Tag Archives: SACD/DVD-Audio

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Listening Report: Robert Fripp’s Exposures 32-Disc Boxed Set (Part 3, Live Frippertronics & More)

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I could probably continue to write 20 additional reviews based on new discoveries and insights I’m still experiencing while exploring Robert Fripp’s breathtakingly massive and amazingly thoughtful Exposures boxed set.  

With this series of listening reports I hope I’ve at least given you, Dear Readers, a snapshot of what to expect and perhaps given some of you who have been on the fence about purchasing the set rational to — like me — leap off the board and dive into the rewarding waters of Frippertronics.  If you missed part 1, please click here and for part 2, click here.

Before I get into our last listening report of the series on the magnificent Washington Square Church concert recordings, I wanted to share some admittedly flowery, quasi-poetic language that came to me while listening to it. I got to to thinking about how I might explain what Frippertonics sounds like to a novice listener without using technical descriptions about guitars and loops ’n such.   

And then this paragraph came to me:

“Frippertronics sounds like clouds, floating, ebbing and tiding, merging dissipating, thundering and lightning, raining and revealing the sunshine within and around us… Would I be extreme if I said that perhaps Frippertonics is the sound of heaven? We can discuss that some other day…”

Colorful language aside, I felt there was something to these words, enough to include them here. I may continue massaging it over time, but I hope that for now it helps paint a picture of this distinctive and remarkable music.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

Available as part of the Exposures boxed set (including on CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc) or as a standalone CD+DVD package (vinyl too!), the Washington Square Church concert is a special — and even unique — gem within the universe of all things Frippertronics. Freshly massaged, mixed and mastered from original tape sources by producer David Singleton, true to the buzz copy on the BurningShed website, this may well be “the finest example of Frippertronics in performance.”

What is so special about this?  

All of Fripp’s basic Frippertronic loops are thankfully in the archives. However, his solos over the loops weren’t always recorded save for this series of shows from 1981.  Unfortunately, they were not labeled properly so there was no clear way to figure out which solo went with which loop. DGM audio engineer Alex R. Mundy saved the day when he realized that the sound of the loops had been recorded at ultra low volume through the guitar pick-ups playing the solos. So by listening to non solo points at ear-bleed volume levels, he was able to identify and match up the solos to the particular loop. It was a painstaking process but the results allowed producer. David Singleton move ahead with mixing the audio of this final concert.

You can read about in the booklet in the Exposures boxed set as well as the individual Washington Square Church CD+DVD set. 

Once you are able to grok — yes, grok — the incredible technical hurdles the producers over came to bring this concert recording to us (a process probably even more painstaking than what the Zappa Estate undertook to bring us the Roxy concert film performances, click here for my review on that), one needs to just sit back and prepare to be mesmerized by this arguable epitome of live Frippertronics. 

Fripp’s playing is on fire in these performances made between July & August 1981. We get to hear a particularly refined and inspired Frippertronics presentation that no doubt benefits from his four years of touring and recording in this mode.  Here, we also get to witness (aurally, at least) Fripp at something of a crossroads given that in a month or so he would be unleashing his new Discipline project on the musical universe (ie. the next King Crimson). So don’t be surprised when you hear him launching into some of that fast, repetitive machine-gun fast fretwork he teased on “The Zero Of The Signified” and which would blossom into full flower in later songs like “Frame By Frame” on the Discipline album.

The song titles on the Washington Square Church DVD Audio Disc and Blu-ray Disc versions are simply labeled “Washington Square” followed by a roman numeral from I-XI. The performances are all variations on classic Frippertronics themes but are particularly focused and powerful in this show. 

Interestingly, as the album’s producers were going through the loops and matching them to solos, they discovered an anomaly: Fripp had played over the same loop at two different concert venues— one  at Washington Square Church and another at Inroads. In a process akin to Frank Zappa’s “xenocrony” concept — where unrelated recordings are combined to reveal remarkable synergy which never existed before in reality — album producer David Singleton was able to combine both solos into the final track on the album, “Washington Square XI.” 

Mr. Singleton describes the process in the liner notes. The two solos deliver very different feelings, one with a sort of “Scary Monsters” (Bowie) vibe while the other features the rapid-fire typewriter-on-steroids “Frame By Frame” (King Crimson) sort of playing. Together, these solo appear as a bit of a virtual duet. Interestingly at the point where one fades out the other picks up  as if it was planned. It wasn’t, the segue just happened when the two performances were aligned in the multichannel recording software. 

Another wonderful and wondrous moment in the Exposures boxed set. There is so much more but I think after these three listening reports you now have some idea of what to expect. There is much visual joy to look forward to as well in the booklet and the fantastic reproductions of concert posters and other memorabilia from the period included in the set.  

Exposures is arguably the most complete and in-depth multi disc boxed set to date from the King Crimson universe, if not all music in general.  It is that good.  If you are a Fripp fan, you need this one…

World News

Listening Report: Robert Fripp’s Exposures 32-Disc Boxed Set (Part 2, Exposure, Under Heavy Manners, Dolby Atmos/DTS HDMA Surround & More)

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

If you missed part one of my exploration into Robert Fripp’s excellent new boxed set called Exposures, please click here to jump to it and catch up. I’ve tucked in much useful back up information and perspective there which will make today’s listening report that much easier for anyone reading to appreciate.

Assuming everyone is all caught up on all things Fripp-tastic, lets dive right in… 

Please note that this is technically my first formal review of an Atmos mix and I can’t think of a better maiden voyage than with Robert Fripp’s Exposure recordings as mixed by the great Steven Wilson. I have recently upgraded my living room home theater system so that I can now listen to the wealth of Dolby Atmos releases I’ve received in the past year. Prior to this review, so far I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed by many of the Atmos mixes I’ve tried — and thus have not written about any yet. But, I’m not entirely surprised as it is a new medium and some mixing engineers are probably getting instructions from the powers-that-be to not get too crazy on their titles. 

But it is worth noting that there is a difference between an outwardly wacky gimmicky mix vs.  one which tastefully uses all the surround fields to create an appealing immersive listening experience. 

Save for the Atmos mix of producer Steven Wilson’s own most recent solo release (click here for my earlier review of his The Future Bites which I hope to update at some point about the Atmos mixes), the mixes here on Exposures are the first compelling home audio use of the new Dolby technology which I have heard to date!

