Kevin Bresnahan

I'm finally getting some time to listen to this box set. As I listen to Coleman Hawkins kicking off "Hawk's Tune" from disc 1, I'm hearing people yell "Body & Soul" and all I can think of is all the times we stupidly yelled "Free Bird" at every rock band we saw live throughout the 80s & 90s.

Just be aware that plastic sleeves like this can scuff up your CDs. You should reconsider using those Tyvek sleeves with the window. While not the prettiest sleeves, at least they shouldn't scuff/scratch any discs.

It looks like Bob was friends with others I have interacted with on-line over the years. There's this picture in his obit: and credited in it is Larry Israel, Bob VanLangen, Peter Friedman, James Harrod, Ken Koenig, and George Ziskind. I know I've interacted with several of them on-line. Peter posts here and I think George Ziskind was a regular back on the old Jazz Corner forum.

I know that cover! Many years ago, I befriended a contributor to the rec.music.bluenote newsgroup (remember those?). He had a bunch of these JATP LPs that he wanted on CD. I agreed to needle drop some for him. He sent me the LPs and I created CDs for him. I wish I had kept copies of all that stuff but back then, I was probably over-sensitive about making copies of stuff that I didn't own and, well, being honest, I was so heavily into hard bop back then, this stuff wasn't on my radar. Oh, how times have changed. Bob VanLangen was his name. I found some artwork files that I created for his CDrs and I called it the "Bob VanLangen Collection". It looks like Bob left us in 2018: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/heraldtribune/name/robert-vanlangen-obituary?id=10105011 I just realized that I thought he was a lot older than he actually was. I figured he was in his 70s or 80s back then. Now, I find out that he was the same age that I am now!

I never understood that cover. Trout do not have "whiskers" like that. I guess Catfish Mask Replica didn't have the right zing to it?

I seem to have traded in or sold all of my Harper Brothers CDs so I cannot listen to this one anymore. I did like their music and I seem to remember seeing them live back around the time of "Artistry" (1992). It's weird that I don't have any of their music in my music library as I'm almost positive that I had all 4 of their CDs - "The Harper Brothers", "Remembrance - Live at the Village Vanguard", "Artistry" & "You Can Hide Inside The Music". All I can think is that this must have been back at a time when I was deleting mp3 music files from my PC if I sold the original CD. I did that for while back then.

Try to contact Swainson on-line and ask him to bring you a copy for you to buy at the show. I just did that with Michael Weiss, asking him if he could bring some copies of his latest Cellar Door CD with him Saturday. He replied that he'd have some there.

In preparation for seeing Michael this Saturday in Boston: Michael Weiss - Power Station (DIW) It's supposed to a cold one in Boston Saturday. They may set a new record low... and this is happening less than a week after the temps were near 50.

I just wish that Rudy had left this recording a bit drier than he did. He seems to have added a lot of reverb on the horns and it gives it a cavernous sound. I'd rather hear the band in the studio rather than the warehouse.

I bought this LP about a year ago and I'm glad I did. My turntable plays it fine without having to adjust all my settings.

I got mine yesterday but have yet to spin any of it. Maybe today...

My order got messed up too. I never did get an E-mail confirming that I ordered it in the first place so I confirmed my (first) order with Scott only to not get told that my credit card hold expired and I did not get my order in at all. So instead of getting one from the first batch, it looks like I'll be waiting for the next batch before I get my set. Mosaic's ordering system is pretty screwed up.

The way I read this is that the money paid in by us old-timers was done prior to the recent surge in salaries in the US. Therefore, when these people with these new heftier salaries retire, us old-timers would not have put enough into Social Security to cover their higher-than-planned payouts. "In CBO’s projections, average retirement and disability benefits in the first full year of claiming increase over time because of growth in average earnings. For example, initial benefits for retired workers born in the 1990s (who turn 65 beginning in 2055) are larger, on average and after adjusting for the effects of inflation, than for earlier cohorts. However, initial benefits replace a similar share of past earnings for successive cohorts." I think can see where this is coming from as I know of quite a few 30-somethings making big bucks (a few over $150K/year) in their young careers due to intense competition among employers. This would have been unheard of when I was 30-something and since your Social Security payments are based on your lifetime earnings, these people will qualify for maximum payouts. Not a lot of people in my generation will earn enough to hit that maximum. BTW - making big, big bucks does not mean you put big, big bucks into the Social Security fund. In 2023, withholding maxes out when someone earns more than $160,200, so these larger salaries are not going to contribute as much to the general fund as is needed.

Craft is going the "collectible" route to get the most bang for the buck. It's almost like they see Blue Note rolling in the dough with their Tone Poet series and go, "Nah. That's too much work". So instead, they've gone this ultra-limited "deluxe" packaging. How is this good for the fans? Go look up the LPs of Lateef's "Eastern Sounds" for sale on discogs. At least 7 of the 11 for sale are sealed. Craft's model encourages this & I don't think it is good for us in the long run. Can you imagine if OJC had chosen to go this route during the CD's heyday? We'd still e waiting for some titles.

Don't you think the packaging and the resulting price is a little overboard for what is just a regular Yusef Lateef record? I almost understood when they did this for Coltrane's "Lush Life" & Miles' "Relaxin'" but when was the last time Lateef's "Eastern Sounds" was mentioned as a record needing this kind of treatment? Don't get me wrong, I like it and play it when I'm in the mood for some Lateef but I don't consider it any sort of classic deserving of this lavish reissue. What's next, Herbie Mann's "Flute Flight"?

Bobby Hutcherson - Conception: The Gift Of Love (Columbia). This comes across as an early attempt at smooth jazz. Not really my favorite Hutcherson but not Kenny G-level terrible either. Until a post a few days ago, I forgot about this 2 CD set that I bought several years ago. I'll probably go back to forgetting about it again.

Craft?? No. No they don't. Exhibit 1B: Only $99... oh wait, it sold out in hours and now lists for over $300. Someone said it - a sucker is born every minute.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/singer-songwriter-david-crosby-died-3383908?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=singer-songwriter-david-crosby-died David Crosby has died at the age of 81 after a long illness. After he said in an interview that he didn't have long over two years ago, I was expecting this, but it's still tough when someone who has brought you a lot of happiness through his music leaves us.

When I want to hear that special sound "up close & personal", I usually pull this CD off the shelf:

It could be because "Chet Baker Sings" was in the first batch of Tone Poet LPs and Blue Note couldn't seem to keep it in stock. I certainly don't understand that one. But then again, I was never much of a fan of Baker's vocals to begin with.

My wife & daughters went to see the latest Avatar movie in the theater and I passed because I didn't want to have to get up in the middle of the movie to go to the bathroom (which happens a lot more since my surgery 6 years ago). I'll just watch it on BlueRay with my 3D glasses and surround system.

Terrible? On the Chiaroscuro LP or just in general? I always thought the stuff I streamed sounded OK but not really terrible. I should pick this up just for this track alone:

Lew Tabackin's FB page mentions that his meeting with Warne, "Tenor Gladness", finally came out on CD in Japan.

Taylor Swift's rabid fans probably bought all 4 of the variants of her latest LP release, "MIdnights", which likely is the reason that there were a lot of buyers of LPs in 2022 who didn't own a turntable. Those LPs sold out in most brick & mortar stores in a few days and I bet that a lot of those LP buyers didn't buy them to play them.

https://www.billboard.com/pro/vinyl-album-sales-rise-growth-slowing/ It's all in this billboard article.