Claude

Hi Kyo, I mentionned those Verve (=Universal) CDs, but there are not that many of them. I forgot about the Prestige RVGs, which appeared in a previous Merkheft (they are no longer available online, although they may still be available in the stores).

Thanks Oliver, Unfortunately the 2001 jazz offerings have become quite limited recently. One thing is that they have no Fantasy material anymore except for a few leftovers (because of the change of ditributors), but there are also very few bargains on other labels. Currently, they have a couple of Sony and Universal CDs, and that's it. It seems that they have a huge stock of Gil Evans' "The individualism" and Bill Evans' "From left to right", which has been in their catalogue for years ... As far as DVDs go, they are generally more expensive than Amazon or JPC. But they are still a great resource for discounted books (german only).

Bertrand, you can delete the other topic with the "Moderation options" in the lower left corner of the screen in that thread.

The Lonehill stuff is mostly not legit (not in the public domain in Europe), but nobody seems to care. In the jazz section of the FNAC in Brussels (the largest media store in belgian capital, with quite knowledgible staff), Lonehill CDs are regularly featured in their listening stations, and there are often Lonehill promos. The CDs are being treated like reissues from the big labels (RVGs, OJCs, Verve, etc). It's too bad that these reissues are not official, because the sound quality is often not as good as it could be, with the CDs being dubbed from LP production masters or vinyl. It's probably good enough for most listeners though.

iTunes should check the illegal downloads circulating in filesharing networks, which offer a perfect lossless rip of a CD and high quality scans of the booklet. If amateurs can do that (it certainly takes less than 30 minutes to prepare such a release, and no special equipment), the biggest music download store should be able to offer the same thing.

Here's a magazine ad with the list of 1987 CD reissues, released by WEA Germany:

Hans, I may still have a german flyer from 1987 with the first batch of Impulse! reissues. I'll post it here if I find it.

From today's Mosaic newsletter:

Nice. A 108" LCD together with an outdoor camera could replace a window

Unlike some other Prestige RVGs, the Oliver Nelson CD sounds good, but not better than the mastering on the Dolphy Complete Prestige box set. No reason to upgrade if you have an earlier CD version.

Maybe it's a question of age, or of how large a person's music collection is. I was thinking of the average music buyer, who is in his teens or twenties, and who owns less than 200 albums. In my experience, most young music buyers in the late 80's wanted CDs just like they later wanted DVDs (instead of VHS tapes), and MP3s now. There was no regret to leave the old format behind, except for the nice large LP covers. CDs could be listened to everywhere, and they could be copied to cassettes just like LPs. There was no disadvantage in abandonning vinyl. They opted for CD voluntarily as soon as the players and discs became more affordable. In no way was the format pushed onto them. Many got rid of their existing LP collection, at dumping prices. Why would they do that if they preferred vinyl, but were forced by the labels to buy new albums on CD? They could still listen to their old LPs, but they didn't want to. It was different for the older vinyl fans of course, who were forced in the early 90's to buy CDs against their preference, because vinyl stopped being released. But they were a small minority.

That's nonsense. The CD was not imposed on the music buyer. The format came out in 1983, but most albums continued to be released on vinyl until the early 90's. Most people opted to convert to CD not because no LPs were available, but because they preferred the much more convenient CD. And now they prefer MP3s, because they are even more convenient than CDs. Sound quality is only an issue for 10% of the music listeners. Both LP and CD can sound "audiophile", and high quality MP3s sound good enough for most listeners.

I've heard it even drew notice on jazz discussion forums

There are tools which try to identify the source material of music CD-Rs. I don't know how and how good they work. Tau Analyzer - CD Authenticity Detector

