Shrdlu

Well, Masters of Jazz may have gone, but at least we have McMasters of Jazz.

I have this problem with the new 2 X 2 CD Miles Davis set. I'm going to trash the cases and use two others. When I tried to play Set 2 from Friday night, the CD nearly cracked!

Cheese? Whatever next? Most American cheese, and most American bread, stinks - Barak, you're right on the money. For the most part, unless you are in a big city, with European Delis to frequent, you are in trouble. American tea, which is basically Lipton's and a few clones thereof, is also bad news except for good ol' iced tea, which I like. Fortunately, most supermarkets stock Twinings tea bags, but that can get a bit pricey. The Canucks do O.K., as they have British tea in all their supermarkets. My favorite cheese is probably Président camembert, but I love lots of others. Edam goes down well, too, and is said to be low fat.

Yeah, that's the point. Sure, Bill uses them there, but none of the other pianists sounded like McCoy at that time, and Bill did not voice that way a lot. Trane himself said so. I forget where the quote is, but Trane said that McCoy's voicings sounded different from those that others used. That example that I gave (D, G, C, E), though possibly C9, has an ambiguous sound that opens things up. You can use more than one root note in the bass with it. You can also stack D, G#, C#, F next to it, as a passing chord. A classic use of this chord "shape" is in the descending melody of "Dahomey Dance", where the trumpet, alto and tenor just play notes taken from it, taking their lead from McCoy. I used to play that tune a lot, and was always glad if we could round up three horns for the melody. By the way, André Prévin was given that piece in a Feather Blindfold Test for Down Beat, and described it as "annoying and horrible"!

Wayne Shorter played alto on a dreadful Weather Report album that came out in about 1979 - that album also had Tony Williams (but not on sax!). Hey, I also play both alto and tenor - so hurry and add me to the hall of fame. Trane, watch out! Seriously, it's no big deal, and it isn't hard to do. Nor is the soprano (which I also play) difficult for a tenor player to pick up. Like the Siamese cat, it does not deserve its bad reputation.

Great! How's the house plumbing?

It's got great sound - definitely has a "you are there" feel. Did anyone notice ideas in Miles' solos similar to those in the Plugged Nickel collection? Now, if only Philly Joe had been on drums! Anyway, highly recommended! Four hours, what a generous playing time! You can hear the Italian club owner saying "bravo". I don't like Blumenthal's notes either. Would that he would stop using the word "would" so much. Instead of saying such things as "Hank would later record this with McCoy Tyner", why not say "Hank later recorded it with McCoy Tyner"? As Frasier said, "I can't stand pointless erudition".

By the way, where's Lon(son)?

Speaking of Getz, I have a friend in Adelaide, Australia, called Schmoe, who is a tenor player. Once, when he was in Frisco, Stan gave him some of his reeds (unused, I hope!). I would recommend a Selmer MK VI tenor, which is what I have. FWIW, I use a gold metal Link #8, with Ricoh reeds - the brown box, not those Royals, which I don't like, for some reason. That setup was used by both Trane and the Hawk, and if it served those two, with such different styles and sounds, you can't go wrong. The 30s (and earlier) saxes had better tones, on the whole, but the keywork tended to be a swine to play. I admire people like Dorsey and Teschmacher, who could scurry around real fast on those old horns. I have spent some time on an ancient Beuscher alto; it has a nice sound, but I can't play fast bebop runs on it. Give me the Selmer! I remember the SML tenors. They popped up in the 60s. Some guy broke away from Selmers, or so the story went. I tried a new tenor in a store. It had two-tone lacquer. I liked it, as far as I can recall.

Yes, it is, but it sounds the way it does because of McCoy's inversion into that particular order. In theory, it is nothing new or amazing, but McCoy was the first pianist I that I heard doing it. When Eric Dolphy was scoring "Africa/Brass", he basically just gave the horns McCoy's chord voicings; he had to ask McCoy which voicings he was using. You won't hear those voicings in the late 50s work by Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Sonny Clark and the others. In other news, the new Miles box has arrived, and promises to be some good listening. Four hours of music!

I love it, too, Jim! When I got my first organ LP, a used copy of "Chicken Shack", I was amazed at the walking bass lines. (Until then, the only electric organs I had heard were the cheap wedding reception types - playing rubbish like "More" - you know what I mean!) It must be very difficult to play those bass lines and solo at the same time. By the way, I forgot to mention that the BN CDs that I used to test my speakers were TOCJs. (Not a big sound, not a small sound, but a round sound, har, har!)

