Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

The secret to buying at the Coop is to go often and buy what is on sale at
$12.99 to $13.99.

The Minor Chord in Acton has a small but good selection of jazz, and good
prices *if* you buy three at a time and take the $5 discount.

BCD not only has no elbow room, they have outrageous prices!

Just be glad you're not in England:  Minimum price �10.49 ($15.74), common
price �12.49 ($18.74) to �14.49 ($21.74) and higher.

/john

    
    Minor Chord in Acton is probably out of the question.  The train
    prices would blow away the savings.
    
    One good thing about BCD is the "used" CDs for $10.00 each.  Seems
    to be the going rate for used in CDSWAP, and the discs are
    guaranteed.
    
    Still getting used to the mindset of going into a "record store"
    and buying what is there, rather than buying what you want.
    
	    							-mr. bill

    As far as jazz CD's go I have some that are very good.
    
    Dave Grusin and Lee Ritnour - Harlequin (very good rec and perf.)
    Count Bassie - 88 Bassie Street ( ""  "")
    Duke Ellington - SRO (good perf and fair recording, but is was recorded
                          a long time ago)
    
    Mel Torme - Swings Shubert Alley (excellent recording for 1960 and
                                       excellent perf.)
    
    Flim and the BB's - Bicycle ( excellent recording and goog perf.)
    Bob Mesner's Big Band - (Excellent, excellent)
    
    Some of these I have mail ordered, others I have bought at Lechmere
    on sale, and still others I have bought at local places like O'Coin's
    in Worcester.
    

    A radio station in Newport RI does JAzz 24 hours a day and is heavily
    into CD. If you can pick them up you might want to give a listen.
    It might give you a clue as to what is well done on CD. The station
    is WOTB at 107.1Mhz.
    
    Walt
    
    PS The DJs are all practicing jazz musicians.

    If you're in New York, try Tower records (66th and Broadway).
    
    Instant "kid in a candy store" reaction guaranteed. 
    
    dq

    Newbury Comics in Harvard Square has a reasonablly-sized jazz
    collection (I found Brubeck's FOR IOLA (Concord) there months
    before I saw it anywhere else.
    
    I understand your distress with THE QUARTET. I wasn't ecstatic
    about it either. Try TIME OUT (erroneously titled TAKE FIVE on
    the spine).
    
    I also second the recommendation for Flim & the BB's.
    
    And there is a double-disc set of Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall
    (on London, I think) that's very good.
    
    Oddly enough, I never bought that many jazz LP's, but I've found
    myself getting more jazz on CD, in proportion to other genres.
    
    --- jerry

    
    For Iola *is* wonderful.  I haven't bought it yet, but I'm going
    to.  (Love the crickets.)  Nice version of Take Five at the end.
    
    I already have Take Five on record (and tape).  Not sure if it makes
    sense to get it on Compact Disc as well.
    
    A kind soul loaned me Flim & the BB's.  Interesting.  A couple of
    the cuts are a little, well, ping pongish?  (Let's show off the
    dyanamic range of cds by trying to blow up your speakers.)  But
    several of the cuts are quite good.
    
	    							-mr. bill

    Several months ago, I purchased Bill Evans Explorations at Newbury
    in Harv. Square.  Some really great stuff from the Riverside archives
    have been re-released.  I haven't bought a CD in months, so I'm
    not sure if other Riverside issues are around still or which ones
    (since you prefer quartets).  I used it to compare with the LP
    re-issue pressing I have.  Pretty close sound-wise, but the LP was
    1/3 price-wise.
    
    Bottom line:  If you want good jazz, visit the used record stores.
    Jazz on CD tends to be that with the greatest market and pop appeal.
    

    Reply 6 mentions Brubeck's Take Five. My experience with that disc
    is to stay away from it. I bought one locally and found it to have
    HEAVY bass distortion starting about mid way through the disc and
    continuing for most of the remaining disc. I returned it, had it
    played at the store, and they agreed it was bad. Took the replacement
    home and it was the same. Mailed it back to CBS for a "factory Tested
    good" replacement. It was the same as the first two. So, beware!

