Jimmy Smith - House Party/The Sermon

[king ubu]

Chiming in late here, but in this case the "people" suck. Thanks for your account of the story, Kevin. What a pity that these tradinionalists/album-fetishists couldn't just buy the japanese reissues!

These are the same folks who gave us the Verve LPR series. It's a good thing the albums chosen for that series have been so wonderful, but in the end they're just a bunch of nice-sounding needle-drops (at a nice price as well).

Probably, yes... and the Lee Konitz "Motion" mentioned above is a sad case in point. I really don't see the use of reissuing that one without any bonus material if it would have all been handy from the 3CD release.

I prefer the Verve Elite Edition a lot to the LPRs. Good thing about the LPRs is indeed that they're a nice bunch, and that many of them have not been around before for a long time. The prize was steep at the beginning, wasn't it? Only went down after the first few batches had been out, as I remember.

[Kyo]

My old edition of "Houseparty" arrived today. Woohoo!

Btw, shouldn't it really be spelled "House Party"?

[jmjk]

My old edition of "Houseparty" arrived today. Woohoo!

Btw, shouldn't it really be spelled "House Party"?

Whatever spelling is used, I'm glad there is a party in your house, because there's none in mine! I never paid attention to the track difference when I upgraded and I'm still missing those extra tracks!!

Kyo, through which vendors did you find these old copies?

Edited September 14, 2006 by jmjk

[Noj]

The RVGs are the only way I've ever heard these albums. Bummer.

[jmjk]

My old edition of "Houseparty" arrived today. Woohoo!

Btw, shouldn't it really be spelled "House Party"?

Whatever spelling is used, I'm glad there is a party in your house, because there's none in mine! I never paid attention to the track difference when I upgraded and I'm still missing those extra tracks!!

Kyo, through which vendors did you find these old copies?

Forget my question. Just secured the older versions.

[Big Al]

The RVGs are the only way I've ever heard these albums. Bummer.

I guess it's never bothered me too much cuz the only tracks I was ever interested in were the four tracks with Art Blakey on 'em, and they're all on the RVGs.

[B. Clugston]

How would you folks who have heard the missing tracks rate them?

[Harold_Z]

How would you folks who have heard the missing tracks rate them?

Excellent. Of the same expected high quality as the tunes originally issued on lp.

I didn't bother with the RVGs. I had the lps from back in the day and the Sermon and Houseparty issues with the additional tracks (which BTW sound fine to me.)

[Teasing the Korean]

I think it's perfectly valid to expect a particular LP line-up to be reproduced on a CD, even if only for historical reasons. The producer can fill up the extra scace with whatever bonus tracks or alternate takes are appropriate. The way in which the music first hit the streets is every bit as important - arguably more so - than the exact order in which it was recorded.

[king ubu]

Reviving the Cold War?

[Soul Stream]

I dug the way the original CDs were laid out. Great tracking even if it wasn't the original LP sequence. Although the RVG is a marked improvement in sound....many times I grab the old version to listen to in the car just because there's more songs on them and I'm used to that old CD order. It's really great listening.

[Big Al]

Yesterday. I found an LP copy of Confirmation (LT-992), and the personnel listing on the back indicates that Art Blakey plays on all three tracks:

Confirmation (Feb. 1958)

What is This Thing Called Love (Aug. 1957)

Cherokee (Aug. 1957)

The discography at www.jazzdico.org lists Donald Bailey as the drummer for "What is This..." and "Cherokee."

Who was right in this situation: the album or the website?

[mikeweil]

Why didn't they release that as a doubletime 2CD reissue, in the first place? This is a case where clinging to the "original LP" kind of counteracts.

Edited July 8, 2007 by mikeweil

[CJ Shearn]

Big Al, Bailey is the drummer on all the other "Confirmation" LP tracks. The 8/57 tracks were misidentified as Blakey. Art was not present at the August 25, 1957 session, but was the drummer for most of the February 25, 1958 session, only "Lover Man" featured Bailey on drums. The entirety of that latter session is contained on "The Sermon" and "Houseparty" RVG's. Also it is easy to hear the 8/25/57 tracks feature Bailey, as both drummers are very different and distinctive.

Edited July 8, 2007 by CJ Shearn

[Alexander]

See, what I did was this: I burned the material from the old "Sermon/House Party" discs that didn't make onto the RVG versions onto a separate disc. So I have everything.

[CJ Shearn]

so did I with the 8/57 session.

[Ken Dryden]

A far greater problem than the changing of Blue Note tracks from the original releases is the labels who combine two or three albums in a reissue then leave out valuable tracks.

If the artist is any good, you're going to collect all of the reissues anyway. It is a shame that a few whiny people caused Michael Cuscuna to change his way of doing Blue Note reissues.

[Shrdlu]

People bitched because the original album contents/sequences got all screwed up. They did the same thing with some Mobley shit, put sessions back together that had been split over albums and reissued them under the origian titl, and people got pissed. So they decided to not do that any more.

Personally, I don't give a fuck. I prefer to have complete sessions together and then break it back into original release sequence on my own, if I ever feel the need (which I seldom do, since I got most of the stuff on LP anyway, as well as a functioning turntable & CD burner). But that's just me. The people spoke, and the people were heard.

Still, ain't it a bitch to have once had everything (minus that one trio cut) out and now not to? Power to the people!

Completely agree, Jim! It was pig-headed to omit the 1957 tracks when those RVGs were done. I'm glad I have the older CDs. Also for the Mobley stuff (No Room For Squares, Str8 No Filter etc.)