[Dixielandjazz] Fixing recordings

[Steve Barbone]

Far be it from me to disparage others who fix errors on recordings. I can
understand why they feel that way and wish them well.

As for me, give me on record what was actually played. I prefer the recorded
sound to be as close to what the players actually sounded like when they
were creating the music. And I prefer, if it was live, to have as much of
the audience reaction as possible in the mix. Like Ellington at Newport with
Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.

Case in point is the Mosaic reissue of Eddie Condon works. The mistakes are
there, some glaring, depending upon who the listener is. On "That's A
Plenty", Bob Wilber misplays a four bar break at the end . . . reed squeaks
and all. It is during the band round robin of 4 bar ending breaks. As a reed
player, I heard it immediately. However, many, if not most listeners don't
hear it as a mistake. At most they may wonder why the clarinet took 2 ending
4 bar breaks. And why did the original cut and the Mosaic reissue leave in
that first break when it could have been easily removed leaving only the
second.

To me, the thinking behind the differences in the breaks, difficulty factor,
etc, is an important part of who Bob Wilber is musically.

I may be telling tales out of school, but I believe even Bill Haesler missed
hearing it the first time he listened and when I mentioned it, re-listened
and then by gosh, there it was.

We all hear differently. To Bob and Kash, they want precision. Perhaps they
prefer heavily arranged music also. OK, fine. But I listen for what the
musician is trying to do, I want to hear a musician extend him/her self. And
mistakes will be a part of that extension. So I don't mind mistakes and
actually prefer to hear them. One wrong note in a Basie/Sinatra recording
isn't going to bother me one bit. As Artie Shaw once opined, if you don't
make a mistake or two in a jazz performance, you are not trying hard enough.

IMO, fixing records will become more and more invasive as technology
improves to the point that the synthesizers will take over the music with
"perfect" computer recordings that sound better than music played by real
musicians with instruments, in both fidelity and freedom from errors. Why
then would anyone want to listen to musicians and live music?

Computerized King Oliver. Can you dig it?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone