CJ Shearn

Wait, that's not your real name? I don't get the joke then. I'm clearly missing something here. Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Great to hear this will be on CD. Are these gigs in the same vein as the Village Vanguard material with Art pushing himself quite far?

These might be some of the warmest remasters I ever heard.

I think it's in the January 2011 batch.

"All Blues" isn't being reissued til next year.

RIP

Damn, Hank sounds almost like a baritone and very out of tune, but the ideas are unmistakable.

I will be checking "All Blues" out too because it seems Ron's leader albums are hit or miss, though the soundclips I've heard of "Dear Miles" sound good, I only have "Where?" myself.

Well, I bought two of these today: "Red Clay" and "She Was Too Good to Me". Listening to the Hubbard now, it definitely sounds more like what I remember the original LP sounding like when I heard it: the mastering is warm, theres a bit more of Lenny White's bass drum, and it is not super compressed, the added warm reverb of the remix doesn't show up here. I sold the '02 CD and got this. Though I think I will keep the '02 CD of "Sugar" which sounds very good, definitely from a different tape than the 80's CD.

You raise an interesting issue. Does the actual master tape have the reverb, or is it something that RVG added during mastering? If it is the latter, then it may be missing on these CDs. Unless of course Mark Wilder et al were specifically trying to acheive the same sound as the original vinyl. The RVG ceiling "echo reverb" is on the original LP and on the master. If you remember "Blue Note a Story of Modern Jazz" where they interviewed Lou Donaldson, Bob Cranshaw, Tommy Turrentine and Al Harewood, at RVG's that's part of the natural studio reverb, so the remix of "Red Clay" has warm reverb added to replace the natural studio ambiance whereas listening on Rhapsody confirms that original studio ambiance is on the original master.

Nope, the RVG ceiling "echo reverb" is on the original LP and on the master. If you remember "Blue Note a Story of Modern Jazz" where they interviewed Lou Donaldson, Bob Cranshaw, Tommy Turrentine and Al Harewood, that's just RVG's natural studio reverb, so the remix of "Red Clay" has warm reverb added to replace the natural studio ambiance.

Hope someone could comment on "Red Clay". The natural ceiling echo at RVG's will tell me if it sounds closer to the original, not the faux reverb on the 1987 and 2002 releases. I don't want to buy the new one and find out I've been jipped with the exact same mastering. Edit: Yep, Rhapsody has it and it indeed sounds a bit different than the '02 remix, thats the one I'll be getting.

So far the www.ctimasterworks.com site has clips of the 6 being reissued today and "Sugar" and "Red Clay" sound identical to the 2002 editions. Can anyone confirm any differences if they pick these up?

Wow, major bummer.

I got an interesting reply from Doug Payne regarding this new CTI reissue launch and the King series, I have as I know quite a few of us do the King "Hollywood Bowl" 2003 reissue he references. "Hi CJ, Outside of the four-disc box set, I have not received any of the other new CTI releases yet. I'll try covering as many of them as possible on my blog once I hear them. But I can probably tell you that California Concert will sound better than the previous American CD issue but probably not as good as your LP rip or the 1994 Japanese CD release. Sony is using a different master than King has in its possession. King's is the four-track final master. Check out Jazzwax.com for more info - and more ways to spend your CTI dollars! It will just be nice to have the full concert in playing order! Unfortunately, none of the other live music is on Sony's roster of upcoming CTI releases. Given past experience, it seems they're testing the market (which is especially surprising to me) and it seems very unlikely that they'll go toward either the Hollywood Bowl or especially the Munich releases, even if the upcoming CTI titles do well (and I'm very skeptical). To my knowledge, Sony is still not permitted to do anything with the Hollywood Bowl material (and their version of this would never match the quality of the 2003 Japanese CD) - but I'm especially surprised to see Grover Washington, Jr. and Bob James tracks on the box set. So who knows. Maybe if we turn out in droves and buy this music that has mostly been available in many different forms over the last two decades or so, maybe it will lauch the real rebirth of CTI. I tend to doubt that will happen, though. Stay tuned. Take care, Doug"

I have a few original RVG cut CTI albums too on vinyl and the Sony remixes, for example the 2002 "Sugar" sounds so much better than the 80's CD, w/o the phony added reverb that made Stanley sound so plugged in, and the problem I have with the 2002 Red Clay is it hardly sounds like the original LP at all with added warm reverb, using the same tape as the awful original CD issue here in the states, my CTI CD collection is evenly split between the 1997 and 2002 Sony issues and Japanese King issues.

Thanks for the link of Marc's article. I am not getting the box though it may be nice to have, but................ I am more interested in the California Concert expanded release more than anything else.

No jdw I don't have any more info on who owns the masters for the CTI catalog other than: Creed supposedly still owns the original masters for a bunch of sessions, Bob James owns his 4 sessions due to the above mentioned "CTI Summer Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl" legal fiasco, and Universal owns and has reissued again through the Verve Originals series Grover Washington Jr.'s most of his KUDU albums including a welcome and much needed reissue of "Soul Box", which IMO is his best for the label. Now, this new series from Masterworks, seems to be the first time in the US where CTI albums have been reissued with their entire LP artwork intact right down to the catalog numbers. I saw a promo press kit pic of the 4 CD overview and the CD's duplicate the original label design down to RVG and the mastering no. on the right hand side even though I believe Mark Wilder is handling the mastering for these titles. If you're wondering about the Hollywood Bowl albums, the only tune in the 3 LP's that remains untouched from overdubs is "Cherry" where you can hear Jack, though theres enough bleed from that original track you can hear him under Gadd's overdubs which must have allowed Creed to credit Jack DeJohnette and not Steve Gadd as the drummer. I have an inkling that the original tapes from this concert do exist somewhere untouched. These are my fav. CTI albums of all time, I grew up with them and was disheartened to hear about the overdubs but it did not stop me from buying the 2004 Japanese import CD set and paying $50 for it at the time.

Now only (don't care b/c I have the Japanese CD) if they were able to find the CTI Summer Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl tapes sans the overdubs, thus making it legal to put out in the US again.

Wow, California Concert coming in proper sound? yes!

Wow, great stuff

Isn't the Tanglewood set available at Wolfgangs Vault?

yes I've heard Art Blakey analog, on studio monitors.

RIP

Skip the vinyl and get the RVG CD with 2 bonus tracks.