The new Selects are in Upcoming

[Soulstation1]

jmjk

blakey's "drums around the corner" disc is available at bluenote's website

http://www.bluenote.com/detail.asp?SelectionID=9859

[Shrdlu]

I don't really want to labor the topic, but McMaster is just about the only one, on any label, whom I dislike. You buy Verve, Columbia, OJC, etc., and any Japanese of course, and the sound's usually great. It is sad that Ron has been used for so many Blue Notes, those being amongst the top sessions ever. There is just no excuse for it when every other label does such a good job. Even that 2 CD Mendes set, from the U.K., is fabulous, and that's by a relatively unknown guy.

I guess no-one at Blue Note/Capitol has the heart to fire Ron. So the problem goes on and on, and we won't get any other version of several rare sessions, such as "Hipnosis" and "Thinking of Home".

[DrJ]

Sorry, jazzdog, I'm definitely with Lon and Shrdlu and a whole lot of others on this one.

If the music was recorded well to begin with, then it deserves to be reproduced in the best possible sound. Blue Note material generally fits that bill, now don't it? RVG did some truly GREAT recordings for the time. To have them reduced to trebly, hissy crap (at times...not all McMasters sound that bad, but even his best have typically not approached the quality of Addy's work) does a disservice to the music, the musicians, and Rudy.

Addy, on the other hand, does incredible work - you probably don't listen to much pre-bop jazz, but his work on some really horrendous source material, such as some of the High Note label reissues of live tapes from the 40's (e.g. Art Tatum), is nothing short of amazing. With good source tapes (check out the recent Basie Roulette CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD reissue) he's un-freaking-believably good at bringing out the best in the music. That album sets a standard for 50's era big band remastering, as far as I'm concerned, just amazing. Nothing McMaster has ever done comes even close.

So sure, we all get it, we know there are many lousy sounding recordings that are wonderful musically (witness much of early Bird), but when they were great recordings 40 or 50 years ago I expect them to STILL sound like great recordings today. And as Lon points out, this all assumes you have a decent enough stereo set up to notice the difference (doesn't have to be expensive, just good).