Jazz

TheAcademy said:
Are the Tone Poet pressings universally lauded? Or have there been any reports of issues? I'm specifically curious about this one for now:
www.discogs.com

Lou Donaldson - Mr. Shing-A-Ling

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2019 Vinyl release of "Mr. Shing-A-Ling" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com

But, was also wanting to know if there are any others in the series that are highly recommended. I don't have any yet.
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That's the main issue with TP records, they are all highly recommended and highly praised by the jazz community in the forum.
 
TheAcademy said:
Are the Tone Poet pressings universally lauded? Or have there been any reports of issues? I'm specifically curious about this one for now:
www.discogs.com

Lou Donaldson - Mr. Shing-A-Ling

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2019 Vinyl release of "Mr. Shing-A-Ling" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com

But, was also wanting to know if there are any others in the series that are highly recommended. I don't have any yet.
Click to expand...

They are all great. I have Mr Shing a ling and it is great pressing ( as they all are). The only one that I heard anything negative about was Andrew Hill Black Fire. Apparently there was a big debate on the Steve Hoffman forum about a slight defect on side 2, something to do with the tape speed I think. I wouldn't let that put you off.
 
TheAcademy said:
Are the Tone Poet pressings universally lauded? Or have there been any reports of issues? I'm specifically curious about this one for now:
www.discogs.com

Lou Donaldson - Mr. Shing-A-Ling

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2019 Vinyl release of "Mr. Shing-A-Ling" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com

But, was also wanting to know if there are any others in the series that are highly recommended. I don't have any yet.
Click to expand...
I don't own this one but I think they are pretty universally praised. Some people have had issues with Black Fire and one or two others but I haven't really noticed any issues.

Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs is one of my favorites that doesn't get enough love IMO and was on Amazon recently for around $20. Not sure the current price. I love Chet Baker Sings if you like vocal jazz. Grant Green's Nigeria is awesome. Introducing Kenny Burrell is great....haha pretty much I like all of the ones I own. The quality of the pressings are close to Music Matters. I'd say stream some of the titles and see which you find yourself liking and go for those. You can usually find them for around $25 in the US.
 
ChristoBee said:
Received my '83 japanese Kind of Blue. Beautiful.

And yup, that's it, gonna chase japanese pressing when good modern releases are too expensive. I'm sure I'm not gonna get a huge improvement with my set up from the big audiophiles brand, so I'm gonna stick with that plan.
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Japanese pressings are often really nice. I have quite a few japanese Blue Notes. Sadly, they can be quite pricey to ship from Japan and I've had some lost in shipment but I have found some in the US for sale at decent prices.
 
ChristoBee said:
Received my '83 japanese Kind of Blue. Beautiful.

And yup, that's it, gonna chase japanese pressing when good modern releases are too expensive. I'm sure I'm not gonna get a huge improvement with my set up from the big audiophiles brand, so I'm gonna stick with that plan.
Click to expand...

Check Mion Records in Berlin, they have tons of Japanese pressings sometimes for cheap (sometimes not) but at least you can save on shipping and customs fees. I bought a few times from them and they are super friendly.
 
I have no idea where to share this, so I'll just post here:

I came across a scholar paper called " On the Modeling of Musical Solos as Complex Networks ". The author basically takes solos from different musicians and maps the relations between the different notes using a software. Each note is a "node", and so every time the musicians moves from note X to note Y, a link is created.
1598994729929.png

This allows to see the "nodes" the musician tends to return the most to, and the results are super interesting:

1598994792748.png

It's crazy to see the different styles of this 4 guys represented in this way. You can see B.B. King has 3-4 "home" notes he returns to throughout the solo; Gilmour's solo is very linear and doesn't have prominent "nodes" he repeats; Clapton's is basically 2 clusters that are interconected by a few notes, and Hendrix's solo is just SUPER complex.
I think this is a very interesting analysis on the style of different musicians, and helps to rationalize something that is usually very subjective. I would love to see this method applied to jazz musicians. I think it would be super interesting to see an analysis of how the most prominent jazz soloists construct their improvisations.
 
