Tito Puente in the 1940' and 1950's

[mikeweil]

Ernesto Anthony "Tito" Puente was born in New York on April 20, 1923 into a family of Puerto Rican immigrants. The details of his family and musical career can be found in a well reasearched biography by Josephine Powell, "When Drums Are Dreaming", first published in 2007. The title is in reverence to the title of one of the timbale feature numbers of his early recording career, "Quando Sueñan Los Tambores".

The book sets his life into perspective of the political and social situation of the times, which is particularly important as Puente was making a career in Cuban music - Cubans looked down on the Purto Ricans whose culture and music they thought to be inferior to their own. There is a lot of information about the state of Cuban music in Cuba and the USA from the beginning of the 20th century until his death in 2000. Besides that it is an important source of information on a few discographical details (more on the subject later) as it portraits important musical colleagues and band members. I consider it an indispensable book for anyone seriously interested in Puente's music:

It is still easily obtainable as bound and paperback editions as well as e-book.

For the history of Cuban music before that time, whenever Powell's book leaves open questions, I recommend:

And for the time before that, to understand the European influence on Cuban music:

Most Cuban bandleaders (except the percussionists) were classically trained and still are, especially the pianists; many undertook further study in the USA. Puente received excellent training but still had a hard time establishing himself as a Puerto Rican in the world of the Cuban musical elite. 

Powell's book is an important source as it chronicles the development and personnel of Puente's musical aggregations and their personnel as well as the recording sessions held, and places into a wider historical perspective, musically and socially. The same goes for Sublette's book, which is basic reading for anyone interested in the connections and influences between Cuban and other Carribean and South American music and jazz.

But Powell's books is marred by a number of typos, mostly regarding name spellings, and she sometimes quotes sources without counter-checking: she says Puente's "Oye Como Va" was covered by Santana in 1972, quoting John Stom Roberts, which is wrong - it was released in 1970; and a few pages later she states the correct year. As most biographers, she is not really discographically interested nor accurate, she obviously knows only what was stated in the album credits.

Edited May 7, 2020 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Discographical sources

A general problem is that practically all issues in the 1940's and 1950's listed only the featured singers besides the bandleader (or the band's name with his included), and most discographical sources depend on these. Thus you hardly find sidemen listed. Attempting a complete Puente discography is a dauting task, anyway, with 100+ albums as a leader and many guest appearances. 

The listings in the Tom Lord Discography are further weakened by the compiler's general avoidance of anything he does not consider as "jazz". 

Josephine Powell's book has no discography, just mentions sessions in passing, but often with the mention of sidemen or band members not listed on album covers. This must be taken with care, as the band often was expanded with guest for studio sessions, or made with an altogether different personnel for special projects - this especially was the case with many RCA Victor album projects in the second half of the 1950's.

There is an online Cuban music discography including Puente recordings, but it is far from complete and relies on the musician credits on the issues listed. That Puente is listed at all (as a Puerto Rican) is a sign of his reputation in Cuban music. But for early Cuban music recordings, Cristóbal Díaz-Ayala's doscography is indispensable and an admirable work: http://latinpop.fiu.edu/discography.html

CD reissues vary widely as far as the depth of discographical details are concerned, depending on sources available. Puente's early recording career can roughly be divided into these phases:

 - Early sideman dates as a member of Machito and his Afro-Cubans (1941, four tracks on their first Decca album), and, after his army service, with José Curbelo (1947-47) and Pupi Campo (1948).

 - with his own orchestra for Tico 1949-56, resulting in a total of 156 tracks released on 78 rpm records, which were compiled on various 10-inch and 12-inch LPs, and only one session specifically conceived for LP release.

Puente was offered a contract by Tico Records (a new label founded in 1948) after the rapid success of his first band, but was skeptical and insisted on a clause allowing him to record for other labels. This resulted in:

- 27 tracks recorded for 78 rpm release on RCA Victor 1949-1951 which were later compiled on LP

- 1 session recorded for Seeco (1953) first released on 10" LP and, later, in an expanded 12" edition

Puente signed with RCA Victor in 1956 and recorded a series of LPs for the label until 1960. 

Edited April 23, 2020 by mikeweil

[Big Beat Steve]

Regarding the books you mentioned, how would you rate (by comparison, maybe) the following books as INTRODUCTORY books on the subject of Afro-Cuban music?