Not all of the albums included in Exposures are mixed in Dolby Atmos or DTS HD Master Audio, probably for very good reasons beyond the scope of this review.  But the ones that have been are significant within Robert Fripp’s catalog. 

The core original Exposure album is available here in 96 kHz, 24-bit DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound as well as 48 kHz, 24-bit 7.1 Dolby Atmos (and in Stereo!). Both options have their benefits and the two options mostly support one another for easy comparison and contrast. Even though technically the Dolby Atmos option is about half the size of DTS HD MA option, I didn’t notice any significant loss of fidelity between the two versions (so kudos to mixing engineer Steven Wilson for working that magic!). 

Listening to the “Fourth Edition” of Exposure in a new 2021 mix, one of the first things I noticed was that the ‘height” channels in the Dolby Atmos mix were (happily) being used for discrete instrumentation as well as room ambiance.  This is one of the big issues I had with many other Atmos mixes I’ve heard — most had opted to just throw some lazy reverb-y ambiance in there, much in the way that poorly crafted 5.1 mixes sometimes handle in the rear surrounds. I understand it is a safe method — keeping everything “true” to the original Stereo mix — but being bland doesn’t add any value to the surround mix. That approach is almost always ultimately disinteresting (at least to me, and I suspect others who hope for a bit more muchness from their home theater listening experiences).

Thankfully, Exposure in surround sound is not lacking in muchness here on Exposures! Plenty of it here to go around!

So for example, on “North Star” I heard delicate pedal steel guitar parts and scraping effects emanating from the Atmos channels toward the end of one song.  On “I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I’ve Had Enough of You” there are these fantastic odd guitar “punches” (if you will) which percolate there. 

In addition to discrete information, the Atmos channels here are often used for height information which seems to help everything sound bigger, more to scale of the room they were recorded in. Not necessarily louder but just bigger, if you will. 

So on the title track “Exposure” the drums are particularly huge. At times it feels like the kick drum is in your face, as if you were standing in front of the stage in a club or small venue. 

“Mary” is utterly gorgeous, Terre Roche’s voice sounding hauntingly direct as is Peter Gabriel’s vocal on “Here Comes The Flood.”  “NY3” is more manic and intense than ever, if that is possible. 

When I listened to the Atmos mix of Under Heavy Manners, the impact was quite spectacular.  “Zero Of The Signified” is especially jaw-dropping with much huge sounding Frippery going on including (what sounded like a sort of) detuning of strings on his guitar to make fat roaring rhinoceros like sounds (akin to what his future band mate Adrian Belew would be doing in Discipline-era King Crimson and on his solo albums). There are some incredible washes of Frippertronica (if you will) flowing over and around at the end, with one loop sort of whipping behind the listener.  It is a subtle effect, but it is there for sure.

The extend mix of ”The Zero of The Signified” is a standout for me. Fripp’s wicked repetitive guitar signatures seem to ping-pong more aggressively around in the surround fields while Frippertronics tides crash on the shores of your listening sweet spot. Amazing, achingly beautiful feedback guitar — which I believe would make Hendrix cry — plus even more rhino rips appear front and center while frippertronics loops soar around.

At this moment I can more fully appreciate why Fripp eventually connected with Adrian Belew — they were both working on similar concepts from different directions!

“Red Two Scorer” is one of the most immersive Frippertronics mixes I’ve heard thus far, with seeming diagonal passes of sound at times, flying left-front to right-rear, left-rear to right-front. And its not gimmicky, just very very cool. I have only heard that attempted once before by none other than Frank Zappa (on the QuAUDIOPHILIAc version of “Waka Jawaka”)!

Perhaps the only curious — and maybe negative — detail I’ve found so far in comparing the different mixes happened when I switched to the DTS-HD Master Audio mix of Under Heavy Manners to attempt a crude A/B comparison of the two versions. The difference was almost too dramatic. The DTS mix felt immediately less immersive but it seemed to be more than that… Fripp’s guitars were toned down to the point where I wondered if there might be a problem with the technology delivering that particular mix.  I’m not sure what is happening there and it is certainly not a deal breaker for me at this point now that I’m Atmos-equipped, but thought it was important enough to bring up for those of you who might have any issues. 

There are also many many bonus options you’ll find in this realm worth exploring on Exposures. 

For example, Daryl Hall’s vocals on “Mary” on early versions of the Exposure album — presented as the wonderfully titled Breathless or How I Gradually Internalized The Social Reality Of Manhattan Until It Seemed To Be A Very Reasonable Way Of Life and Last Of The Great New York Heartthrobs — is mind numbingly gorgeous.  Hall’s vocals — which were initially blocked from release due to industry machinations back in the day, thus prompting the recording of Terre Roche’s beautiful but different replacement take, as heard on the first commercially released edition of the album — had eventually been released on CD several years back.  But honestly, hearing it in this form is like hearing it for the first time. Darryl feels like he’s right there in the room singing to you against Fripp’s beautiful electric guitar finger picking.  It is pretty knocked out!

“Morning” is another of the bonus tracks which jumped out at me while exploring Exposures on the Blu-ray Disc in the set.  This track feels like a preview of the rich acoustic sounds Mr. Fripp refined during his instructional Guitar Craft years (some of which you can hear on the League of Crafty Guitarists album) but with haunting Frippertronics flown in over it all. It is beautiful!

And so it goes on the Exposures boxed set.  One mesmerizing joy after another.  

Stay tuned as I’ll soon explore the amazing Washington Square Church performances in part three.

World News

Listening Report: Robert Fripp’s Exposures 32-Disc Boxed Set (Part 1, A Frippertronics Primer, Surround Sound & More)

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

If you know David Bowie’s hit song “Heroes” you are familiar with the sound of Robert Fripp’s guitar playing of its signature riff. If you’ve ever heard the landmark progressive rock album by King Crimson called “In The Court of the Crimson King” then you know some of Robert Fripp’s early work as well.  There is so much more…

That said, if you haven’t heard his 1979 release called Exposure you probably don’t have a complete picture of what Robert Fripp and his music is about: where it came from, where it went and where it might still be going. Arguably, in many ways this album helped shape the sound of popular music in the ‘80s and beyond.

