Sonny Rollins East Broadway Rundown - Distortion on CD?

[Teasing the Korean]

I have the 1995 CD.  I have never owned this on LP.

The beginning of track 1 has some weird distortion in one channel, the track with mostly bass and drums, and then I hear what sounds like tape print-through when the ghost of the sax is heard before it properly enters.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or do I have a defective CD?

[JSngry]

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about and it still pisses me off to think about it. That shit should never have made it to market. It's not there on the LP.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about and it still pisses me off to think about it. That shit should never have made it to market. It's not there on the LP.

Thanks for confirming!  It is hard to believe this made it past quality control.  Do we know if this was ever improved?  Is it like this on the Sonny RCA box set?

[JSngry]

It would not be on the RCA box.

Not sure if it has been improved. I threw up my hands and decided to stick to the LP.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

It would not be on the RCA box.

Right, I was spacing.  impulse!

[JSngry]

So, yes, it has been reissued since then, although I can't say that they've fixed it. I would certainly hope so!!!!!!!!

https://www.discogs.com/master/174510-Sonny-Rollins-East-Broadway-Run-Down?format=CD

funny story about the title cut. Around the time i hit high school, the local (Tyler Tx) Soul station (KZEY 690 AM SOUL 69!!!!) adde a Sunday afternoon jazz show hosted by a lady named Teddi Davis, and she would play that cut from time to time, my assumption being to give her time for either a smoke of a bathroom break. She NEVER back-announced it, but I was mesmerized by it, especially the very end, the neck and then mouthpiece solo. It wasn't until I got access to a more urban envirponment that had real record stores and I could little by little buy the Sonny Rollins records I had yet to get (the in-print ones, anyway...) One of the first was East Broadway Rundown, and putting it on for the frst time, THERE IT WAS, that unmistakable head (comparisons to "Pent Up House" are instructive). I got so excited that I stopped people walking by in the dorm...LISTEN TO THIS, THE FIRST PSYCHEDELIC JAZZ RECORD!!!!!

So, that has become one of my "imprint" records, and that first botched CD REALLY pissed me off.

Thank you for listening.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

So, yes, it has been reissued since then, although I can't say that they've fixed it. I would certainly hope so!!!!!!!!

https://www.discogs.com/master/174510-Sonny-Rollins-East-Broadway-Run-Down?format=CD

funny story about the title cut. Around the time i hit high school, the local (Tyler Tx) Soul station (KZEY 690 AM SOUL 69!!!!) adde a Sunday afternoon jazz show hosted by a lady named Teddi Davis, and she would play that cut from time to time, my assumption being to give her time for either a smoke of a bathroom break. She NEVER back-announced it, but I was mesmerized by it, especially the very end, the neck and then mouthpiece solo. It wasn't until I got access to a more urban envirponment that had real record stores and I could little by little buy the Sonny Rollins records I had yet to get (the in-print ones, anyway...) One of the first was East Broadway Rundown, and putting it on for the frst time, THERE IT WAS, that unmistakable head (comparisons to "Pent Up House" are instructive). I got so excited that I stopped people walking by in the dorm...LISTEN TO THIS, THE FIRST PSYCHEDELIC JAZZ RECORD!!!!!

So, that has become one of my "imprint" records, and that first botched CD REALLY pissed me off.

Thank you for listening.

👍

[JSngry]

I met Teddi Davis a few years later. She was living in a very well-to-do suburb of Fort Worth, one of a very small handful of African-Americans living there. I was the only Anglo-American present, so all I mentioned was that I had fond memories of her Tyler show. She appreciated it, ut was very disdainful of the station, Tyler, and East Texas in general.

I could not disagree with that, and the environment was such that to ask her if she used to get high and/or take a shit during that cut would have been faux-pas in the extreme. Contrary to the impression of some, I know how to act in social situations! 👁️‍🗨️🆗

Ok, good prices here on a later digipak prepared by Cuscuna, so I'm taking a chance that this was not one of his occasional/rare brainfart days. I would be shocked if it was!

https://www.discogs.com/release/1549175-Sonny-Rollins-East-Broadway-Run-Down

I left the cheapest ones for my fellow Organissmoite-ers!!!!!