- Latin Jazz - The Perfect Combination, by Raúl Fernández (Chronicle Books)
- Cubano Be Cubano Bop - One hundred years of Jazz in Cuba, by Leanardo Acosta (Smithsonian Books)

 

 

 

[mikeweil]

On 24.4.2020 at 9:25 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

Regarding the books you mentioned, how would you rate (by comparison, maybe) the following books as INTRODUCTORY books on the subject of Afro-Cuban music?

- Latin Jazz - The Perfect Combination, by Raúl Fernández (Chronicle Books)
- Cubano Be Cubano Bop - One hundred years of Jazz in Cuba, by Leanardo Acosta (Smithsonian Books)

Acosta's book focusses on the jazz side of things, which is okay, but underemphasizes the Afro-Cuban cultural and musical side of things - Sublette first, I'd say, as a basis for Acosta.

I have yet to read Fernández' book. 

My experience is that you understand things better when you start from the (Afro-)Cuban side of things, to which jazz was added, even though a few musicians had a career in jazz before they played what we now view as Cuban Jazz or Latin Jazz (e.g. Mario Bauza). It all stems from Cuban music, dance, or not, and dance bands Cuban style was where it started. Puente and others then started adding jazz and classical elements, but as Puente himself says in Powell's book, the Cuban rhythms always was at the center of things. I wish I had I had read Sublette's book before the others. It is natural for a jazz fan to want to approach things from the jazz side, but in this case it is horse backwards. All forms of African-Americans started independently of each other and then were influenced by whatever they heard from other countries. Jazz was one of the strongest influences, but it also watered down some of the rhythmic features. Sublette gives deep insights into how early Jazz in New Orleans probably sounded before it became "jazz".

[JSngry]

"Afro" anything that doesn't look at the "Afro" first and then take from there is just not going to be a complete consideration.

Even at that, it may still yet be incomplete, probably will be, in fact. But it will be less incomplete to a considerable (enough) degree.

As time passes and assimilations become more ingrained into all of us as to at some point become hard-wired, this may seem irrelevant. But I don't think it is, because...as much as I despise them and their uses, "narratives" matter, because narratives are used to create and then reinforce ownership, not just of psychical properties, but also of minds and souls.

And if ownership is not 100% honest, both immediate and in the ongoing, it is at some level or another an attempt to disguise/justify a theft. A fraud, a lie. Such things eventually have repercussions, as do all things.

So hey world, repercussiate responsibly, please.

 

[mikeweil]

Tito Puente as a sideman in the 1940's

Puente had his first important gig with Anselmo Sacasas in 1940, when he was only seventeen. The band's drummer got sick and he was called and felt lucky that he had all their records and memorized them. To get an impression of what that band sounded, I recommend this compilation reissue (Puente did not record with them):

Puente was still learning; his first recording was another sub gig with Machito & his Afro-Cubans: The band's drummer, Cohito, couldn't read which was requires for some shows. Puente had studied drums and was hanging out with Cuban timbaleros in Harlem to get the real feel (sabor). When the band was contracted by Decca to record, Puente played on four tracks (Nague, Sopa de Pichón, La Rumbantela, and Paella). Due to a recording ban half of the numbers were recorded only in 1942 when Puente was in the Navy. These tracks were first released on 78's and compiled later for LPs; other recordings with famous singer Miguelito Valdes were treated with priority by the label. The twelve tracks without Valdes including the four with Puente are best heard on this Palladium CD reissue (Decca themselves neglected reissuing the Machito recordings on CD):

I do not have a complete personnel listing for these; Machito (Raul Frank Grillo) sang and played maracas, Mario Bauza did the arrangements and played clarinet (!).  

After his Navy service Puente recorded with both the bands he played in, José Curbelo and Pupi Campo; tracks can be heard on these CDs:

It was in Curbelo's band that met trumpet player Vincent "Jimmy" Frisaura, an Italian-American from the Bronx who spoke Spanish, love Harry James and had playing experience in Latin dance bands. When both joined Pupi Campo's orchestra, Al Escobar was the pianist; when he left Puente called his childhood friend José Estevez, better known as Joe Loco. He took Frisaura with him when he founded his own band in the summer of 1948. Both Puente and Loco wrote arrangements for Campo.

