1.  "A Ferment of World Jazz Yields a Trove of Tapes" The Creative Music Studio in Woodstock NY will surely figure in a definitve history of jazz in the 1970s. The constant actiity musical activity at the studio, in workshops and concerts, yielded about 400 hours of tapes: startling performances by Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor Lee Konitz, Frederik Rzewski, Steve Lacy, Carla Bley and many others. Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso, the husband and wife who founded the school, have recently started restoring and remastering the recordings, a task expected to cost about $120,000. When the tapes are fully digitized, they plan to give them back to the artists. Sampler CDs will be released and the entire collection will be donated the the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia /University. NYT 22Oc08

2.  Problem: When listening to music, your CD skips and sputters.
Solution: Ken Dashow, afternoon disc jockey at classic-rock station Q104.3 in New York, offers his trick for dealing with scratches. "It's a two-step process," he says. First, clean the disc using glass cleaner and a soft cloth, such as one used to clean eyeglasses. Wipe the unprinted playing surface in a straight line, from center to outside edge (wiping in a circular motion only embeds dirt in the disc). Next, place a small amount of car wax on another soft cloth and aply it in straight ines. Let the wax dry a few minute, then wipe off. "I just use plain old Turtle Wax," says Mr. Dashow, who has 2000 CDs in his personal collection. There are also a number of machines and cleaning kits available that are designed to fix scratched CDs. SkipDr and Maxell both have machines that retail for about $35. Allsop and RCA offer cleaning kits for about $10. Caveat: These can work on minor scratches, but not deep gouges or dings. WSJ 26Au08

President, Boston Audio Society

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