CJ Shearn

thanks Claude, that's enlightening. I figured that Noise reduction was maybe used on early remasterings, but also because the technology was still relatively new and that the full potential wasn't figured out yet completely. As for MFV/Four and More, was it one of the remasters that didn't necessarily cut back on the hiss, therefore making it sound pretty good? Mark Wilder did that earlier remastering, and I really like his 20 and 24 bit work with the Miles stuff in the last several years.

As I just finished listening to disc 1 of "The Complete Concert: My Funny Valentine/Four and More"a '92 domestic Columbia remaster, I was wondering what type of technology was used in remastering older recordings circa mid 80's early 90's since with Blue Note and Columbia, as compared to Fantasy, the former companies were releasing inferior sounding remastering, I mean the Miles disc does sound pretty decent considering it is a 12 year old mastering, all my other Miles on Columbia are the 20 and 24 bit remasters which sound great, it's just that with MFV/ Four and More the music is too good and essential to have waited for a new remastering(this year on that Miles Live set perhaps?) Anyway, were early versions of Pro Tools and the like used back then? Although I realize that the mastering has as much to do with the engineer as the equipment.

BFS, Cool Blues is a great album, all you really hear is the audience havin a good time.

Mike, interesting point. I was thinking over the last few days when I listened to both discs of Josh Redman's very nice "Spirit of the Moment" that a lot of younger players, particularly at the height of the young lions movement, some were very distinctive like Redman, Hargrove, Roney.. but others it makes it harder to tell because they share a similar pool of influences.. For example, on the Redman album, I find Peter Martin to be a very good player, but I'm not sure he's distinctive enough to be able to pick out from say, Benny Green, who was able to incorporate Silver/Peterson/Timmons influences into his playing but have a voice of his own somewhat. Martin on the Redman album draws heavily on McCoy and Herbie to my ears, well versed in their voicings and ways of playing single lines.... on "Jig a Jug" theres a double time line that cops Herbie's classic triplet run, but I guess that's the part of the vocabulary now. I've heard Mulgrew Miller do Herbie's triplet run thing (hope I'm describing it right) too.

Pat Martino, I don't have as much of him (actually only "Live At Yoshi'"s) as I do another Pat in my collection, but he truly is an amazing player, especially since he completely recovered from something as devastating as an aneurism. What I love about "Live At Yoshi's" is the ferocious energy that is contained in every tune that makes it one of the best organ trio records I've ever heard, it also has made me reconsider Joey D's playing even moreso than I did on "Incredible!" where I thought more of an individual sense of self was coming through compared to like, "Reboppin". Back in highschool I had borrowed Martino's "Footprints" from one of the teachers in the music dept, it was a pretty good album but the sound was pretty muddy. Definitely Pat is I think one of the guys that has integrated Wes into his playing in a very complete way, but still maintaining his own identity. I'll have to check "Think Tank" sometime soon.

what about talking to Michael re: the Jimmy Smith-Minor Fare, unreleased session? I wonder if it's an exceptional trio date, like "Crazy Baby" or an routine by the numbers type date ("Bucket"). How about possibilities such as "Cherokee", "Lonesome Road", and "Jimmy Smith Trio+ LD" for Conn releases? I would think that titles such as "At the Club Baby Grand" might be more of an RVG thing, but there have been the surprise of more Conn. likely titles from Jimmy in the RVG series in the past like "Groovin at Smalls Paradise", and "Cool Blues", which would have probably been limited editions in the pre RVG series days. As a side note, weren't RVG's originally supposed to be limited editions before they decided to make them regular catalog items to replace older masterings?

Dave, very well said about Lee Morgan's success being similar to that of Jones, I was thinking much the same, the only difference is the style of music being played really being more poppish as opposed to deep down and funky. After "The Sidewinder", BN and other labels were looking for the next big hit. And actually Lee's "Search for the New Land" was his second release after the success of "Sidewinder" but it was shelved in favor of more Lee that was a bit less adventurous. Perhaps the success of that record afforded BN the opportunity to record more chance taking and adventurous releases by McLean, Shorter, Henderson, Taylor, Hutcherson among others? In my mind the years 1964-66 were some of the labels' most exploratory years with records like "Maiden Voyage", "Empyrean Isles", "Mode For Joe", "Speak No Evil", "Unity", Jackie Mac's stuff (which I have not heard) and "Lifetime" to name a few. In the present time, other labels like Verve have signed non traditional names like Aaron Neville, in hopes of finding a similar cross over success like what BN has. If anything, success like that might get people to explore some of the riches' these labels have within.