The genesis of Exposure is a very involved story worthy of super deluxe boxed set. The new 32-disc boxed set, appropriately named Exposures, celebrates the album and this fertile period of Mr. Fripp’s life. This collection tells his story in music and words  about the evolution and exploration of a new sound, the power of a rich artistic statement which would effectively drive his career through into present times. 

Central to  Exposures was the development of his tape-loop recording process known as “Frippertonics” which blossomed from his work with Brian Eno on 1973’s No Pussyfooting and 1975’s Evening Star, in particular.

More Frippertronics music emerged, including solo live performances as a self-contained “small, intelligent, mobile unit.” Fripp toured with his guitar and several Revox reel-to-reel tape recorders, along the way refining and redefining his sound. The resulting performances and a series of formally released albums were immediately mind-boggling and breathtaking, simultaneously timeless and futuristic.

This music — and musical mindset — which Fripp crafted between the years of 1977 and 1983 (or thereabouts) is the heart and soul of the Exposures boxed set. 

As a Fripp fan from way back, I find this new boxed set as exhilarating as it is exhausting — but its a good exhausting! However, I can certainly understand that many casual listeners might not be able to wrap their head around an undertaking this massive. However if you are into the King Crimson universe and all things Fripp – and there are millions of us out there around the world – you probably want to invest in this madly wonderful collection if you haven’t already.

In Exposures we get several original albums from the period Including Exposure (and its several variant incarnations which the album underwent due to music industry machinations) Let The Power Fall, Under Heavy Manners, and The League of Gentlemen. We get this music on CD and on DVD Audio discs. And, we also get everything and more on Blu-ray Discs including brand new Steven Wilson produced remixes into 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio surround sound and even 7.1 Dolby Atmos! 

But wait, Krimson shoppers… There’s more!

On the Blu-ray especially we get the full archive of Fripp’s real-time tape loop performances from his concert series and other appearances, recorded between 1977 and 1982.  These stereo sequences seem to last on average about 30 minutes each, filling up two entire Blu-ray discs. This is a whole lot of music! I did some crude math and it seems that one of the discs alone has something like 30 hours of Frippertronics on it!

We get live concerts including the spectacular Washington Square Church show from 1981 which has also been mixed into 4.1 quadrophonic sound.

This is admittedly a bit involved and takes a great deal of open minded-ness to get one’s head around all that is happening here. In that sense, this set is a fantastic academia-worthy study not only on the artistic process but also on the evolution of new musical concepts and sounds. Nothing before or since sounded quite like Frippertronics!

“But for the uninitiated, what exactly does Frippertronics sound like?,” you ask…

That is a good question and it is difficult to answer easily in a way that anyone might be able to understand… but I’ll try (and I’m sure I’ll fail even though I’ve been trying to explain it to people since the early 1980s!). Fortunately in the boxed set Mr. Fripp has not only given us a replica of his press kit from that period of his career — with requisite publicity photos and lovely reproductions of concert posters, ticket stubs and memorabilia one would hope for in a super deluxe boxed set of this nature —  but he’s also included a photocopied background document explaining how it all works!

Anyhow, first recognize this music was made in pre-digital times — Frippertronics was initially an all analog process — many years before sampling and looping foot pedals existed. Using professional tape recorders, Fripp was able to record loops of very long, warm sounding, distorted and sometimes arpeggiated electric guitar tones which would regenerate upon themselves and decay naturally over time as new layers of sound were added.

The core of Fripp’s musical constructions feel almost classical in nature, almost waltz-like, often build upon a progression of single string picked short notes which — as they loop upon themselves — start to form chord-like washes of musical sound.  These loops would then become the musical bed for Fripp’s solo guitar improvisation on top of it all. 

The result is a haunting kaleidoscopic and hypnotic music which I can feel fairly safe in saying that it sounded like nothing else before or since. 

It is this intersection of structured musical invention and spontaneous improvisation which makes Frippertonics so powerful.  You know that the artist has had to think about certain sounds and note structures from the start before interacting with those recordings live without a net. 

Its almost like Jazz but it isn’t anything like Jazz. Its almost like minimalist classical music but it isn’t anything like minimalist classical music. It is just… Frippertronics!  When you stop to think about all he was doing then on these recordings, you realize this is the work of a master musician/composer at an early peak. 

If this Frippertronics music doesn’t sound enticing enough as a simple Stereo experience, try to consider how it might sound in surround sound.  I have been dreaming of hearing this music in a multi-speaker environment since I first started listening to it in the early 1980s… Talk about dreams coming true!

I’ve began my journey into Exposures by listening to two of the original albums included in the set on the Blu-ray Discs. These showcase very different aspects of the Frippertronics process, presented in rich sounding 96 kHz, 24-bit DTS HD Master Audio (you can also listen in high resolution PCM Stereo).

Let The Power Fall (navigation screen)

Let The Power Fall is a powerful pure Frippertronics listening experience, all taken from live performances. Steven Wilson’s wonderful and sympathetic new surround sound mix is gently immersive without feeling gimmicky — it is quite subtle and tasteful as the burbling bubbling layers of free flowing Frippery gently envelope the listener via the surround channels. At times, the music seems to fill the room and almost wash over and through you. Imagine if you were lying in the sun on an isolated island beach as small waves of gentle tropical waters lapped their way over you. 

It must have been a temptation to avoid having Frippertronic musical passages ping-ponging around the room in a discrete speaker-to-speaker manner.  As fun as that might be for one listen I am glad they took this more musical and non-gimmicky approach to the mix. 

The bigger surprise was how great the new wave punk oriented League of Gentlemen album fairs in surround sound: it’s almost like hearing an entirely new album and I mean that in the best possible way.  This album came out in the early 1980s — featuring Barry Andrews from XTC on keyboards and Sara Lee on bass who would soon after join The Gang Of Four — and it was an effort to mix Frippertronics with rock song structures. It was effectively a stepping stone toward the new incarnation of Fripp’s King Crimson which emerged later that year.   

The League Of Gentlemen (navigation screen)

The surround mix opens up this very dense and angular music significantly and seems to rock a lot harder than my old LP version. While I haven’t had a chance to compare/contrast it with the new remix, that idea seems almost a moot point here — the original vinyl mix will always be there and it will always be what it is (I have heard from some folks online that there have been some edits made to this new version). 

