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BIG John Patton Is Da Shit


Soulstation1

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i only have along came john and a cdr of oh baby, from the select set.

all the rest will be fresh and new to me!!!!!

ss1

Oh..to have not heard "The Way I Feel" "That Certain Feeling" and "Understanding" again.... On the upside for me, having only gotten these one at a time with long waits between, I REALLY had a chance to absorb all these albums. I think I could sing you every note played on each of these albums. :D

With all of these hitting you at once it maybe a bit overwhelming. Big sylistic leaps between Along Came and Understanding. Big John's style and scope broadened with each album....

Well, I digress. Did I say "ENJOY THE HELL OUT OF THEM, AND REJOICE THE DAY YOU RECIEVE THIS SET!!!!!!" :wub:

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I've had all this stuff (except for OH BABE, which for some reason I never got) on LP since the 70s, but I'm REALLY tempted to go for the Select just becasue those LPs have gotten a LOT of play over the years. Although I'm usually not one to ask about this kind of thing, any reports as to the quality of the remastering will certainly be welcome from here.

Jeff, you're in for a HUGE treat.

(and yeah, that's me ;) )

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Count me in as another one who doesn't know what to do. I've got all the indviduals cds, except "That Certain Feeling" is a burned copy. How can I justify spending so much money for duplicated stuff?

I'll have to pass. The music is terrific: all of it.

Still there's the fear that my current Big John holdings could fossilize over the next 300 years. What will I do then without some backup??? :huh:

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I preordered it : never got my hands onto a Mosaic set and this John Patton looks as good an opportunity as any.I still have the original LP Along came John, totally worn out and one Cd Let them roll...

Would anybody recommend additional purchase of John records?

I believe I also have aCD recorded/produced by Jim Anderson : sound quality is magnificent but I don't like the music too much...Any thoughts..? :rfr

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Regarding the sound quality: hutchhead had a good head's up here and Cuscuna gives it up in the liners regarding the set's foibles.

So far I find the sound to be excellent save for a glaring glitch on "The Rock". It's even worse than some fuzz on the other cuts and is certainly not on the original masters.:tdown

The 'Oh Baby!' sessions sound better than previous japanese RVG IMO and the 'Feeling' and 'Understanding' tracks, while hearing them for the first time here are hot.

For the money it's well worth the tip especially if Patton's legacy is getting some 'grease' ;) on the residuals.

And Brad I asked for this one for my birthday as well. Happy Birthday :party:

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In my opinion, The Way I Feel even disregarding the tape problems, sound pretty dull and lifeless compared to the TOCJ. Not a very good job on that one. Also, That Certain Feeling, sounds O.K. but I feel like the sound could be clearer with a MUCH better bass response.

But, it IS nice to have it on CD.

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I happen to agree with you on that, SS. Short of a "complete" set, I also feel it would have made a lot more sense to focus on one portion of his career with BN - and my vote would definitely have been the era starting with GOT A GOOD THING GOIN' and moving forward. I certainly like his earlier dates for the label, but Patton was one dude who simply got better and better during his tenure at BN. Those later ones create a constantly innovative and creative yet still funky atmosphere. Why they decided for a mishmash, sampler approach when everything else Mosaic has ever done (Selects included) goes against that slapdash approach is beyond me.

However, I'll be snagging the Select soon, even though I have everything in it (THAT CERTAIN FEELING only on an LP CD-R w/black and white photocopied cover). I am a bit dismayed about the apparent THE WAY I FEEL tape aging problem resulting in some distortion, noted in another thread about this set. I have a feeling I'll be holding onto my TOCJ of that one, and I almost never keep duplicates of any sessions once I have them included in a box. Oh well...

Edited by DrJ
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I'm starting to think it might be better to start hitting the used record stores, searching for the TOJC's people dumped to get this set. And, for what it's worth, Mosaic should have done a fullblown treatment of Patton. Heck, if the Four Freshmen get one, why not Big John, for heaven's sake.

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would a b3 organ be a difficult instrument to record for the recording engineer?

ss1

I was wondering that myself. Do they record the sound live from the speaker, or do they hook up the organ directly to the recording board, or what? Also, has RVG used the same organ since he went to Hackensac? or is there a different one from the early days? Inquiring minds want to know!

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David, I love each and every one of those, don't miss a one of them. Although if you had to get only one, I'm particularly partial to BOOGALOO, one of my favorites of Big John's (right up there with GOT A GOOD THING GOIN'). First off, there's the music - that great mixture of the down home and the free-ish, modal stuff never worked better than here. As a bonus, there are truly touching liners done by John Zorn - his affection for Patton is totally apparent and these are some of the finest liners around IMHO (and usually I could care less).

This is one of those Patton albums that is savaged by AMG - 2.5 stars. Yeah, right - what HAVE those people been smoking? SUPERB album.

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David Williams Posted: Oct 6 2003, 01:19 PM   

Have a look at the 'Conversations With Jim Anderson' thread in the Audio forum - there's stuff in there about recording Hammond, and it was Jim recorded Jimmy Smith's Angel Eyes album, among others. 

I'll take a look - but without even looking, I'd be shocked (and dismayed) if anyone recorded the Hammond exclusively by going direct to the board...would seem to be an instrument for which the fine art of mic'ing would be MOST important in capturing the complexity and beauty of the sound, not unlike a really excellent guitar sound.

Edited by DrJ
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The long and short is that RVG used a combination of mics on the Leslie speaker and a direct line off the Hammond's internal pre-amp. Remember, a B3 does not have any speakers of it's own. The Leslie is apart from the organ. And Leslie was not owned by Hammond. It was a seperate company that made speakers for electronic instruments (mainly organs).

In fact, Hammond himself disliked the Leslie speaker and for awhile forbid his dealers from selling them with Hammond organs. But that's another story...

As discussed in the Anderson thread, the organ in Rudy's studio is a Hammond C3 (same as the B3 except for the cosmetics... different case...) and a Leslie 21H speaker. I just got a 21H of my own in the last two weeks and I think it's the best sounding Leslie I've ever heard. The "standard" model for the B3 is the Leslie 122 which appeared in the 1960s I believe. The 21H appeared in the 50s. The 21H uses a field coil woofer and an amp with four 5881 tubes (you can substitute four 6L6's) whereas the 122 amp uses only two 6L6 tubes. The 21H has more power, more bass, and a fantastic high end.

Anyway, I think Rudy experimented with the mixture of mic'd and direct sound throughout the years. On the BN sides he used a lot of the mic'd sound. I have some records from the 1980s, however, on the JAM record label with Jimmy McGriff and it sounds like almost ALL direct sound. The Hammond sounds very different when heard directly. The Leslie speakers have a distinct color that they impose on the sound. For instance, they cut off a lot of the very top end of the organ which affects the amount of key click. This can be a good or bad thing depending on who you talk to.

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