Terri Lyne Carrington is one of my fav. drummers, her work on the recent Herbie Hancock "Future2Future Live" DVD was very nice and also on Herbie's BET On Jazz DVD (which I sold, gotta get that again sometime) Shari Maricle from Diva is an excellent drummer as well, saw them live at Binghamton University, also saw Ingrid Jensen there too, hell of a player, very very nice as well when I met her afterwards.

CDUniverse is great. Their shipping is superb, I live in the Binghamton, NY area and everything comes within a day and a half upon shipping. They've also had a few imports which is great.

I'm not big on Norah myself, but in a way it's good that she, Al Green and Van Morrisson are on BN b/c their sales could help BN get out more things that are of interest to hardcore fans like Conns, and items that please both hardcore and casual like RVG's. After all, would the One Night With Blue Note DVD have come to fruition had Norah Jones not been a big seller or signed to BN? I thought to myself when that was announced and eventually releasedd, "people like Norah make this possible"

I dunno what's up with some of that GD either stuff Jim. One of my ex suitemate from the fall before last thought that some of that GD jam stuff was some of the greatest stuff on earth. Actually the kid was born in the wrong era, he was a complete stoner, literally, wore tie dye t-shirts, was into the GD, Hendrix, Phish... all that.... tried getting him into some of my stuff, Metheny, Davis, Jimmy Smith, etc..... didn't really work. But he was raving about the GD's long jams called "Space", I heard one of those, it was so freakin boring. And Phish too, I heard a version of "Back at the Chicken Shack" on my suitemates comp, god is was bad.. they turned a simple funky tune to utter garbage.

true Joe, self indulgent can be used negatively as we've all said in this post, and Jim raises another interesting point too: if the artist is doing it because they want or have to... Jarrett's "Spirits" and "The Melody At Night With You" (which I have not heard at all but realize Keith made it is a present for his wife while he was suffering with CFS) I would think are both the results of an artist wanting to release more personal, private, or experimental works to the larger public, since they already have created a strong base. Joe G, since we're the resident Metheny buffs over here, what is your interpretation of "One Quiet Night"? I see it as an album representing a "research project" that Pat never intended to officially release, something that more or less is finding a way around a fairly new instrument not being fully explored at length in another context, and as a result of listening to it and getting others feedback (as stated in Downbeat) he decided to release it. Now is this something Pat had to release? no, is it something he wanted, yeah... b/c he thought that what he recorded (which were 3 CDR's worth of material) would be worth hearing for a particular audience. I think it's a fascinating window into real time composition and different (for Pat) harmonic choices, but I will say it's a record I like but don't love like some of his others, but like a lot of stuff of his for me, it will probably reveal more in a few years from now. Jsngry, what projects would you consider "recreational jerking off"? that's an interesting way of putting it. Would that Carter album be classified as such for you?

thanks Chris.

Chris, I guess in that case that album could be self-indulgent if the whole thing is based on trashing someone who dumped you. This whole conversation has been interesting though, instead of using the term self-indulgence if an artist decides to take their music in another area that some do not get, would it be then better to say that the artist is expanding their pallette? For example, going back to Metheny, when he recorded "Secret Story", it was a deeply personal work which investigated areas fueled by personal emotion in addition to musical ideas (which drive most of his music, rather than something borne out of a statement of a personal feeling about something, e.g. A Love Supreme) and there are some who felt that the album was really too heavy, though IMO it is one of his best. I can see with something like that, b/c there was something other than the language of music itself motivating him at that time, that the intent of that work could get interpreted in ways that may not necessarily have been intended. Don't know if that made much sense, but that's my thought on it.

Overly self indulgent, when I typed that, I was thinking of something that was so far off in another place that it doesn't communicate to anyone else but the person who made it, or groups of people. I wasn't thinking about redundancy there, sorry guys . Anyway, interesting view, Jim, as always, and I'm also rethinking about what "self-indulgent" is. I certainly agree that self indulgence probably shouldn't be the first thing that comes to mind when a particular artist, say Metheny or Jarrett releases something that isn't immediately accessible the first time around, it just shows depth on their part and also that they have garnered enough of a reputation be it positive or negative, to freely pursue creatively what they want.

hmm, never heard that MFT Sundog, but is it possible it felt so good Trane kept it going? I wonder what those 3 hour solos were like, a man trying to get all of the ideas he could possibly think of, out.