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agutierrezb said:
I have no idea where to share this, so I'll just post here:

I came across a scholar paper called " On the Modeling of Musical Solos as Complex Networks ". The author basically takes solos from different musicians and maps the relations between the different notes using a software. Each note is a "node", and so every time the musicians soms from note X to note Y, a link is created.
View attachment 64201

This allows to see the "nodes" the musician tends to return the most to, and the results are super interesting:

View attachment 64202

It's crazy to see the different styles of this 4 guys represented in this way. You can see B.B. King has 3-4 "home" notes he returns to throughout the solo; Gilmour's solo is very linear and doesn't have prominent "nodes" he repeats; Clapton's is basically 2 clusters that are interconected by a few notes, and Hendrix's solo is just SUPER complex.
I think this is a very interesting analysis on the style of different musicians, and helps to rationalize something that is usually very subjective. I would love to see this method applied to jazz musicians. I think it would be super interesting to see an analysis of how the most prominent jazz soloists construct their improvisations.
Click to expand...

I wonder it Jimi’s is that way because of all the trills he uses.
This is really cool!
 
Dtknuckles said:
I wonder it Jimi’s is that way because of all the trills he uses.
This is really cool!
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Yeah, those trills have to be at least part of the reason. But anyway, the graph of his solo is super complex. The notes at the center have a ton of connections, something that I think has to do with his inventiveness when building up a solo. He repeated himself very little thoughout a solo, but didn't play in a linear fashion like David Gilmour.
 
MikeH said:
Picked up some jazz records while I was on holiday last week. Grabbed this Bill Evans pressing and I'm pretty amazed at how great it sounds:

www.discogs.com

Bill Evans - The Village Vanguard Sessions

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1973 Vinyl release of "The Village Vanguard Sessions" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com

I got it for $20 in VG+ condition and highly recommend it for anybody looking for some Bill Evans live trio recordings!
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Snagged this on eBay for $20 as well a year or so ago. Really sounds great, I BELIEVE it’s an all analog pressing actually. A cheaper way to get analog Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard
 
agutierrezb said:
Yeah, those trills have to be at least part of the reason. But anyway, the graph of his solo is super complex. The notes at the center have a ton of connections, something that I think has to do with his inventiveness when building up a solo. He repeated himself very little thoughout a solo, but didn't play in a linear fashion like David Gilmour.
Click to expand...

I’m gonna have to listen to Axis tomorrow morning with this in mind. You what would be cool is to see it matched up while the solo plays
 
Dtknuckles said:
I’m gonna have to listen to Axis tomorrow morning with this in mind. You what would be cool is to see it matched up while the solo plays
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That would be awesome. Also, in the case of jazz, it would be dope if the notes belonging to the underlying key or chord were in a different color to those outside the key or chord. Im sure the solos of say Paul Desmond and John Coltrane would look very different in that regard.
 
agutierrezb said:
I have no idea where to share this, so I'll just post here:

I came across a scholar paper called " On the Modeling of Musical Solos as Complex Networks ". The author basically takes solos from different musicians and maps the relations between the different notes using a software. Each note is a "node", and so every time the musicians soms from note X to note Y, a link is created.
View attachment 64201

This allows to see the "nodes" the musician tends to return the most to, and the results are super interesting:

View attachment 64202

It's crazy to see the different styles of this 4 guys represented in this way. You can see B.B. King has 3-4 "home" notes he returns to throughout the solo; Gilmour's solo is very linear and doesn't have prominent "nodes" he repeats; Clapton's is basically 2 clusters that are interconected by a few notes, and Hendrix's solo is just SUPER complex.
I think this is a very interesting analysis on the style of different musicians, and helps to rationalize something that is usually very subjective. I would love to see this method applied to jazz musicians. I think it would be super interesting to see an analysis of how the most prominent jazz soloists construct their improvisations.
Click to expand...
I’ve always viewed Clapton as one of the most overrated guitarists. This node analysis only confirms my hypothesis. Even if it doesn’t, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Appreciate the share.
 