This is only from my memory (the stereo/mono question, not the list ). Not sure if the list is complete. - Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane ~ RCD-46-2 ~ $14.98: duo tracks are mono, not sure if the other tracks are stereo on that release) - Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington ~ RCD-201-2 ~ $14.98: Mono - Bill Evans New Jazz Conceptions ~ RCD-223-2 ~ $14.98: Mono - Thelonious Monk Brillant Corners ~ RCD-226-2 ~ $14.98: Mono - Thelonious Monk Thelonious Himself ~ RCD-235-2 ~ $14.98: Mono - Sonny Rollins The Sound of Sonny ~ RCD-241-2 ~ $14.98: Mono - Thelonious Monk Monk's Music ~ RCD-242-2 ~ $14.98: Mono (unlike most other releases) - Mulligan Meets Monk ~ RCD-1106-2 ~ $14.98: Mono - Chet Baker in New York ~ RCD-1119-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Chet Baker Sings It Could Happen to You ~ RCD-1120-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Cannonball Adderley/Milt Jackson Things Are Getting Better ~ RCD-1128-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Everybody Digs Bill Evans ~ RCD-1129-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Thelonious Monk Quartet Misterioso ~ RCD-1133-2 ~ $14.98 Stereo - Chet Baker Chet ~ RCD-1135-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner & Loewe ~ RCD-1152-2 ~ $14.98 Stereo - The Wes Montgomery Trio ~ RCD-1156-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Cannonball Adderley in San Francisco ~ RCD-1157-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Bill Evans Portrait in Jazz ~ RCD-1162-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Wes Montgomery Incredible Jazz Guitar ~ RCD-1169-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Bill Evans Trio Explorations ~ RCD-9351-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Bill Evans Trio Sunday at the Village Vanguard ~ RCD-9376-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Bill Evans Waltz for Debby ~ RCD-9399-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Milt Jackson & Wes Montgomery Bags Meets Wes! ~ RCD-9407-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Cannonball Adderley/Bill Evans Know What I Mean? ~ RCD-9433-2 ~ $14.98 : Stereo - Wes Montgomery Full House ~ RCD-9434-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Charlie Byrd Bossa Nova Pelos Pássaros ~ RCD-9436-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Caravan ~ RCD-9438-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo - Wes Montgomery Boss Guitar ~ RCD-9459-2 ~ $14.98: Stereo

Reminds me of some of the dancing in Benny Hill shows

I got a 46" Sony LCD screen a couple of days ago (KDL46W2000, but name is probably different in the US). It's a high quality FullHD display. Having no HDTV access, I mainly watch DVDs, which look great. But with HD demo videos played on the PC, the picture quality is simply breathtaking ! Check the "Ray" or "King Kong" trailers from this site (many others have too much action to enjoy the picture quality): http://www.drfoster.f2s.com/trailers_hd-dvd.shtml With these HD movies and a good LCD TV you can sit 1 meter away from the screen and see every wrinkle and hair, and no picture noise or MPEG artefacts like with most DVDs. I'm really looking forward to HDTV and HD discs, but it will probably take a couple of years before a decent selection of stations and discs will be available.

I agree. Normally new albums by such stars are announced 4-6 months in advance.

I haven't heard the "Sky Dive" CD, but none of the CTI reissues (1997/2002 versions) I have heard sounds really great, unlike most other Columbia remasters. It seems to be Creed Taylor's (over-)production technique that makes these sessions sound rather veiled and lifeless (acoustically, not musically!)

That's a very interesting question. But as Bird died more than 50 years ago, all of his recodings are in public domain in Europe, so I don't think anything is missing on CD.

My first box set was the Miles Davis "CBS Years 1955-85" 4CD set, which I bought in 1990.

By coincidence, I got the 2CD set "Live at the Lighthouse" on Fresh Sound last week. It contains the recordings that you mention. This had been OOP for some time, but was recently reissued. http://www.freshsoundrecords.com/record_po...?record_id=3573

Making or keeping albums available as dowloads is good, but don't expect label executives and consumers to be aware of the difference between MP3s and lossless formats. I think the reason why most people prefer CD reissues to dowloads is not because they sound better than MP3s, but because they are a product ready for use, unlike a download that needs to be transferred to a mp3 player or burned to a CD-R. As an informed user, who knows about both the music and the technological, you will always be frustrated about what the legit business wíll offer you, compared to what is available in filesharing networks. That's an inevitable consequence of the interactive nature of the internet. The official download is not necessarily the best quality download.

I think the Criterion DVDs are overpriced, since they haven't followed the general downward trend of DVD prices. During the time when new regular DVD releases were priced $20-25 (list price), $40 for a Criterion DVDs was ok. But now, many DVDs are released for less than $15, so the Criterion price difference has become very high. I don't judge the work involved, but only the market situation.

That was my first reaction as well. Is Mosaic entering the recording/production business?