Very insightful review, glad you're enjoying it! Re the piano. remember that these are all live-to-two-track recordings by RVG. He mixed in real time while the musicians were playing. There's no possibility of going back and raising levels on one instrument or another. That's kind of the beauty of it....these jazz recordings from the '50s and '60s capture a moment in time. We can adjust tonal balance in mastering but not individual instrument levels.
AI makes tuning/isolating instruments post recording from a mixed copy possible, easy, and fun; Not ethically OK vs. the RVG intent? Well, as you say, these were all real time recordings made while musicians were playing, so the output wasn't carefully 'controlled' / mixed like on later, more sophisticated recordings (say 'Thriller'). Thus, I say: why not? I've already started doing my own mixes using AI software available all over the web. It's actually a lot of fun: Isolate this instrument from that instrument, remix in a minute. A lot of fun. It's here. No way back. On reggae tunes, I take out the vocals and have pretty close to perfect instrumentals from famous tunes from Bob Marley, for example. The world is changing. These fabulous Tone Poet are cool old school slices of the past transmitted via plastic and paper. The future can encompass that stuff, but lies elsewhere, whether we like it or not.
@ itsvladzino3246 One thing you are missing is that dumping the audio to digital and “fixing” the piano would be contrary to the spirit of the Tone Poet Series, which is thus far 99% all derived from AAA mastering techniques. Blue Note records, like many of the time that were recorded directly to 2-track (or less), are riddled with quirks and anomalies that come with the territory, and arguably make these records more human due to the engineers reacting in real-time to the actions and sounds of the players. Some of the best records of all time have flaws in tempo, sour notes, engineering errors, and the like, but they didn’t sell one copy less due to them. Again, it’s humans making human music, recorded by humans in real time, versus a recording of many takes of peak performances edited together to make a “perfect” performance. The level of the piano in one section of one song, if it doesn’t detract from the OVERALL feeling and impact of the tune as a whole, would usually be left “as is.” That’s the beauty of a Blue Note, or a Stax, or even a Beatles record. The early Beatles stuff is chock full of unison vocals that don’t “match up,” and no one seemed to care, because the feeling was there.
Thanks for covering this album, it's truly sublime. How this wasn't released back in the day is astonishing. I love Bernie Maupin's playing on this album (I've always been a fan of his). Maybe you should start a feature about albums that were deemed 'not worthy of release'' at the time, but now have now climbed to very near the top of that musician's output.
Hey, Hope you are well. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do a review on one the most underrated session recordings in the great Lee Morgan catalogue. Take Twelve 1962 is an album I go back to so often. Recorded in 18 hours, this album has it all and unusually for Lee Morgan-not recorded at Van Geldar's studio. This album helped put L.M back on track even though he ended up with a year in rehab. An album well worth re-visiting for jazz fans. Progressive, swing, it has it all and with a stellar support cast. Great work on all your reviews by the way,. Very much appreciated.
Hi, thanks for the precise and informative review… as usual! Cant wait to get it from my local dealer here in Paris, they didn’t had it last Friday, probably due to august slower delivery…
Don’t sleep on George Benson’s ‘60s career folks! He was building a solid career as a bandleader before ‘Miles in the Sky’. In addition to his 1964 album on Prestige, he had two albums on Columbia (It’s Uptown’ (1966) and ‘The George Benson Cookbook’ (1967). Both of those Columbia albums have been influential for generations of jazz guitarists. He had ‘Giblet Gravy’ in the can for Verve before the ‘Miles in the Sky’ sessions were complete.
If you like the Columbia Benson albums, I highly recommend finding Benson Burner (2-LP comp of his Columbia recordings with a TON of unreleased tracks (on vinyl), easy to find on vinyl) and Lonnie Smith's Finger Lickin' Good (bloody impossible to find on vinyl). Both of these albums are available for streaming though.
Mine is expected tomorrow. Looking forward to it as well as the other title, Medina. I am still all in on the Tone Poet series, But I may start becoming a bit more conservative and only ordering titles that have replay value. There are some titles that I have not played much since purchase and that seems a bit of a waste of shelf space and funds.
