Fake Live Albums

[michel1969]

Is the "Live in Studio" a fake live or a fake studio recording ?

[sidewinder]

Wasn't there some fakery with the live Getz/ Gilberto album?

Just listening to 'Getz Au Go Go' on LP this morning - the applause sounds very much as if it has been spliced on the end of the tracks. Quite crudely done in fact.

[DMP]

"Basie In London" was apparently recorded in Sweden. ("Basie In Sweden" WAS in Sweden. I think.) All the McDuff "live" Prestige material is suspect.

[Dan Gould]

There's an Albert King release on Monad, Live at Memory Lane that is actually the King LP The Big Blues with dubbed applause.

And yet I have another Monad release of Joe Williams with Count Basie that really does sound like its a legit live recording, so I've never figured that Monad label out.

[Larry Kart]

Is the "Live in Studio" a fake live or a fake studio recording ?

No, it's all real -- in a studio but with a friendly, well-lubricated audience.

[Tom in RI]

There is a Benny Carter date on Modern from May 1949 that has dubbed in applause. I have it on an lp on the Official label. Curiously, the 4 tunes, Cottontail, Time Out for The Blues, Surf Board, and You Are Too Beautiful, feature Ben Webster, no Carter solos. The applause is annoying in the extreme particularly on Cottontail. Anyone know if these tunes were ever issued without the faux audience?

[captainwrong]

I THINK I have heard that one of the James Brown Apollo recordings has a fake audience. I don't think it was the first one, though (but I could be wrong about that).

The Apollo albums are all live. Pretty much every other JB live album from back in the day is either part or entirely fake.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Captain Wrong

[montg]

The applause in a lot of v discs seems dubbed. Not sure where these were recorded many times ("Hot Horn Hall" )?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I THINK I have heard that one of the James Brown Apollo recordings has a fake audience. I don't think it was the first one, though (but I could be wrong about that).

The Apollo albums are all live. It's pretty much every other JB live album from back in the day that is either part or entirely fake.

Ah - I knew there were dodgy things out there!

MG

[medjuck]

As were parts of Ellington at Newport '56.

I think that's the one I meant. The one with the off-mic solo for 29 choruses or whatever?

No you were right. I think all (or at least most) of the original '58 was fake too.

[Big Al]

Wasn't there some fakery with the live Getz/ Gilberto album?

Just listening to 'Getz Au Go Go' on LP this morning - the applause sounds very much as if it has been spliced on the end of the tracks. Quite crudely done in fact.

I thought the show was done live without Astrud. The Getz quartet played for the crowd, and Astrud's voice was dubbed in later on.

[Big Al]

Non-jazz: I always liked what Andy Partridge of XTC said about Depeche Mode one night while hosting MTV's "120 Minutes:"

"And now we bring you a video of Depeche Mode live.... although I don't know how live it is when you turn on a drum-machine in front of 20,000 people."

[clifford_thornton]

This one has to be fake -- or it sure sounds like it -- can anyone confirm??

Benny Bailey, Nathan Davis, Mal Waldron, & Others -- Soul Eyes - Jazz Live At The Domicile Munich

Even the photo on the cover looks like a composite (is that the original cover?)

SPECTACULAR music, though (especially Benny Bailey). Well worth the import price I paid for it at Dusty.

Yes, original cover and I assume it is not spliced in any way. I would love to get an OG of that one!

[Teasing the Korean]

Non-jazz: I always liked what Andy Partridge of XTC said about Depeche Mode one night while hosting MTV's "120 Minutes:"

"And now we bring you a video of Depeche Mode live.... although I don't know how live it is when you turn on a drum-machine in front of 20,000 people."

That's what always cracks me up about electronica artists live. The guy's sitting there with a laptop, and for all the audience knows, he could be checking his eBay auctions while iTunes is playing.

[Chas]

While The Montgomery Brothers In Canada was recorded live at a Vancouver club , the audience was apparently so small and undemonstrative that the applause from a Cal Tjader concert was used instead ! The session has been reissued on a Fantasy CD called Groove Brothers under Wes Montgomery's name , where it has been shorn of all applause altogether .

[captainwrong]

Non-jazz: I always liked what Andy Partridge of XTC said about Depeche Mode one night while hosting MTV's "120 Minutes:"

"And now we bring you a video of Depeche Mode live.... although I don't know how live it is when you turn on a drum-machine in front of 20,000 people."

That's what always cracks me up about electronica artists live. The guy's sitting there with a laptop, and for all the audience knows, he could be checking his eBay auctions while iTunes is playing.

The most boring "act" I ever saw was Oval opening for Tortoise. 45 minutes of a chubby nerdy guy sitting at a table behind a laptop. I felt like I was at work watching the guy across the room with my headphones up too loud.

[thomastreichler]

The Birdland All Stars On Tour on RCA sounds like announcements and applause are fake. Am I wrong?

[JohnS]

The Birdland All Stars On Tour on RCA sounds like announcements and applause are fake. Am I wrong?

Yes, crowd noises were added from rejected live performances by the band. The cd does not have the audience noise but it does retain a couple of announcements by Pee Wee Marquette.

[Spontooneous]

Back to the Benny Bailey "Soul Eyes" for a minute.

I'm convinced that it's an actual live album, doctored a little, as most live albums are.

Yes, the intros and crowd-noise sections sound way too echo-y. But the audio straightens out nicely for the musical performances.

Here's what I think happened: The band was recorded live, in a dry, up-close fashion -- probably to keep the very overamplified bass from bleeding into everything, and to keep the mics from picking up too much crowd noise. But then, between tunes, they were left with anemic-sounding crowd noise. So somebody hyped it up with big echo.

Audio evidence? 1) Listen to how boomy the bass is throughout. MPS wouldn't have allowed that to happen in studio conditions. 2) The crowd noise/banter during the percussion solo at the end of the title track sounds pretty natural. 3) If you were going to create a fake live album and you were bringing in somebody to "introduce" the band, wouldn't you find a better announcer than that guy?

[mikeweil]

This one has to be fake -- or it sure sounds like it -- can anyone confirm??

Benny Bailey, Nathan Davis, Mal Waldron, & Others -- Soul Eyes - Jazz Live At The Domicile Munich

Even the photo on the cover looks like a composite (is that the original cover?)

SPECTACULAR music, though (especially Benny Bailey). Well worth the import price I paid for it at Dusty.

Yes that's the original cover. I never heard of anyone disputing its authenticity. AFAIK it looked like that at the Domicile.

[six string]

One of my favorite fakes is Art Farmer's The Time and the Place. The live album that was supposed to have been released finally got the call by Mosaic Selects, using the same album cover. They are both good albums so I'm happy.

[Gheorghe]

Bud Powell´s "A Portrait Of Thelonious", from late 1961, recorded in Paris has applause on it, but actually is a studio-recording.

[DMP]

Asked Nathan Davis about the "Soul Eyes"/Domicile LP - he said it was legit.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Harlem Art Ensemble - Live in New York - Explore HASN'T got audience noises dubbed on.

IT HASN'T GOT ANY REAL AUDIENCE NOISES, EITHER!!!!!

It's supposed to have been recorded at New York University in 1990. Obviously in an unoccupied lecture room. Or maybe, the students hated Lonnie Smith, Harold Ousley, Jimmy Ponder and Bruno Carr and went back to their studies after two bars.

MG

[Swinging Swede]

George Lewis's Blue Note album Concert! is mostly studio-recorded.