Your Favorite Music Of 2003

[Rudy]

Cool. The Voodoo Suite is similar, but is in mono only. I think it dates to the mid 50's. Prado had another experimental set called Exotic Suite but it's nowhere near as good. Both were on a Bear Family reissue, but the Voodoo Suite had a better sounding reissue in RCA's Tropical Series.

Any luck on a Maynard Roulette box set yet?

 

[Andrew T.]

Hello, and it's great to be back at these forums again! (I took a 1½-month-long break for reasons of my own).

Musically, 2003 was a fairly interesting year for me; not for new material, though. Especially of late, the top-40 charts have consisted almost exclusively of things that bear on the unlistenable (e.g., rap), so I have all but given up listening to commercial radio.
Although I've acquired very little new music, I have took it upon myself to dig into many of my favorite artists' back catalogues to keep me occupied, and I have acquired a fantastic number of CDs, records, and cassettes within the past year.
I've really gotten into the early solo catalogue of Peter Gabriel, one of my personal favorite artists. I have the remastered CDs of 1, 2, and my personal favorite 4. (Still looking for 3...that's the one I want the most! :|) I've also been listening to U2, plus a whole lot of miscellaneous late '80s/early '90s pop and hard rock.
On the A&M side, I've been getting into Joe Jackson lately. I now have Night and Day (CD 4906) and Body and Soul (CD 5000, or CD 3286? Both numbers appear on my used copy), and enjoy them very much. I've also "discovered" Supertramp. After coming across a $1 copy of the infamous Paris, I saw past the lacking performances and made the logical move of finding an original CD of Breakfast in America. Finally, I stumbled across a near-mint copy of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass's Christmas Album at a record sale at a local library. I've sensed that my father is a closet TJB fan, so I decided to give it to him for Christmas. He was extremely pleased...well, I'd say he was pleased I got him anything at all! I eventually had to persuade him to put it away after the second dozen rounds of "Jingle Bells!" It was getting a little dusty by then, too.
I really haven't come across anything extremely rare or valuable. (No George McCurn!) I did "discover" that the Eric Clapton 461 0cean Boulevard LP I temporarily forgot about in my closet was the original Atlantic-distributed RSO version with "Give Me Strength" listed as a track, though. A pleasant discovery.

 

[Rudy]

Peter Gabriel's third CD (the remastered version, I presume?) should be easy enough to find. A year or two ago, I actually won the first four CDs on Ebay, UK imports in the mini-LP sleeves, for only $12.99 each. But this year, after I got my Pioneer universal player, I bought SACD versions of all of the albums. I haven't yet bought the soundtrack albums, but I have the first four, So, Us and Up (the latter being a hybrid CD/SACD). Plays Live is on SACD but only in its single-disc abridged form. Far as I know, all the PG SACDs are two channel except for Up, which I'm told has a very interesting surround mix.

Supertramp's Breakfast In America was a very good sounding original CD release. Wish I could say the same for Crime Of The Century...which I ended up buying in a Mobile Fidelity version. I see you discovered Paris...can't say I ever listened to mine more than a couple of times. If you can find the Classics compilation, it's not too bad, except that the masters used weren't the originals and there are a couple of sloppy edits. It is a decent career overview though.

Joe Jackson has some neat recordings out there, but a couple are out of print. I found out that if you want to get the Mike's Murder soundtrack, there is an affordable 3-CD compilation that features this soundtrack in its entirety on the third disc. I'm going to do a good needle drop of it for the time being, but if you liked Night and Day, this one's very similar, with Jackson being just a little more acidic on side one, and featuring instrumentals on side two.

I hear you about radio, too--the only stations I listen to are WCSX (a local classic rocker that has DJs who've been in Detroit radio for decades) and WWJ, all news AM radio. I recently got XM Radio, though, and if you like to hear a LOT of different music, and deep cuts, that's where it's at. If I get adventurous I'll switch away from the "decades" channels and listen to some newer music. If it's like my Shoutcast (internet radio) experience, I'll probably find a lot more music to buy.

