Stefan Wood

Kagemusha is slated for release by Criterion in February or March. I've been waiting for this one for a while! Not as good as Ran, but impressive, nevertheless.

Stampers became an issue when die hard collectors began to compare different copies of the same lp -- I forget, but a known example is the guy who compiled a booklet of RCA Living Stereo shaded dog labels in the 80's. Even by 1990 shaded dogs were a dime a dozen, until some word got around that vinyl wasn't all THAT bad, in fact, pretty damn good, so the hunt was on.

That's all you found at Second Story? I went in this morning and grabbed two Dakota Staton Capitol lps, Idris Muhammad Kudu date, Flora Purim's 500 Miles High, Manitas de Plata 3 lp box (awesome flamenco player), Bobby Hutcherson's Waiting on Blue Note, and Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition with Arthur Blythe and David Murray. Cool! And nabbed the Charlie Parker Verve box set.

Does your laptop have a firewire port? If so, then you can get a cable to connect your ipod to the laptop. If not, then yes, you would have to get a USB 2.0 card to install.

I have to admit I am not the biggest Jazz Vocal fan. But I listened to The Late Late Show by Dakota Staton last night (a late xmas gift), and was enthralled by her voice. I haven't heard a voice quite like hers, though one could say there's a dab of Dinah Washington and some Ella mixed in, but it is different. So, after looking online, with the exception of two Capitol albums reissued by Collectables (both reportedly to have horrendous sound), an import two fer, and the Storyville date, that's pretty much it for reissues from that early period. Does anyone have her work on Capitol and on United Artists? Please PM me.

All the Savoy/Arista 70's lps are worth getting, especially for the notes and the sound quality, which in many cases have yet to be bested by cd reissues.

Basically.

Dusty Grrove (da bastards!) have a bunch of new Fresh Sound releases that are damn tempting.........

The string quartet material is really good. Now it's not classical by any means, but an integration of the sound with Andrew Hill's music.

Cal Tjader - "Several Shades of Jade" Bobby Hutcherson - Total Eclipse! Freddie Hubbard - Skydive John Coltrane - Crescent

I love this set. "Sedate?" Well, to each his own. There's a hell of a lot of stuff going on in the music, and I find it as challenging and rewarding as the Sam Rivers set.

Well, the thing is, do you want the best sound? MP3 tracks will be compressed, and won't sound as good as a straight AIFF file, which is what you would get if you recorded your lps to your stereo component cd writer. I would record everything onto your cdrw discs and put them in your computer, and then do whatever converting process you like. A backup hard drive should be in order as well.

OK, the freeware I was talking about is called Senuti. Versiontracker.com has it and it is worth checking out, if only for the ability to upload your music to anywhere you wish. My folks also bought me an itrip for the car. It's not perfect; however, I have been able to get it to work with a clear channel right here in the heart of DC. But if you drive around in an urban area, static will cut in from time to time. I like it if only because I don't need to run an adapter to by tape deck, which I have come to loathe. Check out Griffin for details. And it doesn't need batteries! Been having a blast loading this sucker up. I discovered I can get more space for the buck, without loss in sound quality, by importing the tracks as mp3s with 320 kbs (higher than what is shown, you have to go to custom to get this), and choose the VBS option as well. So far I loaded the Complete Larry Young, Sam Rivers, Mosaic Lee Morgan, Grachan Moncur and I only used up 3 gigs!!!!! I finally understand a need for an additional hard drive. Are there any places on the web that have good deals?

Hot steamy jungle sex. I've been working too damn much lately.....

I have all the albums by all the guys mentioned on the list. Can I be elevated to Grand Master status???????

I'll check this book out -- eventually. I think Mike's points are well taken. THe problem always lies in the lack of research and understanding of the subject matter. Mike isn't nitpicking -- just exposing the lack of effort made into investigating, interviewing and fact checking that is necessary for writing this book. I remember eagerly buying the Grant Green biography, only to be greatly disappointed. It was more about the daughter in law (or ex daughter in law), and her relationship to the family than about the man himself. And it is not just jazz bios that this kind of lazy approach has been done -- in newpapers this happens almost daily.

Yes, you can use a microphone with the ipod. Griffin technologies sells a microphone for voice recordings/memos. But you know, where does it get plugged in to?

I just got mine, so I can be a bit more specific. The ipod can automatically delete tracks if there is more music on your computer than the ipod. BUT you can set it manually so that this is not the case -- so you can add or delete whatever you wish. I think an issue here is if the music is on your ipod, and no longer on your computer -- if you delete the music, it's gone. There exists a freeware program where you can upload the music from your ipod to the computer -- look on www.versiontracker.com and do a search for ipod --- I can't remember the program but it is highly regarded among users.

I gots me an ipod! the 40G variety. Ahhhhhhh, but it is for PCs. I have a Mac. So return it goes..........

The conversion rate will keep the prices high. Damn.............

Still, you don't really need an external hard drive. Itunes won't remove the music if it isn't on your computer. There exists a freeware program that can upload the tunes from ipod to your hard drive, which makes the transferring of music a lot more flexible.

Regarding the Boult conducted Vaughan Williams -- I had also bought the box set -- it is probably the finest versions of his music recorded. I also find it very consistent that he would have a large movie collection and not music. Especially science fiction. He was a big fan of the Green Lantern when he was a kid.

This may be the only instance where I wish I was in Grand Rapids, especially this time of year...................

yup

What the heck, people? How could this discussion NOT include Jonny Quest? I recently watched all four discs (renting from Netflix), and in some ways it is better than how I remembered it. This was one of the best drawn, best written cartoons of all time. And the original 60's Spiderman series was kitchy but fun.