etherbored

i know most here are praising this series, and i do love it too, but the 30-40 titles in my collection all have universally uninspiring mastering to them. which is quite odd because it's a characteristic that's consistent across the lt and la series - truncated high ends that cause an artificial and somewhat flattened sound, flatter than usual mid ranges. dark low ends. just an overall lack of clarity as compared to prior issues. initially i thought this was due to the label budget for the series being low because of the pricepoint which means the transfer or mastering simply doesn't receive the treatment and care of other series. however, then i revisited titles from the prior 'jazz 999' series which do not suffer from this aural truncation whatsoever. then again, i could just be going deaf.

btw, i'm guessing these blue note/emi budget 4-fer packs are a produit de france?

I know - I'm just jesting back. And hey, there's plenty of great stuff out there from '78 and '79. But yeah, the batting average dropped significantly by then when contrasted with earlier in the decade. BTW, do you dig Peterson's "Motions & Emotions" for MPS?

Nice (attempt at a) save! And Daniel's right, of course. Surveying the MPS landscape of the later 1970's reveals a catalog and musicians/arrangers very much of the era shall we say. I guess what really caught my eye about this thread (besides claiming to own more Singers Unliimited than anyone else here.....) was the title implying artistic decline with the end of the 70's (which is certainly a thread unto its own) but isn't this your era of love, Drew? And until you've heard the MPS remix recording you can't know how "to hell" things went....

Make no mistake about it, these are the recordings TTK refers to when he writes they "went to hell in the late 70's". The thing is, I recall feeling similar the first time I heard these records. Does this mean they were lesser works? Not at all. They just weren't what the group built their rep on. However, I fully concede that they differ greatly from the initial, say, four projects.

It is interesting to note how less a capella and choral they became as they progressed. They evolved and experimented with different groupings and arrangements. Some worked while others less so. I can surely understand your frustration if you picked up a later recording expecting, or simply hoping, it to be consistent with earlier work. It just ain't.

I can only echo "Eventide"... Also, to say they "went to hell" is tantamount to heresy in my book. Indeed they were conceived as a studio creation who politely turned away vast sums to tour.

uh - not so quick there, ace. this is one i'd be willing to wager on.

very simple; order it from amazon.jp and should the seller not send it to north america, find a japanese contact who will receive it for you. again, 4500 yen plus postage.

just a footnote that 'tenor time' is out of print and very difficult to track down. when you do, expect it to fetch +/- 4500 yen (do the math).

......is that the purpose of each musicians succeeding recording?

has anyone else (listening at home to the physical disc or vinyl lp on a decent system) noticed the sub-par mastering?

I compared the mastering between 'The Nightfly', 'Kamakiriad', and 'Sunken Condos'. I found the difference shocking. I'd never want to criticize anything Donald has been a part of but Roger Nichols and Elliot Schiner are sorely missed in the mastering department, as far as I'm concerned. The mix, which is what you're marveling at in the streaming, is über. The mastering - not so much. I wonder how the 2-lp vinyl set is... PS: that last track, Planet d'Rhonda, is pretty hip! I loooooove the way Donald sings the words "plastic wrrrrrap"!

the mastering of 'sunken condos' is, by fagen standards, or any standards really, pretty bad. the material is quite nice - especially after what was, to me, a disappointing 'morph the cat'.

i know amy all too well. nice work, sir.

CJ - you need to explore the catalog of Jan Garbarek.....

the TOCJ-50271 issue of 'sonic boom' collects 6 of 13 tracks that the north american issue contains. it costs 999 yen, which is $12.78 or EUR 10.40 by an exact bank exchange rate (which a consumer rarely gets unless they're trading in larger amounts of currency) plus shipping (which at a minimum would be $5.00), bringing a total minimum investment to around $18.00 (obviously less if one orders in a quantity that reduces the per unit shipping average). the domestic issue is available for under $10.50 including shipping. herein lies the bane of collector, no? oh, but those covers.... so let us know that okazaki remaster is.

Forgive the nearly 30 day belated reply, but thanks all. And from Chuck Nessa as well? Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem. Oh - wait...

Just a quick note that Toshiba Japan is reissuing several (12-15?) Blue Note LT series titles, with original LT cover art, on disc for a reasonable ¥999 (really a continuance of the "Jazz 999" series) this September. Of course much of this material has been made available in the US but someone might find this interesting. Check out forthcoming releases @ HMV.jp for details (along with a very special Keith Jarrett Belonging band performance in Tokyo from the ECM vaults). NOTE: move to Reissues.....

hiroshi doesn't smoke. that's the mustiness of the shop you're picking up.

you're right - 'tequila' *did* get a reissue! the other titles in the series, including 'willow weep for me', i have (and love).

if someone winds up with this i'm very curious of its sound quality. has it been remastered? simply transferred? hip-o gets high marks for this on all the sets i have, so if they present this material in a cleaned up fashion (i.e. at least as clean as the lpr series) then i could be pursuaded. some of the verve material ('tequila' and 'california dreaming' especially) suffer sonically. seeing that that these two were never part of the lpr series, it could be the tipping point for me.

i´d like to take the time to thank EKE BB for his recommendations for le petit and caveau, both of which i (we) enjoyed wonderful evenings at during this very warm late summer here in paris... merci.

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i've owned a cambridge for the past 10 years (currently an 850) and i wholeheartedly reccomend the line.