Saturday, June 7, 2008

Flacs will be a-coming

Flac for those who don;t know is a format rather like mp3 but with a difference. It's lossless which means it's the same digital information in the original wav file. nothing is compressed (sound wise)

all you need are the right codecs on your computer to enjoy these and remember Flacs are Superior to the mp3's.

And my mp3 fans don't worry all future posts will have mp3 as well as a FLAC option.

so over the next day I will be editing my original posts to include a FLAC option. ive already done one so have yourself a gander below

Friday, June 6, 2008

Charlie Barnett - Rockin In Rhythm (Ellington) HMV OA051532


Charlie Barnett again and his Arragnment of Duke Ellington's Rockin In Rhythm

Not bad Not bad at all. on the B side there is another Duke number Merry Go Round. Which ill get on here at some point

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Milt Herth and his Trio - Huckelberry Duck




Ive got a few Milt Herth discs and most are pretty swingy !
This one has some Hammond lick and a nice Honky Tonk type riff
In time and if anyone's interested i may post some more of Milt
Enjoy



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Milt Herth - Huckelberry Duck mp3

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Artie Shaw - Cross Your Heart

Some of the best and most innovative music to come from the Artie Show outfit were the Gramcery 5 sessions which started in 1940, Bands were going though a "band within a band" phase so naturally Artie had his own.

I really love the recording of Cross Your Heart, but all the transfers that I've ever heard have been "Stock standard" mid 50's RCA transfers with loads of reverb/slapback. which i hate!
I've always wanted to hear a Clean version of this one and was surprised when A reader to this blog lent me his 78 of it. its a well worn disc but i think you will agree that there's more "Top end" in this than any transfer about. the whole arrangement is now so stark and contemporary without the awful reverb, It's like another Tune!!

It Was Recorded on the 3rd Of September 1940


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Edgar Hayes - Help Me



Bit of everything in the arragement some vibes and swiunging troms

Here's a little info about the man from the net

Edgar Hayes will be forever associated with his one big 1938 hit record: his cocktail lounge, tinkling piano style rendition of Carmichael's "Stardust". The flip-side was his version of Glenn Miller's hit tune "In The Mood".

After his studies at Fisk and Wilberforce Universities, he joined the Fess Williams group. In 1924, he formed his own group, in Ohio, called the 'Blue Grass Buddies', and the Hayes Orchestra was booked into the "Ritz Cafe" in Cleveland Ohio.

In 1931, after having worked with a number of different bands all through the 1920's, he wound up as the pianist-arranger with the Mills Blue Ribbon Band. Three years later, Lucky Millinder took over leadership of the band, and three years after that, Hayes left to form his own fine 14 piece orchestra.

From 1937 to 1941, Hayes fronted this band, which was originally formed using many of Lucky Millinder's ex-members. Among these could be found Joe Garland on tenor sax; Shelton Hemphill on trumpet, Elmer James on bass, and Crawford Wetherington on alto sax. All these men had been with Hayes in the Mills Blue Rhythm Band. A young drummer named Kenny Clarke, later to become a 'bebop' musician, was sparking the band's rhythm section. In time, a young Dizzy Gillespie was to be heard blowing his trumpet with the band."

Nice little tune !!

Usual 3 versions

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Edgar Hayes - Help Me MP3

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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Charlie Barnett - Southern Fried



Does Mr Barnett Swing|? Oh yes he does. I was shocked this wasn't a hit for his band as it has all the elements that other band would have had a NO. 1 with this one.

A rather beaten up 78 but with a little love it shines like new again, I used to use this as a theme for one of my swing radio shows 10 years ago!! but then i had rather primitive "Restoration" devices.
I found a rather poor transfer of this on the net also.. paid for by the McGill university. Its a really bad transfer.. the fools don't know what they are doing.. and yet get funding to do this !.. mine i did myself and it cost zilch.. Take a look at what the American Government payed someone to do.. Southern Fried

and then listen to mine who does this for free. (but would like to get the chance to have a job )



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Fats Waller - Swinga-Dilla Street Regal Zonophone




Hear Fats on the Hammond!

This is one of my Fav Waller 78's, just have a listen to his left hand blurt out passages every now and then which sound just divine!! very contemporary for the 30's.
Ive restored this one many times trying to get it Just right Let me know if it worked!

He is backed of course by his Rhythm, Does anyone know if he recorded anything like this again?, I have 100's of fats Transferred from 78 (and most of em very clean discs) but It don't get much swinger than this!


The stereo version is nice on this one.

Again a quick restoration all done in under 30 seconds.
and the usual 3 versions of each plus a high quality pic of the Label


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Fats Waller - Swinga-Dilla Street Mp3

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Sunday, June 1, 2008

Somthing New - Buddy DeFranco and the Glenn Miller Ork





Here is an LP which took me years to find, I first heard this on Cassette which was a CBS 2 pack with modern "members" type recordings and the 2 tracks from the 30's which CBS had the "rights" for a 1935 recording of "Solo Hop" and some other tune of which I've forgotten about. the other Cassette had this album, which i played to death and spent a few years hunting down this one. It's not rare or anything but it's funny I never came across it. Its a real treat to hear the superb sounds of Buddy DeFranco on his clarinet ripping though the Tijuana songbook of the day. the band plays well and the stereo is fab.

Standard Transfer, Very Minimal "restoration".


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Something New - Buddy DeFranco and the Glenn Miller Ork

Studies In Swing No. 3 - Nat Gonella - When You're Smiling Parlophone A6462





Studies In Swing No. 3
When Your Smiling (Fisher-Goodwin-Shay)
Nat Gonella
Recorded under the direction of George Scott-Wood
Cecil Norman - Piano
Albert Harris - Guitar
Jock Jacobson - Drums
Dick Escott - Bass


Parlophone - A6462
Matrix No. - CE7489 and CE7474
Australian Pressing on Purple Parlophone Label

Transferred Using a Truncated Eliptical Stylus which was a 2.5 Side 2 was using a 3.3.

Here's A real treat a 78 in REAL stereo ! what you may say ok ok there are some Duke Ellington recordings in stereo from'33 and a few odd's and sod's from other outfits namely the Glenn Miller Film soundtracks which were found to be recorded on 35mm magnetic film and recorded in "sections" so they could be mixed in the standard mono for the film. these were remixed in the 90's in a pretty convincing stereo sound and also used on the Home Video releases.

This is like those Miller tracks, one 78 and 2 versions of the same song, side one has the band plus Nat blowing his horn and side two just has the band minus Nat's solo.
so what i did was to put the two side of the disc into my fav multi track program, do a bit of panning and timing and voila a real stereo song from the late 30's (could be early 40's too)
and the band was pretty tight too, the "backing" track was only half a second longer which i did a bit of "time shifting" to correct.

I also have Swing studies No. 2 with Freddy Gardner playing Japanese Sandman which I'll work on a bit later providing anyone cares.

Transferred and Restored By Adrian Gregg In May 2008 in under 10 mins for Transferring and restoration. the stereo "MIX" took a bit longer! as I do these for love and not for $ I only spent a brief time working the stereo out It could be MUCH better with a little work.

Again we have 3 versions
1 GOOD version (my preferred restoration)
2 TMNR overkill on the cleaning for those who hate surface noise
3 REAL STEREO there are 2 versions of this a straight mix and one with a little reverb on the Trumpet Solo

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Nat Gonella - When You're Smiling