Edited May 12, 2020 by mikeweil

[Hot Ptah]

So for the 1940s and 1950s, there really is no good discography for Tito Puente? If I want to find out who played the instruments on "Ran Kan Kan" for example, there is no source? 

[mikeweil]

No there is not, I'm sorry. See my second post. The situation is as follows:

The Tico label, with whom Puente was under contract between 1949 and 1955, changed ownership several times (a rough outline is on Wikipedia). In the process, any documentation about the sessions, their dates, and the personnel involved, was obviously lost. When Joe Conzo was asked to compile a reissue of the complete 156 tracks that Tico had released on 78 rpm records, he couldn' even find proper tape material of the original sessions or the master tapes of the consecutive 10" or 12" LP issues. Everything was remastered from his own private collection of all 78's, which were is widely varying condition. All we know about personnel is the singers that were credited on the discs' labels, and what we can conclude from the band members mentioned in Josephine Powell's book. But studio sessions often used additional or altogether different musicians, depending on the music. There were pieces recorded that probably never were part of the band's book, or the arrangements changed to fit the three minute time limitation of the record. You can find the track lists on discogs or amazon. Four double CDs were issued in 2008 and 2009, with the tracks in chronological release order of the 78 rpm records. 

 

The sound quality was criticized a lot when these were issued. There had been better sounding reissues before. Craft Music made them available as downloads.

I have a cheapo CD compilation reissue with 23 Tico tracks that sounds excellent, it can be found for little money on discogs.

The Palladium LP reissues and later Tumbao CD reissues also sound better, they probably used good condition Tico LPs as sources. Most of the tracks from the Mamborama LP are all on the two Tumbao CDs shown below it. The Camey CD has all the Mamborama tracks plus three more.

But the four double CDs above are the first and only time the complete Tico 78's were reissued, many of them never made it to LP and so were not available to our friends in Barcelona. Tico was ultimately bought by Fania, which now belongs to the Concord Music group. The Universal imprint is already found on the back cover of those double discs. I'd rather not speculate on what source material is still in the Universal vaults. The Fania archives always were a mess, I have read. The version of Ran Kan Kan Hot Ptah used in his Blindfold Test was the second recording of that piece - the first was for RCA with Puente featured on timbales (more to that later). (Puente reserved his vibes features, some only with piano, bass, and rhythm, for Tico until he signed with RCA in 1955, there is a total of twenty.) The original issue was Tico T-10-228, it was reissued as a 45 rpm single Tico 45-228 in August 1954. The two tracks could be early 1954 recordings, or 1953 (the Tumbao reissue says 1949-1951 which is improbable. Personnel is Tito Puente (vibes), with probably Charlie Palmieri (piano), Mongo Santamaria (congas), Willie Bobo (timbales). That is all I can say.

Edited August 5, 2020 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Discographically, the situation is much better for the 1949-51 RCA Victor sides. Judging from latter day CD reissues, documentation sheets for the sessions have survived, the original tapes are existant and have excellent sound quality. 

Eight of the 27 tracks were reissued on a 10" LP titled Mambo On Broadway. 

It was expanded to 10 tracks for a 12" LP with 12 tracks (RCA LSP 1354), which was reissued on CD by BMG in Spain .

RCA in the US issued a new compilation they titled Cuando Suenan Los Tambores, with 15 tracks and personnel credits, as well as recording dates:

The real deal for these tracks, however, was a Japanese CD reissue of Mambo On Broadway expanding the 10" LP to 27(!) tracks. Liner notes were in Japanese, but there were two tables in the booklet with complete credits, recording dates and the distribution on various LP and CD reissues. This CD was very limited and is not even listed on discogs (BMG Japan BVCP40035 - make sure you get the 27 track version. There are other Japanese issues listed on amazon, but without tracklists. I have uploaded the two tables for you: https://pichost.net/img/puente-rca-japan-01.tROsW and https://pichost.net/img/puente-rca-japan-02.tRDMC - they give complete discographical information for those tracks. The second table shows why nobody so far attempted a Puente discography - the contents of all the LP and CD reissues are puzzling. The version of Ran Kan Kan heard here is the first, more famous one with Tito on timbales.