I agree with you, Dr J. The sound of the bass on records did change toward the end of the 60s, and I'm not keen on it either. If it ain't broke, why fix it. There is a Lee Morgan album ("Caramba", I think) where the bass sounds awful and kinda drowns out even Lee. It is very distracting and horrible. If I had been Lee, I would have made the engineer alter the balance. A bassist is supposed to accompany, not to take over the show. (The actual player is Reggie Workman, who is a favorite of mine. It's not his fault.)

So, your card had to be changed, too, ghost of miles! My card, which was used with Paypal coincidentally, was used for some bogus purchases last year, and I, too, had to change my card number. There is a way to change your email address, connoisseur series500. I had the same problem. You add a new email address, which could be a fake one that you make up on the spot. Then, set the newly added address as your "main" email address. Then, delete the one that you really want to remove. I am certainly going to sever the contact with my checking account after this annoying eBay transaction is over. I just hope that my bank does not want me to have a new account #, as that would force me to get a new set of checks. I may even quit with eBay. Recent problems have taken all the fun out of it, thanks to all the hackers. I am a "cash on the valvehead" man at heart, anyway.

Thanks again for the welcomes, everyone! But I won't post any more thank yous, as it could become repetitive. Why was my reappearence lumped in with old Warne?? "Cwmf". Yes, B3-er, there certainly IS a JRVG of "Back At The Chicken Shack". There have been JRVGs of almost all the BN LPs from 1500 through 4200, and many later ones, too. That 1960 Smith session is long overdue for a U.S. sonic upgrade. The JRVG lacks the extra track that Michael added to the old U.S. CD, but that track never really catches fire, and it has a similar feel to one of the LP tracks. By the way, I didn't think this JRVG sounded tinny. I prefer the TOCJs, but this JRVG will do fine. You can actually smell the chicken run.

Someone posted a rather nasty post about Rudy not long ago, which kinda shocked me, as I am very grateful to him for so many classic recordings. In the post, the writer said that Rudy seemed to hate bass, and should have recorded it at a higher level. I had not really thought about that much, but I now think there is something in it. I just set up a good speaker system in my living room for the first time in years, and I grabbed some BN CDs first up to test it. Such things as "In 'N' Out" and "Delightfulee", as they happened to be nearby. There was almost no bass, even with the bass knob turned fully clockwise. I was wondering whether the speakers were poor. Then, I dropped in a CD of the Bill Evans "Moonbeams/How My Heart Sings" sessions, and suddenly, BOOM, you can almost smell the dust inside Chuck Israels's bass. That guy was right. Any comments or thoughts on this? I'm not trying to attack Rudy, and I still like his recordings.

To be fair to Vibes, I didn't like Lester Young the first time I heard him. That's because it was a poor live recording, made late in his life (when his health had gone down the Suwannee and his playing was nowhere near its best) and with bad sound quality. For some reason, I did not find it easy to obtain Pres's many good recordings for many years. But, now that his 30s and 40s stuff is all to hand, including some thirties airshots with Basie where there is no 78 time limit and the soloists can really stretch, I can really appreciate just how good he was. This really comes out when there are alternate takes, as the solos are always completely different. I read that in the 30s, at jam sessions, he used to amaze the other musicians by playing chorus after chorus without repeating himself. If only we had some recordings of these sessions! I said 30s and 40s, but there are also some fine recordings in the 50s (mainly on Verve), such as the session with Teddy Wilson. But I much prefer his 30s recordings. You can also judge how good Pres was by the opinions of all the other musicians, and, of course, his influence on countless others.

You might appreciate a warning about Paypal, which is normally a breeze to use. I just landed a CD on eBay, and when I paid with Paypal, the payment was refused, as the dude "does not want credit cards". I did not understand the nature of the problem when I bidded and paid, as I thought that when I paid, the funds would go to Paypal, and then to the seller. So, surely, it would not matter HOW I paid Paypal. Not so, apparently. When you use Paypal, you are virtually dealing directly with the seller. I now wish that I had not made a bid. To get out of this mess, I have had to link my checking account directly to Paypal. Though I have no evidence to suggest that Paypal's security could be brought into question, I nevertheless feel kinda uneasy about this. I feel this way because recently a hacker got into my eBay account and also the email address that I was using for eBay. I lost my eBay account for a few weeks. eBay reinstated my account, but I lost the email address. Also, last year, someone started charging bogus items to my VISA debit card, and I had to get the bank to change the card number. Shrdlu says "cwmf"! So, you have been warned.

