Kevin Bresnahan

I saw his last iteration of the Wailers at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA and it was an incredible night. To be honest, I really liked that front line and I was hoping that they would carry on the name. Taylor was not the star of that band that night.

Speaking of Farnsworth... Anthony Wonsey - The Thang (Sharp Nine). I always liked this label. I should have bought more of them when they were around.

You got that right. Joe is a fantastic drummer. I always try to go to any show when he is going to be in the drum chair.

Over the years, there has been a story repeated over & over that Ron McMaster's Blue Note LPs were always cut with a digital look-ahead circuit that resulted in them all being cut digitally. He refuted this several times but not with a lot of detail, probably because he was still cutting LPs and didn't want to get in any trouble with the boss. So this came up again on the Hoffman forums with this post: It's been documented several times on this site that Capitol isn't able to cut AAA because their tape machines lack the crucial preview head (which is prohibitively expensive to implement after-the-fact). So even if they master from tape, that tape gets sent through a digital delay, i.e. being digitised. Which is virtually the same as cutting from digital files. Figuring that Ron might be able to give us more detail now that he is retired and Capitol Mastering Studios closed for good, I messaged him on Facebook and told him what some people are reporting and asked him if he could elaborate further on his LP mastering of Blue Note LPs and he replied: Hi Kevin, My disc mastering rooms at EMI and Capitol were all analog rooms. All tape-to-disc projects were cut to disc completely analog. We used NO digital preview like some studios had to because we had a Studer A80 Mastering machine which contained an analog preview head. You would make different tape paths on the A80 for the preview head depending on the speed of the master tape. If it was 15ips it was one path, if it was 30ips, you would use a different tape path. There was also a different path between cutting an LP or 45 depending on if the master was 15ips or 30ips. Yes, some studios that cut from analog did have a digital preview, because they did not have a fully equipped analog mastering tape machine, but we never had to do that. Both Wally’s* room and my room had Studer A80 mastering machines. The person who made the comment is correct in that some studios had to use a digital delay because they didn’t have a specific mastering machine with built in preview path and preview head but we never had to do that. I hope that this will help you. Nice to hear from you and I hope this helps. Ron * Wally Traugott So - to be clear - all of Ron McMaster's LPs were cut fully in the analog domain when he was given an analog tape to work with. Ron has told me that he was sometimes only given digital tapes for some LP cuts. He didn't control that. However, he also says that he always worked with the analog tapes for all Blue Note cuts. His words were something like, "Why wouldn't I? It only took a few moments to pull the tape". I believe that back then, the masters were not stored very far away. BTW - I told Ron that he needs to write down his mastering stories and he agreed, saying it was something many of his friends have been asking him to do for years. I hope that if anything, someone can at least interview him and get a few of his stories out there. If anyone knows of someone who is looking to talk to a retired mastering engineer who has mastered almost every Blue Note title ever recorded, let me know & I'll see if I can make it happen.

Andres Boiarsky - Into The Light (Reservoir). I picked this up during one of Tommy's sales and it's pretty good. I had never heard of the leader but it has Paquito D'Rivera on alto, Claudio Roditi on trumpet and George Cables on piano so I didn't think it'd be bad.

Someone is selling their SACD of this so I spun my copy (Master Sound gold CD) to see if it needs updating. Nope. I'm good.

Are those bags of shrimp? What an odd picture for an LP cover. Playing a track on YouTube now... this is not my thing at all.

It seems that she found more material for these newest CD releases on Omnivore. The Pepper/Stitt set (Volume 1) includes 3 more tracks from the first session and 1 more track from the second: Disc 1 1 Scrapple From The Apple 2 Wee 3 Bernie’s Tune 4 How High The Moon 5 Walkin' 6 Groovin' High Bonus Tracks: 7 Bernie’s Tune (Take 1) 8 Bernie’s Tune (Take 2) 9 Wee (Take 1) 10 Groovin' High (Alternate Take) Disc 2 1 Atlas Blues 2 Lester Leaps In 3 Autumn In New York 4 My Funny Valentine 5 Lover Man 6 Imagination

Thanks to Chuck's nudge, now playing: Art Pepper presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 1: Sonny Stitt (Omnivore). Playing disc 1 now. Killer rhythm section. Lou Levy was a great pianist. He cooks.