    Re: 9 (heavy bass distorion starting halfway through "Take Five")
    
    Interesting -- intuitively, it seems to me that frequency-specific
    distortion on a CD could NOT be a flaw in the individual sample,
    that it must haave come from an earlier stage in the process
    (mixing, mastering, digitizing, whatever).  So, in cases like this
    there is no point in exchanging the disk for another of the same
    title, they'll all be the same.
    
    A flaw like skipping, on the other hand, could very well be
    specific to the sample, and worth taking back for another copy.
    
    Is this right?
    
    dq
    

    My copy of Take Five has the distortion.  Unfortunately.
    
    I live with it though, because the performance is superb even if
    the technical details aren't.  Sometimes there is no other choice.

    
    Time Out is an old, old, old recording -- I'm fairly sure it's older
    than I am.  .9 is right, the bass distortion is there, but I suspect
    it has more to do with the master than a flaw in the actual
    transcription to CD.
    
    On a complete tangent, is that a Beatles lick I hear Brubeck playing
    on one of the tracks?
    
    Dave W.

	re .9: It's the original recording - whether you buy the disk
	depends on whether it's the music or the sound that's more
	important to you. The music is excellent, the sound varies
	from instrument to instrument (i.e., bass is distorted, but
	the sax and drums are very clear considering the age of the
	recording, as for the piano, well, it's rare to find even a
	modern recording that really does justice to piano).
	
	On the tangent, tell me what track and I'll see if I hear any
	Beatles licks there. BTW, the album was recorded before the
	Beatles (maybe they stole the lick from Brubeck).
	
	Mike

    
    Damn, I knew you were going to ask, and now I can't remember.  The
    track opens with Brubeck playing piano and Joe Morello using brushes.
    There's a little stretch of piano that sounds like the Beatles 'All
    My Lovin'.  It's only three or four bars, maybe.
    
    I think it's either Kathy's Waltz or Pick-up Sticks.  I don't have
    the disc with me right now.
    
    Dave W.

    Just a note on the original topic that at > $15, bad jazz cds hurt.
    
    I just experienced that.  Although "Song X" by Pat Metheny and Ornette
    Coleman was recorded very well (digitally recorded live), the
    performance was bad, at least for my tastes.  I just bought it
    yesterday and couldn't even listen to it.  It was mostly very fast
    jazz which I can't handle.  I threw away $16.
    
    Does anyone know of a store where you can request listening before
    you buy or would that be asking too much of these retailers?
    
    P.S.  I'm selling it for a 50% discount for anyone who might like
          this style of jazz.  It's noted in CDSWAP.

    
    The only place I've ever been that offers to let you listen to the
    CD before you buy it is Electric Grammophone, and as they deal strictly
    in classical discs...
    
    However, might I suggest trying a public library.  I know the Worcester
    Public Library now loans out CDs, and that might be away to 'try
    before you buy'...
    
    Dave W.

    re .15
    About "Song X": One FM station from Peterborough N.H. that I listen
    to has a jazz show on the weekends.  They discussed this album and
    said they probably wouldn't play much from it because it was not
    very accessible to the average listener.  I guess you weren't listening
    at the time.
    

     I've found all the Count Bassie albums on the Pablo label to be
    very good, but now that the yen has gone up so has the price for
    the cd's. There are a couple of cd's I haven't gotten yet because
    I'm waiting for the price to drop or go on sale.
     Pablo is a Japan label and as such is in japanese on one
    spine and english on the other, very interesting when you put a
    cd back on the old storage shelf wrong.

    
    If you live near Exeter, N.H. there is a store called SEACOAST COMPACT
    DISC that let you listen before you buy it. They also have good
    prices....

Re .15

If they aren't busy, Stop & Cop in Fitchburg (2a & John Fitch Hwy, next to 
ADAP) will let you listen.  These folks are kinda light on CDs, but the owner 
says he plan to offer quite the selection by the time the holidays roll 
around.

						     
							- JP