Every day I dope-slap myself with the question, “Why the hell have I never heard of this before?” And it just happened with IPI - I got an email from HDTT and previewed a few tracks, and even on my Apple Studio Display I could hear some of the most amazing reality and presence I"ve ever heard. I am so taken by their sound, I’d love to meet these people and I’ll be in Chicago later this week for AXPONA. But of course, I’m way too shy to try and contact them. But man…
So are they basically ceasing operation as far as recording, but allowing HDTT to continue distributing their materials?
Yes. Jonathan retired last year. When he retired he withdrew his catalog of recordings and HDTT had to take them all down. Bob has been encouraging him to make the catalog available on HDTT again, and Jonathan finally agreed to do so. The files (albums) from a year ago are now back at HDTT for distribution.
Last week, I acquired the HDTT release of Eric Dolphy’s 1963 recording Conversations. The clarity of each instrument, then their combined blend on the soundstage, have a kind of “jazz reality” that I am really learning to enjoy. Similar to the engineer Roy Dunann, working around the same time for Contemporary Records, the engineer for this recording is Bill Schwartau who was production supervisor and chief engineer of Sound Makers Studio in New York City. I just learned that he engineered the phenomenal album Money Jungle with Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach (sure wish HDTT would do that one), which is also spectacular from an audio perspective. Schwartau’s capture and reproduction of Dolphy’s sound is so stunning to me that the last track “Love Me,” a totally unaccompanied sax solo is perhaps surprisingly my favorite on this release. How he gets this kind of soundstage from a single instrument is baffling.
I just posted the following review on the HDTT website. It’s about a new transfer of the 1961 Frank Sinatra recording Come Swing With Me! featuring Sinatra with a big band conducted and arranged by Billy May. The only quibble I had with it at all, nothing HDTT’s fault, is it’s just a bit TOO stereo, sounding almost like different ensembles spread across a 300-foot stage.
I’d heard this album many times before. Not Frank’s greatest, but certainly good. But this HDTT recording does something a little differently for me. Normally with a recording like this, I’d set the volume very average, about live performance level. But I decided to “goose” it just a little more than I normally would and I began to hear a lot more “punch” in everything - not just louder, but more defined and refined. That left channel and the great capture of tuba, the low brass on the right. Sinatra’s not a “punchy” singer, but the slightly louder volume seemed to bring a kind of center-channel life. Then I went to see whether this was true for other versions and I didn’t feel it nearly as much. It’s got to be something in the tape transfer. Go ahead, crank Frank up a little!