dropsonde said:
I’ve always viewed Clapton as one of the most overrated guitarists. This node analysis only confirms my hypothesis. Even if it doesn’t, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Appreciate the share.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm not a fan of his either, especially given his racist comments towards the culture that he has stolen borrowed from. I think these graphs can't really tell us much about how "good" or "bad" a musician is, though, they only tell a couple of things about the way they approach melodies during solos. Take BB King, for instance. The graph for his solo is the most simple of all 4, yet I'm sure very few would dare to call him a bad guitar player. He just likes to keep it simple and center his solos around a couple of notes that he tends to return to: he builds up some tension and then resolves by coming back home.
But yeah, I'm with you, Clapton is overrated AF.
 
agutierrezb said:
Yeah, I'm not a fan of his either, especially given his racist comments towards the culture that he has stolen borrowed from. I think these graphs can't really tell us much about how "good" or "bad" a musician is, though, they only tell a couple of things about the way they approach melodies during solos. Take BB King, for instance. The graph for his solo is the most simple of all 4, yet I'm sure very few would dare to call him a bad guitar player. He just likes to keep it simple and center his solos around a couple of notes that he tends to return to: he builds up some tension and then resolves by coming back home.
But yeah, I'm with you, Clapton is overrated AF.
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I hear you. I don’t know that I see “good/bad” when I look at the nodes. My first gut reaction was it was a measure of creativity. I’ve always viewed Clapton’s style as very one-note and I’ll be damned if this doesn’t visually validate this in a way I would imagine it would. I don’t want to hear anything about confirmation bias bwahahah! Meanwhile Hendrix — God rest his soul — looks like a modern Mozart!
 
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So French radio FIP might be the best radio in the world and at least the best in France. On my 25 min road to work they played Seu Jorge, Grant Green, Antrea Motis and Van Morrisson. I have never heard of Andrea Motis and after the song I thought she was brazilian. Well, actually she is Spanish, a trumpeter and jazz singer. The song played was Sombra de Lá from her last album Do Outro Lado Do Azul. I am listening to her Spotify radio right now. If you are into Jazz Vocal, you'll like it :)

Here is short introduction copy/paste from Jazz Messengers webshop : Andrea Motis excelled already at an early age. From the age of seven, Motis developed musically at the Municipal School of Music of Sant Andreu, a neighborhood of Barcelona, becoming the school's lead trumpeter and later saxophonist for the Sant Andreu Jazz Band - a youth jazz band from Barcelona, featuring 7- to 20-year-old children and teenagers lead by bass player Joan Chamorro. When she was 14, she turned down a juicy offer from Blue Note. At 16 turned down another offer from Universal. Finally, her moment came at 21 when she released her album ‘Emotional Dance’ with Impulse!– the label of John Coltrane.

 
TheAcademy said:
Are the Tone Poet pressings universally lauded? Or have there been any reports of issues? I'm specifically curious about this one for now:
www.discogs.com

Lou Donaldson - Mr. Shing-A-Ling

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2019 Vinyl release of "Mr. Shing-A-Ling" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com

But, was also wanting to know if there are any others in the series that are highly recommended. I don't have any yet.
Click to expand...

One of my favourite TPs but just so you know that one doesn't have a gatefold sleeve like some of the others. Still Tip on but I wouldn't pick this up at full retail price.

On the topic of this album (and Lou Donaldson) in particular, does anyone know what the album art work is about? Is it the same woman as Alligator Boogaloo? I've noticed on almost all of Lou's album covers he has female models posing, a lot of them white women. Just curious about if this had any significance or simply random coincidence. @Selaws @Doctor_of_Jazz have you guys come across this in your readings?
 
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