Kevin Bresnahan

My two daughters are such huge fans of Friends that I've had to sit through many hours of that show and Perry's character was the funniest by far. 54 is far too young. Although from what he wrote in his autobiography, it's 5 years more than the doctors thought he'd have. RIP Chandler Bing. And if you like syrupy, comedic love stories i.e. "chick flicks" & you just happen to think Salma Hayek is one of the most beautiful women ever, watch Perry in "Fools Rush In", currently free on Amazon Prime Video. He is really good in it and... well, Salma.

If this is a CD-R, be sure to back that up on your hard drive. VSOP told me in 2012 that all of their CD releases would be on CD-R. I haven't bought one since.

But I have two 30-something daughters, so I'm subjected to a lot of "today's music" when I'm with them. My oldest daughter is a big Swiftie so that stuff gets played a lot. They have never mentioned or played anything by Lindsey Stirling that I can remember. I have a sneaking suspicion that this singer is popular among an even younger generation than my daughters which only makes me feel that much older. According to Wiki, "Crystallize" was one of her most watched YouTube videos. Never heard it before. Interesting stuff.

Man, I'm a fucking old fart... over 4 BILLION YouTube views and I have never heard of this singer in my life.

She had such a recognizable voice. I enjoyed her personal accounts of her interactions with all the old-time rockers. She seemed to know everyone from those days.

The only issue I had with PayPal was years ago when I asked for a refund from a seller who misrepresented a CD as "Mint" when it had a mangled booklet. I sent the disc back and PayPal refunded me the money. The seller then put in a claim for non-payment, so Paypal allowed it & charged my credit card again. I got them to refund it (again) but somehow the seller managed to convince them to charge me a third time. I got it back once again and finally managed to get PayPal to block it for a fourth time. I'll tell you this - if they had charged me one more time, I was closing my account with them. Giving a crook 2 more chances to rip me off was 2 too many.

Regarding Woody's unissued Blue Note date, the story goes that Alfred Lion recorded several sessions for release on Blue Note but before he could get them out, he sold the business to Liberty. Since the deal did not include these recent dates, they were in some sort of limbo, so Lion gave the masters to the artists. I would think that if the deal didn't happen or if the deal had been structured differently, they would have issued this themselves.

I am not a fan of the Experience Hendrix's mastering choices for their releases these past 20 years or so. Every one I've heard has been very fatiguing and not very enjoyable for any length of time. Even their LP releases are compressed too much for my ears. I used to be able to get by it but not anymore.

I've never heard it & unless you have deep pockets, it is not easy to get your hands on a copy of that today, on either LP or CD.

I'm an engineer so I love tweaking things. I've been using Exact Audio Copy for decades for all things ripping & burning. Yes, it can be daunting the first time you use it, but as someone who writes detailed data sheets for complex RF products, I find it pretty simple. On top of that, there are a ton of tutorials on setting it up. If you want the most accurate rip, EAC is the way to go. As burners go... there are better ones but it does work for that too.

Where we differ here is that I love the boogaloo stuff. While "Soul Station" is my favorite Mobley date, his boogaloo dates would come out way in front of his late 50s hardbop dates, which are a bit repetitive. In particular, I rarely spin his two Prestige dates as I find them bordering on boring.

Eddie Daniels - First Prize! (Prestige). Strange how he morphed from this into a GRP clarinetist. You've got to put food on the table I guess.

Now spinning Hank Mobley - A Caddy For Daddy from the Mosaic box. I need something to lift up my spirits. I got a Covid booster yesterday, my first Moderna shot, and it's pretty much wiped me out. Next time I'll make sure to stick with the Pfizer shot, which hasn't really affected me at all over 4 shots.

