Pretty much the only thing I knew about Steve Hoffman was his infamous forum. However, in the process of ripping my CD collection I’ve just reached H (hooray – only been going just under a year!) and have come across Buddy Holly – From The Original Master Tapes. This was engineered by Steve Hoffman the mid 80s and is truly stunning sonically. He obviously spent time sourcing the right masters and the end result is revelatory. One thing I don’t fully understand, however, is that Roon has analysed the CD as having a Dynamic Range of 4. I had always thought that the best albums, sonically, were those with a high Dynamic Range but this one seems to be an outlier. Perhaps someone can put me straight.

I’ve no idea whether these Radio 1 DJ mix sessions are still going on but the best of them are well worth revisiting. Perennial favourites of mine are :

Greg Wilson 2009 : https://soundcloud.com/gregwilson/essential-mix-greg-wilson-mix-for-bbc-radio-1?si=8222008e70bb4ddcb00945a4c183d4e7&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

A great mix of disco and early techno.

Laurent Garnier 2014 : https://soundcloud.com/laurent-garnier/essential-mix-bbc-radio-1-5-apr-2014?si=fca2629c16934098aa143f384ecf775c&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Exotic beats and loads of obscure electronica.

Todd Terje 2013 : https://soundcloud.com/toddterje/todd-terje-essential-mix-2013?si=ab4ce48031f242d59b9895a279c2e0aa&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

A very eclectic mix of everything from Herb Alpert to Men At Work. Warning – contains Gerry Rafferty.

Anyone else have any favourites?

I thought it might be a good time for another joke thread, particularly as we’re into the 6,023rd day of Dry January. Here’s a couple to start it off:

A woman is sitting at her deceased husband’s funeral. A man leans in to her and asks, “Do you mind if I say a word?”. “no, go right ahead”, the woman replies. The man stands, clears his throat, says “Plethora”, and sits back down. “Thanks”, the woman says, “that means a lot’.

“My wife says she changes her internet password from time to time”. I said – “That’s the same word”.

Another in a (very) occasional series of shared playlists. For this one, I wanted to capture that uniquely atmospheric slow blues sound that has a distinctly late night feel. Hope you like it.

This is pretty much the definition of a First World Problem but here goes. I’m sure I’m not alone in having a ridiculously large music library (250k tracks and counting) and various streaming services with millions of extra tracks. And yet – when I’m sitting in front of my hifi setup, how do I go about choosing what to play? The tendency is to go with familiar playlists or albums, which is great, but I feel I’m missing out in discovering new or forgotten music. I seem to remember an interview with Joe Boyd where he said he chooses every 13th album from his shelves, which seems as good a method as any. Any suggestions?

I confess that I haven’t finished listening to the recent Remixing/Remastering podcast, but a question occurred to me. That is, what is the minimum level of hifi/audio system needed to properly appreciate a newly remastered or remixed album (not to mention the 8 or so earlier versions you might have!)? I’m not obsessively concerned with remixes, remasters with the exception of Miles Davis, The Beatles and Steely Dan but even there it’s not always easy to appreciate the changes made. I have Sonos throughout the house and a Bluesound Node/Rotel amp/Quad speaker system in my main listening room which is pretty decent to these (ageing) ears but even then the nuances are not necessarily easy to spot. Or is it perhaps a headphone thing? I have some fairly decent Sennheiser and AKG headphones but I don’t use them that often.

Another one gone. I always liked his music in a kind of laid back Florida Keys sort of way. Visited Margaritaville in Key West a few times.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/jimmy-buffett-dead-margaritaville-singer-1235580669/

I’m sure this has been flagged up before but is a very useful resource, particularly if you spent significant amounts of your youth (or even middle age) in record shops, most of which are now sadly defunct. I even found the shop I used to work at in the late 60s (Mascall Records, South Kensington) and added some comments. I’m really only familiar with London shops which seem well represented so I don’t know how complete the archive is for other regions of the UK.

https://www.britishrecordshoparchive.org

It’s fairly safe to say that nowadays I’m fully committed to digital music, what with Roon, Tidal, Apple Music and God knows what else. However, in terms of acquiring new music I increasingly find that the magic is gone, certainly compared to the halcyon days of going into a record shop and either picking up a long awaited Miles Davis album, for example, or coming across something unexpected while browsing. The one thing that I really miss though is hearing some music playing on the record shop’s PA that I didn’t know, going up to the usually bored assistant and having to buy it immediately. Didn’t happen that often but when it did the record usually became a real favourite. Three such occasions I recall are:

Don Ellis – Live At Monterey (1966). Bought at Collets original Jazz and Blues shop in New Oxford Street.

Charles Lloyd – Forest Flower (1966). Coincidentally also recorded at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966. Must have been something in the air that year. Bought at a short-lived James Asman shop near Liverpool Street.

The Nails – 88 Lines For 44 Women. Bought around 1997 in a funky little shop in Marina Del Rey » Continue Reading.

Another in a (very) occasional series of shared playlists. This one is for those lazy summer days, and nights, in the garden or on the beach or wherever. I’ve tried to avoid the usual suspects that always pop up on ‘chill out’ playlists but instead have searched out artists and bands who are usually not on my radar, mainly due to prejudices developed over many years! I’ve sought out sources I trust eg various music podcasts etc but also Radio Paradise’s Mellow Mix. If you haven’t tried Radio Paradise I can strongly recommend it and particularly as an app with Apple TV or Amazon Firestick, where you get high quality images that match the music. Hope you like the playlist!

