RDK

To continue... 1. “Sister Cheryl” (Williams) Wayne Shorter (s), Wynton Marsalis (t), Herbie Hancock (p), Charlie Haden (b), Tony Williams (d) Jazz at the Opera House (Columbia, 1983) More from the great, unreleased-on-CD "Opera House" album. Have Wayne and Wynton ever played together before or since? I was wondering what you guys thought of the trumpet-playing here, but I don't think anyone commented specifically on it. I really wanted to include a terrific 15+ minute version of "Footprints" by this same group (plus Hutcherson I believe) but it was just too long to fit. 2.”Knucklbean” (Marshall) Bobby Hutcherson (v), Freddie Hubbard (t), George Cables (p), Manny Boyd (s, fl), Hadley Caliman (s, fl), James Leary (b), Eddie Marshall (d) Knucklbean (Blue Note, 1977) Now out on the new Bobby Hutcherson Mosaic Select. Probably my favorite of Hutch's later BN albums. 3. “One to Ten in Ohio” (Mulligan) Gerry Mulligan (bs), Tom Scott (s), Bud Shank (s), Bob Brookmeyer (tb), Harry Edison (t), Howard Roberts (g), Chuck Domanico (b), Emil Richards (d) The Age of Steam (A&M, 1971) I am, overall, not the world's biggest Gerry Mulligan fan, but I really dig this LP. Terrific arrangements and playing all around. 4. “Xocia’s Dance” (Land, Jr.) Harold Land (s), Bobby Hutcherson (v), George Cables (p), Billy Higgins (d), Oscar Brashear (t), John Heard (b), Ray Armando (perc) Xocia’s Dance (Muse, 1982) More from the great Hutch-Land combo. Didn't fool many - didn't think it realy would - but the LP's a bit tough to find and I thought you'd enjoy it. I like this track quite a bit, but it was chosen for inclusion mostly because it was relatively short. 5. “Something” (Harrison”) Gene Harris (p), John Hatton (b), Carl Burnett (d) Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (Blue Note, 1973) This was included mainly to piss off Dan. Seriously, though, this double-LP is a highly mixed bag. Some of the tracks are more conventional and really quite nice, while on others Gene runs amok on his electric keyboard - which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it does result in a few really dated-sounding performances. There are a few truly horrible tracks on this LP - a warning Dan: "Something" doesn't even come close - while others - like "Trieste," which almost made the cut - are lovely. This one I like though, even if it is rather bizarre at times. I love how Harris moves it from a nearly acoustic, gentle ballad to an outrageous, amplified, rock-and-roll assault. And back again. And then again. Yeah, it's too long and incredibly indulgent, but it's of the time, man, of the time. As a side note, I'm betting this one will never see the light of day on CD, which is (mostly) unfortunate. The problem is, it runs over 80 minutes and so would require a 2-CD set, making it much too expensive to market given its already questionable artistic value and commercial potential. If a few of the more dated and objectionable tracks were cut it would likely make a much better single CD, but we, as obsessive jazz fans, would so object to BN releasing an "incomplete" album that I can't imagine Cuscuna even bothering. It's a Catch-22 that will probably keep this an LP-only issue. 6. “Take the A-Train” (Ellington) Billy Byers Orchestra (w/ Clark Terry, Joe Newman, Ernie Royal, Jimmy Cleveland, Melba Liston, Jerry Dodgion, Eric Dixon, Sol Schlinger, Patti Brown, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson, more…) Impressions of Duke Ellington (Mercury, 1961) “Perfect Presence Sound” Series – f:35d/35 mm film recording This is the kind of corny-looking LP - "Stereo Spectacular!" "Hi-Fi Percussion!" - that you usually pass over when you find them (often in mass quantities) in the thrift store record bins. But some of them are pretty damn good. I'm glad Sangry at least was wise enough to see the appeal of this one. Plus, it sounds great in stereo! 7. “Black and Tan Fantasy” (Ellington) Lew Tabackin (s), John Heard (b), Billy Higgins (d) Black & Tan Fantasy (JAM, 1979) I couldn't not transition one Ellington cover to another. From the wacky to the sublime. And there's definitely not enough Tabackin trio recordings out there. 8. “Shamading” (McCann) Les McCann (p, keys), Keith Loving (g), James Rowser (b), Donald Dean (d), Buck Clarke (perc) Talk to the People (Atlantic, 1972) See, this one I thought would be relatively easy, but no one got it. Another guilty secret in how/why I compiled this LP-based collection: a couple of these albums come really close to sucking but for a great track or two. This was one of them. Now I've burned my favorite track and will never have to buy the CD. 9. “Sex Machine” (S. Stewart) Woody Herman Band (w/Bill Chase, Sal Nistico, Phil Upchurch, John Hicks, Donny Hathaway, Gene Perla, Edward Soph Double Exposure (Chess, 1976) originally released on Heavy Exposure (Cadet, 1969?) As explained earlier: D'oh! Seriously, though, props to Woody for trying to do something contemporary. For a lot of guys it didn't work. Woody, imo, pulls it off with flying colors. Tight band! 10. “Summer Wind” (Mercer & Mayer) Johnny Hartman (v), George Coleman (s), Herman Foster (p), Earl May (b), Roland Prince (g), Billy Higgins (d) Today (Perception, 1972) Again, the best track on an otherwise iffy album. Not as bad as some would have you believe; I really like these jazz covers of contemporary pop tunes. 11. “Our Home” (Henderson) Harold Land (s), Bobby Hutcherson (v), Bill Henderson (p), Harold Land, Jr. (p), Reggie Johnson (b), Woody Theus (d) Choma (Mainstream, 1971) I love the Hutch-Land combo so much I had to include them twice. Are any of these Mainstream LPs out on CD? Anyone know who owns the label now? 12. “Painter’s Blues” (Sandstrom) Nisse Sandstrom (s), Tommy Flanagan (p), Red Mitchell (b) Home Cooking (Polydor, 1981) Never heard of this guy - one of Sweden's "most fascinating" tenors, says the liner notes - outside of this import LP, purchased around 1990, probably during some Tower Records LP purge. Nice playing all around, but what really caught my attention at the time was just how well this album was recorded and how terrific it sounded on vinyl. Not sure if the excellent sound comes through on mp3, but it's a jazz demo disc to be sure. 13. “Tonight at Noon” (Mingus) Charles Mingus (b), Shafi Hadi (s), Jimmy Knepper (tb), Wade Legge (p), Dannie Richmond (d) The Art of Charles Mingus: The Atlantic Years (Atlantic, 1973) originally recorded 1957 I've always loved this story, written by Nat Hentoff in the liner notes: Tonight at Noon is an invocation of the jazz life - in its title and in its content. The title, as I remember, comes from a phrase that some musicians would use after the last set at two or three in the morning. "I'll see you later - tonight at noon." One of Mingus' greatest early compositions imo, and stunningly ahead of its time. This, to me, is when the avant-garde truly began. 14. “Oh, Didn’t He Ramble” (Handy) Dave Pell (s), Jack Sheldon (t), Harry Betts (tb), Med Flory (bs), Marty Paitch/Johnny Williams (p), Lyle Ritz (b), Tommy Tedesco (g), Frankie Capp (d) The Old South Wails (Capitol, 1961) Another wonderful old LP. West Coast jazz meets Southern Blues. 15. “I’ve Tried” (Trad./Byrne/Blumberg) David Byrne (v) w/Pete Christlieb, Jackie Kelso, Garnett Brown, etc. Music for the Knee Plays (ECM, 1985) This in an album of music that David Byrne did with Robert Wilson, for Wilson's mid-80's theatrical experience, The Civil Wars. Amazing stuff, though maybe not strictly jazz, that has yet to be released on CD. This was a favorite of mine during my heady college years and thought I'd share...