Two tracks on the 12" LP and CD reissue are not among these 27 - "Por Tu Amor" and "Vibe Cha Cha Cha". They are not regarded in the tables I uploaded. My assumption that they are from a later session proved to be true: According to the sparse credits in the "Complete RCA Recordings Vol. 1" box set they were recorded November 28, 1955 - immediately after Puente had terminated his recordings for Tico. More about this session below.

Edited July 29, 2020 by mikeweil
Correction of details for two tracks

[Hot Ptah]

 

Thank you. Oddly enough, this 1999 English CD issue on Snapper/Recall has better sounding recordings of some of the songs on Joe Conzo's Tico CD reissue series (all of which I own). 

[mikeweil]

Another result of the special clause in Puente's contract with Tico allowing him to record for other labels was a session for Seeco in 1953. Eight tracks were released on a 10" LP:

There was an expanded eleven track version on 12" LP, which was reissued on CD and LP on Palladium:

No personnel credits on any issue, just the featured singer, Vicentico Valdes. This album sounds much like a cross section of all the styles Puente recorded for Tico, instrumentals, two tracks with vibes, a Hollywood type girl vocalist (unidentified), mambos, boleros, and cha cha chas.

Edited May 7, 2020 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Puente In Percussion

Puente's last effort for Tico was the only session conceived for LP release - recorded most likely in 1955 and issued on 12" LP in 1956. There were many reissues with at least three cover designs, as this is a classic of Afro-Cuban percussion, a textbook of improvisations for timbales, bongos, and congas, accompanied only by a string bass. All the participating musicians spoke only with praise about this. Tito Puente (timbales), Mongo Santamaria (congas, bongos, timbales), Carlos "Patato" Valdez (congas), Willie Bobo (guiro, bongos, timbales) - the bassist was not identified, but with all probability it was Roberto "Bobby" Rodriguez. Josephine Powell mentions him when she writes about the session, and also lists Candido, but I do not know of any other source saying that he was on the session, and the solos sound like Mongo and Patato, but not like Candido.

Edited May 7, 2020 by mikeweil

[Big Beat Steve]

Somehow the figures on the cover artwork look familiar from elsewhere ...

[mikeweil]

RCA Victor 1956-60

Next comes the four years during which Puente recorded numerous albums for RCA Victor. I will start with a list in chronological order of release; I'll state recordings dates and release year whenever known to me. Please excuse any missing releases.

Mambo On Broadway - LPM 3164 (rec. 1949-51, 1954 10" LP reissue of 8 tracks originally on 78 rpm discs)

Cuban Carnival - LP 1251 (rec. 4/1956, rel. 7/1956)

Puente Goes Jazz - LP 1312 (rec. 6/1956, rel. 1956)

Mambo On Broadway - LP 1354 (rec. 1949-51, 1956 reissue of LPM 3164 with four additional tracks; the last two rec. 11/1955)

Cubarama. Let's Cha Cha - LP 1392 rec. 8/1956, rel. 1/1957)

Night Beat - LP 1447 (rec. 3-4/1957, rel. 1957)

Charlene Bartley - The Weekend of a Private Secretary - LP 1478 (rec. & rel. 1957) four tracks with Tito Puente & Orchestra

Mucho Puente - LP 1479 (rec. 4-5/1957, rel. 6/1958)

Be Mine Tonight / Abbe Lane with Tito Puente & his Orchestra LP 1554 (rec. & rel. 1957) 

Top Percussion - LP 1617 (rec. 7/1957, rel. 1958)

Dance Mania - LP 1692 (rec. 11-12/1957, re. 1958)

Dancing Under Latin Skies - LP 1874 (rec. 9/1958, rel. 1959)

Mucho Cha-Cha - LP 2113 (rec. 6/1959, rel. 12/1959)

Cha Cha with Puente at Grossinger's - LP 2187 (rec. 12/1959, rel. 1960)

Tambó - LP 2257 (rec. 4/1960, rel. 1/1961)

Dance Mania Vol. 2 - LP 3241 (rec. 8/1960, rel. 1961)

Revolving Bandstand - Tito Puente & Buddy Morrow & their Orchestras (rec. 1960, rel. 1963)

Some of these albums were issued with differing contents in mono and stereo issues - I still have to figure out some details. To make things still more complicated, some tracks obviously were released only on singles or not at all - this explains several tracks in the "Complete RCA" box sets that cannot be found on the LP issues or their CD counterparts. 

