mjzee

I saw him once in Pat Martino's trio (Billy Hart on drums) with Eric Alexander sitting in. Though there's a chance I saw him with Miles somewhere in the '80's (Pier 47 in NYC, if anyone remembers that).

Part of Marc Myers's great series: Physicist Sean Carroll on the Jazz of Von Freeman

Thanks!

Can anyone here recommend a program for the Mac that easily stitches together images? Please no Adobe programs. TIA.

I'll take June again; thanks.

Just noticed that JLH is getting into vinyl: https://www.amazon.com/Dogon-D-Limited-200-Gram/dp/B01IPD71XM/ref=sr_1_104?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1473379844&sr=1-104

Thanks for posting that. Funny to read about him after all the nasty things said about his work on the old BNBB and other forums. He's just a human being after all, and many people like his work (including Cuscuna, as I recall). Kinda heartwarming to read about how he mastered the work of his old band that had never been previously released.

Are those disc cutters in the background?

Also Apple TV (I have some of both). The Apple TV offers one additional advantage: you can stream the audio of YouTube videos to connected speakers. Another current advantage: Apple is selling the older Apple TV model (3rd Generation) for $69, cheaper than the Airport Express (currently $99).

I'm listening tonight to Live Around The World (not entirely voluntarily - it's next on my list of titles to re-rip to iTunes). It never held my interest, and it doesn't tonight either. I was pondering why - I mean, Miles's chops sound just fine. I think it might be the generational shift to younger band members. It's the same feeling I had when hearing Captain Beefheart's late-70's band. The band musicians sound more callow. They don't have it in them to play the deep rhythms, and their personalities either don't shine through or they are just more ordinary people. They know what to play, but they don't know enough to make it interesting. The drummer, Ricky Wellman, is especially deficient; give me Al Foster any day.