I had the Japanese version called "Complete Atlas Years" that I sold when Laurie came out with her releases with the bonus tracks. My favorite session was the meeting with Stitt.

But Billy didn't have much of a beard in 1975 and this logo has a variant with more detail: Billy in 1975:

Definitely looks like the Slugs' logo:

According to this page: https://www.jazzpodiumdetor.nl/rein-de-graaff-het-is-mooi-geweest/, he retired in 2019, so he likely doesn't have a manager any more.

Very true - but they are also likely to show more wear than they would have if the previous owners had played them with a modern low compliance cart.

Looks a little like Wally's Cafe in Boston: Although I saw some great music at Wally's, I really don't miss that place much. We were jammed in there like sardines, it was hotter than hell (even in the winter) and the cigarette smoke was brutal. Maybe it's time to visit again? Oh wait, they pack that place so tightly that they haven't been able to re-open due to Covid.

Can you tell us the title? I have quite a few of those later Prestige LPs so I might be able to help if I have that title in my collection. Also, there have been a few LPs where the late 80's OJC LP sounded better than the 60s/70s RVG pressing, so you might want to consider that too.

Lee Konitz (really Art Pepper) - High Jingo (Atlas Record). Nice record with Art & Lee trading off. No toe-to-toe battles here but some good playing. Also released by Laurie Pepper as "West Coast Sessions! Volume 3: Lee Konitz"

Actually - it tracks from 3-6 grams with 5 supposed to be the sweet spot. That's a lot of tracking force and I would think that it is contributing to LP wear. I wouldn't use that on my records. BTW, it's been many years - decades really - since I've "worn out" a record. The fact that the original poster is having records wear out, something that seems to be a thing of the past, may mean that the high VTF of that cartridge may be the culprit. I think this is one of those instances where older is not better, it's just older.

According to Feather's Encyclopedia, Rein de Graaff "Visited US in late 67, sat in w. Lee Morgan; Hank Mobley", so since this photo has been attributed to him (he is still alive BTW), it is likely to have been taken in the US and not Europe.

What is that - a ceramic cartridge? Now we know why your records are wearing out. And if you're not kidding, forget about buying another old RVG LP. You really should update your turntable. I can't even imagine the tracking force of that turntable.

I assume you all listened to this interview of the man who ran Slug's Saloon: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/20145088/slugs-saloon I thought it made for a very interesting listen. I wish someone would transcribe it for posterity.

I have tickets to see him this fall. It was supposed to be in January but COVID pushed it out. Now I'm wondering if it'll be worth the wait.

If the title is available in the recent reissue program from Analogue Productions, found here: https://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&labelid=4473&CategoryID=5, you would be making a mistake to buy an old, possibly beat-up Van Gelder pressing for more than $40. These new records generally sound better than the old RVG pressings as Rudy had to roll off the bass to make them play back on the junky turntables of those days. You should try one before splurging on these blue-label Prestiges.

David - How is James doing these days? I was able to see him many years ago at the Up And Over Jazz Café and had a blast. It was recorded and released on a CD called "Blues Up and Over". I always wished I could see him again someday. I have never been able to find a copy of the sequel, called "Round To It Vol. 2". I expect by now, at 84, he might not be playing anymore, but I hope he's at least living comfortably in his retirement.

Johnny Hodges - The Complete Johnny Hodges Sessions 1951 - 1955 (LP 2). This is the material from 1952 with Emmett Berry on trumpet; Lawrence Brown on trombone; Hodges, Al Sears on tenor; Leroy Lovett on piano; Barney Richmond or Lloyd Trotman on bass & Joe Marshall on drums. Am I the only one whose cover photo looks yellowed? I see these box sets listed on eBay and some are yellow-looking and others are white.