"Dave Digs Disney" question

[Guest ariceffron]

have any of you heard that bud shank record in early stereo from i believe 1954 at the Haig in LA

[BruceH]

A near-mint LP of Brubeck's "Jazz Impressions of Eurasia" arrived recently. For various reasons, I have never heard this album before. It is genuine stereo, which agrees with Mike's post.

This is a very haunting album, by the way, quite different from all of Dave's other albums.

Man, I love that album! Could be my favorite Brubeck album right now, certainly in respect to sheer amount of playing time it gets at my house. Dig that lengthy drum solo by Joe Morello---that actually sounds great! There's something magic about this wonderful album! "Haunting" puts it right.

[Shrdlu]

Yeah, Bruce! I was just playing it again last night. It's a wonderful album. Those really are superb musicians, no question.

Another real gem is "Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein". I vividly remember seeing it in the stores when it was first released, but I didn't have the money to get it. There were other things to buy, with my limited funds, including "Time Out" (our first stereo LP, and how excited we were about that - those were the days of introductory LPs with literal ping-pong games on them). Just recently, I got a mint copy, from the proverbial collection of an old professor who "looked after his LPs with great care ...". Side 2, a set of quartet performances of Leonard's tunes, has been reissued on a CD with some unrelated tracks, but Side 1, "Dialogs For Jazz Combo and Orchestra", has not been reissued (unless the Japanese put out a CD for three weeks). This suite was composed by Dave's brother Howard, who also did "Brandenburg Gate Revisited" with the quartet. Leonard conducts the NY Phil on this. The thing really works, and has many special moments. It has become an instant favorite of mine. Howard is very talented, and there are times when it reminds me of Brahms. It was supposedly recorded at Carnegie Hall, but there is no audience noise, and I think it might have been made at 30th Street - that studio was big enough. But maybe they recorded it at Carnegie Hall without an audience.

Here's a thought. I wonder how many of the NY Phil guys also recorded with Gil Evans.

The quartet tracks (Side 2) are also outstanding, my favorite being "I Feel Pretty", which has their trademark simultaneous 3/4 and 4/4, and a very lyrical Desmond solo in the "Wonderful Copehagen" manner.

The album is a delight throughout.

[garthsj]

It is not generally known, for the reasons that Mike Fitzgerald pointed out earlier, that the "B" side of the MJQ's "FONTESSA" album on Atlantic is different in the stereo and mono versions .... I, too, discovered this while trying to "sing along" with a stereo version I belated acquired, having grown up with the mono version. I wonder if Atlantic (or whoever controls that label these days) will ever reissue these stereo alternates?

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Thanks to Marty for sending me a tape of the mono version of Brubeck's Angel Eyes LP. Finally got a chance to sit down and compare the two versions of this. "Will You Still Be Mine" is the only tune that has different takes on the mono and stereo issues. And man, both are really good.

Mike

Edited December 2, 2004 by Michael Fitzgerald

[MartyJazz]

Thanks to Marty for sending me a tape of the mono version of Brubeck's Angel Eyes LP. Finally got a chance to sit down and compare the two versions of this. "Will You Still Be Mine" is the only tune that has different takes on the mono and stereo issues. And man, both are really good.

Mike

Glad you finally got a chance to compare the two and to corroborate my assertion about the two takes of "Will You Still be Mine". As you state, both are excellent, distinctly different, and the mono version which is longer by a minute and a half turns out to have been a real find. I e-mailed this info to sites that post Brubeck and Desmond discographies, both of which indicate a lack of knowledge about the two takes, but have not received any response.

[neal umphred]

ORGANISSIMO MEMBERS

Thanks for remembering me (especially Michael Fitzgerald). This is my first post and I will be brief: Most major label stereo jazz albums from the '50s are in "true stereo" (if by "true" one simply means two different signals emanating from two channels). "Fake stereo", or "rechanneled stereo", or "reprocessed stereo", etc., was basically a best-left-forgotten phenomenon of the '60s.

Hope this helps!

NEAL UMPHRED

[Bright Moments]

welcome to the board neal!

[neal umphred]

ORGANISSIMO RECORD COLLECTORS

I might append the above post with this: Most jazz albums released in stereo in the '50s are probably in "true" stereo, although they may not always feature the same performances as those on the same album's mono counterpart.

Also, the use of elctronically rechanneled stereo on jazz albums did not really become "normal" until the early and mid '60s. For instance, Blue Note stereo albums were not issued in "fake" stereo until the company was purchased by Liberty.

Hope this helps!

NEAL