Jump to content

Mal Waldron "Free At Last" ECM Extended Anniversary Edition


soulpope

Recommended Posts

Available on Spotify. 

Eicher is doing everything right targeting the two growing music consumption segments - vinyl and streaming. CD prices have collapsed, does not make sense for high-cost deluxe packages that are likely to sell merely in hundreds. Downloads sales are declining even faster than CD ones, a dying concept. Recent relative (from microscopic to miniscule) vinyl resurgence is just a fluke, make (a bit) of money while you can, but streaming is here to stay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I guess I'll have to try and check the expanded version out on Spotify (if I can - I'm not a Spotify subscriber).

And I'll have to hope maybe some pricy Japanese CD of the expanded version will surface someday.  I'd gladly pay a premium for the whole thing on CD -- as this is really such a WONDERFUL album.  But I'm loath to buy it as a download, and I'm not very enthused about buying it on vinyl (as I almost never buy vinyl, unless it's something older that's never been on CD).  And besides, it's 4-sides long, so you gotta flip not one -- but TWO albums -- just to hear what amounts to something like 70-minutes of music.

I did just listen to my old CD of "Free At Last" a couple days ago -- for the first time in a couple years -- and what an absolutely amazing album, and a real triumph for Mal.  I wonder what any contemporaneous reviews of "Free At Last" said about it??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I guess I'll have to try and check the expanded version out on Spotify (if I can - I'm not a Spotify subscriber).

And I'll have to hope maybe some pricy Japanese CD of the expanded version will surface someday.  I'd gladly pay a premium for the whole thing on CD -- as this is really such a WONDERFUL album.  But I'm loath to buy it as a download, and I'm not very enthused about buying it on vinyl (as I almost never buy vinyl, unless it's something older that's never been on CD).  And besides, it's 4-sides long, so you gotta flip not one -- but TWO albums -- just to hear what amounts to something like 70-minutes of music.

I did just listen to my old CD of "Free At Last" a couple days ago -- for the first time in a couple years -- and what an absolutely amazing album, and a real triumph for Mal.  I wonder what any contemporaneous reviews of "Free At Last" said about it??

Agreed on all of this.  I'll wait for the same pricey Japanese CD (in the meantime, I have the old CD edition).  Streaming to me is good for revisiting, say, an old Style Council album from the 1980s that I'm not likely to listen to more than once.  As a general way of listening to music, I have little use for it.  But I understand ECM's bowing to the reality of the marketplace, where the vast majority of people now prefer to stream.  I grew up with vinyl and was happy to leave it behind... no desire to go back, unless it's material that hasn't been otherwise reissued.  Plus my little house would probably sink into the ground if my CDs all turned into LPs.  :g

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Free At Last" a couple days ago -- for the first time in a couple years -- and what an absolutely amazing album, and a real triumph for Mal.  I wonder what any contemporaneous reviews of "Free At Last" said about it??

I have somwhere a copy of the German monthly publication "Jazzpodium" (obtained many years later for less than 1 Euro ....) which was very positive about it .... but we have to keep in mind it was great news that a German Jazz label aka ECM was founded too ....

Edited by soulpope
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I have to say that the reissue is beautifully done. The extensive booklet with the beautiful photography plus the original artwork including the sheets of the compositions. And honestly: the sound is better than on my Japanese SHM cd. In this case, 27 euros is a very reasonable price for a double LP reissue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...