Kevin Bresnahan

Well, since I can't see Ricky play live tonight because of the storm, I'm going to spin this: "Songs For My Mother". For those that don't know, Ford's mother was killed in the TWA Flight 800 crash that also killed Wayne Shorter's wife Maria in 1996. She sounds like she was something special: https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1996-07-24-9607240343-story.html

I bought Mark's "New York Session" CD from him when he came through a few years back. Excellent disc.

Classic Jazz at the Philharmonic Jam Sessions (disc 9) (Mosaic). Fun stuff. I'm really digging "The Slow Blues" that's playing right now.

Maybe I should add some context to my post... For some strange reason, well, "strange" to me that is, Yusef Lateef's "Eastern Sounds" was chosen for release in Craft's ultra-expensive Small Batch audiophile LP series. These LPs are pressed in very small quantities and sell for $100. They sell out instantly, probably because they go for big bucks on the secondary market. The flippers love these records. The first two releases in this series were John Coltrane's "Lush Life" & Miles Davis' "Relaxin'". When "Eastern Sounds" was announced, I made a comment that it was a weird choice and one that would seem to be a "What the..." title next to Trane & Miles. Someone chimed in and said he was very happy that "Eastern Sounds" was chosen because it was one of his Top 5 jazz albums of all time.

Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds (OJC). I'm still wondering how this can be in someone's top 5 favorite jazz LPs of all time. I mean, yeah, it's nice enough. But top 5? I couldn't do that.

Postponed. Bummer.

Yes - Boston. If you enjoy these sessions, try to get your hands on the 2 CD reissues: https://www.discogs.com/release/11562979-Sonny-Stitt-Jazz-At-The-Hi-Hat & https://www.discogs.com/release/10061005-Sonny-Stitt-Live-at-the-Hi-Hat-Vol-2-. I think Malcolm Addey cleaned these recordings up very nicely and both volumes have 20 previously unreleased songs.

I've been told that Van Gelder had an 8-track analog setup then.

But in the distortion that I heard on the "Passing Ships" track "Plantation Bag", the whole audio distorted, not just the saxophone. In fact, the distortion almost sounded like a loud skip in the record or a loud burst of audio noise. It didn't sound like the saxophone was distorted. It sounded like everything was distorted for just a few milliseconds. And again, if this distortion is "on the tape" as Dean claims, how are you able to play that record back without hearing it? There is no way to adjust away distortion on the tape used to cut a record. It's either there or it isn't. Since you can play that record back without hearing any distortion, it's not there. How about this analogy... Let's say you take a picture, but you screwed up when you snapped it. It was distorted: So now you print that picture onto a piece of paper and look at it. "Aw crap, it's out of focus," you think. But wait, I can look at it through a special filter. Nope. Still out of focus. Maybe if I change the lighting? Nope. Still out of focus. There is nothing you can do while viewing this print of an out of focus picture to make it look like it is in focus because it's distorted on the "master" copy of this picture.

But that's not true, is it? If the saxophone is the loudest sound at a particular point in the music and the recording levels are set too high, even in the digital domain, the sax sound will distort. I have a Denon audio CD recorder and have made several needle drops over the years. To be honest, I've found it much harder to set the recording levels using that digital recorder and when the levels are set too high, the distortion is different from what you hear with analog recordings. Digital clipping is nothing like analog clipping. It's like a popping or clicking sound. I suppose I could sit down this weekend and do a needle drop of the new Cohearant Records LP, "Shapes and Sound" by Kirsten Edkins and make two passes at it. One with the levels set properly and another with the set too high and post some samples of each for us to compare. I do want to needle drop this as Kevin Gray has not said if this record will ever come out on CD.

