jazzbo

Somewhere down the line (in the seventies maybe?) some high end manufacturers decided they could save themselves headaches and convince audiophiles that tone controls are superfluous and a "simple direct path" is the best for reproduction. After you have a fixed RIAA circuit that you couldn't change, and a clean line level source for tapes, etc. There's some truth to that, but eq'ing can make a really satisfying listen. I accomplish this by "tube rolling" and by adjusting the high end frequency response on my speakers with various wire round porcelain resistors. I have had seven versions of the session, a reissue lp, a cassette tape, the first US cd, the US RVG cd, the Ultimate cd, a Japanese RVG, and the SACD. I've definitely kept the latter three and I think I have the lp somewhere in a box.

I guess I (Lonson Armstrong) don't live in the US. It's all an illusion. How PhilDickian!

Yes, he'll make you a fretted fingerboard, but he makes 90% fretless.

Well, anyone ever play a Wishbass? www.wishbass.com Okay, so I've had time on my hands, as I'm in a different city for another five months or so helping my wife get through and recover from a matched unrelated donor bone marrow transplant. And I also was surprised with a one time merit raise, very surprised. Last time I was here for months I bought a cheap Strat copy guitar and noodled around with it, then when I got home gave it to a friend. This time I thought I'd get a bass, but the really cheap ones in the stores bite, the guitars were okay but the basses are just rotten. So I was looking on line and saw these "Wishbasses" made by this luthier called Wishnevsky. He uses exotic wood, tries to stay away from metal so the necks are through the body and hefty as hell and no truss rods, and he uses exotic woods and his own or the buyer's body designs. . . . They look cool, they aren't expensive, and they're sort of like works of art. Or really ugly, depending on your taste. So I was thinking of ordering one but figure it would take a lot of time and the point is I want something to start eating up the time. AND I really don't like that many of his body styles. So I looked on ebay and found one for 290 bucks and decided to buy it last night, because I really like the looks of it, reminds me of Africa: It's made from persimmon. It will ship today. Also ebayed a really cheap Epiphone practice amp. Going to be fun I think. . . .

I'm hoping to get a few in the mail in the next few days. . .

Yes, I am. I remind myself of that as I sit here in the Intensive Care Unit staring at my wife behind the oxygen mask! (She's finally getting better, after three days here suffering from acute graft vs. host disease outbreak #1, "engraftment syndrome.") JS, great advice. My wife has had health problems too. She was diagnosed with M.S. about ten years ago. For a while it looked like she was going to end up in a wheelchair, but we found a great neurologist who peformed wonders with steroid therapy and appropriate medication. She still has problems, but at least she can walk and use her hands! She has had some related problems that have required surgery. In fact, she's going under the knife for the third time this year on Wednesday. When she was first diagnosed, her doctor told us that a great many marriages fail under the strain of having a spouse with illness. I literally cannot understand that. I love my wife more than life itself, and I'll be damned if I ever leave her because she's sick! Sorry to hear that Alexander. I can understand marriages failing, not yours or mine perhaps, under the stress and strain. Helen and I have had our life turned upside down since her diagnosis of lymphoma in November 2005 and now on her second bone marrow transplant without the selfless help of several friends and financial assistance from family, and the luck that I have been working for an agency for 23 years and not only have I saved an inordinate amount of leave time to use but have been granted the priviledge to do some work from out of town while caring my wife, we'd be financially ruined and I don't know how fragile our mental conditions would be. I can and have seen lesser things take down marriages. They obviously weren't the strongest of marriages but there are all kinds of marriages and I'm not going to be too judgmental. . . .

Yes, I am. I remind myself of that as I sit here in the Intensive Care Unit staring at my wife behind the oxygen mask! (She's finally getting better, after three days here suffering from acute graft vs. host disease outbreak #1, "engraftment syndrome.") JS, great advice.

I first saw my wife on the first day of college for both of us at the University of Chicago in 1973. She was gorgeous and sophisticated and I was shy and socially inept (that's not exactly how she viewed us but how I felt). I managed to meet her in a short time, and in a while we went out a few times, but I just couldn't successfully romance her. I romanced others with more success in the following years. But I kept in touch with her over the next seven years, and I knew from the moment I saw her that I'd love to spend my life with her. Just knew it, don't ask me how or why. In 1980 I moved to Austin from a small town in Ohio and she moved from Chicago to Boston. We didn't know where the other had gone, we'd moved quickly at the same time. In December 1989 she looked, found my parents' address, called, got my number, called me in Austin, and we started talking constantly on the phone, visiting each other, and in six months she had moved to Austin and we've been together through thick and thin, and boy do I mean that, ever since. She's the one.

