[Dixielandjazz] Fixing Recordings

[Steve Barbone]

Actually Bob R and Jim K , I meant to say that you "may" like precision. Did
not mean to say "they" like precision.

Regarding fixing recordings, I have heard over one hundred symphony
recordings with errors in them. Some with Kenny Davern when we were young
and he would point them out. Some with my mother, a classically trained
pianist who would point them out. Some most recently, with Glenn Dodson who
would point them out. But you are right, I never heard a symphony mistake on
my own.

There are mistakes all through "great" artist recordings. That's why Glenn
Gould re-recorded the Goldberg variations. If you have listened to both
versions, you know they are quite different in tempo and feeling. He was no
longer happy with the first recording. Who know, had he lived longer, he may
have done a third version. Maybe if we are not happy with a recording,
rather than fix it, we should record it again?

BTW, I know several pianists who can point out the mistakes in Horowitz,
Gould, Rubenstein et al recordings. But I can't hear them and neither can
most everyone else in the world.

Point is very simple. IMO, If we say it's wrong for technocrats to use
technology to make a no talent rock singer sound like a great star, then we
are inconsistent in saying it is OK for us to fix recordings. We are doing
the exact same thing, only to a lesser (hopefully) degree.

To say, we know where to draw the line and only do it when necessary, is
like saying we are only a little bit pregnant.

Who had artistic control over the Condon record, and why the mistake was
left in, is not relevant. I only pointed it out to show that most listeners
do not hear mistakes. Did not imply that Condon wanted it left in.

IMO, many of us are not really bothered by mistakes (other than our own)
regardless of how we try to justify correcting them. If we were, we would
burn ALL of the Artistic Dixieland records made prior to 1950,instead of
worshipping them. And given that many people, according to prior posts,
listen constantly to them, I find it difficult to believe that mistakes
bother them. Or perhaps, like me and symphony records, they don't hear the
mistakes.

Now there's a novel thought. Maybe the kids today dislike the older jazz
records because they are true, good music, aficionados, who hate mistakes.

Or maybe like Bill Haesler says, you don't mess with "classic" records. Why
not? Wouldn't they be more classic without mistakes? Or is it that the music
as played, is what makes it "classic".

Cheers,
Steve Barbone