Claude

Which is compatible with their own label tradition Taken from Jazzmatazz, here are the Muse/Savoy releases for july: *Sonny Criss - Crisscraft (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — 1975 *Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - The Heavy Hitter (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — Albert Dailey; Victor Lewis; George Duvivier; from 1979 *Richard "Groove" Holmes - Groove's Groove (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — 1977-1988 compilation *Morgana King - Tender Moments (Savoy/32 Jazz) July 1 — 1977-1987 compilation *Pat Martino - Footprints (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — with Billy Higgins; Richard Davis; Bobby Rose; 1975 *Jack McDuff - Another Real Good'un (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — with Houston Person; 1990 *Richard "Groove" Holmes - Groove's Groove (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — 1977-1988 compilation *David "Fathead" Newman - Lone Star Legend (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — two-fer of Resurgance! and Still Hard Times — with Hank Crawford; Louis Hayes; Cedar Walton; Jimmy Cobb; Marcus Belgrave; Steve Nelson; Larry Willis; Buster Williams, etc. *Houston Person - The Talk of the Town (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — with Cecil Bridgewater; Stan Hope; Buster Williams; Grady Tate; from 1987 *Sonny Stitt - The Last Sessions, Vols. 1 & 2 (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — with Walter Davis or Junior Mance, Bill Hardman, Walter Davis, George Duvivier and Jimmy Cobb; from 1982 *Cedar Walton - Naima: A Night at Boomers, Vols. 1 & 2 (Savoy/Muse) July 1 — with Clifford Jordan, Sam Jones and Loius Hayes; from 1973

I agree with that analysis. But there are also differences depending on the studio where it was recorded and the engineer who recorded or mixed it. The sessions made by Jan Erik Kongshaug in Oslo, in the Talent Studio and later Rainbow studio were mostly responsible for the "ECM sound". It often suited the music very well (Jan Garbarek) but could be off-putting especially with piano recordings, where most people prefer natural studio ambiance instead of artificial church acoustics. The recordings made by Martin Wieland at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg (Germany) sounded much drier. There is no doubt that almost all ECM studio sessions from the late 70's on are very well recorded. But it is the mixing and remastering that produced this special sound. The EQ'ing is an important factor. My impression is that they reduce the middle frequencies to produce a more brilliant and "round" sound, just like the Loudness switch on older amplifiers. All ECM recordings have this in common, independently where they were made. I don't like this attempt to beautify the music, it reminds me of the blurred image of face close-ups in Doris Day's films. As far as the music is concerned I find it difficult to accept an opinion where somebody likes or hates ECM generally, because they produce music from so many different styles. I particularly like the albums from the 70's made by US artists like Dave Liebman, Richard Beirach, Steve Kuhn, Julian Priester, Sam Rivers and others. Maybe because they are untypical for ECM. These albums are also the hardest to find, some of them never made it to CD. I don't like about ECM that they sell all of their catalogue at full price. Maybe it is the price for keeping everything in print.

Even if Mosaic found some old sets, would they be allowed to sell them officially? Some of their licensing contracts are limited in number AND in time.

This looks like a problem with the amplifier (receiver)

Jeez, I didn't know there were guys on ebay selling positive feedback (and getting free positive feedback in return): Positive Feedback + Amazing Recipe for Hummus ($0.99) "I will give you positive feedback very fast once you purchase this recipe" 3 GUACAMOLE Recipes~ FAST FEEDBACK!! ($0.99) "I love to give positive feedback to paying bidders, and I do so immediately after payment is received through Paypal!!"

According to the CNN article, the beating of his wife would have earned him "only" a year in prison and a $3000 fine. The life sentence is for the assault of the policeman and the spitting, " because of the possibility of transmitting a potentially deadly disease. "

The title of that 2LP-on-1CD sampler is very well chosen. If you only want one Sonny Stitt CD this is the one to get ... if you can find it.

That's only logical, since one can already get a life sentence for spitting on a police agent: Man gets life in prison for spitting (cnn.com)

Frustrated man turns tables on telemarketers (cnn.com news) DULUTH, Minnesota (AP) -- An exasperated resident turned the tables on a company that hounded him with telemarketing calls, calling them more than 100 times in two days. Marc Plaisted said he started calling Minnesota Auto Glass after the St. Peter-based company's telemarketers called him up to three times a day -- even after he asked them not to. Plaisted had figured the calls would stop when he signed on to Minnesota's "do-not-call" list months ago. "I'm following the law and asking them to be taken off the list and they ignore me and then, on top of it, start swearing at me," he said. "That was where they flipped the switch with me and I said, 'Enough is enough. I'm going after you guys now.'" Plaisted started calling the Minnesota Auto Glass's Duluth office last Thursday, and placed more than 100 calls, he said. "I just called them every five minutes and let them know that, no, I don't have a crack in my windshield, because this seems to be something they are very concerned about," Plaisted said. A Minnesota Auto Glass manager in Duluth said Plaisted's number had been removed from its list and that proof of the removal would be put in writing.

Source: jazzmatazz

Why didn't they just choose an "opt-in" solution? Is there anyone on earth who actually likes being called on his phone to be sold a product?

I like both sets a lot, but they have a very different atmosphere. The Blackhawk was a club gig taking place over two nights, so obviously it was more routine than the unique Carnegie Hall appearance with the Gil Evans Orchestra. On the latter the band plays with more fire (especially Miles) but the tracks with Gil Evans are not near as good as the studio versions. The Carnegie Hall concert is poorly recorded, it is mono and has a lot of distortion on higher levels. I don't think the late 90's remastering made it worse.

Stereophile wrote that the DSOTM CD layer has very compressed dynamics. I haven't checked it yet. My listening tests showed that "Blue Train" is compressed on the SACD layer too, compared to the MFSL CD.

