Larry Kart

I've now purchased two -- one last year (it's on a wall at home), the other recently (it's in the forthcoming show). I'm hooked; she's SO good, plus her work just speaks to me.

Heard that band at the Birdhouse in Chicago. Same personnel as on the Warwick LP. Great stuff. I remember there was talk about Herbie (local kid) joining the band; that may have been his first gig with them.

The terrific science fiction writer Alfred Bester ("The Demolished Man," "The Stars My Destination," some great short stories) was a travel writer and then a senior editor at Holiday from 1959-1971, during which time his science fiction work was curtailed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Bester

Clare Fischer -- "First Time Out" and "Surging Ahead" Pete Jolly -- "The Red Chimney and Sherry's Bar Recordings" Russ Freeman -- "Safe at Home"

My order finally arrived today. Hooray!

Just be clear, the VW TV ad I quoted at the top of this thread was genuine -- saw it yesterday during a football game -- and not my or anyone's attempt at a joke.

Some clouds but very impressive.

Just saw one that now takes on a new meaning. Spokesman begins: "When you drive, things are not always what they appear to be..."

More classical stuff from that library sale: Stravinsky, "Rake's Progress" -- R. Craft Franck Piano Quintet, Liszt solo works -- Richter, Borodin Quartet (a famous performance of the Franck, but no one told me about the hypnotic Liszt performances) Tchaikovsky String Quartets -- Borodin Quartet (Teldec) Vivaldi Violin Concerti -- Shlomo Mintz, Israel Chamber O. (darn good surprisingly, not at all soupy on the part of Mintz or the ICO) Shostakovich "Jazz Music" -- Chailly Mozart Conc. 9, 21 -- De Larrocha, C. Davis Bartok, "Bluebeard's Castle"-- Dorati, LSO (oh, baby! -- and now I've got three of them: Boulez on Sony and Ferencsik on a Hungaroton LP; used to have Boulez on DG. Memory tells me that Ferencsik [the one with G. Melis as Bluebeard; Ferencsik did three] is the overall best, though Troyanis with Boulez is something else, but Dorati sure is in the running). Here's a slightly out of synch video of a scene from the Ferencsik "Bluebeard's Castle." Don't know if these are actors lip-synching to the recording or the actual singers, but they sure do look right for the parts. That Judith! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUz8bUKgcJE

"Concert By the Sea" was the first Garner recording that Columbia released, with the exception of the one-off "Music for Tired Lovers" with Woody Herman from 1954 (an enjoyable album BTW). After "Concert By the Sea" Garner was a Columbia artist for some time. I wouldn't be surprised if Avakian had had his eye on Garner before "Concert By the Sea," but perhaps we shouldn't overthink this. The Carmel concert happened, Columbia/Avakian became aware of it, and bada-bing-bada-bong.

