Another interesting Kenny Burrell recording

[AnotherJohnson]

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I ran across this early KB recording, with Andy Warhol cover sketch, the other day. It was deep in my KB Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder collection.

Note that it was re-recorded to simulate stereo for this release.

I’m not sure that this was necessary… I suspect the original was more believable.

But it is quite good, and the Warhol cover art adds an interesting element.

Blue Note first recording jazz in 1939, so they’ve had quite a run of definitive sessions. If this is available to streamers, I wonder what their impression of it is?

[admin]

"Re-recorded". Does that mean they remixed from the original tapes or just manipulated the mono records? Or was it an entirely new recording session?

I find some artists will go back into the studio and to a brand new album. I was recently listening to Bryan Adam's new "Classic" album. It's his original hits but all new recorded sessions. The rerecording sounds really good compared to his original releases (in terms of audio quality). https://retropopmagazine.com/bryan-adam ... um-review/ If you liked his music I would recommend a listen.

[AnotherJohnson]

"Re-recorded". Does that mean they remixed from the original tapes or just manipulated the mono records? Or was it an entirely new recording session?

I find some artists will go back into the studio and to a brand new album. I was recently listening to Bryan Adam's new "Classic" album. It's his original hits but all new recorded sessions. The rerecording sounds really good compared to his original releases (in terms of audio quality). https://retropopmagazine.com/bryan-adam ... um-review/ If you liked his music I would recommend a listen.

In this case they work with the original monaural recording to produce a new stereo master tape. Rudy did use multiple mikes (he was often secretive about where they were. He allowed no photos). For the monaural release, these would have been mixed to a master to run the lathe.

It may be called simulated stereo because the goal of the original session was to obtain one good track rather than two for stereo. Mike placement would have been different had they known the evolution of stereo.

As you know, the Hi Fi aficionados of the day did not uniformly embrace stereo.

[AnotherJohnson]

I find some artists will go back into the studio and to a brand new album. I was recently listening to Bryan Adam's new "Classic" album. It's his original hits but all new recorded sessions. The rerecording sounds really good compared to his original releases (in terms of audio quality). https://retropopmagazine.com/bryan-adam ... um-review/ If you liked his music I would recommend a listen.

I recently bought a re-release of Tea for the Tillerman thinking it was a remastered version of the original sessions.

Instead it was a complete performance redo of every session’s songs.

I would have preferred the former. I was not moved as much by Cat Stevens’ “do-over” as I was by the original.

[admin]

It's definitely going to be hit or miss. Typically I am also not a big fan of "do-overs", unless they are significantly redone versions. There are circumstances where the original recordings were of poor quality so I do like those re-recorded albums. But mostly feel, "if it ain't broke, why fix it?"

[AnotherJohnson]

I recently bought a re-release of Tea for the Tillerman thinking it was a remastered version of the original sessions.

Instead it was a complete performance redo of every session’s songs.

I would have preferred the former. I was not moved as much by Cat Stevens’ “do-over” as I was by the original.

That was 6 months ago.

I haven’t played the Cat Stevens redo since then, but I noticed it tonight.

Lots of changes in my system since May. Sabrinas, REF 6, William Tells, Thunderbirds, P20, Hurricanes …

I wondered how Cat would fare.

The answer is surprisingly well, thank you.

I’m not sure what change affected the greatest effect. But this is excellent. Orders of magnitude, not subtle.

Instruments are clearly separated, coherent in time, defined well in space. Sharp separations. Lots of detail. Vocals stand prominently ahead of the instrument mix.

And all this technical improvement allows the music to step up and get noticed. I am surprised by the obvious difference.