Will Friedwald has come to my rescue again with an interesting post - this is what you might call the Complete Mel Tormé at the Crescendo, 1957 edition (there also was a 1954 date released on records). A Tormé gig at that Los Angeles night spot was chopped up and released piecemeal on two different LPs. Will has put it back together again. He explains:
"Bethlehem recorded about an hour (who knows?) of Mel at the club, and issued the results on two records - the first as above, the second titled Songs for Any Taste, with no mention anywhere that it was a live album.
"Among other strange things, they took Mel's version of 'Autumn Leaves' (sung in French) and put the main vocal on the first album and his gag intro on the second...
"And because the second album was only 25 minutes, they took his studio version of 'Plenty o' Nothin'' and stuck it on the end of the second album.
"Anyhow, I put the two albums together into one coherent set, the way I always wanted to hear it."
Tormé has always been one of my favorite singers, and has probably not made an appearance here before only because his LPs have all been reissued and I am too lazy to find my 78s and see which ones (if any) haven't been assembled into CD collections.
The LPs above was one of the records that started me on collecting vocalists. Almost 40 years ago, the young Buster, jazz fan extraordinaire, came across a cache of 50s vocal records at a charity sale. Not entirely sure why I picked them up (it may have been the backing musicians on this LP), but I did, in the process snaring Sinatra's Songs for Swinging Lovers, one of the Ella Fitzgerald Gershwin albums, an autographed copy of Carmen McRae's Blue Moon, Tormé Sings Fred Astaire, and some others - all of which I still own.
Thanks to Will for his generosity (and to Mel for his artistry)!
NEW LINK - JULY 2014
Thank you Will, thank you Buster, for this sensational share.
ReplyDeleteI luv Mel Torme very much. More please!
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed terrific. Lovin' it right now.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know what kind of setup you use for these gorgeous transfers.
@Buster -- can I ask you a tech question? How can I get an AIFF file encoded as a FLAC? I use Mac by the way. Appreciate any help.
ReplyDeleteAlso let me know what you really thought of that Brahms 2nd rip, I want to get better at this.
Cheers,
SQuirrel
@ squirrel - Sorry I don't know from Macs. I use foobar2000, which is a Windows-only app. I should think any Mac sound utility could transcode the files for you. AIFF is a lossless format and so is FLAC, so the process is fairly straightforward.
ReplyDeleteThere are some Mac FLAC tools listed here:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html
Haven't listened to the Brahms yet but will. The Martzy was quite good!
@squirrelnyc - I use the program xACT "X Audio Compression Tool". It can convert just about anything, including AIFF to/from FLAC.
ReplyDeleteBuster,
ReplyDeleteI'd meant to re-assemble the Crescendo tracks, but you, with W.F. help, have done it and provided exceptional sound quality, too. Tormé was in such great voice in the Bethlehem-Verve period, and his time took the breath away. He did much more than "swing." Thank you.
@everybody - thanks for your helpful suggestions! I have finally had success converting to FLAC! Long boring story, but I have learned what I need to learn. My latest posts will feature a FLAC option.
ReplyDeleteCheers!!
Buster and Will, I thank you too for righting this wrong that Bethlehem did! I did the same thing and put together the set the way I thought it should be done. I am sure Mel would be pleased. I know the rest of us are.
ReplyDeleteBuster & Will, I take it that's Larry Bunker on accordian. If not, who? And Paich is one superb accompanist. Don Fagerquist doesn't get enough credit. Overall, a great restoration job. Mucho thanks and don't forget the Lieberman Concerto for Jazz Band & Orchestra. Reiner didn't record much contemporary music; and maybe in hindsight, I'll think he made a poor pick. But please let the world hear what it might have been missing.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteI suspect you are right about Larry Bunker. The Liebermann is done - I just have to do the covers. (I hate doing covers.)
Thanks Will & Buster for this great post. Not heard this before but Mel Torme's one of my favourite singers & he's in fine form on this session.
ReplyDelete"Thanks to Will for his generosity (and to Mel for his artistry)!" (2)
ReplyDelete...and thank you, Mr. Buster, for sharing this gem!
Tom Bom
from
Sao Paulo/SP, Brasil
Thank you so much for this amazing concert.
ReplyDeleteBuster, Covers are a chore. Try this. Best regards, ;O
ReplyDelete@ Oracle - Unreal. SO much easier! Thanks very much.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I would like to recommend something else. The reason I would prefer a digital photo of the album artwork is... stitched covers rarely are properly stitched and properly colour matched, and, they are horrible to edit into a satisfactory result in my experience.
ReplyDeleteOf course I say this in complete ignorance of the aforementioned program, which, who knows, maybe is unbelievably good at producing a fine result.
One clearly in focus digital photo however, whatever it's other faults may be, can always be resurrected to produce a wonderfully accurate representation if you know your way around photoshop or any similar program! All that's needed is one complete [uncropped] hi-res shot that's in good focus! ...if of course you have a digital camera, doh!
That's my 15 cents worth...
Any chance of a re-up?
ReplyDeleteThanking you in anticipation.
Regards, Bob
New link:
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.co.nz/#!mFFDgZQb!oDyfLe4SNQn_SFOlEMsL0py4p9ukB5fC0hcP1o9kmNI
Thank You for the Mel
ReplyDeleteThanks Buster, much appreciated.
ReplyDelete