Claude

I think that this second batch of Fantasy SACDs is very encouraging, because the remastering is excellent, and is has been done by Fantasy engineers themselves (with DSD equipment leased from Sony it seems). Although XRCDs and K2 CDs are very fine, I don't like the JVC remastering engineer's preference for a analytical sound (not psycho-analytical, just very sharp and detailed ). The discs I have heard from the second Fantasy batch sound warm and full, more like MFSL or DCC remasterings, which I always preferred over XRCDs. I hope Fantasy will do more SACDs and also include some titles which have not been reissued as many times before. The Gil Evans SACD from the first batch was a very important reissue (first stereo release), also for those who don't care about SACD.

Hot Wheels collectors are maniacs. The winner "the-toy-store" certainly knows what he is doing and will be able to make a profit by resselling the items separately.

The Jazzmatatazz Upcoming Releases page has direct links to the Verve CDs on CD Universe

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/06/s...t.ap/index.html They should hire some chinese censorship pros .... http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/...14/sars.censor/

Thanks Daniel, this worked for me too. But I doubt that there will be much activity on the board, with these obstacles.

I can't log into the Bluenote Europe forum. I have registered and received a confirmation email, but after I enter the user/pass data in the login screen a browser pop up screen opens: Enter Network Password Site: stage.bluenoteeurope.com Username: Password which should not happen, as it is a login box for the server, not the board. My user/pass for the board don't work in that box and I get this message: "Authorization Required - This server could not verify that you are authorized to access the document requested. " So I'm locked out. I was about to open the first "Letter to Norah" thread ... B)

Thanks Chaney for the tip. I just registered to reserve my nickname. Nice content so far: two spam messages by a deleted poster and a critical question on copy protection by Kevin Bresnahan

It could be that the cookies set by the board on your PC have a validity of several weeks or months.

The Cannonball Adderley SACD is another sonic winner (I assume that the music on these SACDs is well known). I have no CD to compare it with (I gave the CD away before receiving the SACD), so I limit myself to the absolute sound quality. It is an excellent live recording, very natural and lively. The only flaws are the boxy sound of the piano (recorded with just one microphone) and the saturation of the mic or tape during the loudest bass drum hits. Like the others, this SACD sounds very smooth, with no trace of harshness. I don't know if this is due to the hi-rez technology or the remastering, but it seems that Fantasy has achieved true audiophile quality with this SACD batch (with reservations on the recording quality of the Massey Hall disc). I can't see how MFSL or Analogue Productions could have done better. The Cannonball SACD has been remastered by Kirk Felton, the other two by Joe Tarantino.

I received my order from CDUniverse today. All the Fantasy SACDs are mastered by Fantasy at Berkeley, whereas the latest K2 CD versions were remastered at JVC. This lets one expect at least a difference in remastering. - Art Pepper + Eleven sounds very smooth and full, without lacking detail. In comparision, the US K2 CD version sounds a bit steely and at the same time muddy. The upgrade was definitely worth it. This is my 4th digital version of this album - The Quintet - Jazz at Massey Hall sounds much better than on my late 80's CD, but this is most likely due to the remastering. I haven't heard the K2 version. This is no audiophile recording of course, and is has some drop outs too, like the previous CD versions I have yet to give Cannonball Adderley - In San Francisco a listen

My sincere condolences, Tom.

Thanks Deus. Is the track listing identical to the official Mosaic set? Zweitausendeins says 81 tracks, but AMG lists 101 tracks for the Mosaic.

I saw this Ellington set at a Zweitausendeins shop today. It is a bizarre Mosaic-style set: - It is a long black box, twice the size of a CD. No LP size booklet inside, obviously - The front has a miniature reproduction of the Mosaic cover, and a red/white "Spiegel Edition" sticker below. Spiegel is the biggest german weekly news magazine (www.spiegel.de) - the back has a description of the set in german So it looks like Mosaic is now licensing it's artwork and liner notes after their license of the music has expired. This set is for the german market only, I doubt wether they would do that on the US market, as this is likely to damage Mosaic's reputation.

From the posts on the AAJ thread, It seems that people can access the organissimo.net address, but not log in. When I go to the .net page and log in (successfully), I am redirected to the corresponding .org page. Those who cannot access the .org domain probably get an error message instead.