@@ronvandijk6271 agreed, I think now that we’re used to the relative continuous availability of these titles, is there that necessity to own them all or be more selective.
All the tone poet records I have sound amazing. The covers are are done so well they are pieces of art. These Tone Poets prove the UHQR records are way over priced. Unless you want to pay a extra $100 for a box nobody wants.
Benson has been rather spectacular for much of his long career. And he has a beautiful voice so even though pop music is not my bag, I don’t begrudge him chart and concert success as a mainstream artist raking in the kind of dough straight-ahead players rarely see.
Not at all, it’s fantastic that musicians like Benson, Montgomery and others were able to translate their abilities into something that actually provided a stable career. So many others were cheated out of it by labels, managers, and lawyers.
Out of curiosity, how do we think about the value of the track order on these shelved sessions? I assume the track order was locked in '80 by whoever was responsible for releasing these and not '68?
@@aberlin01 this is a really good question, and one I’ve wondered about as well. I can only guess that perhaps the situation varies based on how close the album was to its release. I could also see how the producer, often Duke Pearson in this time period, would have an idea of what was needed to complete a session and even have an idea on the track order either before or during the session. Some of the order is based on the realities of fitting it onto an LP, and otherwise there may have been the desire to feature shorter, more melodic pieces up front, or at least that is the case for a significant number of releases. Of course, does all of this get translated to the 1980 producer who is adhering to meticulous notes, or is that producer listening and coming to their own conclusions? Perhaps Mr. Harley could weigh in..
Very insightful review, glad you're enjoying it! Re the piano. remember that these are all live-to-two-track recordings by RVG. He mixed in real time while the musicians were playing. There's no possibility of going back and raising levels on one instrument or another. That's kind of the beauty of it....these jazz recordings from the '50s and '60s capture a moment in time. We can adjust tonal balance in mastering but not individual instrument levels.
AI makes tuning/isolating instruments post recording from a mixed copy possible, easy, and fun; Not ethically OK vs. the RVG intent? Well, as you say, these were all real time recordings made while musicians were playing, so the output wasn't carefully 'controlled' / mixed like on later, more sophisticated recordings (say 'Thriller'). Thus, I say: why not? I've already started doing my own mixes using AI software available all over the web. It's actually a lot of fun: Isolate this instrument from that instrument, remix in a minute. A lot of fun. It's here. No way back. On reggae tunes, I take out the vocals and have pretty close to perfect instrumentals from famous tunes from Bob Marley, for example. The world is changing. These fabulous Tone Poet are cool old school slices of the past transmitted via plastic and paper. The future can encompass that stuff, but lies elsewhere, whether we like it or not.
@ itsvladzino3246
One thing you are missing is that dumping the audio to digital and “fixing” the piano would be contrary to the spirit of the Tone Poet Series, which is thus far 99% all derived from AAA mastering techniques. Blue Note records, like many of the time that were recorded directly to 2-track (or less), are riddled with quirks and anomalies that come with the territory, and arguably make these records more human due to the engineers reacting in real-time to the actions and sounds of the players.
Some of the best records of all time have flaws in tempo, sour notes, engineering errors, and the like, but they didn’t sell one copy less due to them.
Again, it’s humans making human music, recorded by humans in real time, versus a recording of many takes of peak performances edited together to make a “perfect” performance. The level of the piano in one section of one song, if it doesn’t detract from the OVERALL feeling and impact of the tune as a whole, would usually be left “as is.” That’s the beauty of a Blue Note, or a Stax, or even a Beatles record. The early Beatles stuff is chock full of unison vocals that don’t “match up,” and no one seemed to care, because the feeling was there.
Thanks for covering this album, it's truly sublime. How this wasn't released back in the day is astonishing. I love Bernie Maupin's playing on this album (I've always been a fan of his). Maybe you should start a feature about albums that were deemed 'not worthy of release'' at the time, but now have now climbed to very near the top of that musician's output.
I really appreciate the attention to detail, including helpful listening notes. Your videos have helped me make better purchase decisions. Thank you!
