ArtSalt

Do you have release information past February 26th? After checking HMV and CD Japan, I couldn't find any information past the initial list of 100 titles. Quite correct, I have an Andrew Hill release on the 26th and then that's it. Let's keep our fingers crossed for more!

There's still a lot of new releases to come in this series, plenty being advertised on CD Japan for release next month and beyond! I've been concentrating on buying the Prestige (also involving Michael Cuscuna) SHM-CD's releases, also the likes of Ellington and Armstrong on the Blu Spec 2's. I figure these are less likely to have future reissues once gone, at least in the short to medium term. I have four of these Blue Note SHM-CD's: the Milt Jackson, Thelonius Monk Volume One, Coltrane's and Hancock's Empyrean Isles and I am currently waiting on Maiden Voyage, Kenny Dorham's Afro-Cuban, Blakey's The Witch Doctor and The Amazing Bud Powell Vol.1. Blue Train compared to the RVG edition is much more dynamic IMCO. However, as a general impression, my recent auditioning of the Audio Wave Blue Note XRCD's are definitive, and that's why I've purchased Blakey's A Night in Tunisia on the Audio Wave edition, rather than SHM-CD. Of course, the XRCD's are much more expensive than the SHM-CD's.

Perhaps I am a strange freak, but I actually prefer the stereo versions!

Apparently, Turrentine was very popular with the original modernists/mods in the UK, back in the early 60s. I like his Blue Note stuff, extremely accessible to the non-jazz fan. I often hear people rapture lyrically about the best album to introduce people to the joys of jazz to, generally they opt for Miles's E.S.P. or Kind of Blue, but I would tempt them with a little sugar from Turrentine in the mid-60s.

As the SHM, Blue Spec 2 and the Platinum SHM's are the CD's that are getting the superlative remastering treatment, then like XRCD's and Gold CD's, it is the whole process that I am recognising as delivering a superior sound to standard CD's. The remastering as close as possible to the original source tape, clearly comes into this and likely the game changer and significant factor. But I also buy into the engineering fact, that certain material grades can deliver a more desirable quality in the product or the function of equipment. I certainly don't believe the position that its only digital zeros and ones, so the material that the CD is made of is irrelevent. I also have old 16bit CD's from the 80s that sound tremendous and I can hazard a guess that these were remastered from the original master tapes. I am a recent convert to the whole SHM and even XRCD phenomena and before this, I was going for Japanese 20bit and above remasters as my choice of CD's. My gut feeling, is that these wonder materials account for only 20% of the improvement in sound, the rest being delivered by the closeness to source tape or best DSD remaster. But as I stated above, it is part and partial of these products that you are getting as close to the source as possible. So my position isn't about materials alone.

This is the problem I have with him, his work is forever tainted by his descent into the vile bile of anti-semitism. As a European, with our history, we need no excuse from poets or anyone else encouraging this. For that reason I am totally turned-off from exploring the works of Baraka further. Which is probably a shame, because I see a lot of positive comments on here, but he strayed too far from the spirit of jazz and the light for my comfort.

My first two arrived yesterday, both Lee Morgan: Candy and Tom Cat. Without any doubt these are the definitive CD versions. Absolutely first rate, full on, Blue Note first pressing sonic bliss! Flawless. Well in saying that, on Candy, I picked-up the squeak on the master tapes on a number of tracks, generally I only hear this with headphones on. But clearly, that's on the master tape and not inherent in the CD itself.

The Chu Berry set is one of my favourites, particularly the Cab Calloway stuff. According to my sources, the swing era Mosaic sets sell well in the US, but very little in Europe. I actually thought it would be the opposite.

No, not quite, they had a discography with all the release dates of the previous releases in the series. Thanks anyway.

Does anybody have the complete list of the Prestige 7000 series currently available in SHM-CD from Universal? CD Japan use to have a dedicated page with all the releases, but try as I might, I can't seem to find this page again. Thanks!

He had a neat modernist Ivy sartorial style going on at the time too, I dig those photos by Claxton in the Guggenheim Museum: a musician starting to flex his genius and you can see this is a man on a mission. I love the Burrell stuff on Prestige and I really enjoy Dakar, but some less than satisfying stuff too: the Ray Draper outing.

A great up date, my kind of holiday would be actually sitting in on the working process of putting this set together.

I caught him at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2012 and it was privilege to hear one of my heroes still playing strongly and with effervescence, despite his fraility. He received a standing ovation when he came on stage and what followed justified it.

Thanks for that, I'm in sunny Nootdorp and I will definitely get myself there!

I hear and have read this a lot, but like many who are mixing cocaine and alcohol, did he not just think he was immortal with the omnipotent high?

Of course, Quincy Jones! All the money he's made from producing Michael Jackson.

Harvey Cohen's book Duke Ellington's America, explores in detail his finances and although he was keeping everyone afloat, lending money to band members and remaining profitable as a big band on the road when it was finanically impossible for virtually everyone else, it was largely funded by largesse of the record labels banking on future loyalties. Miles Davis has to be in there somewhere -and cetainly his estate. But then again, he wasn't a composer, so that has to be factored in.

This sounds awful: it is a gangster movie, set during a period when Miles was retired through ill-health and self-medicating himself into a musical silence, which the director informs us, is what is most intriguing for creative types like him. Hmmm, clearly not a fan of Miles' music then. I think the verdict is already in with Colinmce's comments, which I would add likely to be insulting to the artist.

Ellington.

I must say, I am tempted by this XRCD malarkey, as I am with Blu Spec 2 and now SHM CD Platinum!

^Your auditioning comparisons are of great interest to me, Imeanyou. Please do post your hearing experiences and assessment. Has anyone a verdict/comparison against the Audiowave XRCD24s?

Did you order it? My copy shipped 1 November on SAL, so it should be here around 15 November at the latest. No, I've been rather too successful with my Mosaic box set bids on ebay, so my pocket money is well and truly spent until the end of this month, Then I will be hoovering-up the Blue Notes!

It's Hancock's Empyrean Isles that I am really looking forward to on these releases.

The book interests me, but how can it top Straight Life? Laurie should have submitted to the vagaries of Hollywood and allowed a dramatic version of Pepper's life with Johnny Depp in the lead to be filmed. That could have opened the gates for some more jazz biopics.

Ted Gioia's book is terrific Tom. It's the best jazz book I've come across. Gordon's book is much more in-depth IMO, Gioia's book needs to be expanded in the next edition. For me it was the 1993 CD boxset: Chet Baker, The Pacific Jazz Years. That really turned me onto the West Coast sound, although back then, it was more difficult to research musicians.