Kevin Segura

From the "Midriff" blog: http://midriffian.blogspot.com/2009/02/sur...e-of-sound.html -Kevin

Well, I honestly wasn't certain, Allen... my apologies if it should be moved, but I saw the forum section heading that said "New Releases", and thought this fit the bill. So if a moderator would care to steer this to the proper forum, I'd certainly be grateful. -Kevin

"Why that's no good... that's not even conversation." - C.K. Dexter Haven, The Philadelphia Story -Kevin

It's time to celebrate the New Year... and what better way for jazz fans and lovers of classic television to mark Father Time's appearance than with the debut of Restoration Sound & Vision-- a new label dedicated to resurrection and restoration of classic broadcasts from the Golden Age of Television. First up is a sampler of some of the audio delights that have been lighting up the atmosphere around our offices this holiday season: a collection modeled after the old 10" LP releases of the 50s, titled "Jazz at the Orthicon". With almost 30 minutes of complete performances from the likes of Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Anita O'Day, Bing Crosby (to name just a few), we think you'll find it a nice way to whet your musical appetites!! Physical product will be coming soon, but for those of you with Paypal accounts who can't wait (and want to save a couple of bucks) there's an MP3 download version of the album and/or the individual tracks at: http://www.restorationsoundandvision.co.uk/JATO.html The MP3 files are encoded at 192 Kbps, which gives a very good result with the vintage mono recordings that we've been fortunate enough to discover. And after a round of restoration and remastering by the crack RSV engineering staff, we're pretty pleased with the results! For those who are curious, here are the contents of the collection: 1. Now You Has Jazz - Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong (From "The Edsel Show" - October 13, 1957) 2. Mack the Knife - The Jonah Jones Quartet (From "An Evening with Fred Astaire" - October 17, 1958) 3. September in the Rain - George Shearing & The Dukes of Dixieland (From the 2nd "Timex All-Star Jazz Special" - April 30, 1958) 4. My Man - Billie Holiday (From the KABC series "Stars of Jazz" - 1956) 5. I Left My Baby - Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing (vocal) (From "The Seven Lively Arts - The Sound of Jazz" - December 17, 1957) 6. Muskrat Ramble - Louis Armstrong & The All-Stars (From the 2nd "Timex All-Star Jazz Special" - April 30, 1958) 7. Four Brothers - Anita O'Day with Les Brown & His Band of Renown (From the 3rd "Timex All-Star Jazz Special") - November 10, 1958) 8. Sing Sing Sing - Benny Goodman with Sid Caesar (saxophone) (From "Caesar's Hour" - November 1, 1954) So here's to the New Year, and classic TV-- good times coming all around!! -Kevin

Well, I don't think I'd hold my breath, if I were you-- this may take a while. Sorry to resurrect his thread yet again, but I did want to let everyone know that I have now turned up an alternate audio source, recorded during the original broadcast, which will be incorporated with the video restoration. I wish that web encoding didn't require so much in the way of audio and video quality compromises, but if you want to get a rough idea of the results so far, I've re-done the "Fine and Mellow" clip once again, and you can find it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8W5_ygP1hNE Compared to the "F & M" clip they're hawking on the "Ultimate Billie Holiday" DVD, I think progress is being made... -Kevin

Well-- originally, yes. The gentlemen who bought the Portland store were the ones that then went on a buying spree of used record stores in a lot of different cities (they had some view of having a huge chain of (ex-)indie record stores, thinking that economies of scale could help make them all profitable... it didn't.).... As part of that expansion, the website was set up. Frankly, those of us who loved the old store were really sorry to see it bought out like that. There's no doubt that it certainly needed an infusion of capital, but sometimes making things "corporate" isn't an improvement. -Kevin

Thanks **very much** for the help, folks-- I've started with Mr. Cantor, and we'll just continue on from there! -Kevin

I only ask because (against just about all odds) I've unearthed the **audio** half of this project-- and now I need the pictures to go along with it: http://www.rerunmedia.tv/timex.html Click on the pic at that page, and you'll understand what I mean... Would there be any interest in having this show restored? If so, more details to follow! -Kevin

Thanks for all the kind words, folks--- believe me, they're very much appreciated!! As I mentioned above, the old clip has now been replaced-- here's a link to the newer version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPBm_ZkKj3s Enjoy! -Kevin

Allen: It's computer-based restoration... with a lot of human tweaking. And boy, do I **wish** it was real-time... !! As an FYI to everyone-- the "Fine and Mellow" clip in question will be replaced shortly with another (better) restoration of the performance-- fortunately, through a fair amount of digging, I found some **marvelous** (and usable) source material, so Billie's & Company's legendary performance will be given the full LiveFeed treatment! And I must say, I'm very glad to be able to bring this piece back to life... -Kevin

I think there is very little assistance coming from that quarter-- earlier this year, I offered to donate my services to the UCLA Television Archive, with an offer to restore any program they had in their collection (just to give them something they could use as a showcase for an upcoming exhibition, or simply to demonstrate what the original live broadcast of one of their shows looked like)-- and was turned down by the head of the archive, for the explicit reason that they were afraid that the material would at some point be illegally distributed. Now, although I hate to sound like a stuffed shirt, as someone who was simply offering a gift to the Archive, and as someone who has previously been entrusted with the restoration of some of the most musically and culturally significant broadcasts that have ever aired on American television, I found that response to be not only rude, but professionally insulting as well. So I don't particularly expect to hear from them anytime soon... As I'm sure everyone here knows, there are several broadcasts from the 1957-1959 era that could (and should) be properly restored, even if they can't immediately be cleared for broadcast or home video. I'm willing to do that work-- but it's going to take some cooperation from the archives to accomplish that goal. -Kevin

The clip that was posted is only 2:05 in duration. Like I said-- just a teaser. -Kevin

Mr. Lowe: Just a little bit of a "quick-and-dirty" touch-up for the snippet I posted... the print used actually had a pretty good soundtrack. -Kevin

Ahh-- so **this** is why my ears were burning... Hi, everyone-- greetings from the land of rain, submerged freeways and LiveFeed! I thought I'd better step in to say that for now (unfortunately), Billie's classic clip is only a teaser... I haven't been hired to do an official restoration of it, at this point. To be perfectly frank, I only learned of the existence of the show about 3 months ago, but I was so taken with the performance (particularly Lester Young's astounding solo), that I wanted to experiment with the clip. And actually, the video transfer I worked with is not optimal-- it's a pretty good print, but the film-to-tape transfer was done on a "blendy" old telecine, which noticeably hampers my restoration efforts. Still, a nice improvement, though. I **do** have some exciting news about another famous jazz program... but I'm afraid I'll have to keep it under my hat for now. Let's just say it'll bear WATCHing, if everything works out right... In any event, thanks for welcoming a jazz newbie here! All the best, -Kevin Segura LiveFeed Video Imaging