T.D.

Not that big on compilations, but this was cheap and I don't have any of the underlying albums.

Thanks, John. Enjoyed the BFT. Got caught up in year-end things and never made a 2nd post. Lots of intriguing and surprising tracks. The obligatory one I own and couldn't ID (Sam Jones) and one I have to acquire (Tyner). I'm much more positive than the consensus on the Spirit selection: dig the music, but lyrics haven't aged too well. Wishbone Ash was an adventure: I really liked some passages but disliked others, could tell it was a British group with 2 lead guitars but nothing else. That band got no radio play (in my area) when I was growing up, and nobody I knew listened to them.

Will never happen. For instance, if he's lawyered up (which is very possible), no attorney would let him do that. Best hope for any kind of statement (which would be bland and generic) is if this causes a big enough stink to get media attention. Which I doubt.

Been revisiting some old LvB collections

And Ted should demand that Congress pass laws establishing subsidies, NEA grants, etc. for bagpipe performance and studies. 😆

Sign of old age, but I recall making the same comments about Cuarteto Casals quite a while ago (a year or more? too lazy to search). You may even have had the same reply. But at that time their whole Beethoven series was not yet on Youtube, only 1 or 2 of the 3 underlying 3-CD releases. Sadly, I promptly forgot about the project. I am really going to listen to the whole Casals cycle on Youtube soon. Honest. 😁

Part and parcel of the long-time addict's world IMO. I am inclined to agree, but of course can't pretend to know.

Yes on all counts. To continue an earlier discussion, the Cuarteto Casals Beethoven cycle is a modern one I'd really like to hear, but I'm not going to spend the money [Added: OMG, it's on Youtube]. The old Hungarian Quartet Erato reissue (at $18.95 on Amazon) would be far more likely.

Since it came up earlier:

Yeah, the "pay $250 upfront" thing should have been a huge red flag. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that it wasn't a scam. More likely it was an ill-conceived project, and the officers kept running up unrecoverable losses rather than pulling the plug (possibly poor judgement, or OTOH unwillingness to admit mistakes and "lock in a loss").

Have always been a fan of Grumiaux, even though my violin tastes have drifted to the HIP end of the spectrum.

The stuff in bold is so tone-deaf that it's beyond comical. This dude is living in some incomprehensible fantasy world. Expecting people or entities not to respond to "financial incentives"??? Good luck with that. The "Congress..." and "laws must be passed..." screed at this moment in time??? Surreal.

😁 Rick's videos are a taste I never acquired. Having seen a few I now pass. But so many people link to them that it's nearly impossible to be unaware of him.

Emphasis added. I had the same reaction. If listeners "DON'T CARE", the phenomenon described in the article is hardly surprising, and even seems inevitable IMO. [Added] Agreed on the irrelevance of payola, something completely different. Re. Ted Gioia, I once read and enjoyed his West Coast Jazz book, though I found the writing slightly dull. I then read another book (forgot the title, probably History of Jazz) that made little impression and was definitely dull. Don't pay much attention to his online columns, which indeed seem whiny.

Carmell Jones Select.

Discussion on Audiogon forum [Added] Might as well file a claim with your credit card company. If I was still in the securities trading industry, I'd have written any Nimbus obligations down to near zero by this point.

RIP. More sad news to open 2025 (2024 was a tough year).

Piano tends to be out of tune with RVG, also some reverb issues, but I mostly enjoy the recordings. Don Schlitten is another matter...I don't think it's him personally, but his frequently used engineer Richard Alderson, who was the king of out-of-tune pianos (I'm talking Dolphy / Five Spot level or worse 🤣). Schlitten's other stuff is fine. Count me in the "avoid Concord" / "bland" camp. Just a matter of taste, and I own a boatload of the Maybeck solo piano recordings (which venue has a very bright-sounding piano, not watered down at all). But not too much else. I'm sure I'm missing a few good ones, but have also bought some lemons.

I'm inclined to agree re. Matt. Trouble is (and I know from some personal experience and that of acquaintances), seemingly good people can get in over their heads (especially if they lack business acumen), and losses can mushroom, leading to perplexing behavior. Definitely should wait and see (is there any choice?). But if the business has really cratered, in particular if the owner has had to "lawyer up", it could be grim.

Dang. Real bummer. I bought the first couple of releases in the series, but own so many Nimbus and Tapscott recordings that I stopped there. Does anyone have a contact at Dusty Groove? They might have some inside "industry" info on the label.

No doubt, both winners and I'm a fan of the Suske (own their Mozart). Like what I've heard from Takacs (which is pricey) and ABQ as well. I seriously considered the recent Quatuor Ébène set, as performances greatly impressed me on computer audio. But the CDs were audio engineered with really blatant "brickwalling" which turned me off (despite not being an audiophile). 👎

My recommendations are not worth much, as I'm cheap and don't often go for multiple recordings of the same work. I have the aforementioned Vegh and the 1951-1952 Budapest on UA. Both are excellent and I enjoy their "old-fashioned" style, so I stopped there. A while back I bought the Quatuor Stanislas on Forgotten Recordings, on a whim because I liked the project and am a Francophile when it comes to classical performance. It's pretty good but I can't recommend it over the usual suspects. I'm getting old and have more than enough CDs, so not likely to add more. If so, being old-fashioned I'd probably go for the old Hungarian Q set, which got a really inexpensive reissue a few years ago.

I bought this [Vegh complete Beethoven / Valois] back in the '90s. I don't think it was ever cheap in the US (Auvidis has always been a pricey European import), but at the time the price was "in the pack" with alternatives. I was a new collector and bought based on the Penguin Guide, which I haven't looked at in decades. 🤪 The performances are good indeed, but the sound quality might not satisfy audiophiles (though it's fine to me) and Sandor Vegh does not have perfect intonation. I think the OP would enjoy hearing this set, but by now there's so much competition that it's difficult to justify paying a lot. There are some moderately priced (Euros) Valois sets on discogs if you're willing to forego the slipcase. Is it streamable? I see complete Vegh sets on both Spotify and Youtube, but am not certain they're from the original Valois releases. [ISTR there was another, less highly regarded Vegh set, but could be wrong.]

First 4 discs. Probably the rest tonight or tomorrow.

If Bird is in good form, the Rockland Palace recordings could be recommendable. Depending on sound quality, which I don't know. I defer to Jim, who says it's not pitch-corrected, and would pass. If you look on discogs for "Rockland Palace" releases, there are some later ones (possibly CD rather than vinyl) that claim to be pitch-corrected. The Roost is on my 4-CD Savoy live set, so I'll put a pitch-corrected Rockland Palace on the wish list.