Okay, Dan convinced me... a couple of additional comments... I have to admit to embarking on an all-vinyl BFT for purely selfish reasons: I have a lot of older vinyl that I hardly ever listen to anymore and this forced me to dig deep down into the collection. There were a couple of problems with that, of course, one being that not all the LPs sounded all that great (scratches, pops, etc.). Not that i mind listening to scratchy LPs on occassion, but I really didn't want to waste my time burning these inferior-sounding tracks to CD for "posterity." The other problem, more critical actually, was that the majority of my LP buying was done in my earlier years of listening to jazz... so while perhaps ecclectic in style my collection isn't necessarily that deep. I realized this early on when most of the tracks were identified relatively quickly. Still, I hope there were some obscurities and discoveries for at least some of you... Compiling this was a blast - a real trip down memory lane since I can remember where and when I purchased many of these, some going back nearly 30 years. There were actually a few discs that I either never listened to shortly after buying or that my tastes since developed to fit them; I actually "discovered" a lot of this music (either again or for the first time) while listening to these tracks for posible inclusion. One additional note: the 50 cent bins are your friend! 1. “’Round Midnight” (Monk) Wayne Shorter (s) & Herbie Hancock (p) Jazz at the Opera House (Columbia, 1983) Like Jim, I'm shocked that this 2-LP set has never been released on CD. Some very good music here and some unique collaborations. I was surprised that so few guessed that it's Wayne playing. This was a late addition to D1 since I was short room before cutting something else. I almost used an edit of Wayne's (at least I assume it's Wayne's) declarative "This is for Monk!" statement to open the disk - I just love the way he says it with such simple authority. Monk died just a few days before... 2. “Elm” (Beirach) Richard Beirach (p), George Mraz (b), Jack DeJohnette (d) Elm (ECM, 1979) One of my favorite tunes, at least of the last 30 years. I used a different version of this on my first BFT a few years ago because I wasn't able to copy my LP at the time. This is Beirach's original version, from one of my favorite ECMs during, imo, their finest period. The slighty icy "ECM sound" works terrifically on this sort of music, no? 3. “Como En Vietnam” (Swallow) Gary Burton (v), Steve Swallow (b), Roy Haynes (d), Tiger Okoshi (t) Times Square (ECM, 1978) Continuing a mini-ECM fest. Someone mentioned (maybe Mike?) not really digging Burton all that much but really liking this track. I agree. From one of my favorite Burton albums, again from ECM's peak years. As a composer, Steve Swallow is really hit-or-miss for me, but this one works. I picked this up, along with maybe a hundred other ECMs, during a distributor change cut-out sale during the early/mid-80s. Probably paid a buck or two for the sealed LPs. 4. “I Remember Clifford” (Golson) Odean Pope (s), Cecil Bridgewater (t), Calvin Hill (b), Max Roach (lays out) Chattahoochie Red (Columbia, 1981) Heh. Though having the leader of the session not actually play on the track might fool some of you. Not Sangry. 5. “The Nearness of You” Buster Cooper (tb), Johnny Hodges (leader), Paul Gonsalves, Hank Jones, Jimmy Jones, Tiny Grimes, Milt Hinton, Gus Johnson Triple Play (RCA, 1987) recorded 1967 This, my friends, is my all-time favorite trombone track, first heard on the Johnny Hodges compilation LP noted above. Hodges doesn't solo here and it's virtually all Buster. A bit gimmicky for some of you and that's understandable, but it gets me every single time. 6. “Brother Sam” (Rivers & Schiano) Sam Rivers (s), Mario Schiavo (s), Dave Holland (b), Barry Altschul (d) Rendez-Vous (Red/Vedette Records, 1977) I've never seen/heard this record anywhere else before and there's only the barest mention of it found on the net, in some Rivers discography. Bought this at a Tower Records import LP blow-out around 1990 or so, probably for .79. A bit inside for Sam's work of the period and maybe that's why i like it so much. Also probably the closest we'll ever get to Sam playing "C-Jam Blues." 