What are you listening to right now?

[richidoo]

Love Tijuana Brass!

Now on Pandora Stan Kenton station:


When I was a kid thinking about being a musician, I wanted to join Kenton's band as soloist like then soloist Tim Hagans. A few years later after Kenton died, Hagans came to one of my gigs in Boston, said he enjoyed the show. That was a nice feeling. I Love Kenton!!

[Barry (NJ)]

Gorillaz 'Plastic Beach'

[richidoo]

Beethoven String Quartet No. 12, Opus 127

This one's on my heavy rotation this week. The Adagio is awesome. It is like a durge that moves but goes nowhere. It is a subtle blob of sound swirling aimlessly, seemingly lost, but occasionally a familiar landmark restores hope of finding the way. This LaSalle Quartet version isn't that great.  Mechanical, contrived, played soft and weak like like Haydn or Mozart, as if a very good college band. The Prazak Quartet's version is what I listen to in the car, edgier but full of sarcasm and humor like the real Beethoven, more flowing and alive. But it's not ripped to the NAS yet.

[tmazz]

Jimmy Buffett: Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes



Just picked up this CD on ebay. It is from the MCA Ultimate MasterDisc series. The CD case says it is a 24K Gold CD, the Disc itself has the Ultimate MasterDisc logo silk-screened on it, but the CD itself looks like an aluminum pressing.

Does anybody out there know if :
A) The Masterdisc series was produced in both Gold and Aluminum versions?

or

B) If MCA ever pressed any of these discs using white gold and it just looks like aluminum.

I have several other discs in this series and they all had a distinct (yellow) gold tone look to them.

Just wondering if anybody out there has any ideas about this before I send off a nastygram to the seller.

[richidoo]

Hi Tom,
White gold just means less gold in the alloy (usually nickel.) Gold CDs are always yellow.

It was probably re-shrinkwrapped with an aluminum disk instead of the gold.  When marketplace sellers of desirable vintage CDs say factory sealed it is rarely true. They reshrink them, or they buy them that way from another seller thinking they are new. It may not be your seller's fault, he could have been duped too. It has happened to me. If it was expensive due to being gold version and there are alum versions selling for much less then maybe he'll split the difference with you.
Rich

[tmazz]

Hi Tom,
White gold just means less gold in the alloy (usually nickel.) Gold CDs are always yellow.

It was probably re-shrinkwrapped with an aluminum disk instead of the gold.  When marketplace sellers of desirable vintage CDs say factory sealed it is rarely true. They reshrink them, or they buy them that way from another seller thinking they are new. It may not be your seller's fault, he could have been duped too. It has happened to me. If it was expensive due to being gold version and there are alum versions selling for much less then maybe he'll split the difference with you.
Rich

That was silly of me. The label says "24K Gold CD" which would have to be "yellow" gold by definition.

It was not sold as new, and was not shrink wrapped when I got it. it is definitely a stamped manufactured CD. But here's the thing, the stock number on the case (MCD 10951) matches the number that is both printed on the disc and laser etched into the inner groove. And the case says "All Ultimate MasterDisc MCA Records 24kGold Discs are remastered from original sources by Glenn Meadows, Masterfonics, Nashville, Tennessee, using today's cutting edge technology."

I'm just wondering if MCA issued an aluminum pressing of this remastering and that is what I got.

Tried to upload a photo showing the Buffet CD that was shipped to me next to the gold "Who's Next" CD from the same series, but I keep getting an error message. Suffice it to say that difference is obvious.

I sent an e-mailto the seller describing the problem. We'll see what he has to say.

[lonewolfny42]

John Kay - "Heretics & Privateers"

[richidoo]

But here's the thing, the stock number on the case (MCD 10951) matches the number that is both printed on the disc and laser etched into the inner groove.

Hmmmm...  that's strange. I wonder if it's just a snafu in the plant.

The standard aluminum disc is MCAD-31070 so if the disk is engraved 10951, then it looks like a solid gold fuck up to me.

