chris

Yeah, that's them. I found that page, but I am wondering what the back story is. Most of their offerings seem like a melange of previous CDs, many of which I find it hard to believe they have legal access to reproduce...

Note the all important word TRYING in my post I'm not on a crusade to see this kind of music stopped or anything. To each their own. But I'm not sure at what point something doesn't really qualify as music anymore if elements like rhythm and melody are gone. At some point it becomes pastiche or it becomes impossible to determine whether something is the garbage produced by an amateur or an experienced word. Given that my tastes have changed when it comes to literature and painting to where I embrace much more experimental work than I used to, there is hope that the same will happen with music. Until then, I will continue to be honest and be the jazz equivalent of the yokel at the museum or library who doesn't get Pollock or Finnegans Wake...

With the crucial difference that Out to Lunch is a great album Seriously, that's why I put the proviso that I'd like to get to the point where such a track had some meaning. As it is, I don't hear anything particularly "musical" to listen to. I have the same cold response to that track as I do much of the techno/trance/electronica/etc dance music that my wife spins-- it has left "behind" all the elements that make something music to my ears... I understand the disparity between this track and the previous in terms of TIME, but I don't see much other relationship...

While looking through the Daedalus Books music selection I see they have a ton of CDs by the "Past Perfect" label at cutout prices. What's the story with this label? It all looks like repackaging... Did find Hutcherson's Un Poco Loco there, which is cool.

Hey, not thinking Kenny G is great is just an opinion too I've roasted my own beans in a popcorn popper, which worked pretty well. But my place is too small to deal with the smoke of home roasting, at least from what I have read about the home roaster units... Luckily, the local shop roasts a few times per week. When I have the need, I can and will drink any kind of coffee, but I know the good stuff...

I don't have a home roaster, but Starbucks coffee is just horrible. May as well go to 7-11 and sip from the two-hour old Bunn pot. I've spent a lot of time in the mecca of coffee (Seattle) and quickly realized that while many are addicted to caffeine, good coffee is very hard to find there. We've got a local shop that roasts the right way (hand chosen lots of beans, a Sivets air roaster, frozen storage for very short periods of time) and it is unbelievable how much better it is. In fact, our little shop received one of the highest rating any coffee roaster has ever received for one of his roasts... All I can say, if you like Starsucks, then I have to think you've never had good coffee. Starbucks, Seattle's Best, etc are the Kenny Gs of coffee! Seriously!

OK, here is my take for Disc One -- sorry there will be nothing enlightening here, but I am having a GREAT time listening and thinking about these tracks anyway! 1-1: No idea. Get used to that phrase, guys, you will see it a lot more. Sounded a little like Monk for a bit, then a lot like Horace Silver. No idea what the song is. I liked the trumpet player a lot. Heck, maybe I should throw in a guess of Tommy Flanagan and then I've covered all the piano players I could hope to guess blindfolded Whoever/whatever it is, I liked it a lot and want to hear some more. Interesting how it really felt like two different songs altogether to me. I had to check the CD player to make sure it was still track 1. 1-2: No idea. The fuzz almost adds to the tune I can imagine some contemporary DJs really having fun with this. 1-3: I know less about Big Band than almost anything else in jazz, so I have to say Mingus. Definitely not Ellington or Basie-- more "modern" feeling that that. Got into the Sax, started getting bored with the piano, then the-- what four?-- horns got a little cacophanous for me. 1-4: I have to admit that after my griping about guitar being my least favorite instrument, the funky fuzzified guitar in this track made me laugh out loud. I don't even know what kind of music this is, much less who it is. Love that rude sax playing though, just short of honking. Wailing on the clarinet, like wailing on the flute, is a path fraught with peril. But someone does it here. Nice trombone solo. I Can imagine playing this while kicking back with younger friends-- I'd be the "Cool Guy with the Cool Tunes" for once... 1-5: I tried to skip all discussion of the BF discs before I got 'em, but I know there was some argument about the gender of a vocalist. This must be it. Sounded like a female singer for a bit, then the more "spoken" pieces sounded like James Brown. I'm reminded of the first time I heard Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" from Nashville Skyline-- even though I know it's him, I still can't believe it. Bizarre. 1-6: I bet this is a female vocalist This is really not my thing. Sickly sweet strings, the voice is "quality" iin the way that tea cakes and fine china cups are "quality." Boring. 1-7: There's definitely some Monk in here? I'm going to have to think about this some more. As to who the players could be, I have no clue-- most of my collection ends by 1970... 1-8: OK, so why is there a bass player here at all? I know next to nothing about organ (sorry Organissimo guys, but I do get a kick in the pants out of your CD!), but it seems like putting the organ and bass together just holds both of them back. The bass solo was actually pretty cool sounding, but I'd rather have heard it somewhere else. Most groups don't have both, right? Again a pretty sax part that really outclasses the rest of the band. 1-9: This track blows my mind. Blues? Native American? African? Despite myself, I actually liked this enough to listen a few times. I really need to sit and piece together the words and see if there is something coherent going on. 1-10: No clue. I definitely dig this a LOT though. Dueling sticks, old school. I wish I knew more about drumming. 1-11: Ah, one I know by complete serendipity. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=A8047gjyro6ic Knowing the history of this makes it a lot cooler to my ears. 1-12: AAARRGGGHHHHHHH. I'll probably get flayed alive for saying so, but this precisely the kind of music that I am convinced 99% of people listen to just so others can hear them listening to it and presume they are really hip. I'd sincerely like to get to the point that I can understand what is going on here and why it matters... give me the previous track any day. 1-13: AWESOME. This really swings! I enjoyed listening to it a few times. No clue who it is. Another track that will end up in a CD purchase, I'm sure. I don't know how to describe the difference between Big Band that really gets me going (rare) and that which leaves me cold (most)-- but this cut has it. 1-14: No idea. The guitar just wasn't my thing here, though it wasn't exactly boring. Piano player never really seemed to let loose. Nice sax. Getz? Or to show how clueless I am, the other name that comes to mind is Art Pepper, though normally I don't really think of them as having much similarity. 1-15: If it's vibes, then it must be Lionel Hampton. Or Milt Jackson. These are the only two vibe players I can name off the top of my head, so I may as well get them both in there. Every time I hear a nice track with vibes I think "I really need to listen to more of that kind of thing" but then I almost never do! Disk Two later...

