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Are we living in the Golden Age of the Jazz Piano Trio?


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Do you happen to have the 24/96 download? Is it worth the hefty premium?

 

naimlabel.com - Touch and Flee

 

Well, it is not a especially great sounding album, but the music is VERY good!

I like the placement of the instruments, the old fashioned way; piano left; drums in the middle and Bass to the right.

What I do not like so much is that the instrument sounds as if standing in different rooms, not like this old Ahmad Jamal recording where everything somehow gels together yet still has a similar placement in the stereo image;

But I like to have a recording that I like in the original recorded format. I guess in this case it was recorded in 2496 WAV so that's what I got.

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Batik%20Hoes%20300%20shadow%20v2.pngThis one is not really a trio. Although one could argue that in essence it is ECM´s Wolfert Brederode and his Dutch trio with master guitarist Ed Verhoeff adding some warm soundscapes to the proceedings.

It is a marvelous sounding album, maybe the best sounding download I have bought this year.

The stereo image is well used, placing the instruments left to right, just like the two albums above. But in this case the sound is very cohesive. You clearly hear that the band is playing in the same room at the same time. That makes the unbelievable sound quality even more impressive. The album has such wonderful depth.

Or is it just me that really like those old recordings with everybody in the same room and this is a modern day version?

The music is not old though.

This is truly a concept album telling the Hemingway tale of the old man and the Sea.

It actually made me read the book again after 30 years while listening to the music. Great little book and great music.

[video=youtube;u35c-p-tSqU]

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  • 4 weeks later...

So I already broke the rule ones by presenting a quartet album here in this thread.

Now I will break it again with a duo album I downloaded this week.

This is Piano and Drums only, but because of master pianist Atsuko Kohashi and the imaginative playing of drummer Sebastiaan Kaptein, one does not miss the bass at all.

Somehow the recording keeps on evoking images of the great impressionistic painters,Van Gogh, Monet and Chagall (or was he a modernist?).

The recording quality is top notch, lots of depth but without sacrificing intimacy. The sound of the piano is perfectly captured here.

And a little side note; I had a small problem with playing the download which turned out to be entirely my own fault, but I had already sent a complaint to Sound Liaison. Within 2 hours I received a wetransfer file with the album and a note from Frans de Rond saying that I should let him know if I had any trouble playing them.

Unbelievable service, highly recommended.

Dual%20Tone%20Hoes%20300%20shadow%20v3.pngDualtone (WAV)

 

 

 

 

Batik%20Hoes%20300%20shadow%20v2.pngThis one is not really a trio. Although one could argue that in essence it is ECM´s Wolfert Brederode and his Dutch trio with master guitarist Ed Verhoeff adding some warm soundscapes to the proceedings.

It is a marvelous sounding album, maybe the best sounding download I have bought this year.

The stereo image is well used, placing the instruments left to right, just like the two albums above. But in this case the sound is very cohesive. You clearly hear that the band is playing in the same room at the same time. That makes the unbelievable sound quality even more impressive. The album has such wonderful depth.

Or is it just me that really like those old recordings with everybody in the same room and this is a modern day version?

The music is not old though.

This is truly a concept album telling the Hemingway tale of the old man and the Sea.

It actually made me read the book again after 30 years while listening to the music. Great little book and great music.

[video=youtube;u35c-p-tSqU]

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  • 11 months later...

Downloaded this one yesterday on the Sound Liaison site.

witmer-trio-en-azul.jpg

 

It is a stunningly well recorded download, depth and placement and so well balanced.

And the music is lovely, melody first as it says in the liner notes;

Melody is king, and don't you ever forget it.

(Quincy Jones)

Cajan Witmer came up with the idea of recording a collection of songs, with the focus primarily on the melody and have every improvisation and embellishment being inspired by the song itself.

Witmer's almost vocal presentation of the melody and refined melodic improvisations, Slinger's lyrical touch and strong secure rhythmic feel combined with Kruiswijk's inventive drum patterns, which on some songs resembles 3 subtle percussion players instead of one drum set, are fulfilling the task admirably.