7. “Night Crawlers” (Albam) Manny Albam, Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Frank Rehak, Eddie Costa, Al Cohn, Addison Farmer, Ed Shaughnessy Something New, Something Blue (Columbia, 1959) From one of those Columbia multi-artist showcase LPs of the period. A really fine album overall. This wasn't actually my favorite track (though it soon grew on me), but it sounded the best and I wanted to include some Albam, who's underrated and seems to have been nearly forgotten over the years. 8. “Ghost Riders in the Sky” (Jones) Bob James (p), Ron Brooks (b), Bob Pozar (d) Mercury 40th Anniversary V.S.O.P. Album (Nippon/Jasrac, 1984) recorded 1962 Makes me smile every time. I actually thought many of you would hate this one for all the gimmickry and wit; glad I was wrong. 9. “Bird Raga” (Sprague) Peter Sprague (g), Bill Mays (p), Bob Magnusson (b), Jim Plank (d) Bird Raga (Xanadu, 1983) recorded 1980 I used to see Peter play a lot during my decade in San Diego. I actually recorded him one for a KPBS-TV music special (during my brief time as a TV studio audio engineer). He never hit it as big as I thought he might. At times he came across as a Pat Metheny-lite, at other times a bit too hippy-dippy or sappy. But he could sure play straight-ahead when he wanted to. 10. “Brotherhood of Man” (Loesser) Gary McFarland, Clark Terry, Doc Severinson, Bernie Glow, Herb Pomeroy, Bob Brookmeyer, Willie Dennis, Billy Byers, Ed Wasserman, Al Cohn, Oliver Nelson, Phil Woods, Sol Schlinger, Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Joe Benjamin, Osie Johnson How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Verve, 1961) Another cheap find, though a more recent acquisition. Wasn't too familiar with McFarland before a couple of years ago, but this LP and a couple of others won me over. There were a ton of these jazz-versions-of-movie-soundtracks done at the time and only a relative few have really remained famous and in-print. But there are treasures to be found if you look. Didn't realize this had come out on CD at one point. It sounds expensive now, but it's another to track down. It was very hard to pick which track to include here. The title track, featuring Oliver Nelson, is another killer. 11. “Every Once in a While” (Rome) Randy Weston (p), Benny Green, Slide Hampton, Melba Liston, Frank Rehak (tbs), Peck Morrison (b), Elvin Jones (d), Willie Rodriguez (perc) Little Niles (Blue Note, 1976) originally released as Destry Rides Again (UA, 1959) Heh. Had to include a sample of what was left off of the Mosaic select box. Yes, this is from the BN two-fer from the mid-70s. 12. “Pete’s Meat” (Rogers) Pete Jolly (acord), Jimmy Giuffre (s), Shorty Rogers (t), Howard Roberts (g), Curtis Counce (b), Shelly Manne (d) Jolly Jumps In (RCA, 1955) Damn Tooter and his friend who knows everything about jazz accordian (and worse, who will admit it)! Was not really that familiar with Jolly's work prior to this album, but he sure had some talented friends. Doesn't sound bad for original vinyl from 1955 bought for less than a buck a year or two ago. 13. “Petite Fleur” (Bechet) Bud Shank (s), Chet Baker (t), the Star Trek Choir Michelle (World Pacific, 196?) Laugh all you want but this stuff sold. For some reason I have three copies of this one and, ironically, they've all been very used. But even playing this shit, Shank sounds good. 14. “Mornin’ Reverend” (Jones) Thad Jones & Mel Lewis Orchestra, Gregory Herbert (s) Live in Munich (Horizon, 1977) Picked up this one just a few months ago and it was a last-minute addition to the BFT. Never heard of Herbert before, but I really dig his solo here. Not the best recording as many of you noted, but it's a strong performance. 15. “Road Time Shuffle” (Akiyoshi) Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band Road Time (RCA, 1976) I'm a huge fan of the Akiyoshi-Tabackin band and have most if not all of their albums, at least the early ones on RCA. This is really special stuff for me, and it's criminally underrepresented in the CD era, at least here in the U.S. Seek it out! The LPs can still be found on the cheap. 16. “The City of Dallas” (Swallow) Steve Kuhn (p), Harvie Swartz (b), Bob Moses (d), Sheila Jordan (v) Last Year’s Waltz (ECM, 1982) Heh. Thought this one wouldn't go over too well, but didn't expect Jim's outrage. Interesting analysis, though, and certainly no hard feelings. Personally, I love it; it always puts a smile on my face. Certainly not Sheila's finest hour as a vocalist, but it's a silly set closer and, imo, isn't meant to be anything more than fun. The other tracks are polished and far more conventional, but not nearly as divisive.

