poco a poco
I'm Jim
As I recommended the last available CD's of this release back on post 176 (page9) that George Foster was selling to aid Alzheimer's Research (Alzheimer's devastated the final years of Ian Carr life) I was surprised at this sloppy review. I have the double LP vinyl version, not the CD, that I bought shortly after its release in 2010 by Stamford Audio, but that is what LCJ seems to be reviewing.Looks like we should be avoiding this one:
https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2020/09/28/rendell-carr-quintet-live-at-the-union-1966-stamford-audio
Normally I have have quite a lot of respect for the LCJ website. He does have a number of particular opinions that I don't agree with, but when talking about early jazz labels and pressings he is usually meticulous in producing the evidence base. Not in this case though. It would take too long to challenge all the assumptions he makes about recording and pressing method, but he does not even appear to have read the sleeve notes, "I don’t know who the recorder of the session “George Foster” was, perhaps a friend of the band". In a page of the sleeve notes George Foster states who he was at that time (Secretary of the Student Union Jazz Society) and that he became a friend of Ian Carr for over 40 years. He describes the session and recording in some detail. LCJ "the tape ended up in the possession of Michael Garrick. I think not a professional recording engineer, who knows" "The use of three mics sounds promising (no mention of type of mic) but I suspect the reason for it being a mono recording as late as 1966 is not in pursuit of “glorious mono” but a consequence of necessity, because there was no mixing facility to control the input of each mic in either real time or post production." George Foster, "I tapped into the PA system. I cannot remember what recorder I used, but looking at my web pictures I recognise a Vortexion 3 channel mixer pre-amp and must have taken a feed off that". He then goes on to describe the microphones (Reslo ribbon mikes) and their positioning in some detail. He admits the sound balance wasn't great.
George found the tape under Ian Carr's bed in 2007 when Ian had to move into a care home. He took it to Tony Rees for a high resolution transfer. I could go on about LCJ's other assumptions, but I have already taken up too much time and space. Everyone can of course make up their own mind about the musicianship here, there are a number of tracks on YouTube in addition to Ursula posted by LCJ. Unfortunately though not Hot Rod that is possibly the best track and can be compared to the Quintets other versions. I find the sound quality much better than just adequate and I think I prefer this live performance over the professionally recorded 'Don Rendell / Ian Carr - Live, Landsdown Series recording. To quote George Foster "This band achieves an up-tempo wildness threatening to disintegrate into chaos, pushing the music to the edge of incoherence and deftly pulling it back again". I think the CD version is still available from George Foster, the £10 going to support Alzheimer's Research and despite LCJ complaining (this from someone who spends multiple hundred pounds on early Blue Note pressings) "I paid a premium for a sealed (vinyl) copy" M- copies can be found for around £40 - £50.
Link to CD and sleeve notes on Jazzhouse records blog:
https://jazzhouserecords.blogspot.com/2020/07/don-rendell-ian-carr-quintet-live-at.html
Edit: couple of typo's corrected and just to note this LP sounds much better when played with a good mono cartridge than a (my even better) stereo one. No compression or noise reduction was used in the mastering. Just playing it again now - not bad at all.
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