Think it's about time for me to retire from this thread, because I seem to be beating my head against the ground. But if we assume that the Garner's performances at the Carmel concert are inspired (perhaps uniquely inspired or certainly have a unique flavor -- and I say that not as a Garner completist but as a Garner fan who's heard a lot of his recorded work from that period), faked "live" studio performances would have been unlikely to be as inspired and/or just different in flavor/tone. Literally we wouldn't have known the difference between the actual performances and the "fake" ones because we never would have heard the Carmel performances, but the "fake" performances likely would not have electrified listeners the way the real performances did. Regarding point 1, no the technology was not available in 1999. The stereo on Newport was achieved by synching two different monaural recordings of the same music, each recorded with different mic placements. Regarding the second point: I'm not saying fake live albums make sense, or that they are a good idea. I am simply stating that they exist and that the practice was widespread. And yes, many were based on actual live performances, such as Peggy Lee at Basin Street and the Peggy Lee/George Shearing Beauty and the Beat. If they had faked Concert by the Sea, it would not have been any more bizarre or outrageous than any of the others. And the people who would have bought the LP would not have known the difference. Again, IIRC there were practical reasons, good, bad, or otherwise, for both "Lee at Basin Street" and "Beauty and the Beast" being re-recorded in the studio. By contrast, balancing sound quality and quality of performance, there was no good reason to re-record "Concert by the Sea" in the studio and add fake applause/crowd reactions. Further, to repeat what I said, to make fake applause/crowd reactions sound convincing on "Concert By the Sea" would have taken the judgment and nerves of a diamond cutter, given the way audiences spontaneously reacted when they recognized what tunes lay behind Garner's off-the-wall intros. Just listen to the album and see how particular to each piece the flow of that response is. To be fair, neither you nor I can say why a producer made particular choices 60 years ago. I can't remember why I made certain choices on an album that I edited only a year ago. They made sense at the time. If "Concert by the Sea" were faked, no would have known or cared, including you and me. Think it's about time for me to retire from this thread, because I seem to be beating my head against the ground. But if we assume that the Garner's performances at the Carmel concert are inspired (perhaps uniquely inspired or certainly have a unique flavor -- and I say that not as a Garner completist but as a Garner fan who's heard a lot of his recorded work from that period), faked "live" studio performances would have been unlikely to be as inspired and/or just different in flavor/tone. Literally we wouldn't have known the difference between the actual performances and the "fake" ones because we never would have heard the Carmel performances, but the "fake" performances likely would not have electrified listeners the way the real performances did. We wouldn't know for sure until someone tried, but listening to the performances it seems to me that the ripples of recognition vary a fair bit from track to track. Per my post above, if we never had a chance to hear the actual Carmel tracks we certainly wouldn't be able to pinpoint the difference between the actual crowd reactions and added-to-studio-tracks crowd response, but I'd guess that those who heard only the latter "studio tracks plus added crowd response" performances (should they have existed) would have sensed a certain damp squid feeling to the results.

Regarding point 1, no the technology was not available in 1999. The stereo on Newport was achieved by synching two different monaural recordings of the same music, each recorded with different mic placements. Regarding the second point: I'm not saying fake live albums make sense, or that they are a good idea. I am simply stating that they exist and that the practice was widespread. And yes, many were based on actual live performances, such as Peggy Lee at Basin Street and the Peggy Lee/George Shearing Beauty and the Beat. If they had faked Concert by the Sea, it would not have been any more bizarre or outrageous than any of the others. And the people who would have bought the LP would not have known the difference. Again, IIRC there were practical reasons, good, bad, or otherwise, for both "Lee at Basin Street" and "Beauty and the Beast" being re-recorded in the studio. By contrast, balancing sound quality and quality of performance, there was no good reason to re-record "Concert by the Sea" in the studio and add fake applause/crowd reactions. Further, to repeat what I said, to make fake applause/crowd reactions sound convincing on "Concert By the Sea" would have taken the judgment and nerves of a diamond cutter, given the way audiences spontaneously reacted when they recognized what tunes lay behind Garner's off-the-wall intros. Just listen to the album and see how particular to each piece the flow of that response is.

I know that "Concert By the Sea" wasn't recorded by or for Columbia. But it was a Columbia release and thus their call as to whether, in the form made available to them, this material was worth releasing. Good call on their part, I guess.

Again, if faking "live"recordings were that habitual back then, and not the result of trying to solve particular musical and sonic problems that cropped up on particular concert or club date tapes, why would a record company go to all the expense and trouble of attempting to make a live recording in the first place? Why not just have someone take down which tunes were performed in what order at a particular concert or club date that one wanted to claim Joe Blow's new album came from, and then go into the studio with Joe Blow's group and a stash of crowd noise tapes. BTW, a somewhat funny thought just came to mind: You'd need to have two kinds of crowd noise tapes -- for club dates, audience chatter and clinking glasses; for concerts, mass applause and a sense of good-sized space. Imagine if the two tapes got mixed up.