"Organissimo down?" thread on AAJ

Deus, If you've seen the current TV spot campaign by Ebay on german TV ("3... 2.... 1 .... mine") you will know what a deeply satisfying experience it can be to "win" an item in an auction. It's better than sex. And that is priceless

I've heard this, but as far as I know it is a small minority of collectors that believes alcohol to be harmful to vinyl. It is true that alcohol must absolutely be avoided when cleaning pre-1950 records (I have forgotten the english name of the material, germans call it "schellack") Most cleaning machines come with a fluid that contains alcohol. It must be high quality pure isopropyl alcohol of course.

Update The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of the Chico Hamilton Quintet (#175)

Yes, I remember now. The value on the receipt inside the package was overwritten in black. But that would not help if the customs insisted on getting a complete receipt. I've had a few shipments (not Mosaic) for which the customs requested to get a copy of my order confirmation (I simply forwarded the email sent by the seller), and tax was calculated on the amount stated on that receipt.

The policy of these different reissue labels is certainly not identical. Some choose particular projects (mostly material from the 40s and earlier) and do some careful research and remastering, others such as Definitive simply want to put quickly on the market the music that just entered the public domain in Europe. Check their newest releases and it seems obvious. Many artist compilations with awkward titles, which all end in 1953. I'm sure Definitive takes the music from existing CDs. How would they get tapes from Blue Note or Fantasy, when the original CDs are still on the market and the music under copyright protection in the US? They claim 24bit remastering on their CDs, but that could mean that they do some minor editing in 24bit (every PC user with the right software can do that).

I have a Kabusa EV-1 record cleaning machine, which is based on the Nitty Gritty Basic, but is much cheaper because it has no built in vacuum system. You have to connect a regular vacuum cleaner. (www.kabusa.com) There is also a miraculous and cheap cleaning method which uses a microfibre (?) cleaning towel, and a solution based on 30% alcohol and 70% distilled water. It is decribed here, but in german: http://www.vinyl-lebt.de/home-vl1024/CheapThrill.htm I now combine the two methods. The trick is to get the cleaning solution together with the dirt completely out of the grooves, so it will not dry and stay. This does not work by simply rinsing the records with tap water. Both methods mentionned above achieve this goal by different means: vacuum and microfibres.

No, I didn't ask them to do that. In fact it is very unusual for a company to declare a value which is lower than the real value, because this is not in conformity with the customs rules. Many US internet stores state in their conditions that they do not accept requests to declare a wrong value or declare the package as a gift (BTW: in the EU, the same customs rule apply to gifts, so that won't help anyway) I ordered most of my Mosaic sets in 2002, when our customs administration was overloaded with shipments coming from overseas, because of the increasing internet ordering activity (mainly US DVDs). They didn't have the time to check if the value indicated on the customs sticker was correct (by opening the package and checking the receipt), but they occasionally do that now.

Rules on customs tax are largely harmonized now in the EU. In my country, for goods with a value below 350 Euro, I pay 3,5% import tax and VAT, rounded up to 19% total of the value of the goods. Check the website of your customs administration. You need to make sure the package is shipped through the postal service only. Private mail companies tend to rip you off by charging service fees for the customs declaration (up to $20 !!). With most of the sets I ordered, I paid no customs tax at all, because Mosaic indicated a value of $5 per disc on the customs sticker. In principle, tax has to be paid for all packages which have a value over 22 Euro (44 Euro for private to private shipments), but the customs administration lets through many packages with a value below 50 Euro without charging tax.

Probably not Candid (recorded in the 60's), but Prestige, Blue Note recording from pre-1954.. There is a difference between US and european copyright law: the duration of the protection of sound recordings is 50 years in Europe, and has been extended to 70 years in the US a few years ago. This means that recordings from 1953 or older are in the public domain in Europe, but still protected in the US. Definitive Records from Spain has specialized on reissues of this material and closely follows the 50 year dateline. These CDs are considered bootlegs in the US, but they are openly sold by many online stores.

As far as I know, this only works with Fedex and similar companies, but the price is usually 2 to 3 times higher than airmail.