Clipped and Shorn

What a beautiful installation! What is that turntable? What cart do you run there? How long does the rubber band last? -ÇÒˆ∏∏´Î å˜∂ ÍÓ؉˜

Mark, Check out samples and examples any way you can and see if you are ready to expand your horizons toward getting into the "microcosm" of the individual soloist. One factor that you might consider is that when jazz ensembles are larger, often the music is 1) more arranged as you seem to prefer, and 2) less time for each soloist to dominate in solos. Many names in jazz are associated with both approaches and is why I would recommend the popular album "Mingus Ah Um" way before I would recommend "Charles Mingus presents Charles Mingus" on Candid. Both, of course, are masterpieces in their own right. A lot of West Coast Jazz used the larger ensembles and tighter arrangements and shorter solos and there is plenty more there to explore. Do you have "Blue Train", this was Trane's only title on Blue Note, and I think would be a good way for you to see if you like Trane, and if you can develop a deeper appreciation for this type of soloing which is really brilliant on thils album. When you are singing along and have memorized Lee Morgan's solo as you listen you will know you have arrived and then you might become a fan of the type of (extended blowing) jazz that you are currently avoiding. There are many artists who emphasized arrangements and include great soloists. I have been listening lately to Gerald Wilson and Benny Golson, both of whom fit this description. Wilson's "Big Band Modern" for example not only includes these nice arrangements (1954), but also contains some tracks of very rare early bebop (1950) featuring the great soloist Wardell Gray and others. Until you can develop a true appreciation for "extended blowing" I would rather not see you develop any pre-mature negativity about classic recordings outside your current realm of appreciation. It should be a more organic growth and learning process. On a hunch, I am thinking I would like to see you get into "Blue Trane" and let's see if we can go from there. Is that by any chance one of the new 45 rpm issues? Its bluesy but also in the "hard bop" vein, and its Coltrane. Do you like Theolonious Monk? Have you discovered his music yet? -CLHipped & ÍÓ؉˜

I hope this barage of new retro ideas is not going to divert progress on the new current crop of Berries? -Œ„´‰?Á¨ˆØ∏

Fini--- Great! Happy to hear everything is AOK there. Drop me a line and let me know how you like the 6550A in the 'Cat. I like the Tung-Sols in UL amps, but not as much in triode. Like to hear what you think. Mark, Is your preference for the KT88 over the 6550 in PP triode based on a comparison between newly available tubes or with NOS. I think fini found the Old 6550s smoother than his newish EH KT88s that came with the units. I have a feeling your comparison was based on EH 6550 vs. EHKT88. One might be inclined to conclude that the best tube for the pCat might be some NOS or old stock KT88. My smoky Genelex KT-66 sound pretty nice in my protoPcats. That's triode too. Now I am not recalling how much if any improvement I heard over the "new" 6l6GC that were in there when I got them. I am thinking I better liked the old KT-66 in there, but perhaps I was just anxious to use those vintage tubes. I think vintage type KT-88s might be a bit pricey these days. What was considered desirable brands of vintage KT-88s. Forget the WEs, they are probably off the chart. ——LJÍ

Three million bucks for a 50 million dollar collection and still the buyer may be more rare than the rarest LP in there. This does not bode well for all of us complulsive collectors. Best bet is to sell them one at a time, ouch! Or donate to a library? –-ç¶ß

In the 1994 movie "Wolf", this Francis Wolff photo of Bud Powell is seen on a desk as if a family photo. The image was used on the cover of the Blue Note 50's albums "The Amazing Bud Powell" vols. 1 and 2. Did director Mike Nichols ask for this or was the prop person a hipster having fun? -ç¶ß

Speaking of classic Blue Note recordings and the movie prop business, did anyone else on the planet beside myself happen to notice a surprising photograph (if my eyes did not deceive me) casually sitting on a desk at the beginning of the 1994 Jack Nicholson/Michelle Pfeiffer movie? This is a eXtreme trivia question and to get full credit for the answer you need to give a possible explanation for why such a photograph might have been chosen. ( that's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten might provide an obscure hint from another movie of that same year) -ç¶ß

I like playing this particular copy, good sound, disc is strong vg+ (almost nm-), cover looks better than it scans, but I would probably call it vg. I think I too have a later cleaner copy, but for some reason have a nostalgia for playing this specific disc. I think there are almost subliminal things one gets accustom to with certain discs after many years. Nice to know it has "error" value to collectors. Record stores in my neighborhood in the 50s seemed to have more Prestige and Riverside than Blue Notes, so I would buy what they had. ––c•s™

Foxing not as bad as scanner sees it:

Early liner notes. Is this the same on later issues?

