I'm going to review records in my collection, and you'll be able to decide if they're worthy of your collection. These records are what I consider "must haves" for any jazz aficionado, and would be found in their collections. I wont review any record that's not on CD, nor will I review any record if the CD is markedly inferior. Fortunately, I only found 1 case where the CD was markedly inferior to the record.
Our first album is "Moanin" by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. We have Lee Morgan , trumpet; Benney Golson, tenor sax; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie merrit, bass; Art Blakey, drums.
The title tune "Moanin" is by Bobby Timmons, it conveys the emotion of the title like no other tune I've ever heard, even better than any words could ever convey. This music pictures a person whose down to his last nickel, and all he can do is "moan".
"Along Came Betty" is a tune by Benny Golson, it reminds me of a Betty I once knew. She was gorgeous with a jazzy personality, and she moved smooth and easy, just like this tune. Somebody find me a time machine! Maybe you knew a Betty.
While the rest of the music is just fine, those are my favorite tunes. Why don't you share your, "must have" jazz albums with us.
Wonderful Larry Young clips, mahgister, thank you. Probably my favorite Jazz organist and certainly the most under recognized. I suppose it was difficult to be in the shadow of the likes of Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes and others who were traditionalists on the Hammond B3. Young was a modernist and the first organist to embrace the modal improvisation approach, with John Coltrane being a main influence and the reason for the title of the posted tune “Talkin’ About J.C.”. Wonderful player and very soulful as you point out.
I have posted this at least a couple of times previously. It is one of my favorite records and a real sleeper which seems to stay under the radar. Amazing lineup:
I have posted this at least a couple of times previously. It is one of my favorite records and a real sleeper which seems to stay under the radar. Amazing lineup:
I have posted this at least a couple of times previously. It is one of my favorite records and a real sleeper which seems to stay under the radar. Amazing lineup:
frogman that is my favorite Larry Young session as well. I think it was his most acclaimed release and biggest seller.
I am a big fan of Woody Shaw who plays terrific on Unity.
I received my new interconnects this weekend. I will listen to a few songs from a solidly recorded source with my old cables then hook up the new and see if I can hear anything new or different.
May seem counter intuitive, but years ago when I would go to audio shows, I would also bring along (to the befuddlement of some) recordings of great music performances with less than great sound instead of records with “audiophile” sound. If THOSE records sounded better and I would hear new insights into the music, that’s when I knew I was on to something. Sonny Rollins’ “A Night at the Village Vanguard” (mono) was one. Hope the cables work out for you and let us know.
frogman I will let you know as soon as I have time to do it.
I will also try a sub par source as you recommended.
I started with these. Before you scoff at it just know that I have been using regular run of the mill RCA interconnects from the beginning except for my 10 foot long Blue Jeans subwoofer cables. All of my speaker wire (every channel) came from a 14 gauge 100 foot spool with crimped on banana connects throughout.
Here is what I bought which is a big step up from what I had.