This surround sound mix is a new way of appreciating this music and this short lived band. You can better appreciate the connectivity between the supporting instruments and Fripp’s interwoven guitar tapestries. One of the bigger stand outs whose playing I appreciate much more on this mix is keyboardist Barry Andrews. His parts just jump out of the speakers in the best possible way, interlocking wonderfully with Fripp’s playing to unleash fascinating new sound combinations. The League of Gentlemen album still sounds fresh and energetic after all these years and even more so in surround sound.

Yes, this is Frippertronics that you can dance around to in the mosh pit!

There’s so much more to go into in this review series exploring Robert Fripp’s epic Exposures boxed set. Please stay tuned as my journey into this set will continue…

World News

The Carpenters: Making The Leap From Singles to Surround Sound

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Editor Note: This article was originally published in June 2013 but has been updated for our new website…

About a year ago, one of my music buddies and music making co-conspiritors (ie. we play in bands and write songs together) who is particularly fond of “sunshine pop” told me a strange story about a recording he was seeking. Friends often come to me with requests but this one seemed odd as it involved one of the biggest selling pop acts of all time.

He explained that he was having trouble finding a compilation in the digital world of the original single mixes of hits by The Carpenters. Most of the collections apparently feature remixed and updated versions of the hits, not re-recordings but different approaches to the mixdown that read unfamiliar to some people who remember a certain sound they heard on the radio back in the day.

Now, whether you like the Carpenters or not is not really relevant here, but you should keep reading because this story gets kind of interesting. And, perhaps, you just might be intrigued enough to actually go back listen (as I did) more closely to what Richard and Karen Carpenter accomplished during their run up the charts — a lush blend of pop music that arguably picked up and carried the mantle of rich harmonies (alongside other confections like The 5th Dimension, The Partridge Family, The Cowsills, and even The Archies – really!) after The Beach Boys and Crosby Stills & Nash became FM radio staples and until later groups like Abba took hold of the torch. 

The appeal of The Carpenters’ music is apparent from a 20/20 hindsight historical perspective — something I could not fathom as a little kid in the midst of it all. The Carpenters hit it big just as the whole Hippie / Free Love movement imploded. Icons like Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison were dead as were MLK and RFK.

Nixon seemed more powerful than ever. A generation transitioned into the 70s with minds blown on drugs and bad news, friends lost to senseless war in Vietnam. The promise that they could “change the world” with music was rescinded. The once unstoppable Beatles even broke up. It had to be a harsh bummer of a reality check the first time people heard John Lennon sing on his 1970 solo album: “And so dear friends, you’ll just have to carry on… the dream is over.” 

Accordingly, The Carpenters were probably a breath of sobering positivity for many, reassuring cotton candy soothing heavily frayed nerves. Stellar melodies, outstanding production and easy-to-digest flavors. They were like an old friend at the bar. Those were the days, indeed. 

I grew up hearing the Carpenters plastered all over the radio as a kid so I never felt need to buy their records. Frankly, for the most part it, was decidedly uncool to admit you liked them back then (ah, peer pressure). Its a bit of a shame as little did I know that Carpenters’ records featured many members of The Wrecking Crew, the very same musicians who played on recordings by The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, and many many others. Knowing this today, I have dug fairly deep into the Carpenters music while looking into this mystery of the missing single mixes. 

Over the year I picked up six (count ’em, 6!) different Carpenters collections, most of which sound fairly similar. The Singles 1969-1973 collection is dramatically revised, with lovely segues and reprises that create a special listening experience unique to that album. But, given the segues, its not really the actual singles some fans want.

I found a promising three CD collection out of Europe which was supposed to have original single mixes on it, only to learn after it arrived — again, reading fan comments online — that someone had put the kabosh and recalled it,  reissuing it with the newer approved mixes.

Mine was the reissue. Dang. 

Then I read about the updated Singles 1969-1981 collection, which promised to be non-segued single-type tracks and which also came in an SACD edition with a brand new 5.1 surround sound mix by Mr. Carpenter. This proved ridiculously elusive, with only pricey versions available on places like eBay for upwards of $100 a pop. Really! Go check it now and see what you find. I was astounded. (Update: click here to jump to Discogs for a search on the title… its still going for crazy money on eBay too)

This past April I found a “bargain” used version of the SACD at Amoeba Records (in LA) for a mere $25 — it has some minor scuffs on it but is otherwise perfect and plays just fine. Score! Finally I would get to hear the elusive but highly regarded surround mix of The Carpenters’ hits. I was not disappointed.

In fact, I like the surround mix so much I have more or less stopped caring about the original single mixes — with apologies to my friend John who started me on this quest —  because 5.1 surround is clearly the way to listen to this music. The densely layered vocal and lush orchestral arrangements envelope you, like jumping into a huge vat of marshmallows ready to make a huge batch of Smores. It is soft, warm, sweet and oh so tasty.

All of this makes me wonder however WHY this recording is so painfully out of print? Obviously, there are legions of loyal Carpenters fans who would love to hear these mixes on their home theater systems. Why not re-release it on SACD or Blu-ray Disc with a bonus DVD including videos (and the surround mixes as well) for those who prefer to watch while they listen? 

You can download the higher (than CD) resolution 48 kHz/24-bit stereo tracks of this collection via HDTracks.com. I haven’t heard them but I would assume they are similar to the high resolution stereo layer on the Singles 1969-1981 SACD. It is also streaming in at 24-bits, 48 kHz resolution via MQA format on Tidal (click here to jump to it if you subscribe) and on Qobuz Hi Res (click here for that).

Whatever the case, until that magical “original singles” collection comes out someday, you should seek out the Singles 1969-1981 collection on CD — or SACD if you have surround sound playback capabilities — or HDTracks download. It is probably the best balance of hits and value — not too long and presenting individual tracks all on one disc for a reasonable price.

 

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Tomita In Quadrophonic: Surround Sound Was Made For This Music

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Back in the 1970s when I was a teenager just getting into music I remember hearing some recordings by Japanese synthesizer wizard, composer and arranger Isao Tomita and being simultaneously impressed and underwhelmed. The latter I attribute to my having been getting deeply into progressive rock and Frank Zappa in particular. I was already dipping my toes into the classical universe of artists who influenced Zappa such as Edgar Varese and Igor Stravinsky 

The first Tomita album I eventually picked up out of curiosity — this was before the days of being able to preview an album streamed on the Interwebs, folks… and this music wasn’t played on any radio stations I listened to — was indeed his interpretation of one of Stravinsky’s masterworks, The Firebird Suite. 

