Daniel A

Just listening through some recent purchases from Japan. King pressing, though it has VAN GELDER stamp in the runout, so presumably they did use stampers from the US. Maybe I shouldn't say that The Singers Unlimited never sounded better than here, as this is the first or second album they did, but that's how it feels to me. A bit unusual to find an MPS album reissued on the Columbia imprint. I have also a German pressing, but wanted a spare copy as I am not happy with the remastering of this album on the "Magic Voices" 7 CD box. This one has some good early Cedar Walton. And I always like Jaspar.

This thread also got me interested in seeking out more 60s Paul Bley! It seems as if there were actually two different versions of "The Floater Syndrome", and this one has all 15 tracks: https://www.discogs.com/release/2985218-Paul-Bley-With-Steve-Swallow-Pete-LaRoca-The-Floater-Syndrome

There are many varieties over here. Those that perform best in tests - both in terms of durability and Ra value, but also among the cheapest - are usually IKEA LED bulbs.

This is a good budget alternative that has served me well: https://www.amazon.com/Spin-Clean-Record-Washer-MKII-Complete/dp/B002UKSZUU

As a piano player, I'd like to think that you'd probably play it with crossed hands (if at all). The range is almost only half of a standard piano.

Oh, you got Multidirection in there! Been looking for it forever. Let me know if it doesn't appeal to you.

I suppose he was asked to. I found this clip from some Parker tribute:

There are many lawyers here. We will take your case.

I believe the sax part was played by Swedish saxophonist Klas Lindqvist. Here's his own band:

When I browsed through the (now gone) mass of Frank Wolff photos at the Mosaic site, I noticed that there were several photos of Duke Pearson from well-known sessions by other artists ('Maiden Voyage', 'Speak No Evil' and others). This was from the times when Alfred Lion still did the producing, and Pearson is not credited on these albums, so what would his role have been at the sessions? Maybe this is explained in one of the many Blue Note books I've yet to read.

TTK, have you read this book? I have it, and it has lots of information (some of which you already know, I'm sure). Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong

What could happen in the long term? Are you referring to our lifetime or even longer? If the objective is that they should remain possible to read, it seems as if it would be sufficient to keep them in each box.

I have this Mundell Lowe album, but it was a really long time since I played it. I recall that I found it a bit low-key. What are your impressions?

Barry Harris recorded for MPS as well. I maintain that it could - or even should - have happened (Monk recording for the label). Let's say three or four trio albums, a big band date scored by Francy Boland and a quartet session with Lucky Thompson. Maybe also a misguided attempt involving some synths (tellingly marked as "rejected" in the discographies).

Maybe they should have let Francy Boland do the Monk album?

He recorded for HGBS up to 1971, I think, so it was mostly 1960s, that's true.

Well, I like more than half of it. I don't really warm to Teo Macero's groove tune. Well, it was, but that doesn't define the MPS label for me. As it was, they recorded a range of different pianists, from Milt Buckner, George Shearing, Hampton Hawes to George Gruntz, Martial Solal and Wolfgang Dauner, as well as other groups ranging from swing-era to free-ish. However, sound and vinyl quality (for German pressings) was mostly stellar.

Sometimes I try to imagine how it would have turned out if Monk did a series of trio albums for MPS in the early 70s.

I see that the CD is available at fair prices on Discogs. In past years, I have not been consistent, but I am in the process of putting all my LPs in archival quality polyethene sleeves. I have not had any bad luck, but a neighbor got thousands of new (still smelly) PVC sleeves for his collection, and discovered several damaged ("milky" looking) records after just one year, so I am throwing out remaining PVC sleeves now. Only anectodal evidence of course, but maybe it's worse if the sleeves are brand new? Now playing Lalo Schifrin's 'New Fantasy', US stereo pressing.

Clare Fischer 'Extension', mono pressing. In all honesty, this session sounds better on the excellent CD reissue produced by Jonathan Horwich some ten years ago. To me, this is the most interesting recording from Fischer's Pacific Jazz years. There's a lot to discover from repeated listening. I understand that the picture does not show your copy, but do you keep the OBI strips on? I hide them inside as I want to see the real cover pictures.

Oh, I like this one and should play it soon. There's a melancholic feel to this album which I find to be very moving. Have been looking for Multidirection on vinyl for years, but still no luck (copies on Discogs are so expensive). Thanks! I should seek this one out.

Yes, I will experiment some more as well. I went down to 0.8 for "strength", but it seemed to me that the high-pass had a better effect. I suppose that the amount of rumble from the turntable setup might affect to which degree this would be a problem. In any case, the end result is still much better than anything I have tried before, so thanks for bringing this up! The stereo vinyl rips will suffer in comparison, so yet another reason for going mono.

Here is an update. I noticed that on sections with pure groove noise (no music signal), the noise itself is heavily reduced, but there is a kind of "swirling" artifact if use 1,0 for the "strength" value. Normally this would not be a problem since I cut between the tracks anyway, but for a very long and quiet fade-out it seemed to interfere slightly. When I applied a 200 Hz high-pass it sounded good enough not to be a problem.

I just tried this when I transferred an old Savoy album with Frank Wess and Jerome Richardson, 'Flutes and Reeds'. It worked really well! The noise level was reduced substantially with no audible artifacts that I have been able to detect so far. Will proceed immediately with Cal Tjader's 'Along Comes Cal'. Now, it makes me want to get only mono versions for everything I want to transfer from vinyl!

I really like Gould's recordings of the French and English suites. However, I find the sound quality to be only just about average for the period. I don't really hear the bass sound of a grand piano. But the latest (last?) mastering used for the big 80+ CD box is the best version I've heard of this material.