Nah, I just didn't think anyone cared! Gotta run now, but I'll add some comments later today.

Yes, please! CA is obviously looking for a new home. Waste of time. This is his place! Yes, this is indeed his place. But it's by his choice that he doesn't post here anymore. And for reasons that are, imo, petty. So fuck him. He's welcome here, as is Scott. Ironically, I'm much closer, politically, to CA than SD, but I've found the non-jazz discussions with Scott much less bitter and rancorous than many of those that Chris participated in. Frankly, as a liberal, I'm often disgusted by how some of you idolize some and vilify others simply because their political ideals differ from one's own. One of the great things about this forum is the openness and diversity of opinion that Jim allows here. And yet many of you would wish to quash that diversity by driving away anyone who doesn't agree with you. Astoundingly dumb.

Hah. Wait until he finds out they don't allow ANY politics over there!

for the glory of the allmighty ORIN (sic bastard) I'm not sure I'd blame Orin for these. More likely Concord's simply jumping on the marketing gimmick bandwagon that began with Blue Note's RVG series.

And for any fans of The Office, the lovely Karen is played by Rashida Jones, Q & Peggy's daughter.

Great news, John! I will try to catch your L.A. show.

Never thought I'd say this but it looks like K-Fed got out while the getting was good...

Ironically perhaps since I have the Hodges but not the Wilson (though I've heard some of it), I'd have to vote for the GW. The Hodges is pretty terrific music, of course, but much of it tends to sound the same to me... and little of it is better or more interesting than any of the Ellington groups he was in. I also much prefer the earlier, vinyl-only Hodges Mosaic.

Happy -day, Mike!

Like the federal government, I operate at a deficit...

An easy listening/muzak version of Forever Changes would be awesome!

btw, Thread Crapping ® goes on here all the time - we just don't normally care about it.

Don't disagree about the general commentary re: Hoffman's site (no need to beat around the bush about whose site you're refering to), but one could easily call Organissimo a "particular band's vanity site" as well...

Don't forget to bring back a bottle of absinthe!

Even if that engineer has ears that are 40-50 years older and now hears things differently (as we all do)?

Say no more, Jim. If there's any forum I'm willing to throw a few bucks toward it's this one.

First off, many thanks to Durium for the discs/downloads. Very nice music here - and I love the fact that some it's not so serious. I always think that I'm going to get better at this and learn to identify the actual artists involved, but it's not working here and nothing/no one sounds especially identifiable (to me; I'm sure others will peg them right away ). I'm usually better at identifying tunes, but my brain's not working right today and though a number of these tunes sound very familiar I'm having trouble naming them. I've been listening to these at work, through my mini computer speakers, but I'm hoping to spin them at home this weekend on the stereo so I'll hopefully be able to add some more insightful commenrs later. Here goes nothin'... 1. Love the raucousness of this one. Feels on the verge of being out-of-control, but that’s what makes it really work for me. 2. Chick Corea trio? 3. Woody Shaw? 4. Tune sounds very familiar; I’m sure I’ll kick myself for having this one somewhere in the collection. Kenny Burrell on guitar? 5. Very nice. I’m detecting a pattern here: really classy, well-played, emotive jazz. 6. Bossa Nova-ish. Love the sax part around 2:30 in. 7. Nothing bad per se, but this one’s not really doing it for me. If I had to pick a least-favorite track this might be it. Though listening again, that guitar solo is tasty. 8. Nice, but no clue. 9. Geez, I’m having brain fart and can’t think of the title of this very familiar tune. Anyway, it’s got a wonderful sense of humor throughout, especially from the pianist (or are there two of them?). 10. Konitz? 11. More funk than jazz to my ears, but that’s cool. 12. “What is this Thing…” Nice boppish version, but really nothing too unique. Distortion (LP? Bootleg?) gets in the way a bit. 13. Another familiar tune. I like this a lot as well. Very loose playing – it lets everyone stretch out and say their thing. 14. Are we at the circus? Lots o’ fun!

there's always dimeadozen...

Some quick thoughts on Disc B. Overall, I think I prefered Disc A, but there's certainly much wunnerful stuff to be enjoyed here. Many thanks! 1. Can’t tell if this is really old (and European) or a put-on to sound old. The guys are obviously having a blast, but I can’t tell if it’s legit. On its own, this is a bit too goofy; I suspect it would work much better for me in the context of an entire album/set. 2. This one’s growing on me… 3. Django? 4. Gotta be Grappelli in there somewhere… 5. Bone and guitar? Lovely. 6. Very pretty. 7. Love that deep, rich bari sound! Odd meter (?) to the tune, but overall I really like this – but not so much the vocal parts. 8. 9. “I’ll Remember April.” Again, perhaps Grappelli, but he sounded more like him in #4. 10. 11. Like this. No clue though… 12. Again, very nice, tasteful… 13. Ah, finally something very different! I like this. Swings more than most sax duets. 14. Sweet, but a bit too precious perhaps – like a lullaby. Good bookend with #1.