I love that piece of music and while it was on the surface impressive that he was able to perform the work, Tomita’s version left me kind of cold for some reason and I was never sure why. Wendy Carlos had already done some magical things combining classical music with synthesizers (her legendary Switched On Bach recordings).  And groups like Yes and Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP) were taking synthesizers to wild extremes for the times, both incorporating touchstones of classical in their work. Yes legendarily opened its concerts with an excerpt from The Firebird and ELP even had even recorded an entire live album of a rock interpretation of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition. Renaissance brilliantly reinterpreted Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade for a new generation to discover. 

So, while classical music was in the air for many of us back around this time, perhaps my expectations for a sizzling listening experience went beyond the scope of my teenage stereo system…

Fast forward and today I’m listening to a wonderful SACD from the Dutton-Vocalion label which contains the original 1970s quadrophonic mixes of Tomita’s Firebird and all I can think about are the phrases: “missed opportunity” and “ahead of his time.” 

The missed opportunity is that Tomita should have been touring with bands like Yes and ELP.  Apparently, Tomita performed live with a quadrophonic sound system which must have been a wonder to see and hear!  Groups like Pink Floyd had performed in quad even in the early 1970s. Note, there are recordings from Tomita’s live quad shows (click here  and here for a BBC transcription in Stereo which was apparently broadcast in quadrophonic sound back in the day, his first performance in England according to the website). 

Original Japanese LP cover art for Tomita’s Firebird

The ahead of his time part is that quadrophonic sound as a commercial medium back in the 70s simply wasn’t ready for prime time. Quad LPs and tapes were often available but getting those systems to work properly was apparently easier said than done. There were Quad broadcasts but you had to have one of the then new Quadrophonic receivers to be able to hear them. Not many had them yet, alas.

So, hearing Tomita’s original quad mixes of The Firebird today has been a revelation. This music which once left me cold now engages and excites me!

As an arranger, clearly he was in his sweet spot mixing for multi-channel, creating a wonderfully immersive mix which is not hung up on — and doesn’t pretend to try to — re-create a live soundstage. All his work was painstakingly programmed and performed. And here on The Firebird Suite he takes advantages of the otherworldly peaks and valleys in Stravinsky’s score and applies it to the design of the mix. The impact is wonderful.

It’s a little hard to describe this, especially if you don’t know this particular piece of music. Try to imagine in general a dramatic classical work or a movie soundtrack where the violins and cellos, horns and woodwinds that were percolating and soaring in those big epic sequences in monaural or stereo now swirled around, over and through you. That may give you an idea of what parts of this fine quadrophonic mix is like (especially when you sit in the “sweet spot” of your home theater or surround sound system listening area — that perfect zone for the listener to be seated in order to best appreciate a surround mix).

The other interesting thing about this fine version of Tomita’s Firebird is that when I compared the two channel Stereo mix on the hybrid SACD to a pristine conventional Stereo LP, they sound very much the same. This is a good thing and it seems to be a conscious effort on the part of the SACD’s producers as I have noticed this on several others of their releases which I have reviewed recently. They don’t try to modernize or brighten the recordings, so it feels true to the original.

Now if only there was some way to bring out more of these fun Tomita Quadrophonic mixes to  broader audience (ie. less expensive and more easily accessible, especially here in the United States), that would be a useful and wonderful occurrence.  

Perhaps with more impactful packaging (the liner notes here reproduce those from 1976 release and reveal nothing really about the four channel mixes) and a new push from domestic United States labels (Sony Classical owns this particular work apparently, even though it was originally on the RCA Records label), then there might be some stronger hope of bringing Tomita’s music to life again for new audiences to discover.  

Tomita’s music is ripe for rediscovery.

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Cecil Holmes’ Soulful Surround Sounds on Quadrophonic SACD

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Two years ago at a flea market I found a curious record that looked like one of many records riding the coat-tails of so-called “Blaxploitation” films and mining the bland-but-lucrative easy listening music market (Percy Faith, Arthur Fiedler’s Boston Pops, Henry Mancini, The Living Strings, etc.). The Black Motion Picture Experience was credited to a group I’d never heard of called The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds. It has turned out to be the most interesting of the genre which I’ve found so far, in part because of the back story I’ve just recently learned about.  

I’ve recently begun collecting — and reviewing — Quadraphonic SACDs being reissued by Dutton Vocalion out of England. I ordered several initially from them directly (but I see you can order many of these from Amazon, so poke around if you are looking for them — click on the title anywhere in this article and you’ll jump there).  Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised to find The Black Motion Picture Experience by The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds as a featured Quad SACD release! 

Apparently Cecil’s albums had been issued on Quadrophonic 8-track Cartridges and Reel To Reel tapes back in the day. Who knew?

I ordered it right away and in general I’m not disappointed at all as it’s really quite fun hearing this music getting very deluxe treatment for which it clearly was built.  Cecil Holmes’ The Black Motion Picture Experience is produced with some heavies of the studio world (including an ascending Randy Brecker and Motown “Funk Brother” Bob Babbitt) so it grooves more than many standard faire easy listening records of this type. 

Cecil’s albums have been sampled by many modern artists including Mos Def, Brand Nubian, Ice Cube and even Rakim (as in Eric B. and…). Click here to jump to a recent search on WhoSampled, a terrific, fascinating website which helps people backwards engineer the DNA of current recordings to find the music’s roots. 

I think it is important to point out that Cecil Holmes was a very successful African-American record industry executive at the time — I knew there had to be an interesting backstory behind this curious album! From the liner notes and on the Dutton Vocalion website we learn: 

“This reissue comprises two albums fronted by music industry mogul Cecil Holmes. After a stint at the Casablanca label, where he was National Vice President and Manager of R&B Operations, he joined CBS Records in the early ’80s. As the label’s Vice President of Black Music A&R, he would spend the next ten years shaping the careers of Michael Jackson and Luther Vandross, overseeing Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing comeback and unwittingly ushering in the second coming of the boy band era when he gave New Kids On The Block their first recording contract in 1986. But before all of that, he’d been with the New York-based Buddah Records, where his acumen as an A&R man had earned him multiple industry awards and numerous gold records; he’d also been instrumental in signing Gladys Knight & The Pips and had shepherded the careers of leading artists including The Isley Brothers, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions.”