Here is the other half:

Here is a scan:

Hey, I know what you mean, I also started listening to more Miles, also Sonny. One great album begets craving more of the same era or artist. BTW, I just now got lucky, finding a long lost, seriously mis-filed Sonny Rollins LP on Prestige. I probably put it aside in a special place because there is something unusual about it that I wanted to sort out. I should never put things in "special" places! I had given up searching for it, and it just now turned up. You must have brought me some luck, bravo! I think it is a very early issue. The front cover has the normal artwork of PRLP 7029, except it is in a dark orange, not the blue cover, nor the green cover, nor the yellow cover. It is Sonny Rollins (Art Blakey and Kenny Drew) also with the Modern Jazz Quartet, meaning there are two sessions issued on this LP, the Drew/Blakey from 1951 and the MJQ from 1953. This same unusual front cover in orange says it is Prestige lp 7020, however the material contained is usually designated as LP 7029. "LP 7020" would actually come to designate the album "Worktime" (1956), a different album. The back cover of my LP does indeed call it LP7029 and the label on the disc is also PRLP7029. What is strange is that the front cover would seem to have the correct artwork /lettering mentioning both Blakey/Drew & MJQ, however the number in the upper left is "Prestige lp 7020". It seems that this may be one of the earliest issues of LP7029 which was "mistakenly" printed with LP7020 on the front cover. Can you shed any light on this? Ever seen another like it? BTW, the front cover just uses "lp 7020" the disc label uses "PRLP 7029", the back cover uses "LP 7029", the "PRLP" is only on the disc label. I assume this is standard. Address is 446 West 50th, NY 19, NY. "Remastered by Van Gelder". That must have to do with taking it to 12" from the earlier 10" issues. Nice early Sonny! --CS&A

Bird on tenor about a year before he passes (the 1953 tracks). I know this album by heart and find his playing really poingnant. Great tunes. Early hard bop in a sense. Collectors' Items (Prestige 7044) Title: Collectors' Items Label: Prestige 7044 (LP) Number of Tracks: 7 Details: January 30, 1953; March 16, 1956 Note: Only tracks on which Davis is present (43:08) are displayed below. 1 The Serpent's Tooth (M. Davis) [take 1] Jan 30, 1953 7:00 2 The Serpent's Tooth (M. Davis) [take 2] Jan 30, 1953 6:16 3 'Round Midnight (B. Hanighen-C. Williams-T. Monk) Jan 30, 1953 7:04 4 Compulsion (M. Davis) Jan 30, 1953 5:43 5 No Line (M. Davis) Mar 16, 1956 5:39 6 Vierd Blues (M. Davis) [Trane's Blues] Mar 16, 1956 6:51 7 In Your Own Sweet Way (D. Brubeck) Mar 16, 1956 4:35 January 30, 1953 Miles Davis (tpt); Sonny Rollins (ts); Charlie Parker (ts); Walter Bishop, Jr. (p); Percy Heath (; Philly Joe Jones (d) March 16, 1956 Miles Davis (tpt); Sonny Rollins (ts); Tommy Flanagan (p); Paul Chambers (; Arthur Taylor (d)

Hey Alan, thanks for the affirmation. We, longtime fans and collectors like ourselves, forget what a daunting undertaking jazz education can be for the relative newcomer. Jazz culture is vast and deep even though relatively young as an art form compared with others. It can be so overwhelming for the new fan or collector. I am, and always have been a fan of books on jazz, of which there are many. Every book and discography I have read has helped me know what more to listen to and where the gaps were. When used book stores failed, I found that newsletter for mail order....what is his name, Newman I think. He still sends me lists, but I cannot find one at the moment. Do you have a reference/ address handy? It is a great list of jazz books for sale. We come from the generation that read the liner notes and learned while enjoying the music. The books extend that joy of jazz reading even further. The process is something like this: 1. one discovers a jazz artist that they like. 2. liner notes perhaps lead to acquiring more recordings. you take a chance and risk, courage to purchase other recordings on your own. win some, loose some. learning in the process. 3. a book then might turn someone on to earlier recordings, the recordings of the artist's influences, the historical context. 4. one then acquires a growing range of appreciation leading to collecting historical recordings perhaps in spite of current audio standards. 5. the shift is from audio titilation to a deeper understanding of the jazz language. the excitement of hearing innovations when they were innovations. 6. before long, one is fluent, and jazz speaks directly to you regardless of audio quality. Its the content. "saying something" 7. playing, buying, and enjoying the good audio recordings on one's great system, well that is wonderful frosting on the cake and is certainly part of the equation, but greatly enhanced by the deeper understanding of the history and context. (Having a Bird discography made rare disc collecting like filling in the lincoln cents in the Whitman folder.....) Parker never seems to have played anything that was not meaningful (profound), beautiful, and deeply heart felt (even once in the midst of a total nervous breakdown). (actually perhaps that is and may always have been the goal of most jazz artists, maybe though Parker, among other modernists, set a new "existential" standard). btw, to new fans: do you have Miles' "Collector's Items", that's late Bird on Tenor! (in addition to young Rollins), and one of my all time faves on Prestige. Also, one of rather surprisingly few recordings of Bird on "Round Midnight". -cs&a