One more album was recorded for the Everest label and released in numerous versions and with varying release numbers:

Herman's Heat & Puente's Beat - Woody Herman & Tito Puente (rec. & rel. 1958)

 

Covers, recommendable reissues etc. will follow one by one. The next post will be about major reissue compilations.

Edited June 12, 2020 by mikeweil

[Big Beat Steve]

You are providing a very interesting overview.

Let's face it, Mike, seeing how far you are already involved into all the details you'd be the ideal candiate to tackle the compilation of a discography.
 

[mikeweil]

My standards are high, as I use BRIAN - considering all the different issues on Tico or RCA, it would take more years than I still have the brains and patience to do so. 

I have several others in the can or already completed but have to establish a web platform to get them published.

Edited May 1, 2020 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

Am I wrong in thinking that Dance Mania was actually a bit (or more>) of a "crossover" hit? Seems like RCA kept it in print on LP for a longer time than they did any other Puente record? When I started going into (primarily) Spanish-language  record stores on total wild-ass exploratory runs, just to see what was in there (which around here was mostly Mexican or what is now called Tejano in origin), it seems like if there was anything Tito Puente, it was always Dance Mania. Perez Prado, it was usually repackaged compilations, but Tito Puente, Dance Mania. Always.

My copy is on RCA Carino, purchased ca. 1978 or so:

The cover is in Spanish, but the liners are still English, and reference the album's "classic" status, and reference what I seemed to experience as well.:

 

 

 

[mikeweil]

Dance Mania seems to be his biggest hit for RCA, judging from the number of reissues. It was the only of his RCA albums that was reissued in a luxury double CD Legacy Edition.

The scene for Latin music was rapidly changing in those years. When Puente started in the late Forties it was the mambo craze, but it was soon overhauled by Cha Cha Cha as the mambo steps were too difficult for most dancers. Then came the Revolution, Cuba became the enemy and everything Cuban was no longer politically correct. They had to change the music, not only the names. R & B, Rock 'n' Roll, later the British pop music all made if difficult for Latin bands to reach a general dancing audience. Then came Salsa (a term Puente hated) and Santana who kinda pirated some of his music. Puente really stayed a mambero at heart 'til the end.

p.s. Puente is quoted in Powell's book stating Dance Mania was his biggest seller.

Edited May 3, 2020 by mikeweil

[Teasing the Korean]

Tito Puente recorded a number of tracks in the 1950s that fit under the exotica umbrella. These include "Night Ritual," "Mambo Buda," "Lotus Land" and "Elegua Chango."

But Puente's album-length contribution to the exotica canon is also the greatest album he ever made, the stunning "Tambo," on RCA (1960), which is of course still from the 1950s. 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[mikeweil]

Box sets of Puente's RCA recordings 1949-1960

In the year 2000 BMG issued the first of two box sets covering Puente's "complete" recordings from the time span we are talking about.

https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-The-Complete-RCA-Recordings-Vol1/release/14085264

In 2001 Vol. 2 followed:

https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-The-Complete-RCA-Recordings-Vol-2/release/3566174

The big problem about those two boxes is that they split all the material in half - you only get about half of the tracks from each album on either box. I only have a copy of the first volume and a track list a friend gave me, which indicates recording dates for each track. IIRC there were no personnel listings, only recordings dates. (Please correct me in case I'm in error here.)

I was hesitating to buy the box as I was mad at the label to do it in such a way, and still are. Plus, I have most of the music on single CDs, some with bonus material. It would take a lot of time to compare track lists to see if all added tracks are in those boxes. Plus, they were rather limited and used copies are hard to get at a decent price. Tito would have deserved a better treatment with each album complete in one of the boxes, IMHO.