So, Cecil had the background which led to the root idea for this album, aiming to beat the easy listening soft sounds producers to the punch with his own album of Soul and R ‘n B hits of the day. The Black Motion Picture Experience was apparently quite successful. There was an established market for this type of album, but Cecil brought his own vision to the project. That said, I own collections such as Joe Renzetti’s and Wes Farrell’s The Soultown Symphony (Sounds of Detroit) and numerous albums by The Soulful Strings (with the great Charles Stepney) which put out numerous albums on Cadet Records between 1966 and 1971. Soul Strings and a Funky Horn (1968) is another I found recently on the Solid State Records label. And then there are numerous soul strings knockoffs on budget labels.  

That said, Holmes may well have been the first African American producer of a session like this. Accordingly, this album has the right feel to make it work and hold up as a good listening experience today.  Holmes brought in Tony Camillo — who had driven hit sessions for no less than Gladys Knight and the Pips’ Grammy winning “Midnight Train to Georgia” — to shape these sessions.

So how does The Black Motion Picture Experience SACD sound? I think it is wonderful! The Stereo layer sounds very much like the LP mix, appropriately warm but plenty clear.  

The Quad mix is fun! For example, opening track “Across 110th Avenue” features bass and horns in the rear channels while guitars and drums somehow keep the rhythm clicking up front.

The mix design switches up a bit for “Slaughter,” putting some percussion and effects in the back. Holmes’ version of the early Michael Jackson hit “Ben” is one of my favorites here with strings in the back and lead-line flutes up front. The cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” is also super sexy, putting the saxophone behind you and the core rhythm section up front.

I did not spend much time comparing/contrastig the second album on the disc — Cecil’s follow on release, Music For Soulful Lovers — as my copy of that LP is horribly off center. So the SACD is a huge improvement for me even just listening to the Stereo mix and the Quad mix has a similar vibe to the earlier album. However, be forewarned that this other music is even more easy listening-leaning — it is kind of like if Barry White consciously made elevator music for a medical building. But, hey, that is ok. As you can see from the cover, this was intended as background music!

Here’s something extra crazy: you can even find The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds’ The Black Motion Picture Experience on Qobuz (click here) in 96 kHz, 24-bit Hi Res and on Tidal in CD quality (click here)!

But if you want to hear the Quadrophonic experience — if you have a home theater system set up that can play multi-channel surround sound from SACDs — you should pick up this Dutton Vocalion edition. 

World News

The Frank Zappa Documentary Part II: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack On CD

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

In part one of my review series we explored the new Blu-ray edition of the Alex Winter’s terrific new documentary about Frank Zappa which is simply titled Zappa. If you missed that story, please click here to jump to it. 

For those of you who like soundtracks, rejoice knowing that there is one available for this fine new movie named after its namesake. Zappa has been streaming for a while on all the popular services including Qobuz and Tidal. You can click here for my review of it based on the streams and you should read it as it does go into a bunch of detail on things you can expect to hear.  

For those of you who prefer “physical media” — and who might want to buy the album to help support future archive releases (that is how this process typically works, folks) — now you can get the album on a three compact disc collection. 

I have found the Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack quite handy and intriguing as a listening experience in its own right. It is particularly useful as it now allows me to hear the music on different devices beyond my computer including my car– yes I still have a CD player in my car! It sounds great as CDs go and sounds particularly good in the car, must say. 

One of the details I have come to recognize and appreciate about this release is that it is genuinely an “original soundtrack” and usually that means it includes incidental music from the film. This is an important distinction for the hardcore Zappa fan to come to grips with as this is not really intended as purely another “Vault” release even though it is created from materials in the Vault.  

Got that?

So, this set includes a significant amount of incidental music created not by Frank Zappa. The album includes 26 original score cues newly composed by John Frizzell to support the connecting dramatic intercut scenes which helped tell the story.

Initially, I will admit that I was a little bit miffed about this as a Zappa fan most of my adult life. But as I got deeper into listening to the Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack via this new physical album — I began to appreciate Frizzell’s work for what it is and how it helps achieve the intent of the film: to use Zappa’s archival footage to tell a narrative story about his personal life as a composer. 

Prior to writing this I watched the documentary for a third time including and could see and hear how these musical cues are essential ingredients towards the film’s success.

Stepping  outside my Zappa “fan boy’ mindset, I stopped to consider why they didn’t “just” use Frank’s own music for this purpose. Well, first, it would have been a Herculean — if not impossible — task to find appropriate music from Zappa’s vast catalog to fit the vibe of each scene in just that right way. It probably could have been done, no doubt, but it probably would’ve added three or more years onto the project I would suspect.  

That notion aside, having this sort of Eno-esque, ambient under-scoring for the storytelling scenes helps to lift Zappa beyond the typical rock documentaries that I’ve seen. Hearing this other non-Zappa music actually gives your mind a breather to focus your attention on the underlying story. Accordingly, the soundtrack pieces have very specific titles such as “Frank’s Library,” “Greeting Cards” and “Frank Goes To Jail.”

Zappa (the film) has a very clear intention to tell the story about what Frank’s life was about from Frank’s perspective, not necessarily rehashing many of the stories that have already been told elsewhere. It is important for people who have never heard Zappa before to understand this broader perspective. 

As Gail Zappa says in the film: ‘he’s a composer.’

Ok, so there’s only one more element left this in this rollout of the Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: the upcoming five LP vinyl box set of the as well as two-disc incarnations. As soon as we get our hands on a copy of that we’ll sure to give you an update!

So stay tuned Zappa fans as there’s more fun to come regarding this wonderful documentary experience.

World News

The Frank Zappa Documentary Part I: The Blu-ray Disc

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Some of you may remember that last year I was very excited to review a video documentary by producer director Alex Winter about one of my musical heroes, Frank Zappa. This film — simply called Zappa — embodied a multi-level project that not only helped preserve the vast archive of historical media in Zappa’s legendary “vault” archive, but presented a distinctive profile of Zappa’s life not many of us really fully understood. And it was all told pretty much from his vantage point and those who worked closely around him. 

