What are you listening to right now?

[jsaliga]

Some smokin' hot blues from the Smokin' Joe Kubek Band.

--Jerome

[tmazz]

I've grown to love Ella recently.

Just be careful about what you pick up. There is a lot a dreadful sounding Ella discs out there. If you stick with the major labels (especially Verve) you are pretty safe, but when you get into those no-name discs there are a lot of stinkers with SQ that sounds like an old rock concert bootleg. Some decent stuff on the small labels but but you have to sort past the cr@p. If you find some no-name record label discs in a place like DDs be sure to take a minute and throw them on the audition TT and give a listen before laying out money for them.

Happy hunting.  

I missed this one from a while back and thought I would comment.  Ella recorded for three principal record labels throughout her career.  In her early days she sang as a featured vocalist with the Chick Webb Orchestra and all of those sides were recorded on Decca.  Ella continued her association with Decca when she started her solo career.  She later made the move to Verve and many of her most memorable recordings were done with Norman Granz.  The Ella Fitzgerald Song Book series was tremendously popular at the time.  Fitzgerald also made a few records for Capitol in the late 1960s.  Don't waste your time on those.  Capitol thought they were going to make a pop singer out of Fitzgerald and those records were truely awful.  In the early 1970s, and for the remainder of her recording life, she renewed her association with Norman Granz and joined him on the Pablo label.

Original Verve and Pablo pressings of many of Ella's best recordings from the LP era are fairly easy to find, though they are getting somewhat pricey.  The Decca stuff was recorded on shellac and decent 78s of Ella Fitzgerald with the Chick Webb Orchestra are getting damn expensive.  There is a 4 CD boxed set of Ella's Decca material that you can still find even though it's out of print.  And if for some reason you having trouble locating it you can by it as an mp3 download from Amazon.com for $36.

--Jerome

I wasn't talking about the Capital stuff per se (although I agree that these are far less than stellar albums) but rather I was referring to the multitude of off label discs that are full of public domain many of which are perfectly awful from a SQ basis. (I think a lot of these we sound check type recordings that were never intended for public release.)

[jsaliga]

I wasn't rebutting anything you said Tom, just wanted to throw some information out there concerning which labels Ella Fitzgerald had recording contracts with.  It's hard to go wrong if you source your content from the lablel that issued the original recordings.  That's all I was getting at.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

--Jerome

[richidoo]

Chris Daughtry "Leave This Town" - kids are having a mini dance party with the new speakers. Next up Justin Bieber. Then bedtime.

[eleazar]

Sweet - Desolation Boulevard 

     LP

[tmazz]

I wasn't rebutting anything you said Tom, just wanted to throw some information out there concerning which labels Ella Fitzgerald had recording contracts with.  It's hard to go wrong if you source your content from the lablel that issued the original recordings.  That's all I was getting at.

--Jerome

I didn't mean to imply that you were. I was trying to make the point that they were two separate issues. There are a lot of Ella CDs out there that are cheap sounding live recordings. I guess what I was trying to say is that if you stick with things released on the labels you talked about you will be pretty safe, but stray beyond Verve, Paulo and Decca and it is buyer beware. 

(We sure spent a whole lot of time trying to agree with each other on this, didn't we.  )

[lonewolfny42]

Gong - "Absolutely the Best of Gong"

[tmazz]

McCartney II

180g 2 LP Set

Let me start off by saying that this is the best sounding version of this album that I have heard to date, but keep in mind that on an absolute SQ scale that is not saying all that much. Not that it in any way sounds bad, but is is far d=from a sonic tour de force. The album was recoded in Paul's house Paul doing all the vocals and instruments himself with the exception of some background vocals added by Linda. (It must be tough having a 16 track 2 inch Studer tape deck in your den.  )

Anyway, the recording is what it is, and the fact that it is McCartney and that alone might be enough for many folks to pick up the LPs, however I could definitely understand how some people would rather just pick up the CDs of this one for half the price of the LP set. (I personally have no problem laying out the extra shekels for the LPs, but then again, I have never considered by self to be one of the average bears, even in audiophile circle, wow, that is a scary statement.   

[tmazz]

The Kenny Burrell Trio - A Nugfht at the Vanguard

180g LP

Wow, was Jerome every right! What a great sounding LP. From the sound quality to the music and the performance this entire album is first class.

Jedrome was spot on in recommending LPs from sun dazed records. I will definitely be looking to pick up some more of their releases. Thanks again to Jerome for clueing me in.

Tom

PS,  Hey look at the time. I guess the Vampire is back in action.

[etcarroll]

Duping some of my favorite jazz titles for a 22 year old I'm working with, we were on v-mail Hell the other day calling insurance companies, one was playing some decent jazz as hold music, and he remarked he kinda liked it. I feel the need to encourage that.

[eleazar]

Steve Vai - Elusive Light And Sound, Vol. 1

[jsaliga]

This JVC K2 HD coded CD sounds great.  I'm listening on headphones at the moment because it's a little early to be blasting music on my speakers.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

--Jerome