mjzee

Andrew Rose hasn't posted here in awhile.

Friday, April 4: Ballister (Fred Lonberg-Holm, Paal Nilssen-Love, Dave Rempis) @ the Starlight Lounge (rooftop patio) at Khon's, 2800 Milam St., Houston. (The same night as Wayne Shorter.)

Listening now to Unity. Vinyl is heavy and very quiet but, disappointingly, a little off-center. Sound quality is nice and smooth. Music still doesn't thrill me, but I'm glad to have the album.

OK, I just take that middle step of first burning it to CD, so I can parse the tracks, adjust levels and (sometimes) declick.

Of course I do, as does everyone with a computer. (Although interestingly, as an aside, my new iMac does not come with an optical drive. I've repurposed my old iMac as a dedicated music server.) The CD recorder is part of my stereo system, and it's how I transfer LPs (and before that, cassettes) to iTunes: burn to CD, transfer to iMac, clean it up with Amadeus, then import into iTunes. As for Tascam, they're really TEAC, so it's worth asking how good this particular unit is. Thanks, Allen. What do you mean by "front-end converter" - do you use it as a pass-through DAC?

Does anyone here have any experience with the Tascam CD-RW900SL? My venerable Marantz CDR630 is giving up the ghost, and I'm shopping for a replacement CD recorder.

Got Free For All today.

With great sound, great photos, and great liner notes. Someone needing it should go get this one on ebay. It's in a different package than the one I have, mine's a double-wide disc thing in a slipcase, that one looks a little fancier. Terrific set. This is the one I have. Very nice design inside, great photos. It's a pain to actually get the CDs out, however. BN put out a similar package at the same time for Gerry Mulligan, but that went OOP in an instant.

New listings are in bold?

Hi, Alexander! Glad to see you back.

With great sound, great photos, and great liner notes.

Skeith, don't sweat it. Honestly, I didn't even understand what you posted, and if you have to explain a joke, well, you know...

Great stuff, very nicely arranged.

Pony Poindexter/Booker Ervin/Larry Young, Gumbo, $5.99 Any good?

I liked the parts where McLaughlin talks about how Miles treated him kindly. He was a complex guy.

Just got Unity. The cover is a little on the thin side, but there's a nice color inner sleeve showing various BN releases (perhaps those that are part of this reissue series). I don't have a copy of the original cover, but it looks to me like they may have used new type for the musicians listed on the front cover. Can't wait to hear it; heard it when the CD first came out and wasn't thrilled with it, perhaps I'll like it better now.

Just received a notice from Amazon that Free For All is delayed in shipping; new delivery estimate April 8 - April 22.

The conversation turned to Davis, whom Mr. McLaughlin joined in 1969 in time for the sessions for "In a Silent Way" in New York. Unaware he'd be playing on the Joe Zawinul composition that served as the title track, Mr. McLaughlin was unprepared. He recalled Davis telling him: "Play it like you don't know how to play the guitar." Later, talking about the 1970 album "Bitches Brew," Mr. McLaughlin said of Davis: "He didn't know what he wanted. He only knew what he didn't want. "He was like a Zen master," Mr. McLaughlin added. "It was amazing to see. It was like seeing Picasso work. He had this gift. He'd say things to musicians to knock them out of their ordinary state of mind. In this way, he was able to get the best out of all his players." Full article here: WSJ (If the article doesn't open, try Googling the topic title.)

Very well written, Indestructible.

I ordered 2 of the LPs: Free For All and Unity; they should arrive today. Can't wait to see them.

This was a very nice sampler series from Concord/OJC, appearing around 2002. Most can still be found at great prices. and... there's one for Jazzland too (I reached the limit for posting images here).

A second thumb's up for the 2 RCA Victor anthologies pictured above.

I noticed on the Amazon Japan website that they have 5 copies of the Ray Charles: Pure Genius box for 3,626 yen, which seems like a steal (especially for Japanese pressings). http://www.amazon.co.jp/Pure-Genius-Completed-Recordings-1952-60/dp/B007TLCU2Y/ref=pd_sim_m_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=1G2DN98TTHWEDFA481A1

This is a fun series of compilations (with great covers!). They were put out by a European label named Disky, but tracks are from the Blue Note/EMI stables. Still readily available on Amazon. It is a Membran box. I don't have it (I have a lot of the material in other ways), but I wouldn't be reflexively against it. Most of the negativity here towards Membran (aside from the usual anti-P.D. stuff) has to do with the degree of noise reduction they use. Not having heard the box, I can't say in this case. But it's a great bargain for the money, and some people like noise reduction. I'd encourage the OP to try to hear some of the box for themselves.

This may be the only collection you'd need for early jazz: It's a 100-CD box set that Amazon is currently selling for $99.99. A detailed track listing of the first 35 CDs can be found at Amazon UK (see the customer reviews section).