I get it on his more “pop” stuff, but if you have never heard that version of “Spain,” you should - it might surprise you as to McFerrin’s “straight-ahead” chops. If you like Corea’s work on it, you should like Bobby’s.
I’ll probably not check it out. I’m really really not a fan of McFerrin’s work pop or straight-ahead, and I’m very picky about Corea’s work, preferring his earliest work.
OK, fine, but I’ll have to adopt the attitude of someone on this forum who, when I told him I was willing to cough up $100 for some audiophile-centric ethernet cables, huffed, “Fine, but not buying the (whatever brand it was) for $1900, you’ll regret it.” Seriously, I get it.
On a drum-related aside, I just saw that High Definition Tape Transfers just released a remastering of Shelly Manne & His Men - at The Black Hawk Vol. 2. Don’t know if you’ve gotten into HDTT, but I’ve found it to be a fascinating project at reasonable prices.
When they were selling CDrs I bought about a dozen of the HDTT items. I don’t do files, so now that they are not selling CDrs any longer I’m not following their releases. Those I bought were a little hit and miss, mainly hit, some good sound. I have had the Manne Blackhawk volumes sourced elsewhere for many years. Drum sound is pretty darned good on all five volumes of the Blackhawk material, and this “sister” recording from the Manne Hole:
https://www.discogs.com/master/513483-Ruth-Price-With-Shelly-Manne-His-Men-At-The-Manne-Hole
A contemporary digital recording that sounds excellent across the board, including Peter Orrins percussion work. Kaze Unwritten an improvisational project from pianist Satoko Fujii, featuring trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost in addition to the aforementioned.
Tangential to the conversation, I found this Sound on Sound Drum Science podcast to be fascinating. Apologies if it’s already been discussed. I can’t keep up.
Linked is part 1 of 3. I had no reason to spend an hour fifteen listening to the 3 parts. I’m not a musician, certainly not a drummer, and can’t carry a note in a bucket. But I can’t imagine listening to another recording in the same way again.
And here I was thinking the “h” in your last name was silent! 
The h is in fact silent and life would be a bit more fun if the pronunciation made sense after that. My youngest son’s nickname on his hockey team was actually iTunes. Credit to my youngest brother for coming up with 2nis as the simplest way to pronounce it correctly.
The first thing I listened to in its entirety on my brand new (refurbished) PS Audio sources (Stellar PowerPlant, AirLens, Stellar Gold DAC) is the new HDTT remastering of **Shelly Manne & His Men - at The Black Hawk Vol. 1**. I did listen to some of a 2024 remastering of it on Qobuz, and it might be better than the HDTT. But in both I am really stunned at how well Manne’s work is captured. The cymbal-work really stands out in the first track - “Summertime.” I was also hit by the work of pianist Victor Feldman. My first exposure to him, believe it or not, was playing the chimes on Tom Waits’ song “Saving All My Love For You” on his 1980 album Heart Attack & Vine. I looked Feldman up and jeez, what a recording career for someone who lived only to the age of 53 - from Shelly Manne to Miles Davis to Steely Dan to Amy Grant to Frank Zappa. On the Blackhawk recording I was struck by his “percussionistic” approach to the piano, brought out wonderfully by the recording remasters. I also really like the trumpet playing of Joe Gordon. I’ll check out the Ruth Price recording soon.
I’m very glad you enjoyed that recording. Yes, Contemporary recorded some fine work “live”–I am less a fan of their studio recordings, many basically done for the most part in a back room a lot like a supply closet–but the live recordings were by experienced engineers who knew how to capture a band. And Manne was a great bandleader–he knew how to choose and develop good players to make a “band” that was cohesive and swinging with great solos. This is true really all the way to the end of his career. And this band had some of the best West Coast players of the time.
What I’m finding with Manne - something I had never considered before - is what might be called “playing for the microphone.” I’ve read that one of Frank Sinatra’s greatest contribution was learning and applying a knowledge of how singing into a mic is different than singing to an open room. I hear things in Manne’s work that seem to say, “I know how this will come across differently on a recording.” Maybe I’m wrong, but I just sense a style in his playing that’s different from others around him at the time, and just as singers picked up what Sinatra was doing, I think drummers after Manne played differently. Come to think of it, maybe Art Blakey was doing something similar. I’ll ask my jazz-encyclopedia friend Bill about this during our regular Thursday Zoom meeting tomorrow. He likes those kinds of questions.
I don’t hear it that way but that’s cool. I would be inclined to attribute anything along those lines to producers or engineers.
What I most remember about Sinatra is his saying how much he owed to Billie Holiday. And I think she knew how to use the microphone in new ways. . . a real innovator in many ways.
You know, I might have gotten that wrong - maybe it was Holiday who was credited with mic innovation, but either way, they were both aware of the vocal advantages afforded by recording.
As for Manne, I just highly doubt he would have been ‘touching” the high-hat like that in a live setting with no microphones - what would be the point?
Jon
I’m a drummer. The point is that it is part of the style and beat and to be honest if you listen in a club you can hear it.
I didn’t know you were a drummer - so I guess you’ve heard all the drummer jokes?
Seriously that’s good to know - so you don’t think a drummer post-microphone era would be playing differently had microphones not been invented? I know nothing more than intuition, and more often than not, my intuition fails me!
Do you have an all-time favorite drummer?
That recording came up earlier in this thread as preceding by 4 years his “Sounds” album also with Marshall. I guess some reviews say the earlier one is more of a stereo “test” record than the more musical later one, but I’ll give the earlier one a listen. Thanks for sharing.
I have drummed in a few bands and also done some recording of bands I was in and a few other bands. In a club setting I see drummers performing as they rehearse and do. If there are mics someone has set them up and are monitoring them. The drummer may have some setup input. . . or not. If there is a recording and an engineer and producer is familiar with the material and player they will set up accordingly. I certainly never tailored my playing around a microphone nor did drummers I knew.
Personally I have a number of favorite drummers–Kenny Clarke, Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette being perhaps my top three. I don’t play with others any longer. I also play piano, guitar and bass just for my own enjoyment.