mjzee

I ordered the Horowitz box from Amazon.de. With shipping, it came to 94.95 eur, or $130.05.

We had very poor results with FiOS. We would get no more than a third of the Internet speed they advertised (they advertised 30 mbps and we got 10). Finally they said there was nothing more they could do; that was when we switched to Comcast and it's been fine since. On the cable TV side, note that TiVo will not work with FiOS; TiVo works fine with Comcast.

Not sure about this. There's the Sony 3-disc set "The Historic Return - Carnegie Hall 1965 - The 1966 Concerts," at the very least, that's probably on both boxes.

For live audiences, Stairway’s power starts with its introductory notes. “Can you think of another song, any song, for which, when its first chord is played, an entire audience of 20,000 rise spontaneously to their feet, not just to cheer or clap hands, but in acknowledgment of an event that is crucial for all of them?” Observercritic Tony Palmer wrote in a 1975 profile. Dave Lewis writes in Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music that “Stairway has a pastoral opening cadence that is classical in feel and which has ensured its immortality.” But what if those opening notes weren’t actually written by Jimmy Page or any member of Led Zeppelin? What if the foundation of the band’s immortality had been lifted from another song by a relatively forgotten California band? More here: Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Wow! Thanks for the heads up. I have the white RCA box from the early '90's, and even I could tell the sound quality was lacking. I also have the blue Columbia Masterworks box from the '90's, so there'll be some duplication; ah well. Question: is there a lot of duplication between this box and the Carnegie Hall box set that Sony released last year? Hope this isn't one of those Korean jobs that some have complained about recently.

The brothers are both on this, recorded in 2003:

Happy birthday, Larry!

I want to go to this, but my final's next Tuesday. If it were one week later... Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun.

I found the following on Breitbart, at the bottom of a column with unrelated stuff, so I'm breaking it out here. The original URL is http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2014/05/15/hollywood-playbook-may-15-15 Vudu Introduces Opportunities For Users To Share Movies And TV Shows Walmart's Vudu is a wonderful invention. One option is to buy digital copies of movies and store them in Vudu's cloud, which allows you to access your collection anywhere. What's especially sweet is that a lot of DVDs and Blurays now come with free digital copies you can store in Vudu's cloud just cuz. A great Vudu feature is that for a small fee of $2.00 per, you can convert almost any DVD or Bluray to digital for cloud storage. Better still, it's only $1.00 if you do ten or more at a time. Depending on the size of your collection, this is a pretty cheap way to have a back-up copies should anything happen to the physical disc. My favorite feature, though, allows me to convert my DVDs to HD for $2.50 a piece (if you do 10 or more at a time). Not everything converts. There are licensing issues, apparently. But $2.50 a pop is more than worth it and obviously much cheaper than purchasing a new Bluray copy. Using the Roku, I blow these Vudu-stored films up through a hi-def projector and onto my 17' x 8' screen and they look fabulous. No issues whatsoever. Some look as good as Bluray. Some don't, but are close enough. Through Vudu, I have also found HD copies of favorites like "The Stone Killer" and "Charley Varrick" that aren't even available on Bluray. Anyway, the news today is that Vudu will now allow you to share your collection with as many as five people: Invitees in the “Share My Movies by Vudu” initiative have to create an account with Vudu, which is free, or link the Walmart service to their existing UltraViolet digital lockers. Then they get to see or download whatever’s in the inviter’s library — including select DVDs added via Vudu’s Disc to Digital service. “We know you’ve spent a significant amount of money and time building your collection and have plenty more films to add to it,” Vudu Senior Director Amit Balan says in a blog post. “Share My Movies by Vudu is another way we’re helping you get the most out of your collection.” You can share your collection now, but that means giving others your password. As much as anyone, I love holding a physical movie and the fancier the packaging the better. Vudu allows you to have it both ways for a reasonable price.

His one hit, Grazin' In The Grass, was a great single; sure made my summer that year.

Marc Myers - WSJ (This is a fabulous series of articles Myers is doing for WSJ; I hope they get compiled into a book.)

Self Portrait, part 2? It sounds like he's done work on his voice; it doesn't have the croakiness or gravel of his last few recordings.

"Searching For Sugarman" Director Dies At 36 - NY Post

The Miles title just dropped on eMusic (see http://www.emusic.com/album/miles-davis/take-off-the-complete-blue-note-albums/14932109/). At least the material is presented intelligently: the 3 sessions are presented chronologically, with the alternates at the end. Much preferable to the RVG, which had the first and third session on one disc, leaving the second session for the other.

I saw some of that Guinness World Records performance; he did it at J&R in NYC. Circular breathing. What I remember were the long strands of saliva dangling from his mouth as he held the note. Unfortunately, time has not eradicated that image from my mind.

Thanks for posting.

Just saw these on Amazon. Release dates in May and June. Curious as to what's on the Coltrane.

Talk about when words fail! David, you need to get into some shameless self-promotion here! Release date May 13:

I think this label deserves more attention here. They're one of the few labels that continues to release new recordings, especially of the New York scene. Not sure that these labels have a guiding aesthetic; beyond Joe Fields, I'm not even sure who runs these labels (is Houston Person a part-owner of Savant?). I think some discussion would be good. Release date May 19:

Release date May 27:

It's hard today to fully appreciate how different Coleman Hawkins's "Body and Soul" sounded when it hit Harlem jukeboxes in late 1939. On that three-minute record, Coleman took a popular torch song and, with his tenor saxophone, turned it into a personal statement without ever losing track of the original melody. Wow, that was completely new, and it really changed me. I first heard "Body and Soul" when I was 10 years old. I was standing outside the Big Apple Bar on the corner of 135th Street and Seventh Avenue, across from Small's Paradise, and heard it on the jukebox through an open window. More here: WSJ Or Google: Transformed, 'Body and Soul'

Frustrating that the CDJapan listings still don't show song titles.

I like them a lot. Monk was awake, alert and energetic. And the rhythm section: Al McKibbon and Art Blakey. C'mon! There were 2 LPs, released in very crackly editions in the U.S.: Something In Blue and The Man I Love. The albums mixed solo tracks with trio tracks. Black Lion subsequently released the entire session in 3 CDs, now unfortunately hard to find. I found a thread about this topic on the allaboutjazz forum, oddly enough, started by me: http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/archive/index.php/t-5858.html