AllenLowe

overdubbing is a problem - in the few instances where I wanted to do something about a bad or sloppy passage, what I did was re-record the section at the right tempo and edit it in - this can be tricky, but ok if done right -

funny this should come up here, as I am currently working on the liner notes for my next CD - I asked a writer I know to do it, and he had a little trouble "getting" the CD, so it means I'm doing it myself - fun to do, but VERY HARD to write about your own music - unless you're Mingus -

you're absolutely right - everybody wants to be able to fix everything today, to overdub -

just to add, I agree with Chuck that in certain cases "natural" sound is irrelevant - but in this I would tend to refer to projects that are more electronic, in which the recorded object is itself the artistic point, either electronically or through some other means. Look at Brian Wilson's amazing work, in which the layers of sound are specifically intended to evoke a certain feeling that has nothing to do with the group in its natural habitat. This could not have been done "live" -

I agree about this problem being an old one - and isolation and dead rooms may not be the same problem, but they frequently are part of the same problem. More and more engineers seem to be trying to deaden acoustics in order to have more freedom to play with the music afterwards - and this, today, amounts to acoustic modeling. In the old days it amounted to modeling by plate reverb, or whatever was used. Isolation, even in a good sounding environment, is a problem, in my opinion - the complete acoustic separation of instruments is why so many multi-track recordings sound so bad - each instrument exists in some weird kind of acoustically separate space, and no amount of good mixing can make it sound natural - for this you need bleed. I recently did a "live" multi-track of my own group with total bleed between tracks - I was able to have the flexibility to mix levels, but it still sounded like a real group playing together in a real room. About ten years ago I used the same technique to record Roswell Rudd with my group - and Roswell, who has done a lot of recording, but is very difficult to capture, told me it was the best that his sound has ever been recorded - (it also helped that I used no cpmpression or limiting, as this is often done with him as well) -

well, I've been on all sides of this one, and have recorded, and engineered recordings, in all formats. I do believe that, as Mike has said, with the right mikes, a good room, and a smart engineer (and no compression, but that's just my thing) you can make digital recordings that rival good analog. A bigger problem these days is isolation and what amounts to digital modeling of all instruments - if you record close-microphoned in a dead room than you will have to create all acoustic properties in the board, an unfortunate thing that will NOT make it sound natural. I have recently done some a-b'ing with a good multi-track tape machine and a direct-to-disc machine (at 16/44), with great monitors, and was truly hard-pressed to tell the difference. Now, give me two-inch with Dolby S, and THAN we can talk, as I am certain that would be noticeably better. But there is a gigantic grey area for musicians like myself, who need to make high quality recordings, are too old to deal with tape, and whose ears accept the very nice, if not perfect, digital results.

Actually, though they are rarely readable before buying the CD, I think notes have actually improved in the world of compact discs - the booklets allow much more space, and if the writer is good, they can be quite illuminating, especially, but not only, with boxed sets - of course, this also gives bad writers more space -

Jabbo Smith had the most beautiful singing voice I ever heard -

It's kind of a silly auction - magazines that the daughter of Lester Young owned that are not worth anywhere near what she expects - unless Prez breathed on them, maybe - or unless they can lift some of his fingerprints off of them -

Somebody mentioned Gregory's in NYC - I went there constantly in the 1970s when Al Haig had a trio there - with Jamil Nasser and first Chuck Wayne and than later Al Gaffa. Wayne and Haig had a major blowout one night as they disagreed on chord changes to some tune - Al was the leader but Chuck got very aggressive, and that was it, the next night Al Gaffa joined the band.

Thanks,Mark - I used to see him regularly when I lived in NY in the 1970s - I even wrote a piece for Downbeat on him, approx. 1976. Nice man as well as a great pianist -

For Bob Mover, get In the True Tradition (Xanadu) if you can find it -

well, maybe I am confusing things - but there's a famous shot in which Maini reveals himself over the bell of his horn (somehow I thought Bruce was involved in this but I'm not certain) -

Do you know about the famous picture with Lenny Bruce and Maini?

tell him I said hello - Barry is one of the most profound musicians you will ever hear - and I've never really heard a recording of his that truly captures his musical presence -

Joe Puma, YES! Great, lyric guitarist, played a piece at Bill Evans's funeral that was surreal in its beauty - I remember it well more than 20 years later - Al Gaffa - worked with Dizzy, Al Haig - Tiny Moore (played with Bob Wills, and could really play bebop) - Junior Barnard (also played with Wills - first rock and roll guitarist, in my opinion, used distortion in 1945!) Joe Cinderella - great and adventurous stuff with Gil Melle -

Am I the only one that gets my own joke here? (Just confirms that I AM getting old) -

that's the one - I don't have it, but was curious about how Woods sounded on it -

I recall Xanadu putting out an LP with one side of "live" Woods, ca. 1956 (?) - anybody have this?

Anybody mention Bob Mover? One of the greatest, in my opinion - and how about Jaki Byard? He played very nice alto - and Boots Musulli - and let's not forget THE DEMON -

I hope Joe Maini is in there -

I thought Latin jazz referred to the Romans -

that'll work - I'll either pick it up used or go to the library -

People are probably going to disagree with me here, but I would say stay away from the Armstrong set because the sound is MUCH better elsewhere - get the old Columbia LPs, the old gatefold Armstrong LP - and hear this music in incredible sound - the box is OK, but the earlier LP issues are superior - not to mention that there is audible digital distortion at the beginning of Weatherbird in the boxed set! This is inexcusable -

would you like fries with your mutton?