Jazz Will O the Wisp- Al Haig

[Clunky]

Fairly recently I picked very inexpensively Jazz Will O the Wisp- by Al Haig. It's a Freshsound vinyl issue. The sound is very muddy indeed. The piano is muffled but the drums and fairly clear. It's a very nice session if you listen thru the crummy sound. Has this always been the way with this session or have I simply got a nasty ( probably booted) reissue?

Edited March 23, 2007 by Clunky

[sidewinder]

Fairly recently I picked very inexpensively Jazz Will O the Wisp- by Al Haig. It's a Freshsound vinyl issue. The sound is very muddy indeed. The piano is muffled but the drums and fairly clear. It's a very nice session if you listen thru the crummy sound. Has this always been the way with this session or have I simply got a nasty ( probably booted) reissue?

I've got a UK LP pressing which I think is on 'Xtra'. Don't think the sound of that is too great either, will dig it out over the weekend.

[king ubu]

There has been an earlier Freshsound CD (FSRCD 1613) including just the 13 tracks from the original album, but just recently a new version came out also including the Vogue part of that session:

03/13/54 One Day Session - Vogue & Esoteric Recordings

Al Haig Trio

Featuring: Al Haig (p), Bill Crow (b), Lee Abrams (d), Harry Babasin (b), Larry Bunker (d)

REFERENCE: FSRCD 432

BAR CODE: -

PRICE: 9.50 €

Al Haig (1924-1982) was still on his twenties when he became one of the first influential bebop pianists, having played in the Forties in groups led by Diz, Bird, Wardell Gray, and Stan Getz among others. Haig’s was a singing approach to the piano as well as a swinging one. He played with unusual sensitivity and taste, always lightly energized by an easily flowing pulsation. Al was no stomper, but he was far from fragile. This long one-day session was originally produced by Henri Renaud, the French jazz pianist, when he visited New York in the very early part of 1954. Al’s melodic improvisations get firm, unobtrusive support from drummer Lee Abrams, and bassist Bill Crow. This set was especially valuable because, in the early Fifties,Haig had been all-too-infrequently heard on records and, at 31, he proved he still had an important place in the modern jazz field.

Tracklisting:

1. Yardbird Suite 3:06

2. Mighty Like A Rose 4:48

3. Just One Of Those Things 3:56

4. Taboo 2:42

5. ‘S Wonderful 3:35

6. Just You, Just Me–Spotlite 1:50

7. The Moon Is Yellow 2:45

8. ‘Round About Midnight 5:19

9. Autumn In New York 5:13

10. Isn’t It Romantic 3:35

11. They Can’t Take That Away From Me 2:49

12. Royal Garden Blues 2:39

13. Don’t Blame Me 2:43

14. Moonlight In Vermont 3:39

15. If I Should Lose You 3:32

16. April In Paris 2:13

17. All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm 2:17

18. Body And Soul 4:52

19. Gone With The Wind 2:57

20. My Old Flame 2:56

21. On The Alamo 3:34

22. Taking A Chance On Love* 3:42

Tracks 1-21: Al Haig (p), Bill Crow (b), Lee Abrams (d)

New York City, March 13, 1954.

Track 13, 16, & 20: Piano Solo

* Bonus Track: Al Haig (p), Harry Babasin (b), Larry Bunker (d).

Los Angeles, September 6, 1952.

I have no idea how it sounds, but maybe someone here already has it?

I have the Vogue on one of those "Piano Collection" discs (there were two of them in the BMG "Original Vogue Masters" series) and the Will-O I have on some old LP (not the original, I think it's on Everest, crappy reissue, sounds like it's similar as the FSR LP you describe...).

[Quasimado]

The piano is bright enough on the original Esoteric 10" - it's certainly not muffled. Lee Abrams sounds a lot better on brushes than sticks here ... maybe it's a balance problem ... anyway he only uses sticks on Chillun.

Q

[brownie]

The piano sounds bright enough on the 12" 'Jazz Will O the Wisp' reissue from Nippon Columbia I have. A 1981 vinyl!

Have not made comparisons with the recent Fresh Sound reissue yet. Sound was all right on that one.

When possible I tried to ignore the Fresh Sound vinyl reissues when they came out. Too much filtering on most of them.

[AllenLowe]

the sound is pretty much the way it's gonna be on this, on all issues - you can brighten the high end, and if you have an eq I would take some out at about 535 hertz and may at about 125 hertz - other than that, it's a not super-well recorded 1950s session. Still, it' the one thing we have that shows how brilliant Haig was. Bill Crow once remarked that he thought Haig was the pianist who really set the pace for chord changes on the standard tunes that jazz people were starting to play more and more in the early 1950s, and you can hear on this how much harmony he knew, as well as how original he was in a post-Bud Powell way. Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, and Hank Jones have all cited Haig from this period as being extremely influential.

[Quasimado]

Isn't there a biography of Al Haig in the works somewhere?

Q

[AllenLowe]

his ex-wife is doing one, and I was told, at one point, that Cadence North Country was going to publish it. I've talk to her, she's nice, but I do have a feeling the book may be, let us say, poorly written. With a good editor, the excerpt I saw years ago might have possibilities. BUT I have my doubts; the tone of the excerpt was pulp romance -

Edited April 16, 2009 by AllenLowe