More info:
http://www.24-karat.de/mca/mcad-10951.html
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=211634
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=5308076&postcount=13
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/f9/a3/a21281b0c8a0ce8610ca9110.L.jpg

Maybe you can post on the stevehoffman.com thread to see if any of theirs are aluminum like yours. It is current, last post is from last week.
Rich

[tmazz]

Maybe you can post on the stevehoffman.com thread to see if any of theirs are aluminum like yours. I

Thanks for the link. I posted a question and maybe someone from over there might know id MCA ever issued official aluminum releases of this series. So far no responses, but I'll let you know if I discover anything.

On the ebay from I sent a note to the seller and he got back to me within a couple of hours saying that he had already issued be a full refund (including shipping) and I should keep the disc for free. He was very apologetic about the mix-up and seemed genuinely concerned that I did not think he tried to fool anyone on purpose. He really did the right thing about the problem (I did not even mention any proposed resolution in my note and he just issued the refund before he even got back to me.    )

I feel a guy this honest deserves a plug. His ebay user name is per.korte (with the period in between the 2 names) and all he seems to sell is high end audiophile CDs. He is located in Denmark so his shipping rates are a little higher than most (although $9 for a CD is not that outrageous) but his prices are reasonable so on a total cash basis it is not that bad. You guys might want to check him out and see if he is selling anything that you might have been looking for.

Tom

[etcarroll]

Forever Blue
Chris Isaak

[richidoo]

Thanks for the tip Tom. He obviously cares about his reputation.

Here's the link to items for sale by per.korte EBay seller

[richidoo]

Glenn Miller Station on Pandora.

This music is timeless!!  Julie's father is from this vintage, a WW2 soldier, he loved jazz all of his life, but not modern jazz, the "real stuff," as he called it. Listening to it reminds us of him.

But the music is just so great, Fletcher Henderson, Ella, Benny, Dorsey all the hits one after another. Nothing swings like the original popular radio swing, those boys were swinging for profit, and they perfected it.

Here's the link for the "Glenn Miller Orchestra" station:
http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh270702185270711416

[tmazz]

Glenn Miller Station on Pandora.

This music is timeless!!  Julie's father is from this vintage, a WW2 soldier, he loved jazz all of his life, but not modern jazz, the "real stuff," as he called it. Listening to it reminds us of him.

But the music is just so great, Fletcher Henderson, Ella, Benny, Dorsey all the hits one after another. Nothing swings like the original popular radio swing, those boys were swinging for profit, and they perfected it.

Here's the link for the "Glenn Miller Orchestra" station:
http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh270702185270711416

When I was in college I worked as an engineer at a local commercial radio station. One of our on-air personalities was a fellow by the name of Bob Logan, who played with the big bands back in the 40s. In addition to teaching me to love the music he also told some of the greatest first person stories of what went on with the bands back then. One of them involved a dance club in times square that had two dance floors split across two floors but could only afford to pay one band. what the ended up doing was putting the live band on the first floor and  setting up a mic in front of every one of the musicians. In the second floor dance hall chairs were set up on the stage in the exact position that they would be if the band was going to play there. On top of each chair the place a speaker which was driven by an amp connected to the mic in front of the musician in the corresponding chair on the first floor. This way the band could play to both rooms at once. Talk about multichannel stereo!!!! (maybe this should be a Strange.... but true thread)

But I have to agree with Rich, nothing swings like the original big bands. While there are some very talented musicians playing swing today, there is just some kind of magic in those original performances that I have yet to see duplicated in a modern recording. It is just a shame that some of the recording techniques that brought us some of the classical gems of the mid to late 50s (like the Living Stereo and Living Presence recordings) weren't available a dozen or so years earlier to capture these great bands at their peak.

[tmazz]

Masao Onitsuka with Paul Pieper: Duo in D.C.

I heard his guy playing at Penn Station in NYC on my way to work this morning & picked up this seld issued CD-R of some of his work with Paul Pieper.

The following quote from allaboutjazz.com describes him and the music pretty well:

The guitarist, Masao Onitsuka is a veteran who is a well-rounded and experienced performer for 30 years. He has been teaching himself jazz guitar by ear through listening to records since early 1970s. His guitar performance is strictly focusing melodies which comes up from his mind as his voice, and the obstinate and straight guitar style attracts many demanding jazz fans.

[Ecramer]

MUNLY
Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots
virus324 (2004) CD + DVD - $14.00

Samples

Try it u will like it