I’m sure this must have been a topic here before but I was just watching a YouTube video by someone called Gabster in which he came up with his favourite quality tracks for demonstrating his Hi-Fi to the max. Here’s the list, mostly his suggestions but also some in the comments;

If you knew me now – Christel Alsos After Midnight – Hanne Boel Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – Muddy Waters Seeya – Deadmaud, Colleen D’Agonisto Jazz Variants – The O Zone Percussion Group Crystal Ball – Carolin No I Would Rather Go Blind – Pete Alderton Another Life – Nadine Khouri Dry My Tears – Anne Bisson Trouble’s What You’re In – Fink The Curse – Agnes Obel Everything Is Free – Gillian Welch Top Funnel – Ooyy Sara K – Running Away From You Be My Number Two – Joe Jackson Kelly Sweet – Raincoat Grace Majha – Kiss of Life When She Wept – Sam Vloemans Zhao Peng – The Moon Represents My Heart Michael Hedges – Aerial Boundaries Afro Swing (Album) House of Mercy – Sarah Jarosz Mama This One’s For You – Chantal Chamberland Holding to the edge of night – Samantha Crain Woodland Womp » Continue Reading.

Mrs Jazzjet and I went to a volunteering fare today in our home city of Exeter. One thing that caught my eye was hospital radio. I can’t imagine that there’s much opportunity to blast out some electric Miles Davis in the afternoon to a captive, not too mention unwell audience. More likely to be Neil Diamond and Engelbert Humperdinck. But has anyone any experience of working in hospital radio to share before I take the plunge?

The problem : I have a fairly large CD collection (approx 9000, not counting many CDRs). I have ripped around half of those to my Roon server but there is only room for about another 1000 CDs. That leaves around 4000 CDs that I cannot easily access (my CD collection is stored in the garage for space reasons). I am also pretty much locked into a Sonos multi-room system for audio (the music library on the Sonos is also full). I cannot just invest in another audio streamer (eg BlueSound) as they don’t talk to Sonos (Brennan does – sort of – but I don’t want to go that route). The solution? Ripping CDs is a very time-consuming occupation and is even less appealing if you have no easy way of playing them. So, I am thinking of finding each of the non-ripped CDs on a streaming service and adding it to the library of that streaming service. Any CDs I can’t find I will have to rip in the conventional way and hopefully find room for them on my Roon server. I am thinking of using Amazon HD Music because a) it’s lossless and b) I don’t use it » Continue Reading.

Another very long homemade playlist suitable for long journeys or as a radio alternative, imaginatively titled ‘Some Great Singles’. Predominantly 50s/60s/70s, with no Beatles or Stones. Plus it includes the most exciting single of the 60s (not opinion – it’s fact!) in ‘Jenny Take A Ride’ by Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels.

Author Rob Chapman has shared some interesting shows on Mixcloud, including several Peel Perfumed Gardens from Radio London. His latest is a 7 hour session from Radio Caroline’s first month of broadcasting in April 1964. About the only ‘lucky’ thing about being at boarding school on Essex in the 60s was that most of the new (some very short-lived) pirate stations were anchored off the Thames estuary and radio reception was generally pretty good. On this Caroline post it’s interesting how much jazzy lounge stuff was broadcast. It wasn’t all wall to wall pop by any means. Anyway, here’s the link for your listening pleasure:

I’ve just uploaded my CD of Donovan’s ‘A Gift From A Flower To A Garden’ to my Roon library and I noticed in the write-up (presumably from All Music Guide) that this was the first LP box set of the rock era. I know Donovan is supposed to have invented music and all that but is that actually true?

I know that some people are not keen on compilations (that is, of various artists) in the same way that they are not keen on playlists, but a well constructed compilation is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Among my favourites are:

Big Noise : A Mambo Inn Compilation. Originating from the long lost Brixton club, this set neatly segued African and Asian tracks by the likes of Kanda Bongo Man and Ustad Nasret Fateh Ali Khan with latin and jazz funk from Ramsey Lewis, Airto etc. All topped off with a sensational gospel track by Luther Barnes and The Red Budd Gospel Choir.

From Route 66 to The Flamingo. A great mix of Sue soul plus Jimmy McGriff, King Curtis and a live version of ‘Sticks’ by Cannonball Adderley. A pretty good representation of the 60s mod club scene. The CD version adds another 8 tracks but I prefer the more focused vinyl version.

Choctaw Ridge : New Fables Of The American South (1968-1973). Pretty much any Bob Stanley compilation set is worthwhile but this one which documents the new country scene that developed outside Nashville in the late 60s is particularly worthwhile.

OK. Over to you. » Continue Reading.

Does anyone have any experience of the Brennan B2 CD Ripper? It claims to hold 5,000 CDs in lossless format. My problem: Since the first lockdown I have been bringing in armfuls of CDs from my garage and uploading to my Plex server, from which I am able to play music on my Sonos system. The NAS on which my Plex server is installed is getting rather full and I still have a significant number of CDs to upload. I wondered whether the Brennan would be a useful add-on to may system. An interim approach I’ve taken is, rather than rip every single CD, to prioritise the ones that are special to me and that are no longer easy to find. For the remainder of the CDs I stream them from Spotify where my Album Library is effectively my CD collection. I’m quite comfortable with the non-lossless sound quality for these non-special CDs and I’ve chosen a streaming service that, hopefully, is unlikely to go belly up. However, I’m still interested in whether the Brennan is an avenue worth exploring.