Which One Drops off Your Listening List?

[Dan Gould]

So at Christmas I used an amazon gift card for:

The Messengers in Japan "new" BN

Houston Person, Live in Paris

Roy Hargrove/Mulgrew Miller In Harmony

 

I managed one listen to all in January and have circled back to them now, starting with the Messengers set.  I normally try to listen to new music three times minimum before shelving it.  Yet I find myself ready to shelve the Messengers disc after two listens, and anticipate at least the full three for the other two releases and quite possibly more. Based on first listen I might stick with the Person disc beyond three times.

So if you own at least two of these, curious what say you? Did any disappoint? Did any surprise so delightfully you want to hear many times?

More generally, what do your listening habits dictate, if they dictate anything? Any other recent purchases that surprised or disappointed?

 

[Ken Dryden]

If I tried to get three listens of every new acquisition before shelving it, the backlog of unheard music would be ridiculous.

[Dan Gould]

10 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

If I tried to get three listens of every new acquisition before shelving it, the backlog of unheard music would be ridiculous.

I am sure we're in a different place for acquisitions Ken, but how many times do you listen to something new before shelving?

I have to hear at least twice, that's for sure. I was just surprised that I had enough of the Messengers disc after only two.

[Rabshakeh]

That Person was recommended to me on this board a month or two ago and has been probably my most frequent listen since then. Much more than 3 times.

[Ken Dryden]

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

I am sure we're in a different place for acquisitions Ken, but how many times do you listen to something new before shelving?

I have to hear at least twice, that's for sure. I was just surprised that I had enough of the Messengers disc after only two.

If I am reviewing something I have to hear it more than once, but these days new items are shelved after one hearing. The backlog of unheard music is in the thousands.

[JSngry]

I'm at the crossroads of keeping good/great music that I've more or less imprinted on by now and continuing to explore new/under-familiar music.

If it was up to me, I'd keep it all in the house, but it's not up to me, it's up to the size of the house, which is a fixed quantity.

[jk666]

I keep my newly acquired discs in a pile next to my CD player. 'New Music' purchases will get repeated listening before going to the shelf. If I pick up 20 CDs at a thrift shop, they also stay close to the player, but they might only get a single pass and go on the donate/giveaway pile. More than that and they get shelved.

[ghost of miles]

I try to listen to everything twice before I shelve it.  Re the new Blakey, I think we're on the same page--in fact I almost didn't buy it after hearing the promo, because while I love the group and those players, it just wasn't particularly revelatory or notable in a way that distinguishes it from other live Blakey that I have from around that same period.  I'm rapidly hitting that point with Resonance's seemingly unending flow of Bill Evans live releases (two more are headed our way this spring, from 1973 and 1979).  I'm grateful that there are individuals and business entities still committed to putting this music out, of course, and doing so generally with great care for presentation and packaging--and I also realize that eye-popping items like previously-unknown Coltrane performances of A Love Supreme and such are not going to pop out of the vaults all that often. But I am starting to feel a little less jazzed (so to speak) about buying well-documented material by well-documented artists.   

[HutchFan]

Dan,

Like you, I usually keep the new stuff out for a couple months, give it several listens before shelving.  Not really a fixed number.  Just "a while."  Discs that I really enjoy stay out longer.  

I put new CDs on the coffee table by my stereo (shown below) -- along with discs I've pulled from the shelf for listening.

The CDs on the lower shelf are related to my 80s jazz blog project -- not new stuff.

 

One new (to me) CD that's been in heavy rotation lately: 

Based on a recent recommendation from @felser  

 

 

1 hour ago, Ken Dryden said:

If I am reviewing something I have to hear it more than once, but these days new items are shelved after one hearing. The backlog of unheard music is in the thousands.

That's quite a "difficutly," Ken!    Such are the travails of folks like yourself who (often, if not always) get your music for free!!!   

 

9 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

I'm grateful that there are individuals and business entities still committed to putting this music out, of course, and doing so generally with great care for presentation and packaging--and I also realize that eye-popping items like previously-unknown Coltrane performances of A Love Supreme and such are not going to pop out of the vaults all that often. But I am starting to feel a little less jazzed (so to speak) about buying well-documented material by well-documented artists.   

Yep. Me too.  

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by HutchFan

[Dan Gould]

Glad to realize that the discs on the table are both new and old, so to speak.

 

 

[HutchFan]

55 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Glad to realize that the discs on the table are both new and old, so to speak.

Yup. I'd estimate that roughly half on the top shelf are new-ish, purchased in the last three or four months. 