If you haven’t seen the film and want more insight, please click here to jump to my overview / review from when the documentary first was released in digital form (and when the soundtrack appeared on some streaming services). 

Alex Winther did a magnificent job on Zappa and the biopic is now available on Blu-ray Disc for those who like to own physical versions in their collection. There are a number of reasons why you would want this. Zappa is a powerful documentary which contains a lot of great footage in it that I suspect that even hard core Zappa fans had never seen before — at least in this sort of quality — so on that level it is essential. 

It is worth noting here that Zappa fans are a bit like DeadHeads and Springsteen fanatics, collecting the artist’s music deeply beyond the officially released material — radio and concert recordings, TV appearances and more. 

For those types of super serious fans, there are wonderful bonus materials on the Zappa Blu-ray Disc so you don’t want to miss out on that. Included are fascinating demonstrations by Zappa of his Synclavier,  an early digital music production workstation.  There are wonderful out-take interviews with Zappa’s musician including Mike Keneally, Steve Vai and Ruth Underwood, all offering important additional insights. 

There is also video of great question and answer Zoom session featuring Alex Winter and associate producer Mike Nichols, moderated by no less than “Weird Al” Yankovic!  There they offer many more insights into what went into making this fantastic documentary and its underlying intent. 

There, you’ll also get a tantalizing teaser of a sort confirming most every Zappa fan’s dreams that there is much more in the vault yet to see the light of day. Just hearing those words uttered (albeit, non-specifically), confirming the notion that they are still figuring out what to do with all the the material there, is an exciting musical carrot dangling in the future for this Zappa fan.

Perhaps my favorite bonus feature on the disc, however, is the shortest item included: an animated TV commercial for Zappa’s classic 1974 release, Apostrophe. I would love to know where this commercial may have aired back in the day…

The Blu-ray Disc comes with options for Stereo and standard Dolby Digital surround sound. The latter is perfectly adequate for this presentation as there are no whizz-bang super immersive special effects going on. Also, since much of the material presented is taken from vintage TV and archival video sources in frequency-limited mono and stereophonic sound, the surround mix is almost ancillary. It does fill up you home theater viewing space nicely for what it is.

One last tidbit as we wrap up this review is the notion of the cover art used on the Kickstarter edition of Zappa vs. the commercially released incarnation:  each have completely different designs!

At first I was surprised because I thought the original promo poster (and soundtrack album design for that matter) which the Zappa estate created was actually pretty terrific. But I suspect that there is one thing central to that image which is probably difficult to promote these days in mainstream retail outlets: cigarettes.

Zappa fans know he was a lifelong heavy smoker – something that probably contributed to his death (look it up on the web). Whenever you saw him, whether in the studio, his house or on stage in concert, a cigarette was never far away.

So having that image of him smoking on the cover — there is even a silhouette shot of him on the physical discs in the soundtrack packaging — is a reminder, I think at least, to people to not smoke. If you know the story you won’t take this as an endorsement that smoking is anything good. 

However, understanding the realities of brick and mortar retail in the 21st century, I suspect that cigarettes are something that probably can’t be on a product as some people might take to heart as a positive endorsement. There is nothing cool or good about smoking, kids. 

‘Nuff said…

Anyhow, tune in tomorrow when I’ll explore the newly released Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on compact disc!

Zappa’s Apostrophe Ad from a fan post on YouTube…. the Blu-ray version looks much better than this!
World News

Hendrix Live In Maui, Part 1: The Vinyl Experience

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

In the universe of psychedelic rock ’n roll, there have been a number of films over the years which have gone on into the annals of music legend for their combination of innocence and ineptitude. Movies at times weird — and to some unwatchable —yet which have delivered an amazing trail of recordings.

Perhaps most well known is The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour which they self produced with vivid psychedelic color and imagery only to be shown on black and white BBC television back in 1967. The made-for-television movie itself has gone on to be considered an influential period piece and the soundtrack delivered some of the group’s most beloved later period songs. 

The Monkees’ own Head trip film has also gone on to be considered a psychedelic masterpiece (by some, at least) and the soundtrack has enjoyed numerous reissues in recent years as new generations have discovered its many joys.  

In the underground tape trading scene of The Grateful Dead’s universe, for many years the strange but wonderful concert film Sunshine Daydream circulated among fans on blurry multi-generation VHS dubs. Eventually, it was restored and mixed into surround sound and issued in a deluxe package with the complete concert which is widely considered one of the all time best Grateful Dead performances, ever!  

Peter Yarrow’s trippy You Are What You Eat hasn’t been released commercially as far as I know (though there is a soundtrack album on Columbia Records!) but it does seem to live on YouTube in a blurry but watchable version. It is worth seeing if only for the scenes of Tiny Tim performing “I Got You Babe” backed by no less than The Band!   Click on any of the titles in these last two paragraphs to jump to reviews or more information on those films.

I think you get the idea…

So, in and around those ranks is a lost film seemingly featuring Jimi Hendrix called Rainbow Bridge which has a production history as convoluted as its non-existent plot-line. You can read about that film’s history when you buy the recently released complete true soundtrack recordings now under the title The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui.  

In short, the band’s participation in the film — crafted by an impresario many apparently called The Wizard — was triggered by Hendrix’ then manager and the whole production apparently turned into fiasco!  Fortunately, Jimi and his band delivered on their part of the deal, leaving behind a soaring concert performance — and a once-in-a-lifetime memory for the several hundred people who were there for the free shows on the side of a dormant Volcano — which elevated the whole project into the stuff of legend.

Spread across six sides of three vinyl long playing records, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui sounds quite incredible all things considered. Mixed from the original eight track multi-channel tapes recorded on location in 1970, apparently, original engineer Eddie Kramer was able to work much modern digital restoration magic on the tapes which for years were plagued by technical problems. 

Most notably, Mitch Mitchell’s drums at the time were unusable due to signal path problems. It is worth noting that Mitchell did a remarkable job on re-recording his performance in the studio for the tracks that were used back in the day for the film. But on these new mixes, Kramer was able to salvage larger portions of the original recordings using modern technologies, so what we hear now is a combination of original and replacement drum performances.  It all works and shouldn’t really bother you — realize that this sort of thing has been done by many many artists over the years from Duke Ellington to The Grateful Dead.  