5.0 out of 5 stars Science speaks for itselfReviewed in the United States on February 6, 2016Verified PurchaseI have compared a variety of cables from all kinds of manufacturers and have learned that only 3 things matter in an interconnect. The first is shielding this is used to stop hiss and hum from getting into your equipment. Any length of wire can become an antenna and cause noise issues. This is solved with what is called a faraday cage. This is the same principle for why you are safer in a car when lightning strikes electricity flows around but not through you. Electricity wants to find the quickest path to ground or the path of least resistance. This is done in a cable by putting a copper braid around the signal conductor so the noise is grounded out before it can reach the center conductor. The next is capacitance, capacitance occurs when you put two pieces of metal next to eachother separated by an insulator. Capacitance is the charge built up and released electrostatically, because this is an out of phase signal (speaker push in it push out or vice versa) that cancels out it will cause high frequency roll off meaning your speakers will be less bright or lose details in the high frequency range. The next is inductance, when a charge moves through a wire it generates a magnetic field. An audio signal is constantly changing therefore its intensity the magnetic field can change as well. The longer the wire the more magnetic field around it. when the signal changes the magnetic field tends to hang around for a small bit of time. because the magnetic field is created after the signal goes through it the current it induces back into the wire is out of phase also causing high frequency roll off. Inductance is lower in priority because it mostly effects current rather then voltage. The next is resistance which because RCA audio is a high impedance the resistance is irrelevant because the resistance of going through the equipment is so high it is literally thousands of time larger then in a cable. How are all these combatted? For capacitance you want to space the conductors away from one another but inductance you want them closer, for shielding you want a thick layer of copper braid or aluminum foil surrounding the center conductor. Ideally you want a precise balance of how close or far the conductors are so the only solution is shrinking the conductor. Decreasing the surface area therefore less capacitance and less inductance for more resistance you make the conductor thicker but with high impedance loads you can make it about as thin as you want with the exception of shielding. Because the shielding has less resistance then the center conductor so the faraday effect can take place which is also helped by the high impedance of the format. With all that said this is by far the best cable you can get all science included sturdy build, thick copper shielding, small center conductor, great connectors and of course USA made. With all that said here are some measurements i did with a DER EE DE-5000 LCR meter at 10khz where i found the best results i compared belkin, acoustic research, monster cable, wireworld audioquest and some DIY ones i had from mogami 2534 mic cable and a shortened monster component cable with new connectors. The lower the numbers here the better :
Cable Test 10khz Interconnects
BJC LC-1 3ft cap: 44pf ind: 0.62uH ohm: 0.589
AR master series 6ft cap: 160pf ind: 1.5uH ohm: 0.15
AR performance series 3ft cap: 90pf Ind: 0.75uH ohm: 0.117
AR master series comp 3ft cap: 63pf Ind: 0.4uH ohm:0.030
AR master series comp 6ft cap: 113pf Ind: 0.7uH ohm: 0.049
Wireworld Luna 1.5ft cap: 145pF ind: 0.3uH ohm: 0.116
I don't quite believe in burning in for cables. I have been using Chord Carnival Silverscreen copper cables and Chord Odyssey 2 silver cables for a couple of years. The BJ ten whites opened up the highs - kind of difficult to describe the experience in words but these cables did make a positive difference and improve sound quality overall. Made me believe much more than ever before that cables actually do make a difference in audio quality. Would highly recommend BJ speaker cables. I have these going from a Marantz PM8005 to Dynaudio Emit M30s with a Oppo UDP as the source. Can't wait to try these on my second system - a Hegel H80, KEF R300 and Marantz CDP.
And the typical tunnel vision audiophile hater:
Can't touch this quality for the price. Companies selling grossly overpriced cables with diminishing returns should be ashamed. If you're looking for an upgrade for a serious hi-fi (I cringe at the term "audiophile") these absolutely do the trick for your kit.
I have not tried my experiment yet. I do have the BJ cables now but I need a couple hours time to listen to the same songs through the same source with my current 5 dollar RCA interconnects and 14 gauge speaker wire with crimped on banana plugs.
I will then connect all the new BJ cables and see if there is a difference.
As far as your situation the only answer I could give would be to drop the 85 bucks Amazon price for two 6 foot long BJ 10 gauge white with banana plus welded on and see if it make a difference. If not Amazon does take returns in most cases.
I just discovered a "clue" about his harmony and melodical obsession in an article which was his obituary:
Dickerson’s first step upon buying a new pair of mallets is to strip away their fur; he then soaks the exposed rubber tips in a mineral solution to get a sound he describes as "plush," though paradoxically, it is also hard. His use of smaller mallets, gripped closer to the tip than is the custom for vibraphonists, allows Dickerson extraordinary speed on the bars, and because he uses his motor and damping bar so sparingly (if tellingly), he vibrates less than any other vibraphonist. The tradeoff is a lack of volume commensurate to Dickerson’s lack of vibrato, and this is surely one of the reasons why he steadfastly refuses offers to work as a sideman, why he has never featured a horn in his own groups... and why he now mostly plays solo on his frequent trips to Europe and Japan. He is one of only a handful of improvisers whose instrumental style amounts to a free-standing musical conception.
Then what give to his sound his power was precisely what make him also a "soloist" and an isolate player in his own world...
He is one of the best vibrationist i know of....And this is precisely his uniqueness that push him into a relative oblivion....