OK, Thanks Bob. I should have known you would have thought ahead on that one. Now I have learned that it is difficult to be objective in one's auditory evaluations. We are so swayed by suggestibility. -091230498 § 980345098435

No one told me about this ahead of time, now it is too late since I have put my Cornwalls back together and it was a project running all those extended wires through the port for the A/B. I just hooked up this new Vcap network to the analogous terminals as if it were a direct sub for the Type B that is in there. You are right the midrange was down a bit and I wasn't sure what that meant at the time other than making me have a better opinion of my old networks. Darn. I think I am going to move on to other projects at this point. -mnbvcxz ≠ zxcvbnm

OK, I have finally made peace with my Cornwalls. Bob Lee was kind enough to loan me his new Vcap B networks and I did an A/B comparison , and even though the new B networks were a bit more airy and transparent, it did show me that my old type B crossovers were not that far out of line (an otherwise acceptable touch of muddiness compared with the new nets) . (Since that touch of mud actually works in its favor) I think I will retain the 1978 Cornwalls as stock and use this system for what is best, and that for me is playing most (small group) jazz recordings at normal volumes. What it will not be used for is playing latin-jazz at critical mass volumes high enough for me to play congas along with (I was, and am a rather big Tito Puente fan), I will use my big Altec system for that. The Cornwall system is by far a simpler system and only requires turning on two switches, whereas the big tri-amp system has more switches than I care to count and is a bigger production to fire up (electronic crossover, aural exciter, dc for the turntable, three amps, preamp, you get the picture....). So the much simpler Cornwall system has a definite daily niche use around here and is sounding good to me now (also I am tired of fussing over it for minor reasons really -- since I have ready alternatives when needed). I was glad to see that the old original Type B networks have held up . All that nice 'puddy' is still sticking to the woofer frame and horn and probably does help a tiny bit. Now I like my Corns..... they are what they are..... Could it be a coincidence, maybe these Cornwalls are just now finally "broken in"? Thanks Bob, looking forward to the next Bay get-together. -nm,cxvnm,xcv,mn ¶ nmvbnmbvmn

Are there any good books about the history and development of jazz strictly from the audio perspective? What might also be interesting would be a PBS documentary about the history of jazz where instead of someone like Wynton Marsalis as narrator it would just be audio reviewers from high end HiFi magazines talking about how much better, say, Jack Sheldon recordings are than someone like Theodore Navarro or Clifford Brown etc. Or how much better audio sounding the average Art Pepper recording is than just about anything from Charlie Parker regardless of which cartridge is used. Such a book would also be invaluable in order to know which pressings are worth having or investing in. I think this is an overlooked niche. It could also include an investment perspective generally, especially in these times when hard assets and collectibles are considered a financial safe haven. A history of jazz from an audiophile and/or investment point of view.....yah, why didn't I think of this before...... Maybe if Gunther Schuller wrote such a book, it would get over...... Actually a history of the recording engineering and its great engineers really would be of interest now that I think of it. Anyone see that pbs show about Les Paul? That was pretty cool. -oiueqwroiuwer &lkjdfslkjsadf

I have found the Tesla to be quite noisy. ...had to remove this gigantic coil out into the garage but even the neighbors are now complaining about the noise coming through their stereos. Maybe a power conditioner will help. -c™s

Turns out I also have a ball point pen! so I could make the graphs. Anyway. I plugged the triodes into my system. and. What's the deal? All my Billie Holiday records now sound like Edith Piaf! -cs&A I took the monet because I needed de gas to make my van gogh. I had nothing toulouse.

OK, I just found my knife, went out to the garage and made a couple of triodes. Oops! I am not sure if they turned out as 300B or 2A3. hmmmmm . Guess I will have to find my Radio Shack volt meter before I plugg them in..... c@s

I Love that Man! I knew he would come along someday. Looks pretty big, and strong too. Hey, I HAVE a Swiss Army Knife!!! this is great! and. I am always looking to save money by DIY. -hey Rudy, put this on the record......all of it..... c&s

Anyone ever try taming Cornwalls simply by adding an L-pad to control Squaker level, and another L-pad to control Tweeter level. Maybe that is all that is needed here. (?) Maybe it is just a matter of finding one's own custom balance to fit one's ears. -pqoiuwer & uagslk

Between Bob's CTS-125, the JBL, or Beyma, which is the easiest physical retrofit. Does the CTS-125 fit right into the existing slot? -87263 # 27653