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui sounds remarkably good to my ear, again especially given the conditions under which it was recorded. The variances are most noticeable when you watch the film footage on the Bluray Disc (more on that in part two of this review series).

Ultimately, it is all about the music and the performances on The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui are exemplary!  Killer versions of classics like “Stone Free,” “Purple Haze” and “Foxey Lady” are great but for me, the real joy is hearing Hendrix stretch out on jams like “Red House.”Then unreleased new songs such as “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun),” “Dolly Dagger,” “Villanova Junction” and “Ezy Ryder” also stand out.  

Again, some of these tunes would appear in the studio versions on the posthumous soundtrack album to the film Rainbow Bridge (which apparently almost no one has seen!) and studio versions of some of these songs were issued on The Cry Of Love. Most of those songs were compiled and remixed on a later-still posthumous release, the terrific First Rays Of The New Rising Sun (as close an approximation as we’re likely to get of what Hendrix’ fourth album might have been like had he lived).

The vinyl records pressed at at QRP are excellent, quiet and well centered, so I have no problems on that front. My only nit is that the file-box styled packaging is creative but I do kind of wish they had opted for a sturdier, more traditional gatefold design – this feels a little flimsy and if not handled carefully it will quite easily get crushed. 

Tomorrow we’ll explore the Blu-ray Disc included in The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui with a documentary about the debacle that became Rainbow Bridge film on it as well as all available film footage shot during these concerts. Tune in tomorrow!

World News

The Band’s Stage Fright 50th Anniversary Boxed Set, Pt. 2: Surround Sound Blu-ray & CD

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

In Part One of my review of the new super-deluxe edition of The Band’s 1970 release called Stage Fright, we explored the new Stereo remix of the album including the dramatic restoration of the original track listing as first envisioned by the band. If you missed that review, please click here to jump to it. 

The Stage Fright – 50th Anniversary features not only a 180-gram vinyl LP of the new mix album but also a well designed and great sounding — if simple — Blu-ray Disc containing the album and their 1970 Royal Albert Hall concert mixed into 5.1 surround sound. 

Stage Fright : The Surround Mix

For the purposes of this review I listened to The Band’s new Stage Fright – 50th Anniversary surround sound mix via the DTS-HD Master Audio version on the included Blu-ray Disc. A Dolby TrueHD option is also included which sounds fine but I find it less distinctive in terms of discrete channel detailing. There is also a high resolution LPCM Stereo version included. All of the versions sound excellent overall, presented in 96 kHz, 24-bit fidelity offering a nice balance between crisp highs, firm mid-ranges and more resonant lows without losing the fact that it was at its root a recording made in 1970.   

The new 5.1 mix is gently immersive and very effective at creating a sense of the room the group was playing in while recording the album. The band is largely presented forward facing while the surround channels are used for selective overdubs and room ambiance. For example, on “W.S. Walcott Medicine Show,” the horn section fills up the room largely from behind, blending neatly at times when the solo saxophone takes center stage from the front.  

Levon Helms’ drums are very present, also front and center, and they sound terrific. This mix grows on you nicely, making you feel like you are there in the theater with the group. And given that the live playhouse stage feel was part of the original intention of the album concept (according to the liner notes), in that light I feel this surround sound mix is a strong success on all fronts. 

The Live Royal Albert Hall Concert

Included with Stage Fright – 50th Anniversary is a live concert recorded at the end of The Band’s 1971 European tour at the Royal Albert Hall in London.  EMI recorded the concert on a four track machine it brought into the venue. It is so fortuitous that this show was preserved. According to Robertson’s notes in the booklet, the tour found the group performing at the top of its game and this show really reflects that notion. 

Here they present a powerful 20 song set including a healthy dose of then-new material from the Stage Fright album. Consider how confident they were to open the show with a double whammy of then new songs “The Shape I’m In” and “Time To Kill” before playing familiar fan favorites like “The Weight.” 

They perform about 3/4 of their smash hit second album (the self-titled, brown covered one).  Given the simpler method of recording this concert, the producers wisely also kept the 5.1 mix quite simple. It is basically a Stereo spread across the front left-center-right channels with concert venue time-delay ambiance filling the room via the surround channels. It sounds extremely welcoming and enveloping — I found the 5.1 mix of the Royal Albert Hall concert a much more satisfying way to enjoy this excellent recording compared with the plain Stereo mix option that is also on the Blu-ray Disc. 

Robertson calls this one of their best performances in the liner notes and I can’t help but agree. The Band is clearly on a mission here.  

The CDs. The 45 and Other Things

Both the restored album and the live concert are included on standard CDs in the Stage Fright – 50th Anniversary set. These are handy for mobile use if you still have a car CD player or if you don’t feel like playing the Blu-ray or the vinyl LP.  But, of the three options, it is the least appealing sonics wise. It is perfectly fine as CDs go, don’t get me wrong, but the Blu-ray sounds better and the vinyl sounds warmer still.  

There are, however, some bonus tracks exclusive to the CDs which you’ll want to hear: acoustic rehearsals in a hotel room in Calgary while on tour! This is total fly on the wall stuff, things we were never supposed to hear. And, how wonderful it is to hear these legendary musicians work their way through their own songs and  nuggest like Huey “Piano” Smith’s classic “Rockin’ Pneumonia and The Boogie Woogie Flu.” They may be relatively LoFi recordings but they are no doubt special so you’ll want to hear this. 

In the Stage Fright – 50th Anniversary set you also get a reproduction of a rare Spanish picture sleeve and 45 RPM single featuring “Time To Kill” backed with “The Shape I’m In.” This is a very cool bonus for serious fans as finding original copies of rarities like this is difficult, at least here in the USA (there are some up on Discogs).  

Also in the boxed set are a set of lovely art prints with original photograph of The Band from the period. Suitable for framing, these images underscore the instantly iconic stature this group had at the time.

Stage Fright – 50th Anniversary is a great collection and if you are fan of the group and this album you need to hear it.  I would go so far as to call it an essential set given the way it showcases the music in such a positive new light.  Seriously, as far as I’m concerned this is like getting a brand new Band album to enjoy so in its own way this may well be my favorite deluxe edition from The Band thus far. 

Bravo!