Recent Walt Weiskopf

[Larry Kart]

As a longtime Weiskopf admirer, I somewhat recklessly -- but that’s how I tend to behave in such instances -- bought all three recent Weiskopf albums, all on the Positone label — “Overdrive” (2014) "Open Road” (2015) , and “The Way You Say It” (2016). Sampling them in chronological order, my thought so far is, Is this the same guy I knew from all those Criss Cross albums, the most recent of those (of the ones I have) being the marvelous “See the Pyramid” (2010)?

Either because of how he’s being recorded or on his own hook, Walt’s sound seems to have changed quite a lot and not for the better IMO — all through his Criss Cross recordings there was a lovely and very expressive “grain” to his sound, no matter how intense things got otherwise, while on these Positone albums, with the partial exception of “The Way You Say It,” it sounds like the mic has been jammed right into the bell of Walt’s horn and/or there's a wall right behind him — it all sounds harsh and blunt and airless, like Walt’s sound is being forced through a narrow tube, with most of the overtones missing. FWIW, all three albums were recorded at the same Brooklyn studio, Acoustic Recording, by the same engineer, Nick O’Toole. 

Again, so far, I hear some improvement on “The Way You Say It,” but no matter how I fiddle with the tone controls on my amp, the other two albums are close to unlistenable. Can’t imagine that Walt suddenly has altered the way he plays this much and in this direction, but then I also can’t imagine that when he hears himself on these albums he can’t hear the difference and/or finds the way he sounds here to be to his taste.

 

Does anyone else know Weiskopf's Positone recordings and hear the same sort of thing on them that I hear?

 

LK