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 →

Boxed-In

I’ve said it often enough around here and I’ll state it again: We collectors are nutcases.

There was a time when I collected books, “contemporary horror fiction” to be precise. It all started when I got my first limited edition of some book and it continued with lots of other limited, numbered, lettered and whatnot editions, plus a trillion other “normal” books which were – at the time – virtually impossible to get in ol’ Germany. I can’t quite recall how I chanced upon him, but Robert Weinberg, who had a thriving mail-order business way back when, sent out these highly-tempting monthly catalogs from which I invariably bought more than I could afford. For years. Continue Reading →

Ted Nugent: Double Live Gonzo!

How’s that for a change of pace around here? A post about the “Motor City Madman” by the only German that doesn’t even have a driver’s license?

As is always the case around here, the memory tag is securely attached to this double-LP, which I invested a whole summer’s earnings into.

But.

If you have at all been reading along here on a regular basis, you know that the story is never as simple as that. It’s not one of shelling out hard-earned shillings for a double-LP.

It’s a lot more than that.
Try to bear with me. Continue Reading →

Observations 03-2009

(01) Rising Curtain: “The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back”

Yesterday I added my “recent” purchases to my CD shelf system. A load of classical albums including Paul Lewis’ Beethoven piano sonata cycle (brilliant), a couple of Ahmad Jamal double and single CDs (early stuff and equally brilliant), the Oscar Peterson Clef/Mercury Box (I had most single issues but … well, it was Mosaic), a few soundtracks I picked up for next to nothing (“Les Choristes” and “Gladiator“, only the former of which I really like), the Andreas Vollenweider live double-CD (yeah, shoot me), a number of Ruby Braff (shabby compilations but hey, the only place the stuff is available) CDs reissued by these Spanish scam artists, some J.J. Cale and John Mayall discs I had picked up to more or less complete my respective artist collections, a bunch of Teddy Wilson CDs (mostly Storyville reissues) and probably another ten or twenty CDs (some of which were Deep Purple releases before people started remastering stuff, some ECM classical and jazz releases, etc.). Continue Reading →

Observations 02-2009

For the first time in 2009, I had a look at the statistics for this (rather lifeless) site and, alas, I have more readers than ever before. My Google page rank even increased (go figure). I guess it’s the “curse” of any site that was once updated more or less regularly to get all comfy and cushy on Google and to reel in more and more unsuspecting readers, meaning readers who never hit the front page or more recent posts to find out that the site is basically left to drift in the high and low tides that are the ever-changing world of the Internet.

Well, time to add something here, just because I feel like it again.

Maybe, if the feeling stays, I will add this type of “Observations” post in a more timely fashion. Continue Reading →

Terabyte Blues

“A Terabyte Ain’t Enough!
Notes from the Sidelines of Digitization Hell”

There is still life in these old bones and while they were plunked down in front of a shiny new 1 terabyte PC, they regularly reached over to the keyboard to keep the digitizing of their CD collection alive while trying – at the same time – to keep their day job running as well.

Fact is, I have to spend a shitload of time in front of my PC or next to it and although I have already transferred a sizable number of CDs to my PC, I’ve started in earnest to make sure that while I can’t listen to my music as much on my stereo in the living room as I’d like, I can do so in my office … or elsewhere.

I’ve often stated that we collectors are plain nuts, and we are, but sometimes I get the feeling that I’m an extreme case of that rather rare subspecies. If you add to that the fact that we Germans are often considered to be anally retentive in regard to keeping order in our stuff and arranging things at right angles on our desks, what we have here is the worst case scenario: A German digitizing his CD collection. Continue Reading →

“Well, if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.” (Chet Baker)

Ed Thigpen: Gentleman of Jazz

A Profile of Sorts

I pride myself on hardly ever having misjudged people. Naturally, I have been completely wrong at times (and when I am/was wrong, I am/was completely off), but as far as I recall, the number of blunders were rather limited. It is my profession to evaluate people and although that is often quite difficult, I usually get it right at some point, especially if I am able to spend longer periods of time with the people in question.

That’s why I would state that Ed Thigpen was not only a cool guy, but also a true gentleman. Now, I have absolutely no idea if he walked around at home throwing terrible tantrums or if he had a tendency to easily go off the rails in more private settings, but whenever I had the chance to experience his personality up close, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he would be a great friend to have. Continue Reading →