Search - Ray Charles, Count Basie Orchestra :: Ray Sings Basie Swings

Astonishing but. . .

Dennis Brandt | Red Lion, PA United States | 12/07/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I admit I'm not a great Ray Charles fan, but the closer he gets to jazz, the better I like him. Crying Time and I Can't Stop Loving You can go the way of the dodo. But Oh! What a Beautiful Morning is a gass, and Let the Good Times Roll gets cooking. I'm not sure the pop/country oriented fans will like this album as much as jazz aficionados. And somewhere the Count is smiling at how his namesake band can still flat-out swing.



This recording is a miracle of modern technology. The vast difference in time between the two recordings just isn't audible. The vintage Charles' analog recording was copied to digital using 96 Khz, 24 bit technology, and the Count's band was recorded that way. Telarc then assumed the task of making a surround SACD version of it. Unfortunately, engineer Michael Bishop chose to place Charles' voice in all 5 (or 7) speakers. Why? Keep the voice up front where it belongs. Second, Bishop also put instruments in every speaker. Likewise, wrong. Surrounds generally are best served by carrying ambience, which would have been real easy to simulate. Frankly, if there were a two-channel version available in HDCD, that would be a better sonic choice than this SACD, or just play the two-channel version. Not that the sound is bad. Heavens no! Telarc isn't capable of making bad-sounding recordings. It's their philosophy to which I object in this particular instance, although Concord may have called the technical shots."