I thought EXACTLY the same thing. a drum-off with Haynes, who would blow Copeland right off the stage. Elvin in his last weeks of life where his playing was something less than stellar could have blown Copeland off the stage. How about Chris Dave? How about Billy Cobham (he played with McCoy in 2005 at Yoshi's and we talked about it for weeks). Lenny White? Name your favorite jazz drummer. In fact, let's start a movement to get Copeland to put up or shut up. As for attitude, is there anyone more narcissitic than a rock star? How unseemly is it for someone who makes more money than gawd to knock people who work like dogs, make about 1% of Copeland's salary then trash their musical skills? Unlike Copeland, Flea of the Chili Peppers, who also grew up in a jazz household and still fools around with jazz trumpet, respects jazz musicians and the art form. Flea is also one bad mutha on the bass and the best reason to listen to that band (the second would be Frusciante). He had a sign behind him at the Grammys giving much love to Ornette. Copeland is an ass. He's such a baby he needs to be a flame thrower to get a little bit of attention from the press. I still maintain that Copeland couldn't cut is as a jazz muscian and his insecurity won't allow him to get over it. I mean, if he was such a great jazz talent, I suppose Sting would have used him instead of someone who could actually play jazz when Sting was dabbling in jazz lite. Did you hear them play Roxanne at the Grammy's? Sounded like warmed over mush. All I could hear in my head was the version Sting recorded with Branford and how much BETTER that version sounded than whatever was going on Sunday night. Rant complete. You are returned to your regularly scheduled discussion. This has all become so damn juvenile. A drum-off between Copeland and Haynes (or anyone) is pointless; it's apples and oranges. One's a rock drummer, one's a jazz drummer. That's like having Ella sing "against" Maria Callas and then ask which one's better.