Sound Liaison Music Shop

 

(normally they notify me of new releases but for some reason I did not get a notification, anybody...?).

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  • 2 weeks later...
+1. I very much enjoy this one a lot for the quality of both sound and music.

 

There is a Rad Bennett review here;RadsReferenceReviews | Rad Bennett…reviewing music and film for five decades

 

The trio sounds like it’s playing in a real space and is nicely spread between speakers with no exaggeration. The piano sound is perfect as is the sound of the many percussion instruments that are so imaginatively employed. The bass is solid

witmer-trio-en-azul.jpg

the many percussion instruments that are so imaginatively employed.
? I only hear a set drums, very well played, but as far as I can tell it is one musician playing.

 

But check the sample of track one; Sound Liaison Music Shop .............that is just a drummer no?

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By the way, just reviewed Enrico Pieranunzi on my blog:

 

Bill Evans’ Heritage At Its Best – Enrico Pieranunzi’s Deep Down | musicophilesblog – From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21131[/ATTACH]

 

I like this

5 stars (yes I know, again 5 stars, but rest assured, my blog so far just has a very heavy bias to the stuff I really like, it is really not that I’ll fork out 5 stars at every corner)

I prefer reading good reviews, if one does not like an album why write about it.

This is now on my list of albums to acquire. Thanks.

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There is a Rad Bennett review here;RadsReferenceReviews | Rad Bennett…reviewing music and film for five decades

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20958[/ATTACH] ? I only hear a set drums, very well played, but as far as I can tell it is one musician playing.

 

But check the sample of track one; Sound Liaison Music Shop .............that is just a drummer no?

 

It is a trio playing, so the ''percussion instruments'' is just a drum set. Rad Bennett is more known for his reviews of classical music so he is excused. :)

 

But one could argue that drums are

. the sound of the many percussion instruments that are so imaginatively employed.
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  • 2 weeks later...
A+ obviously does, on the fly conversion of DSD128 to PCM24/88 working smoothly. Must admit the album is pretty well recorded. Enjoying it via my HD800.

 

However, was disappointed by the complete lag of tagging of the DSF tracks.

 

What is A+?

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They actually run the PCM track through an analog console to record it in DSD. Seems

like a waste of time to me. Here, you can buy the studio master which is PCM and cheaper than the DSD copy. Call me crazy, but I want the studio master. I have several of their recordings. En Azul sounds sensational in 24/96 WAV. Excellent playing as well. This one is a no brainer.

Witmertrio200shadow.jpgrecorded in 24/96 PCM

tony-bert-200v5.jpgrecorded in DSD and in PCM.

 

read here; DSD or here http://www.soundliaison.com/

 

So just to clarify; Our DSD masters are not original studio masters.

We record in PCM, so if you want a native one to one copy of the original studio master, without any kind of conversion, choose the PCM download.

With one exception, Impromtu (Tony Overwater & Bert van den Brink), was recorded direct to PCM and direct to DSD with two seperate recorders.

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Thanks. I have it and what to say. ACT proofed again that their tonemeisters (mastering/recording engineers) are not up to the standard and rather hail to the loudness wars than to good sound quality!!! It could have been nice album when it had been recorded and mastered better. DR11 average, but for me quite unlistenable even the music is quite interesting. Pita! Deleted!

 

To top it off: TPL (True Peak Level) at 0.1 level which means probably clipping anyway. Close miking, flat sound presentation for this kind of music, guys!!!!

 

Sorry you feel that way. Close miked yes, but calling DR11 loudness war is pushing it a bit IMHO. But as always, YMMV.

Okay, ACT probably does master a bit hotter than some of the others.

But the Sound Liaison album we all seem to agree on is so well recorded is not scoring SO much better.

But probably it is a different mike/recording technigue.

[TABLE=class: table table-bordered table-striped, width: 100%]

[TR]

[TD]Witmer Trio[/TD]

[TD]En Azul [24/96]

i

[/TD]

[TD]2015[/TD]

[TD]

14

[/TD]

[TD]

12

[/TD]

[TD]

16

[/TD]

[TD]lossless[/TD]

[TD]Download[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Witmertrio200shadow.jpg

When creating the sound stage, we spent a great deal of time getting the balance of the trio as optimal as possible using the ambient microphone stereo pair placed in the ''sweet spot'' in studio 2, before adding the spot microphones.