Spectral analysis software was developed initially for forensic purposes, to allow law enforcement to boost or remove certain sounds from recordings, for example, to remove the sounds of the voices on 911 calls to focus on the background sounds. It is much more sophisticated and precise than parametric EQ: You can focus on the inherent sonic quality of the particular source, rather than just the frequency range. For better or worse, this technology has implications/applications for musical recordings, particularly recordings made under less-than-ideal circumstances. You can either boost an instrument that is buried, or reduce an instrument that overwhelms. Needless to say, like all software, it will only keep getting better and better. Some have suggested that it can one day be used to create "stereo" mixes of mono recordings. I was just wondering if this may have been used to improve the sound of this album. I can't name all the fake live albums off the top of my head, but there were many - Peggy Lee/George Shearing, Art Tatum, Tito Puente. I would imagine that that a major factor was selling audiences on a "live" performance, but having the quality control - both in terms of audio and performance - available in the studio. Later, in the multi-track era, it became very common for entire instruments, or many instruments, to be re-recorded in the studio to boost or replace bum parts on live recordings. I'm not defending the practice, I'm just acknowledging it, so given all the work that went into preparing the original "Concert by the Sea" LP, I wonder if they ever considered just issuing a fake live album. "Dimineundo and Crescendo in Blue" from the Newport set was refurbished before the "Complete Ellington at Newport" set was released in 1999 -- was spectral analysis software around back then ?-- when it was discovered that Paul Gonsalves' famous tenor solo, which had been recorded off mike at Newport by Columbia's soloist microphone (this then was the version we all had had to live with for many years), had also been recorded on-mike by a Voice of America microphone. Thus the two tapes could be carefully blended to yield a much better, even stereo, sonic image, of Gonsalves' solo, which is what we have on "Complete Ellington at Newport." About "Concert By the Sea," while those Garner performances are not as tied to the specific event as the Newport "D&C" was to that Newport concert, awareness on the part of Martha Glaser, Columbia execs, and Garner himself that these Carmel performances obviously were special almost certainly would have precluded any thought of re-recording them in the studio and inserting crowd noise. In particular, Garner's response to the enthusiastic reception his playing gets from the Carmel audience is palpable and spurs him on -- not that he needed much spurring on on that occasion. Further, as you know, Garner typically gets applause when he moves from his off-the-wall intros into the tune itself and the audience recognizes what song he's playing. To take recorded-in-the-studio performances and insert fake but convincing versions of that particular sort of crowd response might not be impossible, but it would, I think, take the judgment and nerves of a diamond cutter.

I don't read anything Phil Schaap writes, so I don't know specifically what you are talking about. I'm just saying it was common to re-record live albums in the studio back then, and I'm sure that was driven by factors beyond the musical quality. By the way, did they use spectral analysis software on the remaster to improve the balance? I assumed that Schaap's liner notes were your source for "Didn't stop them from re-doing most of Newport!" I have no idea what "spectral analysis software" is. Just curious, but name some of those "live" albums from back then that were re-recorded in the studio. Some were, but a great many were not. Also, if it was as common as you say to re-record live albums in the studio, why would labels have gone to the trouble of making "live" recordings in the first place? It's not like, except in a few cases, "Ellington at Newport" being one of them, people were lusting to hear music from a specific event. Oh, yes, one did want to hear the live recording, not the studio remake, of the RMS Titanic orchestra's "Nearer My God To Thee."

Because they thought that this concert captured Garner in peak form? Didn't stop them from re-doing most of Newport! What you say is a non-sequitur. The one solid-gold and clearly un-repeatable performance on the Newport program, "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" was not re-done, of course, nor would there have been any need or desire on Columbia's part to re-do Garner's solid-gold performances at Carmel. The tracks from "Ellington at Newport" that were re-done in the studio (wisely or unwisely) were re-done because they were sloppily performed at Newport. No-one would say that about Garner's performances at Carmel. BTW don't believe everything that Phil Schaap says in those "Ellington at Newport Complete" liner notes.

