What in the world is going on.....


My system cost about 75000 dollars or so.  I got the rave review LP of the new Paul Simon album.....sounded pretty lousy.  I listened to the included M3P download using AirPlay through my Denon receiver and Senheisser wireless earphones, and it sounded wonderful......   What in the world is that all about....
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If anybody can't see the genius in Frissell I assume their taste is somewhat unsophisticated, or you might think jazz is "too many notes" or something, and it doesn't matter anyway as there's plenty of lighter fare to enjoy…Scofield, Ford, et al have certainly advanced beyond their days with Miles, who really was in an experimental era at the end, and much of what he was doing at that point wasn't particularly his best stuff...it was a weird era. A brilliant musician I knew from the Honolulu scene was in one of those bands…Benny Reitveld, who has played bass for 20 years or something with Santana (!). Go figure. These guys have proven themselves far beyond anybody who "doesn't get it," and if one can't appreciate something like Scofield's recent masterpiece "Past Present," with the utterly top of their game musicians Joe Lovano, Larry Grenadier, and Bill Stewart (3 of my absolute favorite players), I understand, but it's still kinda sad. 
Technologies have moved on. A receiver + Elac speaker + mogami cable is all you need.
I listen to music in my car either through a traditional original iPod 160gb or an Astell & Kern AK100. The differences between the sonics is night and day with the A&K obviously winning. There are many files shared between the two but I pretty much reserve the A&K for my jazz collection almost specifically for discovering Bill Frissel's work rather late in life. I have bought everything I could find of his stuff. 

Amazingly good stuff in every respect. 

The ipod cost $250, the A&K $900 - in this case a very worthy investment IMHO.  Thanks for some of the artists listed here whom I knew little about before - great learning new stuff!

Wolf, be nice my man musician. Assumption is the mother of all f...-ups
Czarivey, Dyens is certainly the most unusual sort of a classical guitarist. Very good.
Still not much liking of Frisell, nothing can do about it.

Taste is a very personal thing, not everyone has to like the same players. I find Van Halen to be a very unmusical player, but that’s just my taste. I prefer lyricism and subtlety in my playing. I part with most people in also not caring for Jimi Hendrix, surely VH’s major influence. Ry Cooder---now THERE’S a guitarist! Another too-infrequently mentioned player is Richard Thompson.

When Buddy Rich was going in the hospital as he was dying, the nurse asked him if there was anything he couldn’t take, meaning medicine of course. His reply was "Yeah. Country music". Not thought of as producing great musicians, that is an over-simplification. Ever heard Albert Lee’s playing?