CJ Shearn

I sampled a tune on YT because I will get it on HDTracks or the SHM, and it didn't sound like your average RVG recording. Lon, what did you think of "Dialogue"? my only reference is the RVG I have, and I like it

The CTI 40th series were all on Sony Masterworks with mastering by Mark Wilder and Maria Triana, no licensing deal. For example, I am looking at the back of Benson's "Body Talk" now, it says copyright 2011 Sony Music Entertainment and printed 1973, 2002 Sony Music Entertainment

I was listening to some of the Frank Lowe by pure coincedence! My friend who played with Luther Thomas on quite a few occasions, sent me a link to some of Luther's stuff on YT and that record by Frank Lowe popped up after!

Plays Bach, have fun with that one!!! That album was the subject of a LEGENDARY rant by our own Jim Sangrey, back in the days of the Blue Note board, I was like on the floor when I read that. I love Ron and give hm credit for always following his muse, but I heard a bit of that and it really didn't work for me. That is a great selection of Ron's albums though!, I always meant to dive into a few of his leader dates. I just have a couple of them. I really liked what I heard of "Dear Miles" a few years back but I never picked it up.

Really really funny, cuz it's true! My musician friends talk about that always.

I don't see how they could be the 40th anniversary issues, which were done by an independent company, nor the Wounded Bird issues. I would expect them to be the early 90's masters that came out on Columbia/Legacy. But they were all on Sony Masterworks, so isn't that kind of tied into the Legacy banner? For me the CTI 40th Anniversary series is the best series of domestic CTI discs I ever heard, some like "Red Clay" and "Straight Life" were greatly improved, others not as big, but I really enjoyed that series, others like "Don't Mess With Mr. T" sounded very close to the original vinyl.

I guess it depends on how much money you have and how much into it you are. Not for me, but I guess it's ok for some. Agreed with Paul - actually, it makes sense considering that there may be only one or two known copies of certain titles, and if one is a DJ, having a track that no one else has can make a set and a reputation. So it might not just be about paying through the nose for a rare record, but about one's livelihood as a DJ. As for me, there's a limit - fairly high, but when a record starts regularly hitting $1000 and up, I can't join that crowd. Not to mention that rarity and fiscal outlay don't necessarily mean that the music will be "better" than it is elsewhere. Quite the opposite sometimes! Exactly, Clifford. Sometimes when you get something that's rare and the music isn't as you have hoped it's like oh man. I remember when I finally got those much sought after Jimmy Smith sessions only released in Japan (thankfully each CD was no more than $20 and no less than $15) I love them a lot and wouldn't part with them, but I could also see why maybe Alfred didn't release them, there was just so much high quality stuff JOS was doing at the time. My friend spent over a grand over the course of a year for his Nigerian boogie collection, he also has tons of juju, and other African music. He's not a DJ himself but comes from a family of them.

I have a friend who's really into collecting Nigerian boogie records. I've heard some of that stuff from him and I really don't dig it at all, but what astonishes me is he's spent over $1000 on those albums. Apparently some are so rare that people spend like $250-300 per record, it's a bit much, I think.

Would "Outback" be the CTI 40th Anniversary reissue included in the set? The cover photo of the set posted here, looks like the "Outback" cover original catalog number and all looks like the reissue from a few years ago, and since the others lack the CTI logo on the front they look like the Wounded Bird reissues. That set does look interesting, indeed. Would be nice just for "Outback" and "Joe Farrell Quartet" in one place.

I think some of these masterings are showing up on HDTracks. I can't be certain but I have a hunch the Shorter's are the same masterings as the SHM's. The titles I already have on CD I don't want to upgrade again. I've spent like every one else, hundreds of dollars on BN's over the years, I don't wanna do that again. Like Lon, I enjoy the RVG series, it helped me get a lot of music that was hard to find previously and IMO only a handful really sucked and I since replaced them.

Spotify streams 320kbps for their premium subscription. I haven't heard it because I don't do streaming services, but I'd bet money you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and lossless. And to be fair, I don't know that people "prefer" lower quality MP3, I just think the price is right for them. That's an interesting thought Scott! I never considered that! that the price must be right. Still even "hi res" versions won't make a difference if the mastering sucks to begin with.......... I heard the samples of the new Eliane Elias "I Love Brazil" on HDTracks just as a curiosity it sounds pretty bad mastering wise.