I found this article in my computer files. I don't know the publication it came from, or the original publication date: Along a nondescript commercial section of Route 9 West in Englewood Cliffs is a driveway, discreetly marked by a small street number sign, entering one of the wooded areas leading to the Palisades. At the end of the drive is a windowless, rotunda-like building that could be a house of worship. For over 40 years it has been a kind of jazz Mecca, the main destination for musicians coming to New Jersey. Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter -- the list is endless -- have all come to this building for one reason, to record. And before it opened in 1959, throughout most of the '50s jazz musicians trekked to Hackensack for the same reason, to record ... with Rudy Van Gelder. "Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studios" is one of the great imprimaturs of jazz, a seal of quality as important as (or more important than) the Good Housekeeping seal is to blenders or the J.D. Powers seal is to automobiles. When David Earl, who runs Severn Records in Dallas, Texas, a mostly blues label, decided to record the Texas jazz band Holy Moellers, their choice of studio was self-evident. "This is the cathedral of modern jazz," said Earl at the Holy Moellers session last year in Englewood Cliffs. "The sound here is just great, and Rudy is a very gracious man." "It's almost spooky recording here," said Moellers' organist Michael Flanagan, "like going to Disneyland and having all that stuff hit you at just one time. I've seen pictures of everyone from (my hero) Baby Face Willette to Larry Young playing this organ, the exact organ I'm playing now. It's like standing at the Berlin Wall, you feel like you should grab a chunk of it." Record producers and buyers, jazz fans and musicians have all praised the "Rudy Van Gelder sound." And record producer Bob Porter of Bergenfield, a former WBGO jazz DJ and host of the "Portraits in Blue" show on the metro area's only non-commercial, full-time jazz and blues station, notes another aspect of it: "Radio people always love Rudy's work because it sounds so good on the air." So what is the "Rudy Van Gelder sound"? There's no such thing, according to Van Gelder. "I really don't like to think of it as 'my sound,'" he said. "It's really my approach to the musicians I'm recording at a particular session. What I'm doing is trying to let the musicians be heard as they want to be heard. So what it really is, is the musicians' sound." Van Gelder was asked about the time Miles Davis recorded "If I Were A Bell" in Hackensack with his mid-'50s quintet. The trumpeter pressed the Harmon mute right against the microphone, just as he had been doing in clubs and concerts. "I didn't tell him to play like that; I wouldn't do that anyway," Van Gelder said. "That's part of how I handle the whole thing: I take for granted that what musicians do is what they want to do. If they make a certain kind of sound, I don't try to change it, I try to deal with it and face any problems that I might have without asking them to change." Wasn't he tempted to ask Davis to move back a bit? "No," he said, "I never did that. I assumed that that's what he did because that's the way he feels best. He's trying to make this record as best he possibly can, and this is what it takes to do it. To record that, that was what I considered my job, not to change it." But, Van Gelder is asked, was there some kind of adjustment to the knobs, or something changed in the way it was recorded? "What I did I'm absolutely not going to tell you," he answered. "But you've heard the record, don't you like the way it sounds?" In other words, Van Gelder considers what he does and how he does it a trade secret, and he won't talk about trade secrets, just like he won't let photographers take detailed pictures of his control board or other equipment that he's built in the master recording booth at his studio. He lets his work speak for itself. "What's different about Rudy," said producer Porter, who's worked with the recording engineer for more than 30 years, "is -- as you know, he was a practicing optometrist (until 1959) -- he brings a scientist's approach to the job rather than a mechanic's approach. He's always been curious about what's new and how to make things better, and he's always stayed at the cutting edge of the very best technology. The sound he puts out today in digital is as great for its time as the sound he put out in the 1950s doing analog mono recordings." Van Gelder's sound had a reputation among jazz musicians even before he began recording commercially. "Back around 1950 there was a record circulating among musicians, especially bassists, of a Woody Herman big band tune, 'Bass-ic Lady,' with a bass solo by Red Mitchell," remembered guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli who, like Van Gelder, grew up in Paterson. "It was recorded during a dance-concert at the Meadowbrook in Cedar Grove by Rudy, and the bass sounded so good for a recording that all the bass players would buy it from him." Pizzarelli participated in Van Gelder's first commercial recording at his Hackensack studio -- actually the living room of his parents' new house, built with an adjacent recording booth and glass window (draped when not in use) -- with the Joe Mooney Trio for Carousel Records in 1952. Al "Jazzbeau" Collins, a DJ on WNEW in New York, liked it so much he not only played it, but played one tune, "Crazy She Calls Me," behind him as he talked, a novel approach then in radio. About the same time, Van Gelder recorded baritone saxophonist Gil Melle's band for him, and Blue Note Records owner-producer Alfred Lion bought the master and released it on his label. Then Lion wanted to bring Melle into a New York studio and record another session. He brought along the Van Gelder recording and asked the New York engineer to duplicate the recorded sound. "I can't make them sound like that," the engineer told Lion. "You better go to the guy who made it." That was the beginning of one of Van Gelder's most famous associations with a jazz label as he went on to record about 90 percent of Blue Note's catalog while it remained an independent label through the '60s. Today Van Gelder is involved in a massive project for the Japanese division of Toshiba-EMI, which now owns Blue Note. He's digitally remastering all the albums he engineered for Blue Note, and they're being released in Japan as the RVG Editions. Some RVG Editions are also being released here in America, but according to Van Gelder, "they're only a drop in the bucket." While the Blue Notes from the '50s and '60s may include the most enduring classics of modern jazz, they aren't Van Gelder's greatest pride. He believes his full potential, and that of his large Englewood Cliffs studio, was best employed by producer Creed Taylor, with whom he had an exclusive recording contract for the CTI label during most of the first half of the 1970s. Among the artists he recorded for CTI were Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard and Milt Jackson. "Creed really picked up on this place," explained Van Gelder. "He knew what its potential was and what he wanted to do. He was the first one to bring in big bands and orchestras. And that was the time when multi-tracking was coming in." Multi-tracking allowed engineers to record strings or backing tracks or even jazz solos for the same tune at different times, then layer them to create a rich, full sound. Multi-tracking is how Van Gelder records a lot today, although he is wistfully nostalgic about recording and mixing direct to two-track digital tape masters, something he says is now too demanding. "Back in the days of the LP, recording sessions were shorter," he said, "but now with all the music a CD can hold, the quantity of music doesn't warrant doing a two-track session. I've got to be perfect all the time, for five or six hours. And so do the musicians. It creates too much tension. I'd rather be able to make sure everything has been recorded correctly and then take time with the mix." At 76, Van Gelder is still taking enough time, and keeping up enough with recording technology, to continue producing what many fans and musicians have for almost 50 years considered the classic sound of recorded jazz. "He could always seem to get more levels and more quality audio onto a disc than any other engineer," said Porter. "Rudy knows what the music is supposed to sound like." Here are a dozen CDs representative of Rudy Van Gelder's work over the years. All the Blue Note releases are tracks on "The RVG Album," a compilation by Van Gelder released only in Japan that he chose as a combination of his favorite music and best engineering work for Blue Note. "Relaxin'," Miles Davis Quintet (OJC/Prestige) -- 1956, Hackensack. "If I Were A Bell," with Davis' famous Harmon mute sound, is here on this classic mid-'50s quintet album with John Coltrane. "Blue Train," John Coltrane (Blue Note) -- 1957, Hackensack. A great hard-bop sextet album with trumpeter Lee Morgan, trombonist Curtis Fuller and veteran bebop pianist Kenny Drew Sr. "Moanin'," Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Blue Note) -- 1958, Hackensack. Great edition of the Messengers, with Benny Golson's tenor sax and classic tunes "Blues March" and "Along Came Betty," plus 20-year old firebrand trumpeter Lee Morgan. "Soul Station," Hank Mobley (Blue Note) -- 1960, Englewood Cliffs. Newark-raised tenor saxophonist Mobley is at his best on this quartet date, proving he deserves to be remembered in the same company as Coltrane and Rollins. "Heavy Soul," Ike Quebec (Blue Note) -- 1961, Englewood Cliffs. If you want to know why tenor saxophonists love Van Gelder, just listen to Newarker Quebec's big, rich sound here. "The Sidewinder," Lee Morgan (Blue Note) -- 1963, Englewood Cliffs. The title track was a hit, real jazz boogaloo. The trumpeter is at his peak in a quintet with a young Joe Henderson, tenor sax. "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" (Impulse!) 1963, Englewood Cliffs. Van Gelder has cited this album, a romantic ballad outing pairing the tenor saxophonist with the baritone crooner, as his all-time favorite. "First Light," Freddie Hubbard (CTI) -- 1971, Englewood Cliffs. The trumpeter is at his most lyrical, with Don Sebesky's string and woodwind arrangements. "Sunflower," Milt Jackson (CTI) -- 1972, Englewood Cliffs. Jackson's vibes are highlighted by Sebesky's string arrangements, and Freddie Hubbard and Herbie Hancock add fine solos. "Concierto," Jim Hall (CTI) -- 1975, Englewood Cliffs. Exquisitely nuanced jazz from a sextet led by guitarist Hall and featuring Paul Desmond, Chet Baker, Roland Hanna, Ron Carter and Steve Gadd. "New Directions" (Blue Note) -- 1999, Englewood Cliffs. Van Gelder's favorite recent album; a blast from the past for him, as current young Blue Note artists, including pianist Jason Moran, vibist Stefon Harris and saxophonists Greg Osby and Mark Shim revisit, and reinterpret, classics from the '50s and '60s Blue Note catalog. "Birth of the Cool (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition)," Miles Davis (Capitol) -- 2001. Van Gelder did not record the original sessions, done in New York in 1949-'50, but he has remastered them digitally, and brilliantly, from the original source tapes. -- George Kanzler