Great artists are not always well known....What attract me to him was the 2 cd he recorded with Sun Ra as side man.... Sun Ra a great artist himself never was or at least not very often the side man of any other artist.... That speak something about Dickerson genius...
In fact, many, if not most, of my favorite artists of all time in any style are not so well known or never inherited the recognition they deserve for the same reason, like in the case of Dickerson....I never realized that till this year...
Last month when I learned my CD player had been shipped, I needed another LC-1 interconnect, so I called Blue Jeans Cables to see if they could tell me the length of the other interconnects I had ordered from them.
The phone rang, a guy picked up and said "Blue Jeans Cable", I had to LOL. Imagine hearing a real person on the first ring. He had all my info right at his station. That's another reason I like this company.
The studio versions of this are simply called "April Seventh" - no year included (I first heard it on "European Impressions"). Not an April 7 goes by that I don't think of this piece.
Today is a triple birthday celebration. Three of my favorite Jazz artists. Two, well established as two of the greats and one still gaining the deserved recognition. Each, representative of a different era in the music. All three, sadly gone.
Hero to the NYC based tenor players of the post-Coltrane generation. In many ways always in the shadow of the great Michael Brecker. While not quite the unbelievable virtuoso that Brecker was, he was arguably the more musically interesting player. Very passionate player. Alumnus of one of Miles’ last bands, Cedar Walton, Horace Silver, Steps, and others. Tragic death in an auto accident at age 51.
Ha! Not physically. It was getting stuck on 64th notes (I didn't really count) in the highest octaves. Now "Arietus" is the Freddie I know and love.
Re: a discussion we had months ago, note Paul Chambers getting top sideman billing on the Oliver Nelson cover. Wonderful, classic piece by the way, thanks.
Will have to return and check out the Berg cuts - looking forward to it. Interesting we both chose the word "passionate."
Hate to post technical stuff because last time I did everyone stopped posting for 2 days. LOL.
I plan on conducting my cable experiment on Sunday. It may take a few hours because I will listen to just 1 song with old cables then the same song played through the same transports with new cables.
Then I will put back old cables and repeat with a second song.
I feel this is the only accurate way to accomplish this. I have chosen the source discs. They are as follows.
A new (2020) release of J.C's. A LOVE SUPREME. Its a Japanese pressing using the DSD source on a
MQA-CD, UHQCD remaster format. I picked it up last week after the guys on the Steve Hoffman music forums confirmed it was one of the best sounding re-issues of this classic.
My favorite Paco de Lucia album ALMORAIMA 2006 Remaster Spain (originally recorded 1990).
And lastly, at frogman's suggestion, Sonny Rollins' A NIGHT AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD RVG remaster from 1999. (originally recorded 1957).
Hope you don’t mind another suggestion. I wouldn’t approach the test that way at all. Don’t go back and forth between cables after only one song each. You know the sound of your system. Listen with the old cables for AT LEAST one entire record. Then, the same entire record record with the new cable (ideally, live with the new cables for a couple of days). THEN go back to the old cable. The differences will be much more apparent this way. Just one man’s opinion. Yes, good luck and have fun.
Good luck @pjw81563 FWIW - I agree with Frogman's suggestion to go longer term with your listening comparison. You might hear a difference in audio quality right after making a change though I personally think unsettling things by moving wire (and even the act of unplugging/re-plugging) can affect the sound. I'd also suggest listening for differences (or lack thereof) using a recording you have had for some time and know very well. You can certainly use the method you have outlined, but I think living with new and then going back to old after a few days of listening to recordings you know well will give you a firmer basis for deciding if the new wire is doing something better in your system. Good luck.
BTW - I think you might be the one that had suggested the Eastern Rebelliong recordings to me. Thanks. I have enjoyed them (vol 1, especially) and in in particular the George Coleman composed, "5/4 Thing".
My vote too goes for longer listening. Sometimes the difference might be obvious (usually when something is not 'right' ) but sometimes it took me days to clearly undersatand the overall influence on sound with some cables. Also, sometimes changing cables required some slight repositioning of speakers (inches can make the world of difference) In fact, the relation between room and speakers and their position might be more substantial then the choice of equimpment (if you mess thing up) But, IC cables are simple task....wait untill you start listening powercables..,
Some music, some blues....just got this album today....great sound as well
Billie Poole 'Confessin the blues' with K.Burrell and Junior Mance, from 1963.
