[Dixielandjazz] Oliver/Armstrong - more on "loudness"

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

SteveB and I actually share a fair bit of common ground on the issue of
Louis' "loudness". The term is subjective and whether Louis was "loud",
"louder" or "loudest" is of no great importance. We can agree that he stood
out, both sonically and artistically.

I am mainly interested in the circumstances of the April 1923 Gennett
recordings and am trying to put them into context with acoustic recording
in general. There are two issues: did the acoustic process put enough
information into the record grooves for a listener to perceive sonic
perspective?; with conflicting stories about the position of the players
during the recording of the Creole Jazz Band, which is preferred?

On the issue of sonic perspective, I say that the acoustic process did
indeed provide enough information for a listener to perceive it. This is
clearly the case in, for example, the early recordings of Caruso - when
piano accompaniment is used, one can tell that the singer and the pianist
are at a similar distance from the recording horn; when orchestral
accompaniment is used, one can tell that the instrumentalists are further
away from the horn than the singer.

This is not surprising - sound intensity obeys the inverse square law.
Applying this to Lil Hardin's "15 feet" story means that Louis' intensity
would have been about 5% (yes, five percent) of what it would have been if
he was located with the other players at about 3 feet from the horns. If he
stood at 4 feet from the horns (when the others were at about 3 feet), his
intensity would have been about 60%. Which do you think is the more likely
set-up?

(An aside for scientists and engineers: the inverse square law applies in
the case of no reflection and no reverberation - a cornet in an
acoustically "dead"studio, like Gennett's, approximates to this condition)

With regard to the conflicting stories about the position of the players
during recording, we should remember that it suited Lil Hardin's purposes
very well to play up the difference between Armstrong's and Oliver's
playing. As Louis always said, this did not imply any disrespect for Oliver
- it was just something that was relevant to the course of Armstrong's career.

Given that there is no sonic evidence of any significant separation between
Armstrong and the other players, I accept Baby Dodds', and Armstrong's
later, account of the positions of the players. It is highly probable that
Miss Lil simply exaggerated and that "little Louis" went-along with it.

Oh, play that thing!

Anton

PS: There's been no info, so far, on the source of the Lil Hardin "15 feet"
comment. She says it on a 1950's Riverside LP (RLP 12-120), but surely this
can't be the original.