Who were Muenster and Dummel??

[wolff]

I notice on my Norgran titles...."Muenster-Dummel Hi-Fi Recording".

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Jack Dummel was Norman Granz's favorite engineer.

Muenster was Norman Granz's favorite cheese.

You asked.

Mike

[wolff]

That's funny. Probably could have googled it first, but.....

Granz was not above playing the odd trick on his public however. At the time every Jazz LP was expected to bear the words Hi-Fi and Blue Note were by no means unique in describing the exact details of the microphones, tape decks, cutting lathes etc used on their sessions and if some of these had European names (such as Telefunken) then so much the better as that was held to impart an exotic flavour. Granz’s version of this was to include the phrase “Muenster-Dummel Hi Fi Recording” on the front of his LP covers. The knowledgeable listener would perhaps know that Jack Dummel was Norgran’s principal recording Engineer but could only assume that Muenster referred to some foreign person or process thus lending Norgran a degree of exclusivity. However the truth was that Muenster in fact referred to Granz’s favourite cheese. Nevertheless in terms of the ability to capture the sound with the best clarity and realism, most listeners would probably give Rudy van Gelder’s Blue Note studio the edge over Norgran’s - certainly the Tal Farlow Quartet was better recorded than the Tal Farlow Album from a purely technical point of view although both could fairly be described as Hi Fi.