The rest is stuff that I've been spinning lately or is part of my 1980s jazz blog project.

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by HutchFan

[soulpope]

2 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Dan,

Like you, I usually keep the new stuff out for a couple months, give it several listens before shelving.  Not really a fixed number.  Just "a while."  Discs that I really enjoy stay out longer.  

I put new CDs on the coffee table by my stereo (shown below) -- along with discs I've pulled from the shelf for listening.

This room had a good aura indeed ....

[HutchFan]

11 minutes ago, soulpope said:

This room had a good aura indeed ....

Thanks.  It's a good place to chill.   

It's taken a long while to get to its present state, and I feel very fortunate to have it.

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by HutchFan

[Brad]

20 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Dan,

Like you, I usually keep the new stuff out for a couple months, give it several listens before shelving.  Not really a fixed number.  Just "a while."  Discs that I really enjoy stay out longer.  

I put new CDs on the coffee table by my stereo (shown below) -- along with discs I've pulled from the shelf for listening.

The CDs on the lower shelf are related to my 80s jazz blog project -- not new stuff.

That’s a lot of stuff!

[JSngry]

Talking about "minimum" number of listens...almost always at least twice for me, but if it's the car and it hits that zone, i'll leave it in for weeks. Or if I'm working here at the table and it comes out of the old discman and the cheapass Phillips portaspeakers, I can just leave it in there all day, and sometimes the next. Occasionally longer.

As far as back log, I got buttlaods (plural) of unlistented to material, and that's ok. That's not a failure until I die, and who knows when that's coming, right?

But storage...I live in fear of wanting to hear aome things and not having it, but I'm starting to feel the fear of having too much stuff taking up space that I have hear, and heard well, and never listening to again, because...why? And that's creating space issues, not immediately, but I see it coming sooner rather than later.

 

[Ken Dryden]

I do buy a lot of music, not everything is a promo. Labels have cut back tremendously, some want to service with downloads, others send CDRs. Here is a photo of one side of the music library in our last house:

 

HutchFan saw this library and the one in our new house, as he helped me with moving a lot of the LPs. 

[HutchFan]

15 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I do buy a lot of music, not everything is a promo. Labels have cut back tremendously, some want to service with downloads, others send CDRs. Here is a photo of one side of the music library in our last house:

 

HutchFan saw this library and the one in our new house, as he helped me with moving a lot of the LPs. 

Best music library that I've ever seen IN MY LIFE, bar none.  

Was I jealous?  HELL YEAH!   

 

 

[kh1958]

21 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I do buy a lot of music, not everything is a promo. Labels have cut back tremendously, some want to service with downloads, others send CDRs. Here is a photo of one side of the music library in our last house:

 

HutchFan saw this library and the one in our new house, as he helped me with moving a lot of the LPs. 

Wow, that is nice.

[HutchFan]

15 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

Wow, that is nice.

And that's only HALF the room!

It's the like the stinkin' Smithsonian of Jazz Records.  An awesome collection.

 

[Ken Dryden]

On 2/17/2022 at 3:42 PM, soulpope said:

This room had a good aura indeed ....

I've visited this room several times, courtesy of HutchFan. A great listening room!

[Dan Gould]

7 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

But storage...I live in fear of wanting to hear aome things and not having it, but I'm starting to feel the fear of having too much stuff taking up space that I have hear, and heard well, and never listening to again, because...why? And that's creating space issues, not immediately, but I see it coming sooner rather than later.

 

I sometimes wonder to myself if something happened, would I go to the expense of reassembling every Horace Silver or Mobley or Morgan CD I've collected? Somehow I think I wouldn't but hopefully wouldn't get to that point.

Fortunately I do not worry about space because of the decision to switch over to binders many years ago when I also sold an enormous amount of CDs. Most of the binders are CDRs though some are commercial discs, and I bundled up the inserts in alphabetical order when they went into the sleeves. I was disappointed to discover recently that those old rubber bands have snapped in most cases, and also dried out and left residue on the front and back inserts of each bundle. But then I remember that used CDs have almost no value anymore, so who cares?

Seriously, though I haven't seen your house, but a switch to binders would end your space concerns in all likelihood. 

[JSngry]

It would, but the time it would take to get them all disassembled, reassembled, and then disposed of all the leftovers - all the while taking in MORE new music - would take longer than I'm going to live, probably.

I mean, what kind of a Boomer would I be if I didn't extravagate up until the minute I die and then leave an unfixable mess behind for my kids to clean up?

[Ken Dryden]

I occasionally get the question about digitizing my collection and explain that I don’t want to take the time and the hard drive or cloud space.