New Africa is incredible, near the top of my all time list, one of those two tracks from Kwanza. Bakai the other one?
That's a shame. The company's reissue of Julius Hemphill's classic Dogon A.D. is a classic in its own right.
I can only guess thatvlike Blue Note they are realizing they can now make money out of audiophile reissues so they want the control Back. The problem is that most wont do the same quality reissues (Blue Note excepted)
Dexter Gordon Quartet - Something Different Dexter is great on this. I like when Philip Catherine plays acoustic guitar more than electric but it is definitely different to have Dexter record with a guitar.
2 nice volumes in the "Cool" style with 2 giants for that period "Jazz Exchange Vol. 1" - The Warne Marsh Quintet feat. Lee Konitz - Storyville SLP 107 - recorded December 1975 at Cafe Montmartre, Copenhagen, Danmark
I'm currently having an interesting shootout between the Dutch/European and Japanese first vinyl pressings of Miles' Agharta. Handily the volume is almost identical between them which has made things nice and easy. I assumed the Japanese would probably have a shot at being the definitive version here given it was obviously recorded there, does anyone know if that's the general consensus? That was my expectation so it's cool to find they both have something different to offer. The European one sounds nasty. It's right up in your face and the guitar is gnarly as hell, threatening to lop your head clean off at times. This seems to come at the expense of some of the other instruments however; the centre of the mix is quite indistinct with the drums, bass and some of the percussion really mushing together when things get busy. At times it's hard to tell if different bass notes are being hit or not. All this evokes an avant-garde rock band sort of vibe in the louder sections, almost as if Hawkwind suddenly developed serious jazz chops. The Japanese one has much more balance, clarity and coherence. It's especially noticeable in the rhythm section so the funk aspect feels much more emphasised - I'm finding myself grooving along to the bass and drums I can now actually hear properly rather than focusing on the solos, which feel that bit more polite for better or worse. I guess one is being squished up against the barrier in the front row and getting blasted full force but not quite hearing the bigger picture while the other is being in the middle of the crowd somewhere where you can hear everything well and you've even got the room to dance a bit. Both good, it just depends what you're in the mood for. I'm not a 'multiple copies' kind of guy so I'll have a decision to make! Leaning towards the Japanese I think. What a recording though.
Late to the party, just to throw in my 2 cents regarding Braxton/large discographies/less-is-more-versus-over-abundance... Yeah it's interesting. I'm purely speaking for myself here, not saying any way is right or wrong. With Braxton, I have a number of his albums, off the top of my head probably 40 plus (which is a lot in the context of my relatively humble collection), many of them multi-disc (some MULTI-disc). In some ways I am influenced by lack of funds: if I had money to burn i'd buy everything, no doubt. But more and more when that new release or re-issue comes out that I would auto-buy before, i'm thinking "you know, I've got shiz-loads of this artist already, much of which is ripe to dig deeper in to and get to know better. Why not hold off on adding to that pile for now?" I LOVE the buzz of getting a new album and listening to it for the first time, I think I almost can't live without it, but i'm getting better at getting a buzz from re-discovering albums that I already own and getting to know them better. I had 'fear of missing out' before too, but now i'm finding I can skip that new release and the world keeps turning. I want to go back to what it was like when I was 16, buying an album and living with it for months. I've got thousands of albums, i'm really enjoying picking an album and just living with it for a while (probably not months lol). An album will almost always go from being an also-ran to being loved to some degree when I spend a lot of time with it. Or not! Sometimes it confirms why you didn't like it so much, or why others didn't like it so much, like "ahhh, I think I get now why this album is less celebrated than album x in their discography, on closer inspection the chemistry or interaction isn't quite there," etc, which is worthwhile in itself. I've been thinking about my buying habits lately. I think there's an element of fatigue, just for me personally. When you find yourself buying stuff that you don't really want to buy... addiction? But i'm digressing...
In anticipation of the reissue that comes this week, im playing my well "loved" copy of KD "una mas". What a great album! I don't usually keep two copies of records but I'm not sure I want to say goodbye to this guy. Is that silly? I guess technically it's two different mixes so maybe that's as good a rationalization as any!
Do you use Spotify or Apple Music etc? You can that way maybe decide w more power which things you need to own and which you can just visit when you want to.
I used to use Spotify to check stuff out, but my account got hacked (there were some hilarious albums showing up in my played/saved) and I found their customer service to be pretty bad at sorting it (it kept happening) so in the end I gave up and closed my account. I'd never had anything hacked before and it was a really weird feeling. Got really paranoid about my other accounts (email etc) for a while. For me, it's actually a thing that on paper I want the album, I know what i'm getting, but in my heart i'm just not that excited about it, ya know? I don't know if it makes sense, but it's like I don't really want to place the order, I want the album but not really, and when it arrives i'm not excited. That's where for me i'm showing signs of 'addiction to ordering'.
Shopping addiction is real! At least yours is for music which might be better than expensive Shoes- unless you have that as well. I sometimes have to call a month long moritorium on internet music buying so I'm in the same boat. I can usually tell it's time for a break because I have a section in my shelves for new stuff. I keeps things there untill I've played them around 3-4 times. When those shelves are bursting I know it's time to go deeper w what I have and take a break from buying. Re Spotify- they are one of the worst most disrespectful of users and artists tech company's. But talk about addiction; I just can't quit them! Maybe we should try the Apple version...
Yeah that's the thing for me, it is basically addiction: i'm coming home stressed from work and I find myself looking to order a CD even though there's nothing that I really want. It's stress relief, and i'm like there's got to be a better way. Anyway, enough about me lol.
Hi Stu02, welcome and take a seat. I can be your sponsor but you must first mail over any remaining "product" that's stashed in your house.
To me, this is why streaming has been such a godsend -- I can listen to tons of new and different music with no incremental increase in cost and without having to commit to having and holding the album until death do us part (I've never sold a record or a CD or pretty much anything). But yeah, sometimes I do just like to settle down with one record and live with it for while.
Inner City (US) did many LP issues that were licensed from foreign labels which they had no involement in creating. I think they did some original work. It was great when they were coming out, as they selected good material.
I posted in the Got Jerry Garcia thread, this is 'Legion of Mary' except with Tony Saunders in place of John Kahn, doing Weather Report's Cucumber Slumber:
The same outfit (with the GDs Kreutzmann on drums, he may have been on the first clip too,) covering All Blues: