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Among my favorites downloaded from this service:

Ubiquity Various--tons of good funk 45s here.

Spike's Choice Desco 45s--more good funk 45s

Boogaloo Joe Jones Sweetback--the title track is too funky

Lee Fields--FUNKY

Syl Johnson

Mike James Kirkland

Cannonball Adderley Phenix & Pyramid, several others

Sonny Criss--everything they offer is excellent

Joe Pass--Virtuoso stuff

Yusef Lateef

Charles Earland

Pat Martino

I've downloaded grips of Fantasy stuff, lots of it good...

Desmond Williams Delights Of The Garden--beyond the average album of hip hop beats

The Dining Rooms Numero Deux--trip hop/Portisheadish stuff

more recommendations, anyone?

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They have some Palo Alto sessions from the early 80s that were reissued by Quicksilver. Thus far, I downloaded McCoy Tyner's Just Feelin' and David Friesen's Amber Skies (with Henderson, Corea and Motian). Emusic also has some Vee Jay sessions released on Koch Jazz, such as Expoobident (what does this word mean, anyway?), Fantastic Frank Strozier, & Wayning Moment.

Search for GNP/Crescendo and Xanadu releases as well, although they need to re-do the Xanadus.

Most files are compressed using the variable bit rates method (probably at around 200kbps).

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In my first day, I downloaded:

Pat Martino - East

Charles Earland - Black Talk

Charlie Christian - After Hours

Tatum - Solo Masterpieces Vol. 1

Bob Brozman - Blue Hula Stomp

Joe Pass - Virtuoso

Don Friedman - A Day in the City

Gigi Gryce and the Lab Quintet

Other than box sets, I haven't bought many titles from the Fantasy catalog due to their constant availability. Now I'm like a boy in a candy store. I guess my iPod is going to basically consist of the Fantasy catalog.

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In the past couple of days I grabbed the Complete Wes Montgomery Prestige set (12 discs), the Art Pepper Complete Village Vanguard set (8 discs) the Art Pepper Hollywood All Star Sessions (5 discs) along with a few random single discs (Screaming Headless Torsos for example) Not too shabby.

I agree that the Desco label is well worth checking out. Beyond what Noj already mentioned I would recommend the Daktaris album Soul Explosion. Great Afrobeat!

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I've read that they now use LAME to encode their MP3's. This is very good news because the LAME mp3 encoder creates the best sounding MP3's. I need my broadband back! :(

How is life with your iPod, JL? Do you have one of the new models?

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I got the new 30GB model last week. It made a lot of sense for me, since I needed a portable harddrive anyway and I get a steep discount on Apple products. I think the people who claim that it gives "cd quality" sound are kidding themselves (I have a pretty bad set of ears and even I can tell the difference), but for a portable device the sound is more than good enough. It's really nice suddenly having such a large library of music in my office without having to lug the discs back and forth between there and my apartment. It will be great for plane trips, too. I just have to get the external battery pack so it can run on AAs, and I'll be all set.

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I guess I'll add a dissenting reply. Initially I really liked emusic. However after the initial joy and staggering amount of downloading I did, I found myself 3 months into it and not really downloading that much.

Why?

Well, to be honest....if I really like an album that much, I'm gonna buy it as a CD with nice packaging, ect. If I'm not into a certain album, like "Oh, I don't have that...I'll download it." 9 times out of 10 it's going to be an album I'm not going to listen to. I've got a huge jazz CD collection (realatively speaking), and I've got more than enough to keep my ears busy for a long, long time.

Emusic was just a download fest of music I rarely listened to.

So, I let my subscription expire after my credit card expired...

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One of the things that I really LIKE about EMusic is that you can explore music that you wouldn't otherwise spend money on. Different artists, genres, albums are all available in "near" CD quality. In many cases there are albums that I will listen to, but not necessarily want to spend $15 for the "hard copy".

Also, I can't see myself running out of things to download any time soon. As I'm pretty open to different styles, there's just too much there.

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  • 1 month later...

Wanted to bring this thread back up since I joined Emusic last week. All I can say is...damn! :P

Very impressed so far. If you're into the kinds of music the people on this board are and you've got a big hard drive and a broadband connection it's a pretty amazing bargain for the money.

As others have stated, the best thing about it is the ability to try out some new music without having to plunk down $16.99 just to find out if you like it or not.

In addition to the Fantasy, Xanadu, ESP, JSP and other jazz-specific catalogs they've also got a great selection from all the Shanachie labels including the Yazoo titles.

There's been some griping about "unlimited downloads" not really meaning "unlimited" and while that's a valid complaint, if you don't make a complete pig of yourself every month it probably won't be a problem.

Anyhow, I'm a week in and have no complaints. In fact, I'm waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and tell me that there's been a mistake...

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I'm all over that Fantasy/Prestige catalogue like a cheap suit. As I said over on that board, the best 'find' to date was the Mose Allison material (Local Color, Autumn Song, etc..)...none of which I had heard.

I've been "filling holes" in my Fantasy collection like a maniac, grabbing those couple of Trane or Miles or Red Garland's I'd been meaning to get around too.

Good to know about Mose Allison. I'm just like you were--don't have any. Which would you recommend to start?

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The "Down Home Piano" Lp was the first one I ran with......the song called "Mule" swings real nice. ;)

:g:g:g:g:g:g

There's a "mule" song for every mood:

Mule

Mule Train

Mule Boy

Mule Man

Mule Shoe

Mule Walk

Me and the Mule

Mule Eggs

Mule Kick

Mule Milk

Mule to Ride

Mule Talk

Po' Mule

Mule Skinner Blues

Whoa Mule

Big Mule

Gee the Mule

Man on the Mule

Mule Blues

Mulê Nasip

Old Mule

Sco-Mule

Tan Mule

Army Mule

Bird Mule

Blue Mule

Bout the Mule

Club Mule

Come on, Mule

Frog and Mule

Mule and a Fool

Mule Boogie

Mule-Lipped

Mule Talked

Sick Mule

Slam Mule

That Mule

Whip the Mule

Wolf and the Mule

Funky Mule

...and my fave is Mingus' Freedom. "Stand fast old mule/stand fast"

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