Look at this word salad from Dean in response to my last post... [QUOTE="Dean R, post: 31509131, member: 43842"]Oh bless you. There is no natural way to transfer the mix to digital - almost certainly done as the mix was being created and transferred to analogue - that would create a distortion in the saxophone alone. But why don't I say that I'm sure your knowledge is far greater than mine in the world of transferring analogue tapes to digital, and you can continue to put this as being due to peoples' ears imagining the exact same distortion on their records as is present on my WAV in the same place. I mean that's a bit of a coincidence, but what do I know? I mean feel free to reply, but honestly there's no need to add in the extra emphasis via italics, I already know that you think people are imagining this. But finally there is distortion on all master tapes - that's what noise is. Mastering engineers then work to translate that distortion into a pleasurable listening experience. If you don't think they can tone down unwanted distortion, you have clearly never spent any time with old tapes, working with a top level mastering engineer.[/QUOTE] My response was: I heard this distortion on my Tone Poet LP when I played it on either of my turntables, both setup with Ortofon 2M Black cartridges. It was not imagined. It was very real. Because of the comments here, I swapped in my backup cartridge, a Denon DL-103, and the record played fine without any distortion. (Yes, those italics are for emphasis). If this distortion is present on the master as you claim and this distorted signal was then cut onto our records, every single turntable would play this back with that distortion. The fact that we can make it go away by tweaking our playback system means that it's not cut onto this LP. >>>>>>>>>>>>> For those of you following this here... and I know it's weird doing this here and not staying over there (I still think I'll be scrubbed out of that thread over there soon), does everyone here get what I'm saying or am I the one being obtuse? And a question I have for you here on the big O board that I don't think I can ask over there is: What does he mean by "There is no natural way to transfer the mix to digital - almost certainly done as the mix was being created and transferred to analogue - that would create a distortion in the saxophone alone." "no natural way to transfer the mix to digital"?? That is just dumb. The analog stereo master was created by mixing the 8 analog channels. Once that analog stereo master is done, it's really quite simple to transfer that stereo mix to digital. It's done every single time a digital CD master is made from an analog stereo tape. I don't get what he is saying here at all.

That DoubleTime 2-CD set had 4 tracks of previously unissued material too: You won't get those on the new Tone Poet LP.

And I have no problem with this. But at least you're not saying, "No issues with that for me, so it must be your turntable setup", which seems to be the mantra over at the Hoffman forums. I get that people can play this without issue. Heck, I could play it when I swapped my cartridge. What I don't get is when someone tries to tell me that my $700 Ortofon cartridge on my $1,000 Denon turntable is the problem. I have played thousands of records on that setup without any overload on any other LPs, including the infamous "hot cut" Led Zeppelin II cut by Bob Ludwig. My setup is fine. FWIW, I own Hi-Fi News Analogue Test LP and both of my turntable setups pass the "torture test" tracks and play a majority of the anti-skate tests without distortion.

Not really: https://www.discogs.com/master/351706-Sonny-Stitt-Sonnys-Last-Recordings Just click each picture, right mouse click the cover photo, copy and paste. Took a few seconds tops. BTW - I didn't even include the original cover.

Holy cow, that Stitt at Bubba's stuff has seen a few releases over the years. You know, I've seen a few of these and never thought to pick it up. BTW - Jaws only plays on track 6 & Edison only plays on tracks 3 & 6.

That is certainly true. It's really weird that the artwork on that CD didn't have it in large print on the obi, especially considering that the Japanese just adored RVG. It would've certainly been a selling point, even back in 1986.

I only heard the distortion with my 2 Ortofon 2M Black cartridges. When I switched to my back up cart, a Denon 110th Anniversary DL-103 cartridge, which tracks at almost double the VTF of the 2M Black, it played back fine. Therefore, there is no distortion on that master tape!! You cannot undo distortion! It's just not possible. You can certainly make that distortion play back perfectly, but you cannot adjust it away. BTW - this also means that the distortion I was hearing was being induced by my cartridge. Yes. I say that is true. I've never denied this. It is my setup. But this same setup has played back THOUSANDS of records without any issues. This means that my setup is fine except when playing back one of Kevin Gray's super-hot cuts. I cannot play it back with my regular setup. I should be able to. That's all. And before anyone asks, I sent it to Lon months ago and his turntable is playing it fine so everyone is happy. I just wish Blue Note would admit that it's a hot cut to stop all of these armchair quarterbacks from trying to tell me it's not a hot cut so it must be my setup. My setup is fine.