Pat had said something also about ZTFS that it was closer to the way he heard music in his head. I can see his point about to him maybe the music not being that different to him from the PMG stuff in terms of melodic and some harmonic elements used but I think for people casually into his music it's probably quite jarring to hear how that came out at first. What about that album "Adult Themes for Voice" by Mike Patton? I don't believe I've ever heard Mr Bungle, probably Faith No More somewhere on the radio, but his album with random noises in hotel rooms (I had d/l several tracks from this) seemed to me to be an act of extreme silliness. Are strange noises a common thread in Mr Bungle and some other stuff Mike Patton participated in?

I think the RVG series is great b/c many of the records reissued are titles I missed/didn't get the first time. I only have a couple duplications with RVG's, "Somethin Else", "Maiden Voyage", "The Sermon", "Cool Blues", and "Houseparty". And I agree with Chuck that it's a good way to update masterings of classic recordings, especially for those of us like myself who can not afford to go the Japanese import route too often, and where I shop o/l like CDUniverse, it's difficult to locate titles actually in stock, import wise.

7/4, I wouldn't agree that the PMG material is safe (except mebbe Letter From Home) so much as melodic, and the goals of each album done with the Group in my mind, serve to expand and investigate ideas that have been created in their own universe. Albums such as "Quartet" and "Imaginary Day" are anything but safe. "Speaking of Now" returned Pat to the melodic base of his earlier work but there are specific things with form (Proof) and rhythm (The Gathering Sky) on that record (and especially evident live with these pieces) that were never addressed before to the extent that they were on this album, and from what I've heard about the new PMG album forth coming, it's really going to take advantage of the new group in a way SoN really only hinted at. But yes, I'm also glad Pat puts out some of these more experimental projects as well. BTW, I think a more fully realized version of the concepts found on ZTFS were more fully realized and refined upon on the free tune "Faith Healer" from "Trio Live".

yeah, "Spirits 17" wasn't all that interesting.... "Spirits" does seem like a very personal project. Part 1 of ZTFS after that heavy strumming it starts with does move into a melodic territory after a while, you just gotta find it. I think it was either Part 2, or 4 that very nearly came close to sounding like a complete tune. Thanks for the info on KJ's album, I wasn't aware of that.

JG, are you referring to CTI's first releases which included Jobim, Montgomery and Benson under A&M's banner which spanned from 1967-70? I believe in the early days of CD according to Doug Payne's excellent and very thorough CTI discography which can be found at www.dougpayne.com , some of those albums were remastered by RVG, and housed in digipacks as early as 1984. I know some of the releases such as the Benson's were reissued on CD again in 2000 I believe, and other A&M/CTI titles such as one of the Jobim's and I think a Milton Nascimiento album were released in the Verve By Request series a few years ago. I believe that King is distributing the CTI catalog in Japan as of now and have recently reissued some of those A&M/CTI's before it became an independent in 1970.

I was thinking about this the other day that some musicians put out albums that are overly self indulgent or are for the benefit for certain audiences, or sometimes reach for concepts that don't quite get there. Here are a few albums I've thought of that may fit that category: Keith Jarrett: Spirits what is going on with this record? I watched via a webcast receive a prestigious musical award in I think Denmark, where there was a modern dance piece set to "Spirits 17", which was Keith "moaning" all these chants and playing soprano sax, and it really did not make much sense. I only have heard that one piece from that record, and it seemed overly self indulgent. Apparently he lived on Native American land and wanted to make some music that would reflect the heritage. That one piece however included more than a gratuitous amount of what we already hear on his albums. Why not choose to play a tape of a real chant instead of that horrible stuff Keith was doing? Pat Metheny: Zero Tolerance for Silence I love Pat, and actually I find this album quite interesting, even though I don't own it (heard it) but I think the whole mono chromatic density thing didn't come off that well with some people who heard it, or were maybe used to the melodic PMG, and I actually wonder if it was something he maybe released for himself and other guitarists as a sort of research into that sort of playing. Hasn't Buckethead done playing like that as well? But it's not something I completely dislike either although it's not something I'd play all the time. Jsngry, would you mind reposting your hilarious rant on the over indulgence of Ron Carter's album where he plays Bach, from the BNBB if you archived it? or if not could you paraphase what you said about it?

is Thom Jurek paid to gush in every review? He seems to marvel at anything he hears and even for the simplest groovin' stuff like Patton's "Let Em Roll" he analyzes some things like their huge, where in the case of that album everything is for the benefit of the groove, not a necessarily earth shattering technical achievement

any info as to whether or not the rejected titles from 2/25/58 were with Smith's trios, special trios or quartets with guest artists? I would be interested to hear rejected takes from that session if they exist.

Mike, I could not find much on it either, nothing at all. I wonder exactly what it was. I believe Tony participated in a fusion/rock project called Arcana, but I don't believe that's what "Unmasked" is.