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Old Blue Notes . . .

Posted by caspian@peak.org (A) on July 25, 2009 at 08:20:17

In Reply to: Best Recordings from an Audiophile Perspective posted by jult52 on July 9, 2009 at 09:29:43:

. . . from the late 1950s thru mid 1960s. Particularly those recorded by Rudy Van Gelder. And, on CD, particularly those which Rudy came out of retirement to supervise the digital transfer -- the "RVG Series."

Most of these were recorded direct to 2-track in Rudy's NJ studio -- a lightly treated acoustic space about the size of a small church. The players set up on the stage for fairly wide separation -- typically the horn players far left and right, with piano, bass, & drums further back in the center -- and the mics were placed to capture the panorama of the stage setup. This resulted in excellent tone and dynamics on the brass instruments, though the piano sometimes came out sounding a bit closed in, or the bass a bit wooly. That varies a lot from session to session.

This approach -- minimalist recording of real instruments, playing in real time in a real acoustic space -- results in an extremely natural sound that is rare in more recent recordings. Back then, they didn't have the "advanced technology" to screw it up with compression, limiting, multi-tracking, equalization, artificial reverb, etc. Just a pair of very good microphones, through a tubed pre-amp board that Rudy built himself, to a very good reel-to-reel tape recorder.

And, of course, the music is wonderful. All the best players in NYC wanted to work with Rudy, because he understood how THEY worked, and knew how to make them sound their best on record. This was an intensely fertile, creative era in jazz, and these recordings document a broad cross section of what was happening in the NY scene.

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