Bessie Smith (was re: Robert Johnson (and a little Bessie Smith)
Steven Alexsy
>Speaking of lousy Columbia digital reissues, has anyone heard the
>digitized Bessie Smith? Is it any good? Is it the first volume of
>another complete reissue? I've been scouring the area for the earlier
>Columbia complete Bessie Smith, from the early 70's -- 5 2lp sets
>containing nearly every extant recording she made (minus a handful of
>things she did for labels not affiliated with Columbia). I've managed
>to find four of them, but "Any Woman's Blues" continues to elude me...
I have Bessie Smith:The Collection--the 16 track Columbia CD. I
had already purchased the Bessie Smith:Jazz Classics in Digital Stereo LP on BBC
Records which has Bessie's material as cleaned up by Australian engineer Robert
Palmer. The Columbia CD is somewhat disappointing next to the BBC Records
set from a technical standpoint. (I now regret not getting the BBC LP on a
CD instead of vinyl since the LP is already scratched despite my best
efforts.) "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" is also on The Blues
1923-1933 on BBC and on the Columbia CD. The BBC CD version as re-produced
by Robert Palmer is far superior thanks to Palmer's techinical wizardry.
The Columbia CD does have a nice selection however. This does not appear the
first volume of another series.
/s/
Marc Wiener
>In article <1990May4....@arris.com>, Richard Shapiro writes...
>
>>Speaking of lousy Columbia digital reissues, has anyone heard the
>>digitized Bessie Smith? Is it any good? Is it the first volume of
>>another complete reissue? I've been scouring the area for the earlier
>>Columbia complete Bessie Smith, from the early 70's -- 5 2lp sets
>>containing nearly every extant recording she made (minus a handful of
>>things she did for labels not affiliated with Columbia). I've managed
>>to find four of them, but "Any Woman's Blues" continues to elude me...
>
I purchases "The Collection" for a friend and while it sounded okay to
me I really had nothing to compare it to. Coincidentally, Phil Schaap of
Columbia University's WKCR (the only real Jazz radio station in NYC) played
all of the versions of Bessie Smith, 78's 10 inch LP's, etc. Of all versions,
the Columbia CD was the worst. In fact he played what he considered to be the
worst of the LP's, a Columbia Special Products version from the 50's in which
echo was added, on the right channel and the CD on the left. While it
was difficult to synchronize them perfectly, it was obvious that the CD
sound was very inferior. How does Columbia get away with this?
--
Marc Wiener ma...@pinet.aip.org
American Institute of Physics ma...@aip.bitnet
Woodbury, NY