Count Basie Story 2CD

[desertblues]

Just heard the new "The Count Basie Story" 2CD Roulette reissue - you're gonna want this one if you don't have the Mosaic Studio box (if you can dig the Basie band of the late fifties, that is). To my ears this band never sounded better - smoking tenor from Frank Foster, Billy Mitchell and Frank Wess as well as some great Joe Newman solos throughout! Sound quality is everything you've come to expect from Malcolm Addey - just superb!

[Chuck Nessa]

No dis to you or Mr. Addey but maybe credit should be given to the original producer and recording engineer.

[desertblues]

Actually, the liners do make mention of Teddy Reig's first-rate original recordings done at Capitol.

[Cornelius]

This is a great reissue. A ton of great Basie.

Also, Basie Land, On My Way And Shoutin' Again, and Basie's Beat, came out this year. Basie's Beat, with five Eric Dixon arrangements and five arrangements by other Basie regulars, is a giant of an album.

Edited January 22, 2005 by Cornelius

[jazzbo]

All those Roulette sessions had great sound (and Addey does them real justice with his remastering). This is a good choice for a centennial reissue, and its companion two cd compilation set, "Basie and Friends, 100th Birthday Bash" is a great one too.

How I wish they had reissued "Stringing Along with Basie"!

**Edited for spelling and to add title of "companion reissue". . .

Edited December 23, 2004 by jazzbo

[Bluesnik]

And don't forget the Chairmen fo the Board reissue, also a Roulette and also touched by the Addey magic. Just a reminder.

[jazzbo]

Good call Bluesnik; I gave that as a gift recently and bowled the recipient over!

[Brad]

The one Roulette Basie I hesitated getting this year was Basie and Friends, seemed more like one of these all star things with a lot of non jazz people. Anybody get that?

[jazzbo]

It's quite good in my opinion Brad, nice selection. Same great sound. Lots of jazz people. A few things not on cd elsewhere I think.

Edited December 23, 2004 by jazzbo

[Chuck Nessa]

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please go back to my first post on this thread - mention the recording engineer giving you this great sound! If you don't know, why not - if you care so much about "sound"?

Edited December 23, 2004 by Chuck Nessa

[chris olivarez]

All those Roulette sessions had great sound (and Addey does them real justice with his remastering). This is a good choice for a centennial reissue, and its companion two cd compilation set is a great one too.

How I wish they had reissued "Stinging Along with Basie"!

What's the name of the companion set?

[JSngry]

some off-brand budget reissues, name eludes me at the moment--

Emus

[jazzbo]

Chris, this is it.

Crap, Chuck, like Clem I can't find the name. I'd laud him if I could. I dig the Roulette sound of almost every session I've heard.

At least Addey lets the original sound shine through, unlike some other remasterers (in my opinion, and I don't think it's audio snobbery to want to hear good sound).

Edited December 23, 2004 by jazzbo

[chris olivarez]

Chris, this is it.

Thanks.

[Cornelius]

I don't find the engineer's name in the booklet for the LP set. One drawback of the CD set is that it doesn't include this booklet with Leonard Feather's essay. There's not a lot of musical analysis in the essay, but there are some nice personal details. For example, I was disappointed to read that though Basie loves to play the horses, he's not a smart player. He doesn't know how to handicap a race but instead bets hunches and from the names of the horses. That conflicts with my notion of Basie as hip and shrewd. Also, the LP booklet indentifies the soloists as the CD booklet does not.

I wish they had recorded "One O'Clock Jump" as part of this project, just for the sake of having all of the most famous tunes included.

The sound of the CDs is great. If you look at the wav files, they're real fat. However, this necessitates care in programming these tracks next to tracks from other CDs that have less dense audio, since they tend to have less perceived volume.

Edited December 25, 2004 by Cornelius

[Bluesnik]

The other day I gave The Complete Atomic Basie, also on Roulette, a relisten and was surprised at the great sound. It's from 1994 and sounds much better than the average reissues of the day. Obviously Addey had his hands at it. I still have got to find an Addey remaster that sounds bad. And I have some. Even Blue Notes (see relevant thread), although admittedly they're not from the 1500 or 4000 series.

Edited January 2, 2005 by Bluesnik

[Ron S]

I must also add that I'm fascinated at the recording technology employed in the fifties. Even with today's possibilities and enhancements nobody would be able to get that much out of the existing audio if there wasn't an excellent substrate. You can clean up sound, OK, but you can't make drums or reeds sound (almost) like today's out of thin air. It's something I've been compelled to explore for a long time.

I just this minute finished listening to a great example of that: the 1950 small group sides on the "Count Basie, America's #1 Band!" box set. All of the remastering on the set is great, but the 1950 small group tracks are astounding for their clarity and presence, as if they were just recorded yesterday. Columbia must have used the aboslute best equipment and engineering then available to record them (original producer was George Avakian, original engineer is not identified).

Edited January 1, 2005 by Ron S

[Swinging Swede]

From the Mosaic booklet:

"All New York selections with the possible exception of the July, 1962 dates were recorded at Capitol Studios, usually with Bob Arnold engineering. All Chicago sessions were done at Universal Recording possibly with Bruce Swedien engineering. All Los Angeles dates were done at United Recorders with Wally Heider engineering."

Also, the early sessions were recorded in real stereo, with the rhythm section on one side, and the horn sections on the other. I've heard an LP of "The Atomic Mr. Basie" that used these stereo masters. Cuscuna considered the mono masters to be superior and used them instead on the Mosaic. He did the same with the "Off To The Races" material on the Byrd/Adams Mosaic, although the TOCJ had used the stereo masters.

[jazzbo]

Thanks Mr. Swede; I missed that in the booklet last time I looked.

Much much praise to Bob Arnold, Bruce Swedien and Wally Heider for their probable engineering, so ably brought to digital disc by Mr. Addey.

[Bluerein]

I believe the Byrd/Adams mono was a mistake (or a RvG thing).

[Brad]

Thanks Mr. Swede; I missed that in the booklet last time I looked.

Much much praise to Bob Arnold, Bruce Swedien and Wally Heider for their probable engineering, so ably brought to digital disc by Mr. Addey.

Amen to that brother. The sound on this is so amazing, it blows me away. But what's incredible is the music, how crisp and fresh it is. This only whets my apptetite for the Mosaic coming out. It should be just amazing.

[ghost of miles]

BMG has it (I'm planning to pick it up w/my music points).