Do not fear to veer off topic in this thread. Sneaking in a disc before the household awakens. . . . 24 bit reissue from Warner Japan
There are at least 10 levels of "insanity-of-the-music-collector". I passed the mid-point many, many years ago. But, as you get higher and higher in that scale of insanity, it's like that old logarithm in math, each level is at least ten times more-of-whatever than the last level. But in the past week, I jumped two entire levels, a rare feat. First, when I was in a store 200 miles from home, I spotted a box set by one of those artists that one can have a religious thing about. I definitely had the music already, and I probably had this edition of it. But this was a sealed, out-of-print box by someone I was religious about, at a good price. So I bought it. When I got home, I looked on my shelves and did not see it. I felt that it was unbelievable that I hadn't bought it when it was issued, hoping for a sound upgrade. As I was feeling good about just buying it, I spotted my original copy. That wiped out an entire year of doing my best to save a nickel a gallon on gasoline for my car. Level Seven of Insanity was achieved: Allowing your religious passion for musicians to take over any sense of logic. Then, yesterday, while perusing an Amazon wish list that exceeded the numerical limit of wishes that you can have, I spotted two box sets by another artist that I have a religious thing about. I already had these box sets in their large format (big book and box) first CD editions, and I had them in their first and second LP editions. But these were compact, cube sized editions. Put them on any shelf (as if I really had any shelf space left anywhere). Take them with you, anywhere (as if I really went anywhere, aside from music stores and garage sales). If nothing else, a nice back-up copy. As I was feeling religious, I bought them both. That wiped out about a year of trying to save on groceries, and maybe eating questionable left-overs in the refrigerator. Level Eight of Insanity was achieved: Allowing your thoughts about size to take over any sense of logic.
You got it bad, and that ain't bad... Just expensive with a capital 'X'. Art Tatum or 3-day old pizza, tough choice...
If you buy your pizza shells for 99 cents in the throw away bakery store, and put some various leftovers on as pizza toppings, you can eat a lot of 3-day-old pizza slices (that's compounded days if you started with expired beyond the date crusts and leftovers as toppings) for the cost of the budget Tatum boxes. Probably enough pizza to feed Bob Dylan's hometown of Hibbing.
I'm afraid I'm with you in the insanity Tribute. And if I didn't have a wife. . . I may have exceeded you by now. Sometimes I just don't understand the obsession and insanity and think I should make steps to improve my condition. I even have a storage unit I really shouldn't afford to house things not allowed in my house. But I'm in the grips of the madness and haven't seemed help. Probably the last disc for a while: SHM-CD
I do have a wife (and while with her, my collection has grown ten-fold). Some say she is very tolerant. But I'm sure she just doesn't know about the Clifford Brown or the Art Tatum back-up copies (or many others). However, she is likely to say "This is nice," if I put Tatum or Brownie on the stereo. P.S. She does like leftovers, except on the third or fourth day.
Well, that's a different kind of wife than I have. Still I actually like that my wife is not at all a jazz fan, likes music mainly for dance, nor a collector nor likes having stuff all over her house. She challenges me, she complements me, she sustains me, she is the bedrock of my real life. And in fact she's slowly making me saner. I need that. I don't need all the things I have and I'm slowly realizing it. And beginning to deal with it. I love music and collecting recordings, instruments and equipment. But I've let it get way out of hand and it's time for reality to enter my madness. Wish me luck.
I have that reissue too and agree, it sounds very good; especially oming from Atlantic as you point out. I have always kept it in Blakey's work (I had the cd for a while but it seems to be mia. I had never heard of the label but with Kevin's name on it I decided it was worth a shot. Glad I did. NP Keith Jarrett - Sun Bear (ECM) Japanese vinyl I don't know this massive program well as I've only had it a few years so I usually take a blind stab at a disc to play. Today it is the last lp in the set. Edit:Halfway through this side of Sun Bear I can't help but notice a similar energy as the new set (the first two discs at least).
I can offer my help by screening all of your future music purchases. Have them shipped directly to me, then come over once in a while and borrow some. You can make it more believable to your wife by loaning me some of your past purchases at the same time.
As a lover of live concert recordings I am fortunate that I can go a long way towards feeding my obsession for the cost of a good internet connection and a lot of digital storage. There are so many European jazz/fusion/nujazz artists I never would have heard of were it not for concert recordings, many of them from quite good sounding broadcasts. Same goes for some US artists too. I was just getting into jazz around 2005/2006 when Charles Lloyd's excellent set at Monterey in 2006 was broadcast, and after I picked that up on a torrent site I went on a bit of a Lloyd binge and bought up a number of his CDs. So while I do follow up with CD purchases of the artists I enjoy, at least the sheer number and variety of concert recordings I have helps to limit that portion of the obsession. Good thing, with a son in college! Currently I'm filling in the gaps of my Nils Petter Molvaer shows as someone floods them on one of the usual sites. For me it all started collecting Dead shows, first on tapes via trades though the mail, then digitally via FTP sites and finally torrent sites. But it went from "Why do you need every show from 1974*?" - "because a good chunk of each show was improvised so it's not the same one show to the next" - to "Why do you need a soundboard recording, and audience recording and a matrix of the same show?" - um, er, yeah, that's the insanity part. lol I think I might go queue up that Lloyd show right now... * or 1973, or 1972...
Been listening to this one a lot. Otherworldly in the best way. Frisell is completely on top of his game.
NP Elmo Hope Quartet/Quintet - Hope Meets Foster (Prestige) Japanese Victor mono pressing. Frank Foster and Freeman Lee on the frontline on tenor and trumpet respectively. I'm not familiar with Lee.
Analog Spark is a fairly new imprint of Razor and Tie. They do all-analog vinyl, pressed at RTI, and cut by Kevin Gray on the West Coast or Ryan K. Smith on the East Coast. The only other release I have from them is the Ella Sings Cole Porter box, which is also great.
I have to agree, I'm still about halfway through the new set, but I hear in this set reflections of the Sun Bear and slightly before and beyond Jarrett more than later Jarrett. Which is not a bad thing.
Your wife must be tough to fool. In that case maybe I can have all my new stuff shipped to you. I have really run out of room. But I can still get creative and add some more music to your house.
Oh my - that's a 10 LP Vinyl set, right? My head was spinning a bit when I first saw a copy for sale in the early 80's. I bought the six CD box when it came out. More digestible for me. I think there were some detractors for this release just based on the presumed ego to release something of this scale, but the music speaks for itself.
Both the Gershwin pieces you mentioned are (to my ears and to others'!) heavily jazz-influenced, Morbius. And Bernstein, well... What to add once you've mentioned his name?