http://jazztimes.com/reviews/audio_video_f...cfm?ReviewID=38 From March 2007 JazzTimes, written by Mike Quinn... How lucky we are as humans to so often unlock the mysteries of history. The Rosetta Stone was the key that unlocked the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics, while the skull of Lucy, an unknown woman from ancient Ethiopia, has helped us learn important details about our earliest ancestors. Digging around remote places for unknown treasures has yielded some astonishing milestones for archeologists and anthropologists, whose work helps us understand who we are and how we’ve developed. In the world of jazz, a handful of equally curious souls do a similar sort of digging through the detritus of record vaults and library collections. Their excavations often lead to the preservation, restoration and research of revealing artifacts from recording sessions of decades past. The most famous recent find, of course, is the spectacular Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane’s At Carnegie Hall tapes discovered in the Library of Congress by JT contributor Larry Appelbaum. Noting the importance of the find, Michael Cuscuna, co-producer of the session’s release for Blue Note, employs anthropological terminology. “I don’t think we’ll ever find anything else that will have the kind of impact that disc had,” says Cuscuna. “It was such a missing link in the music. The sound of that group with Monk and Coltrane was fabled after being together so long, but there was no real documented evidence. This helps fill in that gap.” Appelbaum, Supervisor and Senior Studio Engineer with the Library of Congress and the serendipitous audio archeologist, put the discovery in perhaps more human terms. “I’ve said that my heart started to race when I realized what we’d found,” he says. “I love the music of both Monk and Coltrane, so as the story unfolded and the recordings gradually made their way to release, I was very happy for everyone who has ever been touched by their music. It’s nice to know that good music can survive in the commercial marketplace. I smile when I think of all the young musicians whose parents bought this for them.” Will more unmined gems such as this appear in the future? With a tremendous wealth of musical riches at hand in the Library of Congress, Appelbaum is hopeful of more discoveries. “Of course everyone who does this sort of work knows there is always more. It’s one reason why we do what we do. You never know when you’ll find that Buddy Bolden cylinder,” he says, referring to the legendary lost tome by that pioneer of American jazz. “The Library has nearly three million items of audio materials, but we do not store or shelve by genre. However, jazz is an especially important American art form and jazz in our collections runs deep,” Appelbaum proclaims. For his part, multiple Grammy-award-winner Cuscuna has been involved in nearly 2,000 reissue projects since getting into the recording business nearly 36 years ago. He co-founded Mosaic Records in 1981 with the intention of compiling boxed set LP releases of otherwise ignored sessions by artists like Monk, Nat Cole, Clifford Brown and countless others, while still finding time to do freelance production gigs for Blue Note and Impulse! Yet with all the spectacular titles he’s reissued, it still comes down to something very personal when he chooses favorites. “One of the projects that has given me the most joy was uncovering all the John Coltrane Impulse! recordings from those Village Vanguard dates in ’61. Coltrane’s Live at the Village Vanguard really changed my life when it came out originally—it just changed everything. So that particular session held a lot of curiosity and affection for me,” Cuscuna admits. “I’d heard there were eight people onstage for those dates and always wondered what the other music sounded like. I was hoping the tapes were there, I assumed they were there, but it wasn’t until I got into the Impulse! vaults that I knew for sure…those sessions were one of the few Coltrane projects we were able to totally reconstruct. On some later Coltrane albums, especially from ’62, ’63, ’64, the session reels are missing, which is really frustrating,” Cuscuna moans, repeating a lament heard far too often in this field of historical reconstruction. So what happens when an ancient tape or disc turns up and seems ready to fall apart, or perhaps is already doing so? Appelbaum outlines his approach to saving musical treasures: “You have to assess condition and know the best way to capture sound from whatever carrier. That means first you need to have well-maintained machines to play back obsolete formats. Remember that we’ve got everything from the earliest cylinders and Berliner discs, through lacquer, shellac, aluminum discs and every manifestation of magnetic tape. If you try to play these sorts of materials without proper methods, you can easily destroy them. You’ll want to transfer the materials by capturing the most usable signal with the least amount of distortion. It really comes