Wasn't it determined that most of these early CP32 CDs are digital dupes of the US versions of these CDs that were mastered by Ron McMaster? In fact, the first Blue Note CDs sold in the US had CP32 CDs made in Japan with US artwork: https://www.discogs.com/release/12363492-Cannonball-Adderley-Somethin-Else

Since I'm pretty sure my post will get removed, I've decided to drop a comment here for posterity. This is a continuing disagreement I've had with someone named Dean R who claims that he has a copy of the master used to cut "Passing Ships" and that this master has the same distortion. This LP played back with major distortion with 2 out of 3 of my cartridges on my two turntables. I was able to get a clean playback when I switched to a much heavier tracking cartridge. Dean R said: Apologies, either I haven't been clear or you have misunderstood me. When the mix was done it was run off to an analogue tape, and also saved as a digital file. I have a WAV of the raw mix used for the Tone Poet master, before mastering. There is no doubt from listening to that that there is distortion on the saxophone as recorded. And to me it is clear that in mastering for both the Tone Poet that it has been toned down, but to my ears it is still there (but that could be confirmation bias as I know it is there). However it is also clear that in the mix done for the original CD that sax is either mixed or mastered in such away to negate the distortion. It isn't obvious unless you've heard the new mix that really does present what is on the tape, but once you have heard that, it is clear that it has been messed with in some way. Again as far as I'm concerned none of this really matters, all three versions that I have sound great. But if you are hearing the distortion and you don't like it, that is of course a problem. My reply: And again you seem to miss that some people can play the Tone Poet of "Passing Ships" without any distortion at all. If anyone can play it back without distortion, then there is no distortion on the master used to cut it. It can't be any clearer than this: If there is any distortion on a master tape, all playback media will have that distortion. All CDs will have that distortion. All LP cuts will play back with that distortion. You cannot undo distortion by changing your VTF. Look at Art Blakey's "The Witch Doctor" session. There is mic overload on the drums. That mic overload is clearly on the master tape as it shows up on every LP & every CD of this session. Nothing can be done to remove it. If your analog tape copy of the master of "Passing Ships" has distortion, that simply means that whoever made that tape had the recording levels set too high. I'm sure that anyone who has ever made a cassette dub knows that those recording levels matter and if you overload the input, you get distortion.

I wonder how Cuscuna & Van Gelder got involved with this release? I can't think of many other CDs from this era that had Van Gelder's mastering. The masters were in California by then and most of the Japanese CDs from the CP32 series were mastered by Ron McMaster in California.

One of my favorite autographs...

He's got Yoron Israel on drums scheduled for his visit Thursday. It's a rhythm section of Berklee professors. I was actually hoping he would have brought Barry Altschul, his usual drummer in France, with him on this tour, I've never seen Barry.

In for these but obviously, if "Jazz Sahara" is already gone, not that one. Did Colin ever get back to you on that title? Abdul-Malik, Ahmed Jazz Sounds of Africa $8 Abdul-Malik, Ahmed Jazz Sahara $8 Adams, Pepper Encounter! $6 Adams Pepper Conjuration $6 Adderley, Nat Branching Out $7 Adderley, Nat In The Bag $7 Adderley, Nat That's Right! $7 Allen, Geri General Music Project $8 Allen, Harry Blue Skies $4 Ashby, Dorothy In a Minor Groove $10

I am watching the weather this week, as Ricky Ford is making his first trip to the Boston area in many years on Thursday (2/23) when he is scheduled to play at Arthur's House of Jazz in Methuen. They are currently predicting an ice storm. Shit. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw Ford play live but I'm thinking it was sometime in the late-90s. I'm a bit surprised that he's chosen to play at Arthur's, as it is a rather small club and I have to wonder if he wouldn't pull a crowd at one of the larger venues in the area. Maybe he wants to go small?

This thread is weird... I assume there were posts edited or removed because it doesn't make much sense now.