original blue note 1511/ genius of modern music vol 2

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

would you say, this is gernerally a low-fi recording. i know its a ''''reissue''''' and i mean that in the loosest sense of the term, but anyways im listenin to my mint copy of it, and it still sounds pretty lowfi. heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, the back cover, clearly says: remastering by rudy van gelder...hmm..............i know he didnt record these...but i wonder how he transfered the tapes

[brownie]

I have never been happy with the sound of the Monk BN albums. Never heard the original Lexington release of 1511.

Best sound I heard from those Monk sessions were the Toshiba vinyls that came out in 1985.

The RVG CDs are not bad either!

[Stereojack]

would you say, this is gernerally a low-fi recording. i know its a ''''reissue''''' and i mean that in the loosest sense of the term, but anyways im listenin to my mint copy of it, and it still sounds pretty lowfi. heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, the back cover, clearly says: remastering by rudy van gelder...hmm..............i know he didnt record these...but i wonder how he transfered the tapes

Many of these sides were cut in the 1940's. The sound is typical for the era. Actually, I think Rudy's mastering is relatively good.

[Katharsis]

As Stereojack says, the most tracks are from 1947 and one has to count in the technical abilities and the studio equipment during these times. That makes to music sometimes sound thin and harsh, especially for the drums. Besides that, the record itself (I refer to a Lexington, DG, Flatedge-pressing)has a nice sound and I would think, that the 10"es sound worse.

You should check the different sessions, because they all sound different. The sessions from 1952 have the best sound (especially "Four In One" and "Straight, no chaser", while the Trio-track from 1947 sounds the worst ("Nice work").

Edited December 19, 2010 by Katharsis

[six string]

I have a Vol.1 DG, Lexington Ave. pressing and feel the same way. Far from audiophile sound but the peformances are great of course. I find myself spinning the RVG remasered cds more often than the record though.

Sort of related, I recently bought the Bird & Diz album on Verve (master edition cd from '97) and I was floored by the sound quality of Monk's piano. It's one of the best "sounding" albums of Monk's playing I've ever heard.