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brassplyer brassplyer is offline
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Default A recording style that was in vogue or second-rate engineering?

Doc Severinsen is one of the big trumpet heroes. In the 60's he was recording on the Command label and his recordings during that period are considered to be a "Golden Era" of his output where he did a number of virtuosic renditions of various pop tunes.

Listening to them now, I hear things that weren't obvious to me as a kid. This recording of "It Ain't Necessarily So" is a good example because you can hear him doing different parts on both channels. I don't think they really did that great a job of capturing his sound. His performance is so incredible it shines through but it sounds kind of stuffy, buzzy and distorted. I gather they close-mic'd him. I have no idea what mic was used.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8J3U5AHQxo


The technology had long existed to do a stellar job of capturing the sound of a trumpet. Contrast to this earlier (1962) recording of Al Hirt on "Memories Of You", how sparkling every aspect of the recording is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvQ4acZw1a8


Do you think the Command recordings were just a particular sound they were aiming for or less than stellar engineering? He was the most visible trumpet artist, recording with a prominent label, I would have thought his recordings would have gotten the Cadillac treatment.