Hey, Hope you are well. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do a review on one the most underrated session recordings in the great Lee Morgan catalogue. Take Twelve 1962 is an album I go back to so often. Recorded in 18 hours, this album has it all and unusually for Lee Morgan-not recorded at Van Geldar's studio. This album helped put L.M back on track even though he ended up with a year in rehab. An album well worth re-visiting for jazz fans. Progressive, swing, it has it all and with a stellar support cast. Great work on all your reviews by the way,. Very much appreciated.
Lee Morgan - so enjoy his music / thanks for the review.
Hi, thanks for the precise and informative review… as usual! Cant wait to get it from my local dealer here in Paris, they didn’t had it last Friday, probably due to august slower delivery…
My copy just arrived today. This album sounds fantastic.
Don’t sleep on George Benson’s ‘60s career folks! He was building a solid career as a bandleader before ‘Miles in the Sky’. In addition to his 1964 album on Prestige, he had two albums on Columbia (It’s Uptown’ (1966) and ‘The George Benson Cookbook’ (1967). Both of those Columbia albums have been influential for generations of jazz guitarists. He had ‘Giblet Gravy’ in the can for Verve before the ‘Miles in the Sky’ sessions were complete.
If you like the Columbia Benson albums, I highly recommend finding Benson Burner (2-LP comp of his Columbia recordings with a TON of unreleased tracks (on vinyl), easy to find on vinyl) and Lonnie Smith's Finger Lickin' Good (bloody impossible to find on vinyl). Both of these albums are available for streaming though.
Added to wantlist based on your review. Thanks, Chris!
Great album, the opening and closer songs on the album are standouts- and awesome shirt!
@@joethems1 ohh I take it you’re a Maine resident?
@@jazzvinylcollector former resident - grew up there.
good infos ty, i ordered this album,actually i own the entire tone poet catalogue
Mine is expected tomorrow. Looking forward to it as well as the other title, Medina. I am still all in on the Tone Poet series, But I may start becoming a bit more conservative and only ordering titles that have replay value. There are some titles that I have not played much since purchase and that seems a bit of a waste of shelf space and funds.
@@ronvandijk6271 agreed, I think now that we’re used to the relative continuous availability of these titles, is there that necessity to own them all or be more selective.
Another excellent review 👌🏼
All the tone poet records I have sound amazing. The covers are are done so well they are pieces of art. These Tone Poets prove the UHQR records are way over priced. Unless you want to pay a extra $100 for a box nobody wants.
YES! Tone Poet is such a great value for the quality in comparison
great video Chris will be adding the album to my want list 🙂
Great video
Thank you so much
Thank you for these interesting reviews. You're bad for my wallet ;) Mine should be delivered today. Can't wait to play it.
@@joeribt haha sorry about your wallet. I’ll try to cover some records that I don’t recommend at some point to help balance things out!
Benson has been rather spectacular for much of his long career. And he has a beautiful voice so even though pop music is not my bag, I don’t begrudge him chart and concert success as a mainstream artist raking in the kind of dough straight-ahead players rarely see.
Not at all, it’s fantastic that musicians like Benson, Montgomery and others were able to translate their abilities into something that actually provided a stable career. So many others were cheated out of it by labels, managers, and lawyers.
Out of curiosity, how do we think about the value of the track order on these shelved sessions? I assume the track order was locked in '80 by whoever was responsible for releasing these and not '68?
@@aberlin01 this is a really good question, and one I’ve wondered about as well. I can only guess that perhaps the situation varies based on how close the album was to its release. I could also see how the producer, often Duke Pearson in this time period, would have an idea of what was needed to complete a session and even have an idea on the track order either before or during the session. Some of the order is based on the realities of fitting it onto an LP, and otherwise there may have been the desire to feature shorter, more melodic pieces up front, or at least that is the case for a significant number of releases. Of course, does all of this get translated to the 1980 producer who is adhering to meticulous notes, or is that producer listening and coming to their own conclusions? Perhaps Mr. Harley could weigh in..
🎉🎉