Great story Mark. Pat's views on bootlegs have changed massively over the years as you probably know vis a vis his comments on YT videos, but he knows there are fans who love the music so much and the evolution of the music that if fans have older stuff for historical documentation for personal use he seems to be ok with it. I would love official documents of the Song X tour, as well as the last "official" Group tour where they toured as a quartet in 2009.

I have three releases from them, the Elvin Jones, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and the McCoy Tyner Quartet (on his own label but distributed by Half Note) and I like them a lot. The Tain album remains my fav. album of his in the 11 years since it was released. The Elvin has some great Michael Brecker if you haven't heard it.

It's so important for jazz albums though because so many albums that come out now have so many different bands on one album.

I think HDTracks is cool for what they do, but I do think it is overpriced especially because the albums (those 4 I bought as I mentioned) do not come with liners, back cover art, etc....... Apparently some of the BN's do, from what the descriptions say, plus the bonus tracks and alternates from previous CD reissues are not included. I love that they have Tzadik releases, but they are no different than CD, Tzadik packaging is awesome anyway.

Scott I agree with you I read through the comments in that article, all of them, and the discussion was hardly constructive, just people stating their preferences as fact and really immature "my system is better than yours" type stuff. No real unity amongst people who appreciate good sound but a lot of disagreements. That's why I only lurk at the Steve Hoffman forums and never post there, no interest. I think someone here who has an amazing system like Lon, I would have no doubt that there would be marked improvements in different sources, but I think, between a well mastered CD and a well mastered high res file is pretty small. in my experience. For example, before I bought the high res download of Kenny Garrett's "Pushing the World Away", I had heard the album several times on Rhapsody. Since the album is mastered better than Garrett's past several records, the difference is extremely minimal. The other HDtracks downloads I have, of a few Herbie Columbia's "Sunlight", "VSOP: The Quintet", "Mr Hands" and "An Evening with Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea in Concert", they sound great but it isn't jaw droppingly like "wow!". A recording like "VSOP: The Quintet" quality wise isn't that great to begin with, but it definitely sounds better than the old 80's original Columbia CD release. I suspect with recordings like "Headhunters" (never had an issue with the 1997 Legacy disc) and "Sextant" the results might be a little more drastic. I already know and love that music quite well so I'm not going to buy it again, I will use HDTracks to grab the rest of Wayne's Blue Notes I don't have on CD though, for example. Because my laptop has a 1TB harddrive it's allowed me to rip more than 800 CD's to it like I said in WAV and 320 MP3.

The majority of my collection which I've uploaded to my laptop, everything is ripped as a WAV file. There are a few instances where I ripped MP3's all at 320 but the difference (especially in Audio Technica ATHM 40 FS headphones) is hard to hear, there is not a waviness to the high end annd cymbals. Now, all the Steve Coleman albums he offers for free at the M-Base website are all encoded at 128. Some of the albums like "The Tao of Mad Phat" sounds great, while others there's a bit of the high end thing going on but it's so slight. The wash of the cymbals sound ok and decays normally.

Received mine yesterday, (as you may know David.) Really loving the Point of Departure discs, though I listen to "Venture Inward" before the live date as that's where they fall chronologically. Thanks again

I am not that familiar with their catalog at all really but their most recent album on CamJazz is really nice. I like what they do, a lot.

LOL. Great commercial

For some reason Jim because of the free jazz and Wayne connection, I am thinking of you screaming "Hello?!" like you do on Ambien Variations.

Oh man........... it sounds incredible from the review.

When Jimmy Smith recorded "Go For Whatcha Know" as a one off for BN in 1986, he was signed to Qwest for like 3 or 4 years in a holding pattern. Of course I think the only thing that was Quincy related JOS appeared on during that era was "Bad". Milt Jackson did some fine work on Qwest, I remember hearing some stuff of of "Burnin in the Woodhouse" on WSQX in Binghamton. Before they went as a full on NPR affiliate, they had a lot of local programming, they played a lot of Doubletime Jazz releases then too, Hank Marr, they always played a lot of Joey D, etc. One record that was getting serious play there and at WHRW FM at Binghamton University my alma mater was John McLaughlin's "After the Rain", that one was huge.

Thanks for that info!

Cool, I will keep that in mind! Thanks