[kh1958]

My favorite track on that LP is We Kiss in a Shadow.

[Teasing the Korean]

12 hours ago, JSngry said:

Ok, good prices here on a later digipak prepared by Cuscuna, so I'm taking a chance that this was not one of his occasional/rare brainfart days. I would be shocked if it was!

https://www.discogs.com/release/1549175-Sonny-Rollins-East-Broadway-Run-Down

I left the cheapest ones for my fellow Organissmoite-ers!!!!!

When you receive it, can you confirm if it has the same distortion?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I have this on a Japanese mini-LP CD, UCCI-9076, and I don't hear anything that sounds like tape bleed. During the initial unison line, there is a tiny bit of overload when the trumpet joins in and there's a bit too much bass there as well, but Rudy seems to get the levels straightened out pretty quickly.

[mhatta]

There doesn't seem to be any problem with Spotify or Apple Music sources. I don't own CD, I'll get one when I found one.

BTW, I found this gem.  Flea of RHCP is really something else.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr9rI9ZxctB/

Edited September 10, 2023 by mhatta

[AllenLowe]

much as I love Sonny, I find this record unsatisfying; years ago Jamil Nasser told me that in this period he thought Sonny was desperately trying to deal with that fact that Coltrane had overtaken him in terms of influence. Jamil told me he thought this is why Sonny started resorting to attention-getting gimmicks like playing on the bridge. Now, in other contexts, this was a time of prime Sonny (hence his live stuff on youtube from Denmark and the RCA stuff.) On most of the E.B. Rundown project he seems to me to be flailing around in search of relevance, working hard to restore his place in the modernist pantheon. The result is meandering solos that never really show anything other than a desire for "relevance." Or, as Paul Bley said to me once, "we didn't need Sonny to play free; we needed him to play standards." And even on We Kiss in a Shadow he never seems to really get started.

I hesitate to give my above opinion, assuming someone will tell me I am just jealous or some such other nasty irrelevance. It's just the way I hear this album, which I bought near the time it came out and never really liked.

(and by the way, my opinion is born out by the fact that Sonny did not really stick with this format; even Our Man in Jazz was mostly - maybe all - standards.)

Edited September 10, 2023 by AllenLowe

[Eric]

Yeah, I cannot really get into this one either.  Meandering is a good way to put it.  Plenty of other deeply satisfying Rollins from around this time!

[JSngry]

I like the "meandering". It's like chiseling in water. 

[felser]

Strangely, this album was my introduction to Rollins in the early 70's.  I do like Garrison/Elvin on it, agree that Sonny seems to meander a lot, but also agree that I like the meandering, though I wondered at the time what the big deal about Rollins was.  I found that out when I soon after experienced his masterpieces like 'Saxophone Colossus' and 'Newk's Time'.

[JSngry]

Or Alfie!!!! 

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Or Alfie!!!! 

I created an expanded Alfie playlist, using Sonny's album and adding Dionne's version of the Bacharach tune, Bacharach's instrumental version (with the insane 32nd notes on the high hat), and Roland Kirk's version, in which he quotes Sonny Rollins' "Alfie" melody in the coda. 

And I STILL can't find my Sonny Rollins Alfie LP on impulse!  It shouldn't be hard to find with that fat spine.  No idea what the hell I did with it.

[JSngry]

If you're doing that, you'll want to add the Villa Black version from the closing credits. Gotta be out there somewhere. 

[Teasing the Korean]

27 minutes ago, JSngry said:

If you're doing that, you'll want to add the Villa Black version from the closing credits. Gotta be out there somewhere. 

I don't like her voice much, so I opted for Dionne instead.

[JSngry]

That's a legit call. I would do the same.

I wonder if the OST still exists on it's own somewhere. 

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

I wonder if the OST still exists on it's own somewhere. 

They are different takes, right?  Probably separate sessions, too.  If the film tracks were recorded in Britain, all bets are off.

[JSngry]

They are and they were. 

[medjuck]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

That's a legit call. I would do the same.

I wonder if the OST still exists on it's own somewhere. 

Did it ever exist as an Lp or cd? 

[JSngry]

Nope