@orpheus10 Hello Orpheus. Wanted to let you know I spent some time with that Miles/Jazz Showcase recording yesterday. Didn’t get through the entire thing but did listen to the first 8 of 11 tracks. Will finish listening and/or relisten to all in the few next days. You had asked about sound quality and if it was good enough for my collection. The music always comes first for me and SQ, unless unlistenable/atrocious (like some Todd Rundgren I have), is secondary of course. I’m guessing the tracks on this ’98 version are all mono? I could tell it’s old recorded material but the SQ was not terrible. In fact there was a kind of purity about it...maybe because the stuff hadn’t suffered from a heavy handed engineer? Even though not widescreen PanOrama there was very nice separation and clear tonality of the various instruments. I had to laugh. At one point right before Miles plays with mute, I swear you could hear a squeak as he installed it. Don’t recall the track name. Volume dynamics are pretty wide I thought. A few moments were briefly sharp and peaky but not many of those. I don’t know enough about the various sax players to tell a Bird from a Trane but the sax work that people were saying was CP had a nice full tone. I guess that’s tenor vs alto sax maybe? Getting back to production, the other thing that made me think "pure" was that the arrangements seemed pretty sparse...mostly a good thing to my "less is more mind set". I see it on Amazon for $10 or so and feel inclined to get it almost as a historical document (there’s no way I’ll back fill my library and get all the individual Prestige recordings). Bottom line...THANKS.
By the way, my neighbor came over and we spent a good couple of hours this afternoon viewing that ’85 Blue Note Concert at NYC Town Hall. First time I’ve watched the whole thing. IT IS REALLY REALLY GOOD (not that I need to tell you). My neighbor loved it and wants to get his own copy. The Freddie Hubbard show to an extent (he’s in so many of the combos). Have to say, was very taken by Woody Shaw’s trumpet sound on Appt. in Ghana. Smoother more melodious than Freddie, I thought. The other track that stood out for me was that Charles Lloyd Tone Poem performance with Michael Petrucciani. The last track Cecil Taylor playing "avant grade" jazz was a little tough (we ended the concert early) and an interesting way to finish the video. Jazz looking forward and not just backward, I suppose. Regardless, Cecil Taylor has MAD skills as displayed in that 12 minute closer.
So there’s a "jazz jazz" update for ya.
For a change of pace after the Blue Note put on that self-titled Liquid Soul that Alex (I think) recommended. Really enjoying that one. Thanks again to Alex.
Closing out the evening now with Jazz Pistols (one a Rok’s favorite noise making groups). Here’s Smbh which could stand for super massive black holes but then again, maybe not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieiTrViJJQE&ab_channel=JazzPistols-TopicLater. Ciao.