Just noticed these on amazon.it:

I've been doing something similar, only encoding them to Apple Lossless. This accomplishes two extra things: the files play on an iPod, and I can stream them throughout the house using AirPlay.

At the very top of the FB screen, to the right of the search bar, you should see your name. Clicking on it will bring you to your personal FB home page. Once there, you should see "Friends" as an option near the top of the screen (alongside "Timeline," "About," "Photos," and "More").

I think that's the list of your friends who are either currently or were recently online. To see the full list of your friends, go to your FB homepage.

Just noticed these on eMusic:

Not sure what's going on in Zappa-land, but the Estate is putting out a lot of new releases: "Little Dots"

Price? And what's your Paypal address?

Allen, do you still have any of these for sale?

I saw Big Joe at Tramps - I wonder if it was one of your gigs! Percy opened the show, as I recall. I could see Doc Pomus in a booth along the far wall.

Happy birthday!

Brushes with fame: he lived about a half mile away from us when we lived in Stamford. I think I saw him one morning getting his mail. I saw The Producers in my neighborhood movie theater when it first came out. About a half minute was subsequently edited out; it has to do with "Ze Qvick Fuse!" referenced above. In the edited version, the theater blows up after "Ze Qvick Fuse!" In the original version, Bialystock, Bloom and Liebkind catch the fuse before it reaches the dynamite. They then rewire the bomb using the slow fuse, then walk down the alley to go to a hiding spot. As they do, the drunk in the bar (William Hickey) stumbles up to the plunger, lifts his foot, says "Shine 'em up!" and steps down on it, blowing up the theater.

Someone here should snap this up. I have no association with the seller or the sale. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chu-Berry-Classic-Columbia-and-Victor-Sessions-Mosaic-7-CD-set-STILL-SEALED-/291851835864?hash=item43f3b999d8:g:nowAAOSwZVlXuSv1

Included in the Mosaic Select. Wonderful stuff.