We wanted to create a sound field that was intimate but also with enough depth to have a visual representation of the instruments.

source;En Azul
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  • 3 weeks later...
Okay, ACT probably does master a bit hotter than some of the others.

But the Sound Liaison album we all seem to agree on is so well recorded is not scoring SO much better.

But probably it is a different mike/recording technique.

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21473[/ATTACH] source; En Azul

 

 

Well, scores are scores, but Michael's album is too much hot mastered. Especially when it comes to the sound balance between the piano and rest of the music - specifically percussion. For me it is almost unlistenable on cans! Sound Liaison' productions are pretty good, but I discovered diligently listening that they have some flaws as well.
21443d1444461740t-michael-wollny-trio-nachtfahrten-24-96-new-release-act-0614427959232_600.jpg

 

I am big fan of the Sound Stage of the Sound Liaison recordings and how they manage to let the piano sound so natural on their piano recordings.

I can only speculate but I think that their use of a central room stereo mike, just as in classical recordings, is what sets them apart from the rest.

When creating the sound stage, we spent a great deal of time getting the balance of the trio as optimal as possible using the ambient microphone stereo pair placed in the ''sweet spot'' in studio 2, before adding the spot microphones.

We wanted to create a sound field that was intimate but also with enough depth to have a visual representation of the instruments.

In a sense we adopted the same philosophy as Cajan Witmer in his arrangements, we wanted the melodic part of each instrument to stand out but not overshadow the whole, thus the paino and the drums have been given a position in the sound field, not spread out Left to Right as are more common in commercial recordings.

The benefit with this approach is that you can actually see the trio in front of you between the speakers, standing left to right, instead of the more common, commercial radio friendly approach, with the instruments piled on top of each other.

In a sense we are old fashioned, maybe we listened to too many old jazz recordings, but on the other hand........

 

''The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago."

(Louis Armstrong)

liner notes; http://www.soundliaison.com/Act is more ''modern'' I guess, lots of microphones.

Maybe if comparing ''En Azul'' with ''Impromptu'' the Bass sound is a little bit less up-front but I think that has to do with the player as well as making room for the drums which I find very well recorded as well. But what flaws did you find?

[video=youtube;UA3UOWPg3-k]

And ''Impromptu'' is a Bass recording inasmuch as the Bassist is mentioned before the pianist.

Just listen to that opening statement. He is in charge.

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Now to the actual top 10 list, I suppose nobody would disagree that Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson belong in any TopX list of piano trios.

 

 

and AHMAD JAMAL Trio........... very important for Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett and Oscar was a big fan.

 

And Brad Mehldau trios use of dynamics is also leading straight back to Ahmad.

 

[video=youtube;Ev-3kIXlEGA]

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  • 1 month later...
An amazing record has just been released.

„Now This“ is done by a new trio, each of the musicians however being well known for years or better to say decades.

Gary Peacock (his 80th birthday being only a few days back) has done this wonderful piece of music together with Joey Baron (dr) and Marc Copland (p). But it is not the kind of music alone that I find gorgeous, it is the very good work of ECM´s sound engineers too that highly pleases my ears.

https://www.highresaudio.com/artist.php?abid=391846

 

Regards,

Uwe

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18853[/ATTACH]

 

I concur, gorgeous album.gary peacock.jpg

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I new I had it somewhere, dug up this old LP, it must be the main inspiration for the Witmer trio;

 

 

 

 

Downloaded this one yesterday on the Sound Liaison site.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20722[/ATTACH]

 

It is a stunningly well recorded download, depth and placement and so well balanced.

And the music is lovely, melody first as it says in the liner notes;

Sound Liaison Music Shop

 

There is a Rad Bennett review here;RadsReferenceReviews | Rad Bennett…reviewing music and film for five decades

 

(normally they notify me of new releases but for some reason I did not get a notification, anybody...?).

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