Recent Acquisitions

End of the year, which starts in Germany mid-summer with the sale of Christmas cookies at major supermarkets (go figure), is usually a busy shopping time. I don’t know why that is, but every year I seem to find bargain prices all over the place at a time when things should actually be full price to pull as much money out of customers’ pockets pre-Christmas time as possible.

On top of that I’ve taken to pre-ordering items which are often not delivered until weeks or often months later. I’ve noticed that for some rare material pre-ordering prices are usually substantially lower than one week after release and with material I have on my list that I really want to have, I usually don’t wait.

Additionally, if you hunt around second-hand online sites as much as I do, you know there are times when things on your wish list pop up all at once whereas at other times nothing happens for months. These recent three months have been like that: a lot of items from my wish list showed up, one by one and within a short period of time, and I bought more than I usually do. Continue Reading →

Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions

As you know by now, I tend to review things here that I like. Some of you might even argue that I go overboard at times, recommending music I’ve grown to love with a truckload full of emotionally charged adjectives and adverbs. Be that as it may: I’m about to do it again.

So, sit back, pour yourself a good stiff drink … and read on.

I’ve gone on record before saying that the early Fleetwod Mac had perhaps the best two working guitarists in the business at the time (and certainly in hindsight as well; even more so, really) and, after having listened to “The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions” for I don’t know how many times these past weeks and months, I will now go on record saying that in my book the pairing-up of Peter Green and Danny is perhaps the most successful one musically that I’ve enjoyed for several decades and that Danny Kirwan, despite his more than sad career later on, was/is perhaps the best guitarist I’ve ever heard. Continue Reading →

Tord Gustavsen Trio – Being There

It had to come at some point and I almost bet my life on the fact that it would happen with the release of their third album … and it did, somewhat. The Tord Gustavsen Trio put out a new album and if you mosey on past those usual “great album …” reviews by people who either get paid to say exactly that or simply aren’t willing to put up the effort to listen to an album more closely before they publish what it is they publish every darn time, you come across quite a few (sometimes guarded) reviews by listeners, both in print and in conversation, who perhaps weren’t too happy with the new album (at first). In short, some people thought it was “boring” or, perhaps less harshly put, “the same procedure as last year.” Continue Reading →

Jazz at the Pawnshop (30th Anniversary)

If you want to stop any discussion on a jazz board dead in its tracks or, in reverse, want to flame an ongoing discussion on any audiophile forum, you just need to either mention “Jazz at the Pawnshop” or say it’s at best a mediocre effort. Whatever you do wherever, you’re bound to illicit complete deafening silence or a flame war with loads of hissy fits. With all its reappearances in probably more formats than any other session ever recorded, it’s always fun to watch this one being hotly debated to the point of Internet insanity.

If you ask your local audiophile twerp, you’ll get a three-hour treatise on how good these recordings sound and that you simply have to run to your nearest dealer and buy one box for yourself and several for your friends. Of course, the audiophile is accused by the jazz connoisseur of not having any understanding of jazz whatsoever (“… shit from Shinola”, you know, that kind of argumentation) and the audiophile will lob an “elitist swine” right back at him or her. The “real” jazz fan will without fail compare this session (actually two sessions) to those of more well-known artists and judge it mediocre at best, not worth one’s time at worst. Usually, his or her post will be accompanied by inflammatory language and a reminder as to how many great sessions remain unreleased or only exist in crappy sound quality whereas these Swedish sessions remain in print seemingly indefinitely in great sound. Continue Reading →

The Complete Joe Newman RCA-Victor Recordings (1955-1956): “The Basie Days”

I love this double-CD and it is probably one of the most frequently-played reissues in my home. It’s also the one that made me search out many more double-CDs from this wonderful early 90s reissue series, “Jazz Tribune” (later sold under the title “Indispensable”) by RCA/BMG France.Joe Newman (1922-1992) was best-known for his lengthy stay with Count Basie’s Orchestra. Newman started fronting pick-up groups from March 1954 onwards, but these sessions here start with the first ones for the giant RCA-Victor, starting in early 1955. Newman built an octet around fellow Basie members Wilkins, Green and Wilson by adding representatives of the swinging Kansas City style. The recording was done with one single microphone and soloists were brought to the forefront by simply making them stand up. The group’s sound was recorded exceptionally well and this reissue has more than decent sound, although I could imagine that a label like “Mosaic Records” could remaster this material to really make it shine. Still, this early 90s BMG reissue is a fairly flat transfer and is the better for it (you can really turn this one up without your ears starting to bleed), especially since you can still find this one at relatively cheap prices ranging from about $10 to $20 via second-hand sites or Amazon marketplace dealers. Continue Reading →

The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (Deluxe Edition)

OK, OK, I like ambient music. My PC is filled to the brim with it and I’ve always been a big fan of electronic music, although I don’t have many CDs that fit the description. I bought this Universal Deluxe Edition recently for next to no money on sale and to be quite honest, I didn’t hesitate a single second because The Orb did not only invent and define ambient-house music but also put out one of the best albums ever – this one. When it came out, it was new, energetic, surprising, hip, cool and whatnot and it paved the way for a slew of other recordings I started to hunt for once I was bitten.Yes, this concept album was also more than controversial. The tracks are loaded with samples and, for example, Rickie Lee Jones wasn’t all too happy about her being sampled, especially because she sounds way out there (she only had a cold) when she appeared on an American TV talk show from which this sample was taken. You can find The Orb spinning Sergio Leone, Allegri, Steve Reich, Pink Floyd and a ton of others and one can safely say that they at least helped kick off the heated copyright debate that followed when sampling really took hold after the release of this double-album. Unfortunately, the samples remain largely uncredited on this Deluxe Edition as well. Continue Reading →

Fathead: Ray Charles Presents David Newman

This is one of those albums I pull out regularly, especially because it is mostly an up-tempo bebop romp with oodles of soul thrown in for good measure. The sound is excellent on this Atlantic reissue that in 1958 marked David “Fathead” Newman’s debut as a leader. Newman was in Ray Charles’ band at the time and hence Charles and some of his musicians are also present on this album. Everyone delivers a more than solid job and the tight ensemble sound is just fun to listen to. At times one gets the impression that one is listening to a much larger band: Hank Crawford’s charts, apparently also added to by Quincy Jones, are invariably excellent. Continue Reading →

Universal Deluxe Editions

Continue Reading →