If you like Jazz you may enjoy discovering some great Jazz from Japan from the 70's and later. For instance the Isao Suzuki Trio playing "Aqua Marine" Isao is an extraordinary Bassist. Another one was the Jazz pianist/composer Mesabumi Kikuchi listen to him delivering "Drizzling Rain" with Gil Evans. Last but not least you may want to discover the talented Sromu Yamsh'ta an extraordinasry percussionist/composer/ playing his composition "Compassion" will bring the best of your system!
As per your suggestions I have hooked up my new IC's and speaker cables. I will just leave them in for a few weeks break in period and then switch back to old and listen. I will do album by album as well.
Again same source disc and transports will be used.
I don't know if you live in an apartment building or house.
I live in a house and have a 100 amp service in the basement just to the left (south wall) of my system which is on the west wall. I have installed dedicated outlets for my 2 subwoofers and my AVR and Amplifier. the feeds to these outlets I used approximately 15 feet of 10/3 (10 gauge single strand) for both receptacles I then ran straight to my 100 amp service panel into two 20 amp circuit breakers.
I do not think I need any power conditioners or power cables reason being I am not in an apartment complex where there are thousands of feet of wire running to all sorts of outlets and switches and fixtures before reaching your system receptacles.
Pjw, good luck with new cables. Keep in mind that having changed both ICs and speaker cables at the same time, you won’t know which of the two, or if both, are responsible for the changes in the sound. That is the reason to, whenever possible, change only one thing at a time. Keep us posted.
Frogman, that's another good point. I had my tonearm rewired (one straight Cardas strand "shotgun" to preamp) and bought a new cartridge at the same time. I'll never be sure how each change contributes to the improvements. BTW, still plan to go back and listen to the Bob Berg tracks - last week was nuts (and bolts?).
pjw, thanks for keeping us apprised. This seems to be of great interest to many of us here.
Paul, I live in small appartment buliding (4 floors), installed new electric lines, one is only for my hi fi. Messured voltage, it does not oscilate Used power conditioner as well (Runnning Springs Dmitri) , had gear with its own 'filtration' (Krell Evo 302) and still, always heard the difference in sound when I would put a different power cord on any piece of my equipment.
There is everlasting discussion between 'believers' and the ones who are saying that that is impossible, so I would not go into that, my advice is just to try some aftermarket power cord and hear for yourself.
If you do not hear any changes, good for you, you will save money, time and potentially nerves... If you do, than it could take some time to find the one that is 'best' for your gear and your perceived character of music presentation.
In my humble experience, the power cords influence the sound as much as other cables and obviously the cable producers have found the way so that their power cord have the same sound characteristcs as the rest of their wire products, at least the couple major brands whose cables I have used (Cardas, Nordost) I have also tryed cables from the Shunyata, Ps Audio, Audio Note Kondo, Jorma and few others...strange way to spend the time, I know....
To make things 'worst' (for wallet) its usually the products from the very top of their offerings that 'sounds' the best, the rest were not so satisfactory, even if they were much better than stock cables that you get with the gear. (perhaps the only exception was the 20A stock cord that comes with Krell amp)
Anyway, you guys have 'Cable co' so its much easier for you to try, I have to ask any friend (and some friendly dealers) I got to try their cables....
But, somebody could suspect that this is audiphile site, so back to the music...
Two albums that I got recently.....Benny Golson 'Free' and 'Turning point' from 1962.
I may have told this story before, seems to bear repeating.
Man buys a 5 million dollar European Super Car. As he is writing the 5 Million Dollar check and getting the key Fobs to his long lusted after treasure, the salesman says, "the first thing you need to do, is to go buy some decent tires for this car, so it will perform at it's best." ---
Just had a thought reading a new thread. I've joked a few times about JFA costing me a lot because I'm buying so much more music.
Let me emphasize that I was indeed joking. Forums about gear have cost me way more! I don't even notice the $$ going out for buying music and am enjoying it very much. Thanks to all of you.
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