Claude

Bookmark this link. The "View today's active topics" function is available on the AAJ board, but the link is only displayed when you are logged off. However it also works when you are logged in.

I use a bookmark with the "View new topics" address, so I don't need to go to the front page and click the link. It only works by bookmarking the link, not the resulting page.

Michel, If you still searching for the Sonny Criss CD I could send you one from Luxembourg. My local supermarket has lots of the titles from the series. 6 Euros + shipping cost.

I have both Blue Note volumes. The first one contains all the famous covers and the second the lesser known (and also less good) ones. The price per book was $30 back then in Brussels but it was definitely worth it. The binding of the books is not very solid though.

As far as sound is concerned, you can't go better than with the SACDs of the two original albums, which contain the same bonus tracks as on the normal CDs. The CD layer also sounds excellent.

I have two Wayne Shorter Veejay/Blue Moon CDs (Wayning Moments, Second genesis) which sound good, but I don't have other versions to compare them. The master takes are stereo, the alterates mono. I would give them a sound rating of 7,5/10. I also bought (and immediately got rid of) Wynton Kelly "Kelly Great" on Blue Moon, which sounded really poor (3/10), and was mono, although the recording from 1959 must be stereo I guess.

Thanks for the recommendation, Leeway. I didn't know that one.

Could be that this "different set" is a collection of Impulse! out-takes and alternates released on LP. Though I couldn't find on AMG and the Net a different album containing a track named "Interconnection".

I don't know many stores in my area which have a representative jazz selection, so I can't say which RVGs are hard to find. The biggest CD store in my city has no Blue Note CDs at all (and no OJCs either) except Norah and some samplers.

Paul Horn - Something blue Sonny Criss - Sonny's Dream

People from the customs in my country told me they had to get more staff because internet orders have enormously increased during the last year. More and more people are using the internet to order DVDs in the US, and the low $ rate has made it even more attractive. Customs couldn't cope with all those small packages and let most of them pass without charging tax. But now they cought up and I have to pay customs tax more often. Whereas $50 packages wouldn't be charged in the past (tax is due for value > 20 Euro) there are in 50% cases now. But even with 19% tax added is is cheaper to order in the US most of the time. Probably the store where you bought them didn't apply the rules properly. Internet shops now charge the local VAT rate of their EU customers. Before the rules changed this year, the VAT rate of the stores' country was applied.

Do you prefer even "The Avantgarde"?

http://www.matthewstewart.com/bio.asp

... Weizen

I just received an email from Amazon.de saying that the shipment of the Mulligan set was delayed. In my many past orders from Amazon Germany, when I got this mail the order was always canceled in the end ("We are unable to get this item"). Maybe their deal on this set was too cheap. Or has anyone already received one from Amazon.de?

Well, one of them has learned that reducing his name even more doesn't work

Or today´s alternative: Making them pass on this 3CD set and download the rarities illegally from the web (if they don't care about CD sound) At least this set has an attractive price, so those who get it for CD3 alone must not feel screwed.

I have ordered a iRiver IHP-120 (20gb version of the IHP-100) a month ago but it is high in demand and I haven't received it yet. I chose the iRiver over the iPod because it needs no special software on the PC to transfer files to the player, supports the WMA and Ogg Vorbis formats, has the ability to record (digital and analog input) and a built-in radio. I travel a lot and used a Riovolt MP3-CD-Player with 3 full CD-RWs (20 hours of music) until it broke down recently. The iRiver will allow me to carry a much bigger music collection with me. With such a device one absolutely needs a Firewire or USB 2.0 interface on the PC. USB 1.0 works but is much too slow. USB 2.0 is now standard in PCs but rather recent. Older PCs can be upgraded by installing a $20 USB 2.0 PCI-card.

That's a good price. Elsewhere in Europe it is 80-90 Euro. I bought mine from CD Universe for $50, but had to pay VAT on it. Zweitausendeins usually has the lowest prices on box sets, but those are temporary offers and it is not sure if and when they get the Jack Johnson set.

Many CDs from the series are still in the bargain bins (6 Euro) of my local Auchan supermarket. Obviously not the right place to sell connoisseur jazz CDs.

Brilliant (as usual) John, but where is the cat? What I find amazing about your covers is that fact that with my limited knowledge in graphic manipulation I cannot guess how you did this. Like with a perfect magician.

McDonald's anger over McJob entry BBC News, Sunday, 9 November, 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3255883.stm McDonald's has expressed its outrage over how the latest Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary describes job prospects at the US fast-food giant. In its latest edition, the dictionary defines the term McJob as "low-paying and dead-end work". McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo dismissed the term as "an inaccurate description of restaurant employment". He called it "a slap in the face to the 12 million" industry's staff, according to the Associated Press news agency. In an open letter to Merriam-Webster's, Mr Cantalupo said that "more than 1,000 of the men and women who own and operate McDonald's restaurants today got their start by serving customers behind the counter". The letter has been sent to media organisations, and it was also published in the latest edition of an industry trade organisation. McDonald's - the world's largest fast-food chain - has more than 30,000 restaurants and nearly 500,000 employees. The term McJob was coined by the American novelist Douglas Coupland in his 1991 novel Generation X to describe a "low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector".

The advantage of SACD is that you can ignore the surround gimmickry and choose to listen to the stereo layer only.

SACD is fully stereo-compatible. Those discs which have multichannel sound also have a stereo mix. Most current SACDs only have stereo sound, because surround recording is only used with classical recordings and high-budget pop productions. Some quadro recordings from the 70s have also been put on multichannel SACDs. And there is also the controversial method of remixing old stereo recordings to multichannel (Bob Dylan "Blonde on Blonde"). The SACD player can be connected to a stereo amplifier with a stereo RCA cable or to a surround amplifier with an analog 5.1 RCA cable.