down to combining equipment, tools, knowledge, skills and experience.” Appelbaum then sums up the LOC philosophy: “In general, we do preservation, not restoration. We know that the restoration tools improve every year, so we’d rather capture ‘flat’ at highest resolution and let others apply their subjective aesthetic for later clean-up.” That’s where someone like Steve Hoffman enters the picture. Hoffman, perhaps best known for his former reissue company DCC, has worked on, according to his estimate, 1,900 recording and mastering projects including hundreds of jazz titles, and is often credited with coining the term “remastering.” Much of his work with jazz focuses on the classics from the Prestige/Riverside/Contemporary group now owned by Concord. His experience offers some interesting insight into what many consider to be the golden age of recorded jazz. “It was the era of the independent jazz label,” asserts Hoffman, “and these small labels like Prestige couldn’t afford to use someplace big-league like Capitol studios, so they had to improvise. Prestige used an East Coast engineer named Rudy Van Gelder for almost everything, and he had his own vacuum-tube sound; while my favorite guy on the West Coast was Roy DuNann, who did many of the albums on Contemporary like Art Pepper + Eleven and Shelly Manne’s Modern Jazz Performances of Songs From My Fair Lady. He worked wonders with three microphones and a vacuum tube Ampex tape recorder in the mailroom of Contemporary Records—that was their recording studio. It fascinates the hell out of me that they were able to get such a great sound with such minimal gear. I love that. It makes my job a lot easier because it already sounds so good. It just needs a little polishing. “What I’m looking for as the final goal hasn’t changed in my entire career,” he elaborates, “and it’s what I call the ‘breath of life.’ I want to hear something in the recording that sounds lifelike. I’m an amateur drummer, guitarist [and] piano player, and I know what a cymbal should sound like, what a sax should sound like. I tailor all my mastering to sound as lifelike as possible. For example, Van Gelder recorded everything a tad hot, and a little sharp in the top end, which translated perfectly in a 1950s LP cutting because everybody’s playback equipment was lacking. So when you play a straight Van Gelder tape, it sounds a little bright and a little lacking in the low end, so I just correct that a little bit so the cymbals don’t sound like they are shrieking, so that they have natural overtones. Then when that hits, all of a sudden the saxes, the trumpets and everything else start to sound a little bit more natural. “But the exact opposite has to happen with the Hollywood stuff from Contemporary which was done straight to the Ampex, a machine which was always a little soft. What Van Gelder did was equalize the sound as he was recording, to have a little more punch. But what they did at Contemporary was to record the music straight, then they punched it up in the cutting of the disc. So that sound is not built into the masters, and you have to add a little bit—add a little shimmer to the drums—or else it sounds too dead. Two opposite approaches in making music sound natural and lifelike, but they both work for me,” Hoffman states. In achieving just the right sound, Hoffman stresses that his pursuit of naturalness is paramount. “I usually find the main instrument,” he says. “If it’s a vocal recording like, say, Ella Fitzgerald, then obviously the main instrument is her voice, and I master to that and everything else just has to fall into place. I don’t care what the drums sound like on an Ella Fitzgerald recording because if her voice doesn’t sound natural, like she’s standing there, what’s the point of the record?” Cuscuna’s overall approach to the jewels he polishes is similar to Hoffman’s. “I look for the warmest and most full-range sound possible and that’s why I try to go to the original tapes,” says Cuscuna. “I started out as a producer in the studio and I know what the music should sound like and so did the original engineers in those old studios. I go for the most open, uncompressed sound, and strive for bass that comes out at you but is not flabby. I will use EQ to shape a flabby bass response or to take off very, very shrill high end, but basically I like to stick to the original intent of the original engineer because that’s usually right. Back when I used to win Grammys for my reissue packages, I used to tell people that you get recognized or rewarded for not fucking up the sound. All you have to do is work your way back to the original source, and not fuck it up like everybody else did. If you do that, you’re fine.” Many so-called audiophiles swear that nothing sounds better than the old, original pressings of jazz, classical and even rock LPs. But both Hoffman and Cuscuna agree that this is not necessarily so, at least with jazz classics. “I totally do not agree with that opinion,” Hoffman says, sounding a bit flustered. “But every case is totally