Big Band LP's

I am sure many of you are familiar with Sheffields Harry James LP recordings captured fundamentally by a single Stereo condenser microphone. Well I was poking around You Tube and found Harry James "One Night Stand" featuring Buddy Rich on drums. If you get a chance listen. For the time in history the sound is outstanding. The video is poor, but watchable. The way big band should be captured in stereo or mono. How many mics. One solo mic that everyone stays a respectable distance from. One mic for the brass, and 5 knee high KM84 mics for the saxes. Buddy Rich is on his own. There is one for the piano but I can't see it and there is one for the bass. Thats's it. Oh the highs aren't in your face but the sound replicates a live performance as it should. I wish other big band recordings blends were this good. Some might prefer closer miking and a bunch of mikes for the drums. But I enjoy the balance of everything. 17 musicians working together as a single group , and not 17 individualists. The vocal and instrumental solos were so natural with the musicians standing 5 to 10 or more feet away from the Telefunken mic with the in vertical diaphragm. It looks like the early model mics Mercury used for their Living Presence" recordings. The bass of the upright and drums doesn't drive or predominate the recording. Its there, easy to follow, but its nothing like R&R inspired recordings later on in history.

It was great fun to see and hear some one else capture Harry James Band for posterity. It does make we want to pull out my Sheffield albums for after dinner enjoyment.
 
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Backed by the best Nashville Cats and The Anita Kerr Singers. After a song was finished, a choral member who was also a decent horn player, stood up and said, "I'm never picking up that trumpet again!".
 
View attachment 945180 Julie London - Feeling Good

I recently re-discovered her, I went kinda wild buying a bunch of her CDs on Amazon. Funny that I would have forgotten about Julie London. She was a bit before "my time", but I've always loved the "Era". This was coincidentally just before an old passion was re-awakened. I'm rapidly going down the tunnel into becoming an "audiophile".
 
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Backed by the best Nashville Cats and The Anita Kerr Singers. After a song was finished, a choral member who was also a decent horn player, stood up and said, "I'm never picking up that trumpet again!".

At one time I had several Al Hirt LPs (I played brass in HS & college). I always wondered what would happen if his recordings were less scripted & he could let go & improvise. Had a New Orleans influenced Hirt album - I remember I liked it.... doubt its still around. I think Honey in the Horn & Sugar Lips are still around here somewhere. Now you've got me going, I'll have to hunt & see what I can find.
 
At one time I had several Al Hirt LPs (I played brass in HS & college). I always wondered what would happen if his recordings were less scripted & he could let go & improvise. Had a New Orleans influenced Hirt album - I remember I liked it.... doubt its still around. I think Honey in the Horn & Sugar Lips are still around here somewhere. Now you've got me going, I'll have to hunt & see what I can find.
You're talking the RCA years when you complain "scripted"
Al Hirt was born and died in New Orleans, doesn't get anymore New Orleans than Al Hirt
I am very fortunate I got to meet and hear him live, late 60s before his Mardi Gras parade injury
My trumpet teacher was also from New Orleans and was a drinking buddy of Hirt's years before, that's how it happened
He was one of my first music heroes, him, Beethoven and the Beatles
Check out any of his output for Audio Fidelity as well as a box The Longines Symphonette Society did, they did a few single Lps too - it's all straight and heavy Dixieland
Nothing scripted about Hirt, it's the RCA production you're not feeling
If you really care about hearing the man play in different settings check out his playing with Ina Ray Hutton, Horace Heidt, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman or Tommy Dorsey
If you want to hear him show the world a little Jazz check out his work with Monk Hazel
He even did an album with the Boston Pops and Fiedler
Plenty out there
Man that guy could play
 
You're talking the RCA years when you complain "scripted"
Al Hirt was born and died in New Orleans, doesn't get anymore New Orleans than Al Hirt
I am very fortunate I got to meet and hear him live, late 60s before his Mardi Gras parade injury
My trumpet teacher was also from New Orleans and was a drinking buddy of Hirt's years before, that's how it happened
He was one of my first music heroes, him, Beethoven and the Beatles
Check out any of his output for Audio Fidelity as well as a box The Longines Symphonette Society did, they did a few single Lps too - it's all straight and heavy Dixieland
Nothing scripted about Hirt, it's the RCA production you're not feeling
If you really care about hearing the man play in different settings check out his playing with Ina Ray Hutton, Horace Heidt, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman or Tommy Dorsey
If you want to hear him show the world a little Jazz check out his work with Monk Hazel
He even did an album with the Boston Pops and Fiedler
Plenty out there
Man that guy could play

I had the Boston Pops LP.... maybe still do. I'll keep an eye open for earlier stuff. Thanks for the history lesson - would like to have heard him live....
 
I don't know how to do the photo thing, but have to mention a couple of bands that seem to be missing from this thread: Chick Webb and Jimmie Lunceford. I have Mosaic sets of both bands that are just awesome. Several people have mentioned big band sets from Time-Life that I think should be re-issued. Reader's Digest also offered some wonderful sets years gone by that would be worthy of re-issue.
 
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