Kevin Bresnahan

I actually sold this 3 CD set a long time ago. I found myself playing the released stuff and stopping when I got to the bonus material. I wasn't much of a fan of the extra tracks without Elvin Jones, especially the partial tracks at the beginning of disc 2.

That one post is enough for me. Too many of those posters ignore problems with these Tone Poet LPs so that one negative means more to me than the many posters praising it. I'll watch for more posts on this but for now, I'll continue to enjoy the CD.

I was going to buy this but my local stores seem to have all sold out rather quickly.

Someone on Facebook reminded me of this relatively new CD (2010) with some great Cuber solos on it from Steve Gadd: The recently departed Joey DeFrancesco adds to the fun.

I had Kenny Burrell's "Kenny Burrell", one of the latest Tone Poet LPs, in my hands at Bull Moose Music store in Portsmouth over the weekend and decided to hold off since I hadn't read any reviews of this newest pressing. Glad I did - people are reporting distortion on Side 2. They didn't get me this time.

I really miss seeing Harry Allen once a year at Jocko's in Methuen. I bought this one from him during one of his swings through town... Such a beautiful ballad date. Perfect for this rainy holiday afternoon. I do have to get this entered into discogs one of these days.

Such a great player... I loved it when he came to Boston. I think the last time I saw him live was recorded and released as "Straight Street". I was lucky to catch the Mingus Big Band at the Time Cafe when Ronnie was in the band too, RIP Ronnie. Thanks for the great memories. BTW - the George Benson Columbia compilation, "The Essence of George Benson", has a lot of great Cuber playing on it. Probably the best compilation I ever bought (thanks Rob).

Charles Lloyd - Oceans (Blue Note). A second LP of 3 Lloyd trio recordings with him noodling away. These are pleasant if rather lifeless records. I can see playing these at dinner time or if I'm having trouble sleeping. I wonder if Lloyd still thinks he's making records for ECM?

Does this work? https://cloudconvert.com/mp4-to-wav

If you want to back it up on a CD-R, just burn it to a CD-R as an mp4 file. You can burn any data file to a CD-R. It doesn't have to be an audio file.

Van Halen - Diver Down. Tomorrow is already 2 years without Eddie. I really like the "Intruder" intro to "Pretty Woman". Sounds like Eddie was having some fun there.

The audio is particularly bad on this YouTube upload, but you can get an idea of the string arrangements. I'd also add that this is far from my favorite Smulyan on CD. In fact, I don't even know if I have it anymore.

I can see not knowing Nakamura, as he is a relative newcomer, but both Kikoski and Allen have been on a lot of recording dates over the years. Allen has toured as a leader quite a bit too. This does sound intriguing.

This sounds a lot like your anti-Eric Alexander stance. Can no modern player emulate any older player and gain your "approval"? There are so many classic players that as time goes on, any new player almost has to sound close to someone else from history. I like listening to and seeing Smulyan because he's alive, putting out new CDs and playing at clubs. Pepper Adams died in 1986. If I want to hear someone play in that style, Smulyan is a great choice. I've seen Smulyan live many times over the years and he puts on a great performance. If he's comes through the area again, I'll be there again.

A Flock Of Seagulls - A Flock Of Seagulls (Arista). I ran so far away...

Sonny Clark - Dial "S" For Sonny (Blue Note). New release in the Classic Vinyl series. I wasn't planning to pick this up, but I got it for around $12 so I thought, "Why not?" The cover of this LP looks terrible. It's all washed out and looks more like something a bootlegger would put out. Classic cover from discogs: Original LP cover from discogs:

Johnny Lytle "Fast Hands" (Muse). I bought this during a recent sale of new old stock LPs at Tommy's Jazz. You take chance with sealed old records and this is one where I get duffed a bit. A bit of the label fell off and the vinyl is pretty noisy in spots. The music is pretty good but they miss on a few tracks ("Tomorrow"? "Bein' Green"? Really?) and I'm not a huge fan of the sound, particularly the bass. The more I look at this vinyl, I'm thinking this is an old re-seal. I say old because the cellophane was brittle but re-seal because this record just doesn't look un-played.

Now spinning - One of the few LPs that is being reissued by Blue Note that I never bought before (CD or LP) - Ruben Wilson's "Love Bug". Typical funk record of the time. Not a bad thing, but it is what I expected it to be and is the reason I never bought it before. I find these dates to have a bit of sameness to them.

Did they intentionally reduce the sound quality for their bandcamp playlist? The piano sound is not good and Essiet's bass is recessed and when you do hear it, it sounds like it was recorded in the early 80s. Overall, it sounds like they recorded this in a club without an audience.

It looks like the Tampa area may not get hit as hard as originally projected.

I really hope for the best Dan. This sounds brutal. I hope those weather people are not talking about sustained wind speeds of 85 mph. It's usually the wind gusts that do the most damage up our way.

No one in the horse community who could come in and help? Is the barn able to withstand 120-140 winds? If not... maybe drive 3 of them north and drive back and grab the other 3 and get out just in time?

Latest path makes it look like it is going right over the top of you. You may be a little to the west (which is better than the east) but still not good. It's Tuesday. It's not hitting until Thursday morning. You sure you can't get the hell out of there? https://www.google.com/maps/@27.9388665,-82.1133713,12z/data=!4m3!15m2!1m1!1s%2Fg%2F11tdkzm_50 Good luck.

My favorite Sanders date.

Playing the recent LP of Joe Lovano's "I'm All For You - Ballad Songbook". I wasn't going to get this because the CD sounds very nice but I wanted to hear what all the fuss was about when this came out. It is an analog recordings and Kevin Gray did a nice job with it. I don't think it beats the CD. Sad to realize that Joe Lovano is the only one still with us.