Comments on: How Do You Listen?

By: Bill W.

Bill W. — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 14:02:00 +0000

Al, I’m responding late to your question… my favorite Beatles song?… Back In The USSR. It’s just a great infectious fun rocker. There are 6 others I also consider exceptionally outstanding… Things We Said Today, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, I Got A Feeling, She Said She Said, I’ll Be Back & Hey Bulldog.

By: Bill W.

Bill W. — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 02:24:52 +0000

Al, I’m responding late to your question… my favorite Beatles song?… Back In The USSR. It’s just a great infectious fun rocker. There are 6 others I also consider outstanding… Things We Said Today, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, I Got A Feeling, She Said She Said, I’ll Be Back & Hey Bulldog.

By: jimrjim

jimrjim — Sat, 14 Dec 2019 03:12:53 +0000

I’d like to take a moment to blend the discussions of the December 4th post and this one.
Several years ago I decided to sell my jazz lp collection. Having been in the retail end of the record (then tape, then cd) business for thirty-five years and a jazz fan for forty, I had accumulated more than my share. Half of my collection had been picked up second hand in the Northeast and half I purchased new. 95% were in VG++ condition. I sold between 700 to 900 lps to a local dealer at a price that was far below top ebay prices but perfectly acceptable to me. Gil Evans, Frank Foster, 70’s and 80’s Verve, 3rd generation Impulse and 4th generation Blue Notes…I wanted them out. Another 1100-1200 (1st and 2nd generation BN’s, many cool Atlantics, Japanese Don Pullens, Shepps, and Max ,a miraculous variety of avant garde, etc) I sent across country to a dear friend and fellow avant-garde jazz collector who was willing to ebay them in exchange for a percentage off the top for each item sold, and more importantly, first dibs on the entire collection at a price per piece we would both agree upon.
It has worked out well. He grades far, far more conservatively than even the most fastidious sellers, selling many lps I played only once as VG++. Some of the items have either broken or have approached the highest prices in Popsike. Other items that might have sold for more through a, shall we say, “generous” grader have sold at prices far below expectations. And some never received a bid at $9.99 but were relisted two months later and went for $75.00. I am truly fine with it all. No rhyme or reason based on the time of year, recent sales of the same item, or what our president had tweeted the night before the end of the auction. Of course the big boys would get considerably more for their Blue Notes and Prestige but I do not think they were getting more for their El Saturn, BYG, or early ESP records, (much less the single release by an aspiring artist who too late recognized that boxes of his/her lps in the basement did not an artistic statement make and dumpstered them forty years ago leaving the 100 sold collectible). Not surprising since the audience for experimental jazz is a tiny fraction of that for post bop as witnessed by the NYC loft concerts I attended with six or eight people in the audience while Dexter had folks out the door and around the block. I collected for the music, not the collectibility.
But, prior to the purge, I wasn’t listening to the records. The very expensive turntable wasn’t even connected. I had lost my passion for the focused do-nothing-else-but-pay-attention session.
Though I was sorry to say goodbye to the vinyl I knew I had lost interest in the vinyl as object. I still have a cabinet of over 1200+ jazz cds. At the moment I am barely listening to them.
I did not and have not lost interest in the music itself. I now have a high-end streamer attached to a pair of rather wonderful speakers in a dedicated room where I listen to hi-res via Tidal and Qobuz. If those two companies don’t have a dear “old friend” like Joseph Jarman’s “As If It Were the Seasons”, I am happy to be re-introduced to some other Coltrane or Rollins I haven’t really heard in years. And heresy among heresy, if I am “listening while doing” (reading, editing photos, putzing) I will even listen to one of Spotify’s dozen of lower-res Mingus titles.
It is the music that brings us all to Al’s website and for me it is the music, not the object, that keeps me coming back. The communication with the notes on and off the staff, not the liner notes.
If Al writes a column such as his Coltrane column once a decade I will continue to check in every week or so to see what is on his mind. When he and others write about the joys of a good listening session, a “reunion” with old friends… that’s the gravy.