different. For example, take a Rudy Van Gelder Prestige LP, Miles Davis’ Cookin’. Here’s an album that’s very dynamic, very lifelike in its tonality. Now, the original LP that was cut by Van Gelder has been compressed two-to-one. In other words, the dynamic range has been cut in half. There’s been a giant presence boost around 5,000 cycles; there are high and low cutoffs at around 10,000 cycles and around 50 cycles. It’s not a natural sound at all; it’s completely fake. However, the original tape sounds nothing like that, and my version would sound nothing like that. I want my masters to sound natural. If a 1958 Prestige LP sounds really good on your stereo, then your stereo is not set up correctly, and you can quote me on that.” Cuscuna concurs, citing his own reasoning for straying from that older LP paradigm when working on his reissues. “I do not necessarily honor the sound of the original LP because there were several things operating,” he says. “For one, producers and artists rarely went to the mastering sessions, so it’s not like the project has their sanction or their desires soundwise. And number two, to get the music on an LP side when cutting, you have to keep the gain down, you have to keep the bass response down, and what they tended to do in the ’60s was to tweak the highs so the disc sounded artificially bright. Plus they used a lot of reverb, which was the style of the day. Simply put, many of the accommodations that were made for LPs were made for the pressing plant and they were not that good for the ultimate sound. What I do is try to go back to the most unequalized, driest [with the least amount of reverb] tape that came out of the recording studio. I look for the recording engineer’s original sound of the music that he achieved when those guys on the other side of the glass were playing it in front of him.” Cuscuna finishes by commenting on the evolution of sound recording. “I will say that through the years, from solid-state into digital, the music has been delivered in such a way that—the only way I can explain it—is that it brings on a kind of ear fatigue that you don’t get with a warm, tube analog system.” Hoffman guardedly and concisely describes his technique for working his remastering magic: “If I tell you all my secrets I will have to kill you. But basically, if it’s an old tape, I’ll start it out on an Ampex ATR, a modern machine, but with a vacuum-tube line stage in the chain so I can hear what it sounded like on an old-style Ampex. I always play back something that was recorded on a vacuum-tube tape recorder. There is nothing that mucks up the sound more than playing a tape from 50 years ago on a modern solid-state machine. The tonality changes. But if it makes it too muddy, then I’ll change over to a proprietary solid-state playback amp, and then I make a determination of how much I need to correct the levels and so on, because if I don’t have to do stuff like that, then I will bypass all the mastering gear completely, and go right into making a record or making a CD. I like to use as little stuff as possible. The gear is not complicated: you control your levels, left and right, you add a little EQ. Then other mastering engineers will add compression to make their job easier, and others, whose names I will not mention, even add echo to make their version unique. I would never do that in a hundred thousand years, adding echo. It obscures the detail and obscures the music. I have all the tools that other mastering engineers have, but my little trick is knowing when not to use them, because I will gladly not use them to keep the faithful sound of the original tape. “The basic assumption,” Hoffman continues, “is that you’re interested in hearing the natural sound of an acoustic instrument unless you’re Jean-Luc Ponty or something. There’s only one way a saxophone can sound. Yeah, it’s going to change when it’s Coleman Hawkins or Ornette Coleman, but we’ve heard enough acoustic music in our life to know the truth when we hear it. Our ears are going to go, ‘That’s the reedy sound of a saxophone.’ If it’s screeching or squawking, or it’s too bright, then the ears say, ‘That’s a recording of a saxophone.’ If you pay 40 bucks for a reissue LP, you want your ears to go, ‘Oh! They could be standing there playing!’ Who wouldn’t want that? You don’t want ’em to go, ‘Oh! This is a recording of people who were standing there a long time ago.’” Hoffman summarizes the ultimate goal of work like his, Cuscuna’s, Appelbaum’s and others determined to mine jazz history for the lessons to be learned therein: “What we do is called resurrecting the dead.”

I've been "experimenting" with long (20-30) minute tracks by William Parker, Han Bennink, Graham Collier, Joe McPhee, Frank Lowe, etc. Turned me on to some great artists that way. Also like Bang on a Can's version of Terry Riley's "In C" - a single track disc!

oops. I think I just banned myself from the Steve Hoffman Forums. Please read the forum rules and please do not question the decisions of the Gorts, especially in public.