 

[jimac51]

Yeah-reissues here,too. The Free Design catalog from Enoch Light's Project 3 coming out in the US with bonus tracks and mid-line prices was a highlight. The albums are also available on premium vinyl and there is a 12" remix available-this is the way to do a catalog. I've been listening to drummer Mel Lewis's last recording,a small group item called THE LOST ART,1989 on MusicMasters,a cheap eBay win. I'v been listening to this lots. What an appropriately named album-great writing,camraderie with members of Mel's orchestra,well miked so Mel's brushwork is not hidden-lost art indeed! New albums by Jason Moran,Bill Charlap and Don Byron(some were released in 2002,but new to me),all BlueNote guys carrying the torch of Alfred Lion into the 21st century-proof that there is good stuff out there,just not enough time and money to absorb it properly. I got my wife a copy of Willie Nelson's demo recordings for Valentines Day and found it to be a marvel of understatement-hey,he was only trying to plug the songs to some big shot a&r guy in Nashville-no pressure,just the bare bones of great song writing. An interesting eBay experience was a mono DJ copy of Pete Jolly's HERB ALPERT PRESENTS-a little battered but fun to play loud and a third copy for my collection(the other two are standard stereo)-you can't have too many Pete Jolly backups. Sony put out three new Sinatra comps-with bonus radio material-I'm wading through the Gershwin right now-proof that there is no better male voice to sing "Someone to Watch Over Me". The year is based purely on financial terms,and since this was no great year for the paycheck,it is reflected in my purchases. Anyone who says there is nothing out there-new,old,major label,indi,expensive box set or budget- is sleeping. Mac

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Any luck on a Maynard Roulette box set yet?

Maybe this is the year!


Capt. Bacardi
...just home from work online...

 

[Mister Kite]

Rudy said:

Supertramp's Breakfast In America was a very good sounding original CD release.

How does the CD that's out today stack up? I believe it is a remaster of some sort. I keep meaning to pick it up, but it seems like whenever I think of it, that's always the one disc that's missing in the Supertramp section...

 

[Rudy]

Hi Gary--I don't own the remastered version, so I unfortunately have nothing to compare it with. I only have this and a UD-I MFSL "Crime Of The Century" (which did sound better than A&M's original CD by a longshot, IMHO). The Classics compilation is only worth getting as a completist...it doesn't sound very good, and uses a badly-edited single version of "Goodbye Stranger". (Which is odd, since I have the 45-RPM single and don't remember such a bad edit on it!)

Does anyone else here have it? Could you let us know who mastered it?

 

[Mister Kite]

Rudy, thanks for the reply. I guess I will seek out the remaster, then. I didn't pick this up years ago because I was pretty unimpressed with A&M's initial Crime of the Century CD release. I believe I still have a copy of the Classics compilation floating around and you are right, "Goodbye Stranger" is definitely butchered.

Gary

 

[Rudy]

A&M's CD releases are curious. Some of the originals sound good, but others reissued in the same year or same series will sometimes sound worse. Crime Of The Century I had high hopes for, since back then, I (mistakenly) thought the CD version would sound even better than the MoFi vinyl. Found that to be true with some other early CD/MoFi LP comparisons.

At least for better or worse, Supertramp has had a remastering. Styx is still on their original A&M CD reissues, save for a few compilations that sound better to my ears. A later CD like Kilroy Was Here has good sound, but Equinox just strikes me as a lukewarm reissue. Good but not great.

 

[jfiedler17]

At least for better or worse, Supertramp has had a remastering.

Which reminds me ... I've been meaning to ask: are any of the CD mixes of the "Famous Last Words ..." singles ("It's Raining Again" and "My Kind of Lady") noticeable improvements on the LP mixes? I absolutely love "It's Raining Again," but I've always thought it was one of the worst-mixed songs I've ever heard. It sounds like everything - the lead vocal, harmonies, all the instruments - was just recorded onto one track, and it ends up sounding a lot less full of life than it SHOULD sound. "My Kind of Lady" (and the entire rest of the album, actually) kinda has the same problem, but not as much as "Raining." I own the 45s to both songs as well, and neither of them sound any better than the LP. Have any of the CD re-issues cleaned up the mixes at all?

 

[Rudy]

I don't know...my gut instinct is they only remastered what they had, and didn't remix anything. Whether or not the remastering would bring out better detail or not is debatable without hearing it. I only have it on vinyl.

 

[Murray]

Joe Jackson has some neat recordings out there, but a couple are out of print.

I hope that "Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive" isn't one of them that's out of print! I had it on cassette, but I listened to it so much that it wore out. That's one cool album! I've been looking for it on CD, but haven't found a copy locally. If it should be out of print, I suppose there's always ebay...

Murray

 

[Rudy]

Murray: Jumpin' Jive has had two CD releases...the original reissue, and when the swing revival happened a few years ago, A&M re-released it in a different package. It's still available:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000HY5I/amcorne-20

FWIW, I did a CD-R needle drop a couple of years ago and never felt compelled to replace it with a CD. This one sounds really good on vinyl!

 

[Captaindave]

I will say that my favorite CD from 2003 is JAZZ PIZZAZZ & LATINO by Juan Oskar... I probably play this CD as much or more than any other CD I have...