Classic Hifi Care

I just heard Marty Robbins sing "Streets of Laredo" on the radio, American Routes, Sunday night fave. Interesting song--I'll attach the lyrics Robbins used and a discussion of the song's origins and variations. I'm just a total sucker for Marty Robbins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAzjnKixvzw

https://genius.com/Marty-robbins-street ... edo-lyrics

https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/streets-of-laredo.html

And this morning the weekly call-in show included the Benny Goodman Quartet playing "Whispering." It opens with Goodman playing the theme, but listen to Teddy Wilson going to town, ornamenting on the piano behind him. They all take their solos, each cool, and then they all get to cooking along together as they go out. You can have a listen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROxSTt5MQB0

This is three minutes of music, constrained by technology to that short time. The ten-inch 78 posed a big challenge to creativity. You had to make your point and resolve it before the record space ran out. Here's one such undertaking by one Jewish guy whose father immigrated from Russia, two black guys whose ancestors came from Africa, and a Polish drummer whose Catholic parents immigrated from Poland. And what did they do? They made American music. Very good music too.

Chris Campbell

Would that recording have sounded incredible if it has been recorded in "hyper stereo"? I have a recording of Benny Goodman "Shine" and the artists are listed as Benny Goodman's Sextet. This album lists a quartet. I don't know why AI or some computer program couldn't competently re-process this old music for stereo reproduction.

There are those who contend that music is best in very high quality mono. Most "reprocessed" stereo is pretty bad. Then there was dual mono (fake stereo) where the band is in one speaker and the singer in the other. Heard it last night on the radio--Ray Charles and the Raelettes in one channel, the band in the other. I could never figure out why they did that.

Me, I'm usually listening to the music and not to the recording. 78 surface noise doesn't bother me if I can hear the musicians. The music source on my local boat is a radio direction finder receiver with an FM band (mono, with maybe 1/10 watt output). I have a 5" speaker in a plastic real-shelf-mount box from the 1960s. It's a distinctly lo-fi setup but I am regularly moved by great music through that tiny speaker on summer evenings.

Chris Campbell

For those interested in the Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet recordings from the late 1930s, I highly recommend the 3 CD set "The Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings". The transfers are excellent, there is no added reverb, and no phony stereo effect added.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Victor- ... B000003G8S

The only thing they could have done better would be to put the alternate takes at the end rather than having the tracks completely chronological.

Thanks, Ken.

Bill