CD Albums - Reviews by George Slv

CD Albums - Reviews by George Slv

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
George Slv 21st Jul 2018		CD Album Jimmy Velvit [Mullins] - The Original Jimmy Velvit (1995)	Review These recordings are the "lost master" types, here issued by recording engineer Phil York in 1994. They are not limited to 1964 but progress to the 1970 area. From #15 they are the late 60s style like Jimmy Webb or Gentle On My Mind. 16 and 20 were issued under the pseudonym James Bell, and 20 charted #51 Country. His first recordings in Dallas in 1961 were made by DJ Jim Lowe (of Green Door fame). Some were local hits. On #04 the high voice backing is Bobby Hendricks. #01 is an alternate take of his regional hit. It was also recorded by Jimmy Velvet, who was Jimmie Tennant and had been Mullins' manager. "Something" is the Beatles' hit. I got into this subject from remembering We Belong Together a bit from the radio in 1963, which was by Tennant. Explanations of the identities were given by Phil York when he sold some CDs on ebay. Otherwise nobody knew about this Jimmy Velvit, and the CD was withdrawn by Collectables after a couple years. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 14th Feb 2017		CD Album Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Lorin Maazel - Sibelius: Symphony No.1, Karelia Suite (2009)	Review I've had a chance to listen to this on computer, using a 32-bit fp conversion, with external stereo speakers. While allowing that it's not the full DSD sound, the sound is smoother and fuller than CD. But compared to my vinyl recording the tone is not as pleasant to me. Not as full and rounded, with harsher treble and less bass. I will be drawn to listen to my 64-bit recording of my vinyl. But the labels are right to give attention to the Maazel Vienna recordings. I consider them the best of Sibelius' symphonies. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 30th Sep 2016		CD Album Teresa Brewer - 16 Most Requested Songs (1991)	Review 1970s recordings produced by Bob Thiele after their marriage. Columbia's title is meaningless, it's just a title of a reissue series. Only 07 and 12 get into her later soft jazz style, the rest are vintage Teresa with the big voice. 05 is the 1960 Gary US Bonds rock & roll hit. Selections chosen by Thiele. The CD is AAD, but they still ignorantly claim it is "digitally remastered" by Tim Geelan. The portrait is a special painting by Robert Bergin. The booklet quotes Julius LaRosa saying "She got to the top in the first place because that chick can really sing". 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 19th Sep 2016		CD Album Teresa Brewer - Stephane Grappelli And Teresa Brewer (1987)	Review One of the jazz albums that Bob Thiele, her second husband, led her to record. These are light versions, with jazz guitars and Stephane Grappelli on violin, casually sung. Meaning she wasn't aiming at the hit market. Now it was the little girl with the little voice. The famous Julie London recorded some of her albums with just a guitar and microphone in her own living room. And the infamous George Slv has been known to try to record a harmonica at home. Or you could just look at her picture. The LP is not hard to find but this CD is. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 9th Jul 2016		CD Album Teresa Brewer - Her Heart-Touching Love Songs & Famous Golden Hits (2002)	Review This contains a wide range of her Coral recordings, but certainly not a definitive collection of her hits. Two albums were marketed on TV in 1985 and sold by mail. For example 09 is from her Hawaii LP. 5,17, 23 were from her Naughty Naughty Naughty LP. 06 is of course her Coral rerecording. 21 is the Ferlin Husky hit "Gone", which had been unreleased by Teresa. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 29th Feb 2016		CD Album Teresa Brewer - Music! Music! Music! (2005)	Review Released in UK when these songs became public domain after 50 years. Restored from the original records. One disc filled to maximum. Includes her earliest recordings of 1949 on London. Also her 1938 radio appearance on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour at age 7, which includes her interview with him, the Strutters vocal, and the sound of her tap-dancing to Sing Sing Sing on piano. She won that episode. The CD finishes at 1954 with Coral recordings. The Thing is full length at 2:22. Music! Music! Music! is of course the original London label hit. Here is the correct page for this one at Amazon.com. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 13th Dec 2015		CD Album The Reflections - (Just Like) Romeo & Juliet (1995)	Review Complete including early and later songs by individual members and different group formations. Quality is fine, altho I'll never know what someone means by "digitally remastered" as it says. "Special Fanclub Release" from Germany. The notable hits and attempts are 1, 3, 5, 11, 13, 14, 18, 19, 23. The hits were arranged by Callelo and Sonny Sanders of Detroit. Song 30 was a solo release by lead singer Tony Michaels ((Tony Micale). Track 32 is just the instrumental backing track for it. The group also made an appearance in the 1965 film "Winter A-Go-Go" singing "I'm Sweet On You" (written by Boyce, Hart, Venet). The CD makes the usual assertions about reserving all copy rights, but it's not clear what company or nation. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 22nd Mar 2015		CD Album Duke Ellington - The Essential Duke Ellington (2005)	Review Amazon.com review (July 30, 2006) Fantastic compilation...pretty good (not great) sound. ... In late 2004, Sony acquired distribution of the BMG catalog. Which means Sony controls nearly all of Ellington's output. As far as I know, this is the only CD collection out there of this post-merger thing that CAN condense nearly his whole career into a comprehensive set (without buying one of those dubious sounding bootlegs out there, imported from other countries...RUN from the Proper UK box set). Ok, now on to the SOUND of the music. When compiling and remastering music from the pre-tape era (everything up until the late '40's), engineers need to combat surface noise (distortion, clicks, pops, hiss). Generally, the older the recording, the more surface noise on the original master. The worse the surface noise, the more distracting it is while listening to the music. However, as you remove surface noise, you also lose a little bit of the clarity and "airiness" to the music. So, engineers have to walk a fine line between making the music sound tolerable by removing noise, but not take off too much, so as to lose the punch & clarity to the music. In the early CD era, they failed miserably. In the last 5 or 6 years, nearly all results have been good, but some better than others. So, on to this collection. The tracks on this collection certainly have less surface noise than any other Ellington collection i've heard. And although they've done a pretty good job maintaining much of the musical integrity, i believe the sound has been a little over-reduced. A little too much of the clarity is lost. If you weren't comparing it (which I was doing) to other semi-recent collections, you may not notice the difference. So, yes, there is very little noise, but the music sounds a tad too rounded, and not as vibrant. Also, this set has deepened the bass some, but it seems a little unnatural, and takes away from a tad of the clarity of the bottom end of the music. Maybe some of the difference in sound from different compilations also comes from this: In the liner notes to this collection, it says that songs have been remastered from 78's from private collections. Nowhere does it mention "original masters/parts" or anything like that. However, on a couple box sets that came out around 2000 from BMG & Columbia, it is indicated that THOSE were remastered from original metal & glass parts & some early safety tests. ✔︎ Helpful Review?