Search - Pete Rugolo :: Adventures in Jazz

A bevy of Rugolo music from many LPs

Elwood Conway | Frankfort, KY United States | 08/01/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Here's a little history. Mercury records loved to re-release Pete Rugolo's LPs under different titles...the great thing about this 2 CD set is that you can now say you have the following LPs on a two CD set: Adventures in Sound: Brass in Hi-Fi, Adventures in Sound: Reeds in Hi-Fi, Music for Hi-Fi Bugs, Out on a Limb & Music From Out of Space. For those wishing for the stereo counterparts, don't look here. These recordings were made in 1956 using Mercury's 3 microphone system and were never meant to be released in stereo, which is why the stereo LP counterparts Mercury released sound terrible, unnatural and completely wash out the bass. The bad news is that it is getting impossible to find this CD release. But I will give credit to Fresh Sound for taking the time to release these recordings. Not a 5 star rating as the sound could have been cleaned up a bit...the original master tapes were not probably not utilized."

Disappointment

Jeff B. Sultanof | Paterson, NJ | 12/09/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I cannot believe that a reviewer would say that these recordings were not meant to be released in stereo. Certainly they have their problems, but Capitol Studios (where these were made) was actively recording its own recordings in stereo at that time. Mercury released these recordings on open-reel tape to show off their involvement with stereo, and reviews on the sound were excellent. I find them stunning, and Fresh Sound lost a sale as far as I'm concerned. I'll wait until someone gets it right (although it must also be said that there were different takes mono vis a vis stereo releases on some of these tracks, so it is good to have them in circulation).



Fresh Sound often does not have access to stereo tapes from this vintage, as these recordings were never issued in stereo in Europe, and often that is where they get their tapes. If the sound doesn't matter, you should have these recordings by all means."