Or the Conn... I can't keep all of these straight. As far as I can tell, in order to get "Destination Out" on CD there are (at least) these releases: the "regular" Blue Note, the Mosaic Grachan Moncur Select, the TOCJ 4155, the TOCJ 9165 (24 bit), and the Blue Note Conn -- are some of these equivalent to one another? Are there any general rules for these kinds of comparisons?

I see that the Grachan Moncur Mosaic Select appears to have the entire Destination Out album included-- how is the sound on the Mosaic release as compared to the TOCJ of that title?

Incidentall, it's VERY rare that I've come across a scratch so deep that a good polishing with brasso and then a rinse with warm water can't cure. OF all the things I've tried (short of a 3500 dollar resurfacing machine), brasso and some elbow-grease is by far the most effective...

Actually, the data is on the bottom protected by a finish, but it reflects off the layer on the top, so scratching either side can cause problems. Scratches that run vertically from the center hole are less likely to cause problems. I have scratched CDs both ways and can confirm that they can be a problem, though the bottom side seems to be much more sensitive, as a top scratch has to go deep enough to reach the reflective layer.

Close enough for me! I just about hit a moose on the way in to work earlier this week-- a cow protecting her calf that was eating willows on the bike path. They have been wandering around the neighborhood most of the winter eating the remains of the gardens and the halloween pumpkins and occasionally make a nuisance of themselves hanging around outside the front door making it impossible to get out without risking a kick...

I'm in Alaska-- it's about -20f here right now-- I don't think it hurts the discs (never had any problem with real damage), but the condensation makes 'em unplayable for a while. I guess maybe if they didn't have a chance to dry after thawing and then got refrozen ther is some remote chance of damage...

The ones I ordered arrived today-- 8 spanking new RVGs to brighten the holiday!

Now THAT makes sense, even to this unqualified adult

Don't know the story of the limited run, but I am going to get some fuschia paint and get rich

Hey, I'm the one who said the answers should be posted in their own thread any old time. Makes no difference to me-- I won't be looking until I'm done. Really. I promise!

Got the discs today and will start listening tonight-- a big shout-out to my peep (is that the singular of my peeps?) to JSngry who expressed it to the frozen north in time to listen and join in the fun!

You have to admit that it's pretty funny to see obsessive jazzers-- who would likely sell a testicle for an LP on their wish list that might have had thousands of copies issued at one point-- laughing at a high price for an item for which there are only possibly *6* in existence

"'Oh, Jazz....they're just making that up as they go along'" -- Homer Simpson

I doubt it hurts anything to leave them in-- probably MORE chance or wear and tear removing them and putting them back. But I try to only use CD-Rs in the car anyway, as they tend to get banged around a lot. The problem here is that it gets too cold and then when the car warms up condensation appears on the disc, which can cause obvious problems.

While thinking of Undercurrents, I vaguely recall reading somewhere in a Bill Evans bio that there were some more lively cuts from that session that didn't get released, except for the alt take of My Funny Valentine on the CD. Did those get collected somewhere else?

Especially whilst picking my round nostrils with one hand and drinking beverages through round holes with the other All this talk about fingering the holes of CDs is getting me hot, but you'd thnk they'd have made the holes in LPs bigger if that were really an issue... but what do I know, I'm just an unqualified adult attempting to explain obvious things to my inner child

These are actually great explanations of why the CD iself is round, but not really of why the hole in the middle is round... the spindle grips the CD and doesn't move relative to the CD as the water in the round cup does. If the function of the hole in the middle is to give the mechanism something to hold onto when it spins, then the shape, as long as it is symmetrical on four major axes, is really immaterial, right-- it could be shaped like a + or an * -- the more corners there are, until it effectively becomes circular, the more tolerance there would be for error, I suppose. However, when it comes to having a gripping surface and providing a firm hold onto the disc, then shapes other than round would seem to be better-- or at least there would be no chance of slipping (which I guess isn't really a problem, but you know True, it isn't broken, so don't fix it... But really, I'm just trying to avoid going to work!

The truly sad thing is that I have more than a few pictures of myself and my high-school and for-a-few-years-after garage rock band that would fit right into this site, though I don't see as many obligatory bottles of jack and hanging cigarettes from the lips as were in vogue then...