I've got a feeling it will be a new favorite. I feel old. I remember reading about "Get Up With It" going to be released, and getting a little record shop to order me a copy, and rushing to get it when it came in, and tripping out for weeks to all four sides. It was like entering another dimension at some listenings (only partially for biochemical reasons!) Miles' flipping unique organ on these sides used to boggle my mind. I wasn't sure I liked it. But it was so dominant it was like a huge conductor's baton that you could not ignore even as a listener.

Listened to "He Loved Him Madly" today (after three Pablo Ellingtons) and it really sounds good in this new mastering. There isn't really noticable differences in the mixes here, but I think those that find lp versions muddy may find less silt in the flow here. . . .

ARGH! Missed it! Hope it was vibrant!

Miles Davis, The Complete On the Corner Sessions (advance Columbia cdrs)

It appears at least some of the Mosaic Singles are being released to retail outlets; I notice a few coming up next month on cdunivese that can be pre-ordered. . . .

Well, won't be long now. . . .Though I have seen reports of a delay of the European release til October, still haven't seen any indication that this is not coming out on September 25. Been enjoying the advance cdrs. It's interesting to hear how much Al Foster and his beat science changed the music. There's something about his hihat and snare work that separates this period from what came before clearly and distinctly. (I'm sure Miles had a direct hand in shaping this too.) One track that I come back to of the "new" stuff is "The Hen" (which I think of as "Funky M.A.S.H'd Chicken" or "Proto-Jean-Pierre") so simple on the surface but it sucks me in with the fuzzed out Cosey and the clean Lucas guitars and the soprano/muted trumpet themes.

"I heard that!"

I like that Allan and will echo it! Many happy returns, and many thanks for many things my friend!

Buy every Chronogical Classics of Mary Lou Williams because they're all great. And because some of them have Mary Osborne.

Well, it's just not something I'll spend the dollars on. I'm not that interested in many of those bands, I have what I need of them, I've seen the Redding before and don't really see that I need to have it. The Jimi is the draw for me and I'll have that on the family disc. I feel the same way about Woodstock. So many bands I really don't want to have dvd of. A few I do. I've got the Jimi. If the Dead had been recorded, that would be a draw. I'd hold off for a possible single release of the Airplane one day. That's about all I'd want. I'm glad y'all find it all so exciting!

I have the 2 on Mobile Fidelity. They are from the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival, while the new one volume CD just released is from the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival. Also compared the tune titles and times. A completely different session. Right. I didn't realize anyone was inferring that the two volumes were from 1963. Missed that in the post above.

I'm interested in sixties rock, but I'm not that interested in collecting sixties rock on dvd. I resist buying dvd of music. . . I just don't have the time to listen to and watch music. It's more about the music than the visual for me, and I use my dvd time to watch movies and tv shows. . . . But. . .I buy the Hendrix dvds. In fact so far I've bought everything the family has put out. I feel so guilty because I've bought all this material before the family gained control, official and unofficial. I have TONS of Jimi, all I've ever been able to find, I feel that strongly about his work. So. . . I made a little pact with myself when the family gained control to buy all their releases and I have except maybe one of the collections/compilations.

I say Time Lines. Buy it, help keep it from being deleted, it's an amazing recording, one of the very best of the last years. After that. . . Black Fire. . . one of my favorite Hills. And Smokestack. . . another big favorite. And Compulsion. These would be my top four Hills on Blue Note. (I have never been a fan of Point of Departure for some reason). Or. .. just close your eyes and choose one, you can hardly go wrong.

I don't know how it will differ from that box set. I've never seen that box set. . .may never see that box set; not really that interested in owning all that stuff, the Hendrix is the pull, I have a lot of the Airplane material. I have seen the Hendrix performance and it's a historic one. . . .I'll be getting this and I'll probably get the cd as well because cds and dvds serve different functions for me and I can't always everywhere listen to dvds as if they were cds.

Thanks friends. I'll keep on. I'd choose to if I had a choice!

Since about 1974 actually. I wish I had become a Blue Ron fan sooner! It was Bear's Choice, when that came out, with his solo feature and then those other features. . .I became a Pigpen fan. (edited to get the date right, etc.) Well, things actually suck Bill, but I'm painting a rosy pattern, a sort of nondrug windowpane lattice of color, around things so that I can fool myself into thinking things are better than they are. I'm on day nine of my wife's donor bone marrow transplant (bone marrow transplant number 2 for her) and some strange things are brewing as the donor cells begin to awake and make their presence known. My wife feels like shit. I'm feeling okay physically but very tired of thirteen hour days in the hospital and worrying. I can stop the worrying. The thirteen hour days have to continue. When I get Helen out of the hospital I'm starting on the Dead dling again. The network here at the hospital is "broke" this time, slower than molasses in February.

Experience Hendrix is releasing Jimi's Monterey concert in cd, dvd and lp October 16! You can preorder any and all of these at the family site, www.jimihendrix.com Cduniverse has the dvd up for preorder at a discount, no cd. . . yet.