SONY BMG topped it all in 2012 when they released a limited (5000 copies) 5 LP/CD box titled Quatro - The Definitive Collection. It included four albums plus one disc with alternates and outtakes, obviously designed for the LP edition, as there were no bonus tracks added to the albums, not even on the CD version. The latter is nicely done in 8" size, but Joe Conzo's new liner notes do not add much to what the Puente fan already knows, discographical information is listed, but the choice of albums is strange: Three undisputed classics, Cuban Carnival - Night Beat - Dance Mania - are coupled with the Revolving Bandstand LP, which AFAIK saw the light of day only in 1963 and is not considered an indispensable Puente album. It had already been reissued on CD with two alternates which are found on the bonus disc. The Puente completist will want it for the fifth disc. 

https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-Quatro-The-Definitive-Collection/release/10797081

Neither of these deserves the description "definitive" box set, IMO. I'd rather recommend single album reissues, which are next, one by one. 

p.s. Just saw there was a second issue of the first box in the same design as the second:

Edited July 29, 2020 by mikeweil
Correction of some details about the box sets

[Teasing the Korean]

6 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

Box sets of Puente's RCA recordings 1949-1960

In the year 2000 BMG issued the first of two box sets covering Puente's complete recordings from the time span we are talking about.

https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-The-Complete-RCA-Recordings-Vol1/release/14085264

In 2001 Vol. 2 followed:

https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-The-Complete-RCA-Recordings-Vol-2/release/3566174

The big problem about those two boxes is that they split all the material in half - you only get about half of the tracks from each album on either box. I only have a copy of the first volume and a track list a friend gave me, which indicates recording dates for each track. IIRC there were no personnel listings, only recordings dates. (Please correct me in case I'm in error here.)

I was hesitating to buy the box as I was mad at the label to do in such a way, and still are. Plus, I have most of the music on single CDs, some with bonus material. It would take a lot of time to compare track lists to see if all alternates are in those boxes. Plus, they were rather limited and used copies are hard to get at a decent price. Tito would have deserved a better treatment with each album complete in one of the boxes, IMHO.

SONY BMG topped it all in 2012 when they released a limited (5000 copies) 5 LP/CD box titled Quatro - The Definitive Collection. It included four albums plus one with alternates and outtakes, obviously designed for the LP edition, as there were no bonus tracks added to the albums, not even on the CD vesion. The latter is nicely done in 8" size, but Joe Conzo's new liner notes do not add much to what the Puente fan already knows, discographical information is only what was found on the original back covers (except on the fifth disc),  and the choice of albums is strange: Three undisputed classics, Cuban Carnival - Night Beat - Dance Mania - are coupled with the Revolving Bandstand LP, which AFAIK saw the light of day only in the 1970's and is not considered an indispensable Puente album. It was already reissued on CD with two alternates which are missing here. The Puente completist will want it for the fifth disc. 

https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-Quatro-The-Definitive-Collection/release/10797081

Neither of these deserves the description "definitive" box set, IMO. I'd rather recommend single album reissues, which are next, one by one. 

Do the tracks from "Tambo" sound any better on the box than they do on the standalone CD reissue? The mastering is really bad on that one IMO. 

[mikeweil]

I will compare tomorrow and post here.

[Teasing the Korean]

13 hours ago, mikeweil said:

I will compare tomorrow and post here.

Thanks. In the US, a lot of those 1980s CDs of RCA 1950s albums were mastered by a guy named Dick Baxter. They have a very harsh, brittle, and artificial sound. I fear that a lot of his masterings were picked up for later reissues. 

Also, I am curious to know if the box sets include mastering credits, and if Dick Baxter's  name surfaces anyplace in general. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[mikeweil]

 

19 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Thanks. In the US, a lot of those 1980s CDs of RCA 1950s albums were mastered by a guy named Dick Baxter. They have a very harsh, brittle, and artificial sound. I fear that a lot of his masterings were picked up for later reissues. 

Also, I am curious to know if the box sets include mastering credits, and if Dick Baxter's  name surfaces anyplace in general. 

I do not have full copies of the two RCA box set booklets and thus have no idea about the mastering engineer.

The Quatro Box was re-mastered by Mike Fuller at Fuller sound.

I am in the process of comparing the sound of the single CD reissues with the copy of the first box that I have, but it will take some time. I will mention the mastering engineer when presenting all the single CD reissues. Not all were made by Baxter.

Edited May 4, 2020 by mikeweil

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, mikeweil said:

 

I do not have full copies of the two RCA box set booklets and thus have no idea about the mastering engineer.

The Quatro Box was re-mastered by Mike Fuller at Fuller sound.

I am in the process of comparing the sound of the single CD reissues with the copy of the first box that I have, but it will take some time. I will mention the mastering engineer when presenting all the single CD reissues. Not all were made by Baxter.

Thank you!