A bunch of classical stuff for $1 each at a local library sale: Bartok Cons. 1&2 with Kocsis and Ivan Fischer, coupled with Rhapsody for Piano and Orch. and Music for Strings, Percussion etc. Pfitzner's "Palestrina," cond. Kubelik (have it on LP but thought I'd see if remastering improved things). Two discs of Mackerras' Delius (he was good with Delius, based on a previous CD I have of his). Horowitz's Schubert D. 960 and Schumann Kinderszenen David Diamond's Sym. No. 1 and other works Milstein's DG Bach Sonatas and Partitas (like I don't already have enough other recordings of these works) Some of Blomstedt's Nielsen symphonies and his Hindemith disc with "Mathis der Mahler" Mozart's "Thamos" -- Harnoncourt Shostakovich's Michelangelo Verses -- Ashkenazy, Fischer-Dieskau Prokofiev Piano Concertos 1-5 -- Krainev, Kitaenko So far have listened to Horowitz's Schubert, quite mannered in spots but also enlightening, the beginning of Fischer's MSPC, which seemed superb, and one of the DSH Michelangelo songs, which confirmed my impression that late D F-D, up until it became too late for him, is more to my taste than most D F-D.

Look for this set to pop up cheap from time to time... I picked it up a few years ago when the Telarc boxes were showing up frequently at bargain prices: Erroll Garner Telarc box Wow, I was unaware of this box..looks to me to be prime 60s material from Mercury/Phillips/London, right? Not sure about "prime," at least in terms of backing. There are two albums with horns as a backdrop ("Up in Errol's Room" and "A New Kind of Love") that I recall as not being ideal -- sampling might be in order first, if possible -- but "Closeup in Swing," "Campus Concert," and "Feeling is Believing" are all quite good, and "At the Movies" is superb, one of my favorites Garner albums. I pulled the plug on the box for 25 bucks in used condition. It's also got Gemini & The Magician, both of which I've long enjoyed on LP. so, at that price, hey, we good. At that price, you're in clover for sure. And I may be wrong about the albums with horn backing.

Look for this set to pop up cheap from time to time... I picked it up a few years ago when the Telarc boxes were showing up frequently at bargain prices: Erroll Garner Telarc box Wow, I was unaware of this box..looks to me to be prime 60s material from Mercury/Phillips/London, right? Not sure about "prime," at least in terms of backing. There are two albums with horns as a backdrop ("Up in Errol's Room" and "A New Kind of Love") that I recall as not being ideal -- sampling might be in order first, if possible -- but "Closeup in Swing," "Campus Concert," and "Feeling is Believing" are all quite good, and "At the Movies" is superb, one of my favorites Garner albums.

Because they thought that this concert captured Garner in peak form?

I'm in complete agreement here. What are people using for record-cleaning fluid? Super Record Wash from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, bought from Music Direct: http://www.musicdirect.com/search.aspx?searchterm=super record wash $24.99 for 32 oz. My container, purchased maybe five years ago, still has a quarter of its contents left.

Garland for sure (I think Red happily acknowledged this), particularly in the way for Garner and for Garland on slow ballads added notes transform the floridity into a kind of hyper-floridity that is arguably ironic or some such mode that may in fact be nameless. In this vein, check out Garland's stunning, slow motion, two-chorus, 10-minute reading of "Mr. Wonderful" with Doug Watkins and Specs Wright on "Rediscovered Masters Vol. 2" (before that it was on a Prestige 2-LP set). There's another "Mr. Wonderful" on "At the Prelude" (I think) with Wright and Jimmy Rowser, but it's not as hallucinatory as the one with Watkins. Working backwards a bit, there's motion/rotors turning inside Garner's slow ballads, and there is too with Garland. BTW, when Dan Morgenstern was co-producing a Chicago Public TV jazz show in the late '60s, it was one of his dreams to pair Garner and his trio (or maybe it was Garner solo) with Ben Webster. Martha Glaser said no.

Listened to the first nine tracks in the car last night. Was surprised at how patterned/seemingly worked out in advance a fair amount of the playing was, which is not my impression of most of the trio and solo studio work that Garner did for Columbia at around that time -- the solo sessions being especially free-wheeling. OTOH, there was a good deal of good fun and inventiveness on the tracks I heard; I'm not unhappy, though I wonder why Garner at this concert seemed to be in a rather "selling the product" mode, if indeed I'm right about that. I mean, he played in front of good-sized audiences all the time, and in his more free-wheeling modes he was, deservedly, still a big a crowd pleaser.