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Noises Off: Unintended/Unexpected Sounds of Jazz Recordings


BillF

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I recently bought Cattin' with John Coltrane and Paul Quinichette and wondered if there was something wrong with my copy when I heard clicking sounds. Then I realised they only occurred when Q was playing, so I suppose what I'm hearing is the mechanism of the horn.

This brought to mind a discussion here on Art Taylor's squeaking hi-hat. Then I thought of the mysterious clunks on Monk's recordings - there's one on his solo on "Pannonica" from Brilliant Corners IIRC. I remember reading that this was the sound of his hand hitting the wood of the piano, Monk's contortions while playing being as unorthodox as the sound he produced!

As for another sort of "noises off", I recall that on Chico Hamilton's "Walking Carson Blues" distant motor horns can be heard behind Carson Smith's (very quiet) bass solo. Someone told me there's a Billy Holliday recording at an open air festival where a plane can be heard flying over - a turboprop, he said! I've never heard this one though.

Discussing all this with Tom 1960 on Skype yesterday, he said that glasses and a cash register can be heard on the Shelly Manne at the Black Hawk sessions, though I don't remember noticing these. What I do recall is Mingus asking an imagined audience to avoid these sounds on his Candid studio session with Eric Dolphy, Ted Curson and Danny Richmond :lol:

I'd be pleased to have confirmation/correction of what I've written as well as hearing about noises off you've noticed. Of course, there may already be a thread on this ... :)

Edited by BillF
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You're sneaking another Keith Jarrett-bashing thread on us, Bill, aren't you?

See what you mean! Actually, unintended vocalising didn't occur to me when I started this thread. That's been well and truly discussed on other occasions, so let's keep it to squeaks, bumps, etc :lol:

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One of the solo Monk CDs on Black Lion has a fair bit of clicking from his fingernails (apparently much longer than usual). I'll see if I can track down more on this.

On the solo session he did in Paris in the early- to mid-fifties ("Manganese", "Eronel", "Portrait of an Ermite", etc) you can hear his foot padding away on the floor. I imagine a large crepe-soled shoe! :)

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I recently bought JAZZ COURIERS / SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE THE BLUES CD on Acrobat and about 10 times thru the entire CD there is what sounds like a pop-up displaying on a computer screen. Seems like whomever did the transfers was multi-tasking (instant messaging, texting, etc) and it kinda ruins the mood of the disc...

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Someone told me there's a Billy Holliday recording at an open air festival where a plane can be heard flying over - a turboprop, he said! I've never heard this one though.

Don't know about that recording, but it definitely happens on Woody Herman's Herd at Monterey recording. I think the plane can actually be heard a couple of times, once during Victor Feldman's vibes solo IIRC (obviously a relatively low volume spot in the program).

Tom 1960 is right about the background sounds on Shelly's Black Hawk recordings. But they all seem approriate to the venue.

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Which Coleman Hawkins recording has a cleaner sweeping away in the background? Might not be audible. I know we've discussed it here. 'The Man I Love'?

Do you mean manually with a brush or is it a vacuum cleaner? :D

Anyway, I hope D K Dyson was on the date and that they included "Clean Is the Scene" and "Mop Mop" :smirk:

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