By: David S

David S — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 09:08:47 +0000

I have very particular listening habits that come in stages over the course of the day. I turn on my tube amp and let it warm up while I make coffee. In the morning I answer emails and I only listen to vinyl: I might start out with Nat King Cole or Tal Farlow, move to something from the Continent like Tubby Hayes or Barney Wilen or Klaus Doldinger, and by late morning go Brazilian or African with lots of brass and textures. Then, when I sit down to work, I switch to Sonos and listen to various playlists that I’ve put together over the years. Not until dinner do I return to vinyl and it’s always vocal: Helen Merrill, Blossom Dearie, Chet Baker, with the occasional Beatles or Donovan record inserted for variety. I try not to use headphones because it feels like the music is trapped in these beautiful little spheres, and what I want from the music more than anything is to take over my environment. I want it to absorb me and envelop the space and furniture around my apartment.

By: rl1856

rl1856 — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:06:12 +0000

Your listening experiences mirror mine. Several hours at a time in front of my dedicated system, no distractions. Mix of mono and stereo, mix of artists and genres as the mood hits. My secondary system includes my computer, and is in use as background when I am working at home. I stream about 80% of the time; from NAS files or online sources. Remaining 20% is from a TT connected to an external phono stage (that has a ADAC output to facilitate digital rips of vinyl) connected to the integrated map at the heart of my computer system. Even then, there are times I am forced to put down my work and concentrate on the music because it is so good. I have another system in the family room, that is HT based and connected to our network from streaming of files and online sources as background music.

By: lennib

lennib — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:21:42 +0000

Well, I can’t comment on accumulating under the mantle of collecting because I stopped and I can’t comment on listening because I really don’t listen to records or CDs that often anymore. Simply because I mostly ain’t got much left.
I can comment on Beatles, however, if perhaps in a different way. Growing up in my neck of woods in Chicago, the Beatles were for the girls. It was the Stones, rough and raunchy, for the group I hung with. Remember seeing them in ‘65 or so, very intense and sexy loud, about the same time I saw Coltrane and Shepp at Downbeat Jazz Fest in Soldier Field. And of course there was the time I saw Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees. Like, Too strange.
Anyway, there it is for what it’s worth.

By: Al

Al — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 20:01:35 +0000

GST, yes, actually, you can. I have this very strong memory of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. I had just turned 14, or was about to, and it had been months since the Beatles released a single or an album. There was this real lull: What has happened to the Beatles? Where are they? They had been so consistent with releasing singles every few weeks or months. I was in the car with my grandfather. We were heading into Manhattan to go to a track meet at Madison Square Garden. I think it was the Millrose Games. Anyway, I had the radio on, WABC, and the announcer said “we have now, for the first time, the new Beatles single.” We were on the Triboro Bridge and I started screaming. My grandfather panicked and went across three lanes, almost smacking into about 12 cars. He wasn’t the best driver in the first place. We survived. I think they played Penny Lane first and I was in heaven, what a great Paul song. And then they played Strawberry Fields and my first reaction was: “What was that?” It was so different and unique. I eventually figured it out, but that first hearing was definitely a bit of a mind fuck, in a good way of course. Sorry to go off course from jazz vinyl to all of you who come here for that, but I don’t think we’ve ever talked about the Beatles here.

By: GST

GST — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 19:50:26 +0000

Favorite Beatles song is probably Strawberry Fields Forever.

I mostly listen while playing with the kids or really early before anyone gets up. I do miss the quiet nights listening to a nice setup and concentrating just on the music. I’m sure once the kids are grown up I can go back to that. Right? Please someone tell me I can get it all back?! 😉

By: Al

Al — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:21:13 +0000

Favorite Beatles song? Not possible for me to choose. Did I mention on the site that I went to Liverpool earlier this year, and did a tour of both John and Paul’s childhood homes? If you’ve never been and you are a Beatles fan, it is an amazing experience. So, Bill W., you asked me, so my assumption is that you can name a favorite?

By: Bill W.

Bill W. — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 15:47:30 +0000

Most of my listening these days is background, which works well for my lifestyle. Hey Al, what’s your favorite Beatles song?