I hope that the Pearson Select will include the three unissued tracks "Is That So?" (10/3/69), "Come On Over My Love" (11/21/69) and "Dialog" (11/21/69). Michael omitted these when he put out that compilation CD in the mid 90s, but the other tracks from the two sessions for the would-be-album-that-was-not-issued are terrific and I want to hear these last three items. This double session had a Latino flavor and featured Airto among others. Such issued pieces as "Xibaba" and "Canto de Ossanha" are great. The "Canto" track was the cause of the mini controversy about which clarinet Frank Foster plays. Erroneously listed as an alto clarinet, it is actually the Eb contrabass clarinet an octave lower than the alto; with its extension to its low C, it is capable of playing the bottom E of the bass fiddle, which Frank does in unison with Ron Carter. This piece of plumbing turns up on an Elvin Jones BN date; on the LP, it was listed as a bass clarinet!

That's 'cos we are still waiting for our new sets to arrive!

Thanks, Soul Stream! It's great to see most of the familiar names here! (I'm not too sure whether I like all those pictures, though. ) Sure, bring on the Sonny Clark any time. I especially love those bell-like, twinkling tags that he throws in at the end of some pieces. It's off-topic, but I have really been enjoying "Leapin' and Lopin'" recently - I have the JRVG.

I have loved this album ever since I heard the original LP. Great album. Clunky, it seems that they had to do the same as they did with the Handy CD in order to restore this album fully. I assume that when they put out the old CD, in the 80s, they had the same problem, namely that some of the takes used for the LP could not be found on tape. That old CD follows the same lines as the old Handy CD: they substituted alternate takes for some selections, using whatever still did exist on tape. There is one track on the 80s CD that contains a take designed to be overdubbed by Pops; you can hear the "blank space", and then Velma suddenly and mysteriously says "solid!". (This puzzled that pompous old fogey Lyttleton, who wrote the notes for the old CD, much to my delight!) The overdubbed version appeared on the LP, but apparently could not be found in the vaults. It is on the recent CD of course. You will recall that an important overdub was similarly missing on the old Handy CD, but, thankfully, restored by George Avakian and his helpers.

Their "Down To Earth", by Freddie Roach, is definitely trying to be the TOCJ version. I got a copy of this through eBay a couple of years back. It has distortion on one track which, I'm told, is not present on its real Japanese counterpart. This is my only experience with these Spanish BNs. It would not be fair to conclude that other items might have problems, but I would be very wary about getting any more.

At the risk of repeating what has already been said, may I also speak up on behalf of zweitausendeins? I have dealt with them for years, after seeing a post mentioning them on the Blue Note board which was rapidly deleted by the moderator. (I wonder why!!) They sell all the RVGs when they first come out, as well as some Verve CDs, such as the recent mini-LP ones. They have always given superb service, including recently. I saw the ZYX sets for low prices in the booklet which zweitausendeins sends every now and then. I ordered the Bill Evans Riverside set, and it came quickly, for a little over 30 bucks. Yes, CD 8 was Miles Davis, but zweitausendeins quickly sent me a correct replacement, at their own expense (any profit must have been completely lost by that stage). Stefan Leuning was the nice gentleman who helped me. Before asking him for a replacement, I emailed ZYX, but I never received a reply. I think that Fantasy ought to sever all links with this rinky-dink company (ZYX, not 2001), in view of the fact that their 20-bit OJCs (and now 24 bit) stink. I said as much in an email to Fantasy - which is also very friendly, by the way. Incidentally, the sound in the Evans set is amazingly good, especially considering the year: 1987. Well done, that remasterer!

I have loved that Trane version for years. It was my first exposure to all the players. When I go through the Trane Vanguard box, I wish that there were more performances like this gem. All those Indias get a bit tedious at times, and I'm kinda played out on "Impressions", especially after having played it myself dozens of times. The LP version of "Spiritual" is still great to hear, though. That bass clarinet adds such a lot, and everyone is superb on it. When I first heard "Spiritual", I could not figure out what those chords were that McCoy was using! Then, one day, I worked it out while doodling on a piano: he was using three notes a fourth apart with a top note a major third above that (e.g. D, G, C, E) plus various root notes in the bass. This approach opens things up a lot harmonically.

Thanks again! I am wondering about the Blue Note board. I have a Fats Waller performance of a tune called "You Stayed Away Too Long". If Blue Note does not re-open its board soon, maybe a lot of people will just be so ticked off by the delay and rules that they say "Phooey on it" and never return. Anyway, this board looks fantastic, and has most of the categories that the Blue Note board had in its prime. Well done, B3-er! (I thought of you when the JRVG of "Back At The Chicken Shack" arrived recently. I once had an LP of that, and it's still my favorite organ album.)