Leeway

Well, there are no bids, and the seller has no prior sales. Scary dumb stuff

If by this you mean, "I think the essence of BN vinyl is the immediacy and presence of the sound; it's right in front of you. I think RVG aimed for that effect. The best ones make you feel you are right in Rudy's living room. .... Perhaps some people get bugged by this "in your face" quality, but I like it. " IMO, two different animals and I've never taken note of a Riverside sound. I have a ton of OJC Riversides and a handlful of originals. What a great catalog Riverside has. I know Riverside has quite few records that are thought well of sound wise. Listened to some Bill Evans Riverside Lp's recently and nothing stood out other than the music, which is high praise in my book. Wolff, thanks for quoting me! Yes, that's what I did have in mind. Aside from BN, there was another thread recently about Contemporary Records, and CR's audio quality. I was thinking along similar lines about Riverside. I haven't had a chance to go through enough Riverside/Grauer productions in a systematic way to get a better idea of any particular audio quality they might possess. Has anyone been able to formulate a view on this? BTW, I have a number of Japanese pressings of Riverside (on Victor), including a number of Bill Evans records, and the sound on those is clean, intimate, nicely detailed and balanced; in fact, they are my best Evans LPs.

Beethoven would have been happy to pen the opening notes to "Blue Train," and he knew something about opening notes.

I hope this box doesn't rival the Herbie Hancock box for "most difficult to use."

Yes, agreed. In my old neighborhood, they would have said that Steve has a lot of CHUTZPAH to be talking about Rudy in that way. Maybe Steve has been putting his head behind too many TV sets and soaking up the electrical vibes

Well, maybe too much is made of it at times, but there is no doubt that a good remastering appreciably helps one's enjoyment of the music. Getting the music out to people is not incompatible with getting the music out to them in a manner that enhances the listening experience. Hoffman is an engineer, so his language is techno-geeky. Also, he likes to blow a lot of hot air about his achievements. But I wouldn't use his example as a basis to invalidate the idea of improved sound quality.

AJF, which Keepnews book are your referring to? Is it this one: I also note that Keepnews and Grauer collaborated on a book. Anyone know of this one?:

I'll choose the 24-bit re-issues, but mostly because I don't want to have to buy a new machine, and the SACDs aren't backwards-compatible with CD players. They are coming down in price, but I already went through replacing many LPs with CDs in the 80s and I don't feel like doing it again. I'm sure they sound great, but I think newly remastered CDs sound very good too, and it isn't worth it to me yet (although I am the same guy who just bought a mono copy of Classic Records Moanin' when i already have numnerous versions of it, so who's the sucker, right? ) I don't want to rouse the wrathful spirit of GREG But when I see long lists of reissues, few if any of which are in SACD, I do have to wonder if the record companies are even considering the SACD format anymore. Having said that, back to the music. That Grant Green "King Funk" looks interesting. Has that been released in the US before?

Thanks Christiern for the informative and insightful post.

Did you misplace a decimal point? I'm proud to report that I bought NO records or CDs this weekend. I did go to a live show. But, I repeat, no music purchases. After buying several big Mosaic sets, a couple of Mosaic Selects, a bunch of LPs, and some CDs, over the last couple of weeks, I figured it's time to take a buying hiatus.

Just an aside, but these lists of 24 bit reissues suggest, to me at least, that SACD is hardly making big inroads in the market. the preference sems to be with 24bit remasters.

Steve's not the most modest guy is he? Maybe it's in the nature of recording engineers to be ego maniacs, or at least, extremely self-assured, and I don't exclude RVG from this characterization (based only on what I have read about his autocratic recording practices). I'm pretty loathe to take Hoffman's word on this as the final word. IMO, the proof is in the listening, and the listening on RVG's original BN albums is pretty damn good

I have a fair number of LPs issued by Riverside Records- Bill Grauer Productions, 235 W. 46 St, NY. I have heard or read somewhere that Grauer turned out records with superior production values, and none of the LPs I have make me dispute that. But I know little (nothing much really) about Grauer, his work, or his records. So, can anybody out there shed some biographical and/or discographical light on the man and his work?

Billy Holiday:LP#7 from the 10 LP box set, "Billie Holiday on Verve 1946-1959," Polydor Japan pressing. Great singing. Great playing. Excellent sound quality. BTW, maybe I missed them but I haven't noticed that many vocal LPs posted on this thread. Lucky Thompson: "Lucky Thompson Plays Happy Days Are Here Again" Tommy Flanagan on piano. Prestige Bergenfield NJ pressing- but sonically unimpressive. Not one of Lucky's better LPs I think. Also, some of the worst liner notes- actually offensive. Wes Montgomery: "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery"- Orignal Riverside/Bill Grauer Production. Again, Tommy Flanagan on piano. Percy Heath on bass, Albert Heath, drums. Great sound, great playing all around. Coleman Hawkins: "Coleman Hawkins Septet: Think Dee"- with Hank Jones and J.J. Johnson. Later Riverside pressing. Boooyeah!

Bertrand, I can see you applied some of your daytime professional skills to the event, as you were sharp enough to keep the set list! Matt was a gas- a real little jazz trooper. The band gets big kudos for playing with such verve and commitment in front of what was a pretty small (albeit enthusiastic) crowd. BTW, I can't find anything (on AMG at least) on Wit Williams, the bari sax player who sat in. I enjoyed his playing.

Silver, Blakey, Morgan, Mobley, Jimmy Smith. With the possible near exception of Mobley, all these were consistent money-makers for the label, while turning out musically excellent LPs. I don't know how well Mobley's stuff relative to the others- -- but I have no doubts as to the musical value of Mobley's albums.

Brandon and Bertrand, it was great to meet you at HR 57. A kick-ass show. nearly 3 hours of Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley music- a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Looking forward to hangin with you again.

Thanks Brownie, great anecdote! Your story made me think. BN has become the stuff of legend, but did people realize it at the time? Maybe even Lion and Wolff were not so sure, selling LPs straight from their office, trying to keep the business going, handling the day-to-day problems inherent in running any business. I wonder when a perception developed that BN was something well beyond the ordinary, that the label was establishing a new standard of performance and recording? Anyway, it must have been nice to have touched that era personally.

Lucky dog! Eat your heart out! This was purchased directly from the BN offices on 61st Street when it came out. Francis Wolff provided the copy. Should have asked him to autograph it That's a great story about your "Basra" copy. I'd love to hear more about your visit(s) to BN's old offices, and what the scene was like at that time.

Not as far as I know. Let's make this a little more interesting. Prize to the winner! You have to guess the one I have in mind. Your choice: A couple nice Cuban cigars. Burn of one of my Mosaic sets(your choice..the Hodges LP only is a good one). An LP from my collection. I have a couple doubles that I was going to sell or we can decide on another one. Phillip, if you are into cigars or LP's, PM me. Wolff, that's a great choice of prizes. Very nice of you!

I'll try to make it. Look for a guy in a Fat Cat Jazz or Muddy waters t-shirt (whichever looks cleaner ).

Dead heat so far between Django and Tal

Lucky dog!

Just scrolling through the site I encountered the name of another unknown (to me) poster: "Saxaphone_Vagina" . How could i have missed that one until now? A name worth pondering. (not a diss, S-V, just rather awestruck!)

Thanks Dan. I am going to try to go.