Physical Formats Death Watch (Part 36)

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard and/or read about the imminent demise of the CD these past years. Just recently, once again, a news item (that has never really been substantiated) made the rounds again, stating that EMI, Universal and Sony had plans up their sleeves in regard to giving the CD the chop in 2012.

Do I care?
Well, uhm, yes and no.

Besides the fact that I don’t think any label (greedy bastards), will annul any one format that is still making it more than 10 cents of income, I do think that even if labels were to start dropping physical formats altogether in favor of digital download solutions, those formats would survive for quite some time. Continue Reading →

Ed Thigpen: Live at Tivoli / Master of Time, Rhythm and Taste

Everyone who has ever met me – or read more than just a small snippet on this site – knows that I was and am also a huge fan of the late Ed Thigpen, drummer extraordinaire and somone who graced more than 1500 albums with his tasty style and impeccable work. He was also someone I had the fortune of meeting many times in the late 70s and then several times again throughout the 80s and 90s.

Still, somehow, the following release completely passed me by.
It wasn’t until I checked edthigpen.com that I became aware of it. Continue Reading →

Jan Johansson in Hamburg (with Georg Riedel)

As readers of this site know, I am a huge fan of Jan Johansson‘s work.
This month, ACT will finally release a much-anticipated Jan Johansson CD, which can already now be pre-ordered from Amazon.de. Continue Reading →

Judas Priest: Single Cuts – The Complete CBS / Columbia UK Singles Collection

Around August 25, 20011, Judas Priest and Sony will release their complete UK CBS / Columbia singles, for the first time ever. The “Single Cuts” box set holds 20 CDs in all and contains 52 tracks spanning their entire CBS/Columbia career, from “Diamonds and Rust” (1977) to “Night Crawler” (1992). “Presented in a deluxe, numbered box, Single Cuts boasts a massive 52 tracks across 20 CDs, featuring original singles artwork, vinyl replica discs plus booklet including sleeve notes and photos.” Continue Reading →

Sony botched the “Miles Davis: Complete Columbia Album Collection”

Although the various Amazon sites around the globe are ripe with absolutely crushing reviews of an otherwise great collectors boxed set,”Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection”, I have to add my two cents as well.

I have seen some badly-produced reissue boxed sets in my life, simply because I seem to be buying too many of them, but this one really is the icing on the cake. One could argue that for a reasonably low price, customers shouldn’t complain that much, but collectors being a larger part of the target audience for this one (despite the fact that collectors already have most of the Miles Davis they’ll ever need), Columbia/Legacy went out of its way to ruin this one. Continue Reading →

Observations 10/2009

It’s been a while, sadly enough, but if you have followed the erratic course of this website over the years, it probably didn’t come as a surprise at all. Real life just has a way of continually getting in the way all the time, especially if you have both a stressing day job and an extended family rife with illnesses and diseases. We’re all not getting younger and, boy, ain’t that the truth. What I used to pile onto my desk for a night’s worth of work today takes me a week and my energy line seems to have someone leeching off it continuously. At the moment, when I seem to have the time to sit down and write or update this or that, I’m just too tired, throw on some mindless BluRay disc … and pass out before the studio’s logo has had enough time to pop up on the screen.

I haven’t even had time to sample more than a tenth of the music I bought these past months and I haven’t given up hope that there will be that one weekend coming up on which I can sit down and do one of those monster 62-hour sessions interrupted by only the most basic sleep to be up and running again. I used to love those kinds of weekends, but they are few and far between. Actually, they have become extinct. Continue Reading →

Observations 06-2009

“Life sucks … and then you die.” There was actually a graduating class at the school I work at that had my “motto” printed on the back of their graduation T-shirts once, well-knowing that I love to play the eternal cynic with a bunch of virtual winking smileys added for good measure. So, before I disappear into 14 days of “hell week(s)” of day-job last-minute panic, I thought I’d leave you with a brief post here to outline what’s been going on. Continue Reading →

Observations 04-2009

Mosaic, Benny Goodman, Ian Gillan and …

My musical life has been picking up quite a bit lately after having been in a bit of a limbo for all too long. As you might recall, I wrote about not having bought anything for quite a while – and I’m planning on keeping that up – but these past few weeks, especially because I had some money left over and this or that opportunity presented itself, I “lashed out” and hit the “Buy Me Now, Idiot!” button all too often.

On top of that, I had the chance of spending much more time with my music again, listening intensively and giving liner notes, books and catalogs much more than a cursory glance. Continue Reading →