NP Bobo Stenson - Serenity (ECM) disc 2 One of my favorite artists to listen to early in the morning.
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – New Zanziber (NBC) [18Sep45 on Vol. 5 of The Treasury Shows] (Storyville Records—D.E.T.S.) Personnel: Shelton Hemphill, Rex Stewart, Taft Jordan, Cat Anderson(t); Ray Nance(t,vn,v); Lawrence Brown, Joe Nanton, Claude Jones(tb); Jimmy Hamilton(cl,ts); Otto Hardwicke(cl,as); Johnny Hodges(as); Al Sears(ts); Harry Carney(cl,as,bar); Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn(p); Fred Guy(g); Junior Raglin(sb); Sonny Greer(d,ch); Marie Ellington, Al Hibbler, Joya Sherrill, Kay Davis(v). Titles include: Walkin' With My Honey (with Harry Carney soloing on bass clarinet), Emancipation Celebration, Let the Zoomers Drool and the rare Court Session (Cat Anderson).
Next up from last week's binge at Ray's... This is the expanded edition with the extra 15 or so minutes of the two main tracks.
To be fair I've only had two fail (so far) and I have most of her discography. Many of them are before she went to cdrs as I bought them as they were released. NP Grachan Moncur - Evolution (Blue Note) rvg cd
Got home from a day escorting my Dad around to a few appointments and a new component was waiting for me on the porch: a Decware ZROCK2, so I plugged it in and decided to play around with it and kept the CD in the transport going, "Tide," the Antonio Carlos Jobim SHM-CD released the year from Universal Japan. I love this music, the Deodata arrangements are great and the playing is just right for this Brazilian jazz smooth fusion. But the material on cd always seems "bright." The ZROCK2 altered this with the twist of a knob. I'm so far very impressed.
Clare Fischer Orchestra - Extension (Pacific Jazz) International Phonogram Inc. reissued cd I was a fan of Clare Fischer before this album but had not heard this one before this cd was released and to say I was bowled over is an understatement and this coming from someone who's not much of a large group fan. It is my favorite album by him.
How exciting! I've read about it before but wasn't interested at the time since I had just got my decware speakers and was blown away by the sound I was hearing. There are times when I wish the bass had a little more umph to it but I love everything else about these speakers so I wouldn't dream of hooking my Paradyme towers back up. Some recordings just don't have the low end they should whether it's recording choices, mastering, whatever so I can see how the Zrock could help in those instances. So is this "2" designation mean a new and improved or beta version? I'm interested in your thoughts as you gain more experience with it as I might have to get one too.
Found in the bookstore (!!) today. Not in perfect shape, but the playing is just revelatory, and I can't resist anything with Joe Henderson's name on it. Nice lineup! Richard Davis - bass Eddie Henderson - trumpet, flugelhorn Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone Stanley Cowell - piano, electric piano Billy Cobham - drums Dolly Hirota - vocals Bill Lee - arranger, conductor
I responded to your post on the Decware forum Les, but yeah, the ZROCK was briefly introduced and then Steve Deckert found a power supply improvement that was significant so it quickly became a "2" model (even though a very new component with just a few owners out there, who have been invited to have theirs converted to the "2" for no additional expense). The biggest change I can put my finger on is that it can now accept a lot larger input voltage than the first version, a good thing for my system. And immediately after inserting the component I discovered it can do just what you want, add a dash of body to the bass and in so doing also illuminate dynamics and ambient information a bit. I'll be able to play with it a lot the next few days and will share my impressions with you.
Got some nice old APs in recently: The Musings of Miles Sonny Rollins Plus 4 John Coltrane - Settin' the Pace And some that aren't quite as old: Hank Mobley/Al Cohn/John Coltrane/Zoot Sims - Tenor Conclave Stan Getz & João Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto Muddy Waters - Folk Singer The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (stereo 33)
Free jazz bassoon. I couldn’t pass it up. It’s strange that it’s available to stream in bandcamp but not to buy. I could find it anywhere as a lossless download.
NP First Takes - Andrei Kitaev piano, Bill Douglas bass (Reference Recordings) Jazz Series A Keith Johnson recording, a bay area audio guy who's made a lot of fine recordings. Half speed mastered by Stan Ricker. These two artists had minimal prep and they tagged onto the end of another recording and used the leftover time. They did a nice job and it sounds spectacular.
I started to do that with my Miles collection last winter but then I went on a buying bender that has only recently began to slow down a little so that project went on pause. I’d like to start it up again at some point, though; however, due to said bender, my Miles collection, which I felt was quite large before, is now considerably larger. NP: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin’ (Blu-ray audio)
I have a recent vinyl pressing of that which sounds amazing. Is the Blu Ray version just stereo-only? Or is there a 5.1 mix too?
It’s stereo only, with a mono alt take of Autumn Leaves; Japanese edition. It was on a huge discount (<$10) on cdjapan.co.jp; I was ordering a metric ton of Lee Morgan SHM-CDs and they conveniently suggested it to me, since I’ve been meaning to pick up this album for the last 10 years or so, but never got around to it, I decided to give it a “yes please” and “thank you”. I got the aforementioned Moanin’ , as well as Cool Struttin’ (also Blu-ray audio), too. Not sure if there are any left, I remember for at least one of those albums it was egging me on by telling me there was only 1 left in stock.
I have a few things featuring Paul Desmond either as a sideman or leader (Timeout, Concierto, Desmond Blue) and his "sound" was very distinctive.
His RCA albums with Jim Hall are superb. I only buy Brubeck albums that have Desmond on them too. I can't remember who said it but his sound was said to be like a dry martini but I can't recall the exact quote but I've only been awak for about thirty minutes so the old mainframe is still warming up, heh. Someone will probably come along soon and fill in the gaps. There was a time when I wouldn't have given Desmond much attention. He is about as far away from musicians like Coltrane, Bird, Cannonball, etc. as one can get, but one day he suddenly clicked as did Jim Hall, another artist I used to find unexciting. Funny how times change. NP Nels Cline - Lovers (Blue Note) lp Speaking of Desmond, Nels opens his album with a version of Glad To Be Unhappy that is an obvious homage to Desmond's version.