My current favorite "dinner jazz" trumpet CD:

I've listened to several of his CDs over the years and his trumpet playing is really good. I can't really fault any musician for going for the money, to be honest, especially if they can do it while playing the way they want and can block out all of the other stuff going on around them. The syrupy string stuff just gets old quickly. I play his Christmas CD during the holidays quite a bit when even syrupy strings/synth washes go a long way to a relaxing evening. A friend of mine is a huge fan. He sees him every time he plays in Boston. And he has almost every one of his releases so I've heard most of them. I like them better than almost any smooth jazz release but I have to be in the right mood to listen. This new one will probably get played at dinner time. Dinner Jazz is a thing in my house. I'm not going to play Masada when I'm eating some Chicken Marsala and sipping a nice Cab. Play this new one? Sure. Sometimes when I listen to Botti, I wonder if this would be how Miles would play if he were still alive and able to lift a horn. Botti has made a mint playing this way. Miles never had a problem with that. BTW - I have an unreleased Bob Belden session that he made for a Miami dance club that I've named "Karu" because it's the name of the opening track. If you ever heard this cold, you would likely never guess it was Bob's band. It's dance music. I think it's great and I play it all the time. I have it filed under "Electronic" not "Jazz" because that's how I hear it. Jazz isn't the only music I listen to. Never has been and likely never will be.

The other track being sampled out in the digital world is a vocal track (the sole vocal track?), which I don't think is as good as "Old Folks", especially as it has some syrupy, swirling strings which border on smooth but yet again... not really, if you know what I mean. Like I said, I'll give it a try. It can't hurt. If you're interested in a pre-order, I think today is the last day of the sale at the Blue Note website. I actually ordered the D2C colored vinyl with a signed cover because "why not" - it's the same price as the "regular" vinyl.

Chris Botti - yes that Chris Botti - is about to release his debut recording for Blue Note, titled "Vol. 1". I gave a listen to a couple of the songs they are streaming and it really is a jazz album, not a smooth jazz album. I've always admired Botti's trumpet playing but was never a big fan of a lot of the music he chose to surround that beautiful trumpet sound with. Here, he uses a small backing band and sticks to ballads throughout, which has always been where he shines, even if it was usually layered in electronics. I pre-ordered the vinyl and I'm hoping the rest of the tracks are on par with the two I've heard.

I actually prefer "Tricycle" but this one is OK too. It's not difficult jazz by any stretch but it's light & easy-going. I don't hear smooth jazz but it's not anywhere near hardbop either. Dick Oatts is the player that keeps my interest here. The keyboards/electronics don't do much for me but Ive heard much worse on some smooth jazz dates.

I've streamed my bandcamp purchases at work for several years now but recently, there are audible flaws that seem to indicate that they've switched to an even lower bitrate stream. I'm talking swooshy cymbals and harsh highs in spots. I never noticed them before but maybe they were always there and I just never listened for them? BTW - if everyone hasn't picked it up yet, you should be sure to buy "Kimbrough" from Newvelle Records on Bandcamp. There's a whole lot of great music in this download.

Maybe all of these money moves are why my bandcamp streams have started sounding terrible lately? I'm talking about recordings I bought from them too. I'm glad I took the time to download my music files because if I had planned to stream them, I'd be pretty disappointed.

You must be driving your amp hard if you are actually hearing audible differences in your choice of tubes for your rectifier. In guitar amps, people swap these tubes to soften the highs and it's usually only noticeable when driving the output tubes very hard. https://www.andertons.co.uk/rectifier-amp-guide

I imagine his manager/publicist rescheduled for next year. If he had a major heart attack, part of his heart can be scar tissue and he may be cautioned to avoid overly exerting himself moving forward to avoid having another heart attack. I know two men who have recently had heart attacks. One is back to work and the other has been directed to "take it easy" for the rest of his life to avoid another event. It all depends on the severity of the tissue damage. Time will tell how serious this is, but just because he's rescheduled a concert doesn't mean he's fine.

I was there for several of those shows.

US guitarist Al Di Meola suffers heart attack on stage in Romania but now stable From the sounds of it, it is not good. Best wishes for Al.