... I doubt it, but it's worth a try. BTW, you may have submitted your e-mail somewhere that was affiliated with these slimeballs and not even known it. It's always worthwhile to check to see if they stuck some spyware on your machine to see if they had an "in". Go to http://www.lavasoft.de and download Ad-Aware. Do it now before it's too late! Later, Kevin

Oh God, no! How could anyone confuse a Varitone attachment with a bari sax!?! That's just nuts. AMG seems like they try to "bite off more than they can chew" if you ask me. There are always tons of errors and those errors are after they fix a bunch of earlier ones. Later, Kevin

Are you sure Donaldson plays Baritone sax on "The Scorpion". I no longer own it, but I could swear that when I did, Lou played his alto with a Varitone attachment. If Lou's playing bari on this, I may have to give it another thought. BTW, for the record, "Along Came John" has been officially out of print for many months already. Later, Kevin

I know Walter hates it when I refer to this essay he did on the rec.music.bluenote newsgroup many years ago, but it is germane to this discussion so here's the link: http://users.bestweb.net/~msnyder/avantgar...arde/avant1.htm Check it out. BTW, Walt checks in over at Jazz Corner's Speakeasy on occassion. He's one of the nicer guys I used to chat with on rmb, back in the days before bulletin boards! Man, was that already 10 years ago?? Later, Kevin

DB, these Mosaic sets showing up in stores count against the total contract. All they do is take stock out of Mosaics warehouse (or "back room" in this case), and stick them on retailers' shelves. The set is still "limited". BTW, as I understand it, back a few years ago it was common practice for Japanese stores to carry Mosaic boxes. Back when the Yen was strong, they could buy them from Mosaic cheap and re-sell them with a huge markup. I read somewhere once that one store had a couple hundred sets of the Grant Green on their shelves... Sonny Clark is very big over there. Having these sets in retail stores can't be bad for Mosaic, they get the sale, even if it's to a big chain. Hey, if my pockets were deep enough, I'd buy a shitload of these things and stash them... of course, I know I wouldn't do it... I just wouldn't feel right speculating on Mosaics. But if I was rich, it would be hard not to buy a bunch. Maybe even just give them to libraries. Later, Kevin

I mentioned I another thread that I've been talking to Michael Cuscuna about "things Blue Note & Mosaic" and what I am hearing from him about how Blue Note feels about the board is very disappointing... and no, I am not going to be calling Tom any more about it.... well, maybe I won't. Anyhow, from Michael's comments, it seems that Blue Note isn't particularly worried. In fact, Michael still talks like the board was taken down to "improve" it. They are acting like the new board will open in May and all will click on over there like someone who just had a new house built. I have my doubts that anything they do will be that mind-boggling, but that's what I'm hearing from Michael. Are they simply that naive?? Maybe. Are we over-reacting to a redesigned board? Quite possibly. Is steve(thelil) really able to post with both hands... never mind. I do have to add that getting mad is perfectly understandable... I gather that Blue Note isn't particularly worried about us. Has anyone ever gotten an e-mail from them about the whole fiasco?? I used to get e-mails every two weeks or so. We have been kept in the dark about this, that is certain. However, I still see no reason to boycott Blue Note or Mosaic. I buy Blue Note CDs and Mosaic box sets for ME, not the company. If I boycott these record labels, I'm the only one being punished by preventing myself from hearing some great music. Blue Note has proved, to me at least, that my one or two CD per month habit means diddly-squat to them. Mosaic is a different story. They won't survive if enough core customers stop buying stuff. I don't equate Mosaic & Blue Note. They had absolutely nothing to do with what BN did to their board. I don't even think Cuscuna could have called them and asked them to do it differently. They didn't ask anyone, they just did it. Sure, I am mad... I am also sad... I am also confused. You see, I have met Tom many times. I will continue to hold out some hope that Tom may let me know the whats and whys of what he did but as time moves on, it looks like I thought too highly of our relationship. I guess an electrical engineer with a fascination with Jazz doesn't place me too highly in the Rolodex of record label execs (sniff...). Although, to plump up my ego a bit, Michael was just asking me what SACD player I recommended. Also, I have to say that I think Blue Note's reissue program is fine with me. They have and continue to have a successful way to get customers to buy their product. We went over this on the BN board a lot, but I'll ask again: If someone here, a Jazz fanatic, is standing in a CD store with $20 in their pocket with the intention of spending that $20 on one CD and they have one BN Connoisseur CD and one OJC "Limited Edition" CD in each hand, which one are you going to buy first (assuming that they are both high on your want list)? My answer is, and always has been, the Blue Note Connoisseur. I know that it ain't out forever. OJC's unlimited limited editions actually hurt their sales in my opinion. Lastly, I do agree that the US policy on copyrights (75 years after the owner's death) is a bit rediculous. However, don't act like this only benefits the record labels!! The artists' estates get royalties the whole time a copyrighted performance is released and sold. Artists and/or their estates get diddly-squat when their work goes out of copyright and is sold. In a nutshell, Ike Quebec's estate got some money from BN Japan when they reissued Ike's 40's material. Ike's estate got nothing when Classics put it out. Later, Kevin

Ah... one of my favorite Stitt CDs. I always thought this was a "CD Only" release? Isn't this disc almost 60 minutes long with 2 or 3 bonus cuts? Was it a 2 LP set? "Sonny's Book" is one of my favorite blues tunes. Later, Kevin

Ed, I picked up the Buddy Defranco set, Lon got the Art Hodes, another friend of mine got the Ike Quebec 45's and I just, JUST missed the Quebec/Hardee!! I still have never seen the Quebec/Hardee on CD... probably never will. BTW, I got the DeFranco set for $75. I was extremely happy at this purchase. I am suprised at how much I've enjoyed it, especially when I didn't expect to. Later, Kevin

Ed, Which threads did you post to over at Jazz Corner? I missed them myself! I have always posted over at Jazz Corner... just not usually about Jazz. I usually post in The Alley and usually about wine (one of my other passions). Later, Kevin

The Three Baritone Saxophone might not have had Cuber intially but I am pretty sure that Cuber took a spot when they toured right after the CD came out. He has some nice recordings out on Steeplechase that are well worth picking up. I finally got to hear those Xanadus in the past year. OK but not as good as the Steeplechase dates. Will Xanadu's catalog ever make CD? Better yet, will Bee Hive's? Later, Kevin