I am very lucky now, because I chose my appartment specifically for music listening purposes. The house is built like a bunker and I can play music anytime at adequate volumes, and I never hear my neighbours' noise. But as I student I lived together with 6 other people in an old house in Brussels. The walls were so thin you could hear every fart (and sometimes smell it). Unfortunately the guy who had the room above mine was a big country music fan and played it all day, except during his girlfriend's visits. Nobody in urban Europe likes country music, but this guy had more than 300 CDs of it. We got along very well though we hated each other's music (I just discovered jazz). When he had his stereo set too loud I used to put on Peter Brötzmann's "Machine gun" (the most offending music in my collection back then) and turn up the volume real loud for a minute until he made his music quieter. It became a sort of a signal.

I don't know about books, but there is a lot of information available online. For Riverside and Prestige, check this japanese page (no book can provide a built-in search engine ): http://www.tgs.gr.jp/jazz/ And there is Michael Fitzgerald's impressive label listing project, which lists records but has no discography: http://www16.brinkster.com/fitzgera/labels...ls/homepage.htm

As has been widely discussed, the Pink Floyd Dark side of the moon SACDs had problems with cracks appearing after some time (weeks, months) in the center of the disc. Responsible for this is the Crest National pressing plant. My copy of DSOTM has a few cracks which appeared a month after I received it, but it seems that many more, and even much more recent titles are concerned. So the problem isn't solved yet. My copy of Bob Belden Black Dahlia also has 2 cracks (2 mm long). My Blue Train SACD is still ok (so I can safely get rid of it on ebay ) So be warned, check your Crest-made SACDs regularly and keep the receipts. Here is a thread from the Steve Hoffman forum discussing the topic in detail.

A stereo mix with nothing in the middle can indeed sound odd. But on the previous CD issues of "Blue Train" piano and bass are in the middle of the soundstage, the horns being in the left channel and the drums in the right (the latter not hard panned). I find this more convincing than the SACD mix wich sounds almost mono.

Just more bits? That would make no sense at all, because the "bits" describe the remastering process. If an analogue mastertape is taken from the archive, played on the tape machine and digitized in a higher resolution (24bit instead of 16bit), it is called remastering. But more bits does not automatically make the sound better, other factors such as correct equalization are much more important. This new release of "The Brigde" is said to be mastered from the original 3-track tapes (mixed down to stereo), whereas the previous CDs were made from a stereo mixdown tape. So it is likely to sound different, because of the new mixdown.

This can be due to the prefered font you have set in your browser configuration. Try different standard fonts (Arial, MS sans serif, ...)

Acousticsounds.com ships to Europe, but charges $25 shipping

They have only been announced for August 26, so that's impossible to say. cduniverse.com often has reduced prices on new releases, they may offer the best deal.

I have a Sony SCD-XB770QS, a midrange player ($700 list price, but retailing for $400) which is only avaialble in Europe (maybe Asia too). I bought it based on reviews, as no hifi shop in Luxembourg has one available for auditioning. http://www.avguide.ch/test/index.cfm?show=detail&ID=66 Until then I had a Sony CDP-X777ES CD player, a $2000 model made in 1991 (got it for $500 in 1995), that I am very attached to because of it's good sound and fantastic build quality. I was dissappointed by the Sony SACD player. It had trouble reading some CDs (this has dissapeared after a few weeks) and the CD sound is inferior to the old Sony. It lacks dynamics, detail and low bass, the sound is very laid back. In direct comparision of the two players, there is something missing with the new Sony. I did not expect it to blow away the old Sony, but based on the reviews and technological progress (10 years difference) I expected it to be better. Midrange SACD player are said to have average redbook playback but excellent SACD sound. Until now I still have to be convinced by the advantages of SACD. I received amazingly good speakers this week (Dynaudio Contour S3.4, $4000) and will most likely upgrade my amp (Electrocompaniet ECI-3), so SACD may finally show it's superiority. Based on my experience, I am very sceptical on the necessity of hi-rez digital sources in mid-fi systems. For some time I am searching for a new CD/SACD player (the cheap Sony was more a test buy to check SACD capabilities), but very few SACD players are available in my preferred $1000-2000 price range. The excellent Sony SCD-XA777ES, recently discontinued, is only starting to go below $2000. There are very good CD-only players in this price region, but I hesitate to buy one because I will miss the SACD capabilities when/if this format takes off. This is in fact not very rational, since I have 2000 CDs and only 20 SACDs, and I'm still buying 10 times more CDs than SACDs. Hey, I even buy more LPs than SACDs

The important thing is if universal players really gets the most out of every disc. They need dedicated circuits for every format, which has it's price. I haven't seen good reviews of players that support DVD-A and SACD. I don't know the Pioneer, but it would be of no use to have a universal player which doesn't sound better with hi-rez discs than a CD player of the same price. While it's debatable if it is worth investing into a good SACD player now, as this format's market success is not guaranted, the question is much more pertinent with DVD-A. You risk buying discs with no so great music just because there are so few releses in that format. The list of available DVD-A titles does not convince me to get a suitable player. Jazz fans are luckier with SACD releases, but this could only be a coincidence because of a few labels (Sony of course, Analogue Productions and now Fantasy) active on this format.

Maybe these reviews give an answer: http://www.homecinemachoice.com/testbench/...nAVR-3300.shtml http://www.audio-ideas.com/reviews/receive...n_avr_3300.html Like you say yourself, the fact that a CD has been remasted at 24 bit/96 KHz will not change anything on the CD playback side, because the digital signal on the CD is always 16bit/44.1kHz. So it's a pure coincidence that those CDs sound better with a certain setting of the D/A converter

No horizontal scrolling problem for me, with an Opera browser and a 17" monitor running at 1024x768 resolution.