Dutton Vocalion UK mining the Sony Music quad catalog for Multichannel SACD release!

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Thanks for the kind words Jon, but it was fellow QQ member bming who posted about the Ray Conniff this morning. That got me to go on the Vocalion's web site and then lose my mind. Of course, I just had to share the fabulous news with everyone. :)

They're a great company and they've been releasing high quality reissues for years now.

Stop being so modest, Simon. Like yourself, I've emailed D~V on several occasions congratulating them on their QUAD 2~fers and also made some suggestions and I hope other interested parties at QQ do the same. And how they can do each release (ESPECIALLY the 2~fers) for US $12 each is nothing short of a miracle in this day and age of $30~50 single QUAD/5.1 reissues!

As bmoura stated: if AF were to do a two~fer.....it would involve two separate licensing fees for the RBCD/STEREO/QUAD layers and would add significantly to the price. Nuff Said!
 
Simon, do you know if DV do one big release splurge at the end of every year, or do they steadily release product throughout the year more like AF?

not pinning all my hopes on them but I really think Dutton Vocalion could be our saviours with resurrecting and preserving these lovely old Quads in Hi-res discrete quality.. keep 'em coming DV, especially as Jon says they are now starting to mine the Columbia vaults, which is where many of the real Quad treasures are imho (and they're all currently trapped on SQ records and Q8 eight track carts, unlike Warner & RCA there were never any official reel to reel Quad releases from Columbia & Epic and their assoc labels.. even more exciting a prospect if DV are to plunder Sony's vaults for more Columbia Quads in the future.. :p )

you know, I still can't quite believe it.. albeit from two very disparate sources (and at two diametrically opposed price points!) we're at the end of 2016 and we've got the chance to acquire new Surround SACDs of the Quads of Wired and Tower Of Power.. wow.. Happy 40th Anniversary to these two superb Quads from '76.. hooray! :wave

ps. I was just refreshing my memory on the Tower Of Power Quad (still good? yep, still very groovy!) and just let out a big old belly laugh at the 3 copies of the SQ LP I had to get in order to find a listenable one.. for a fraction of the cost soon I'll be able to get it in discrete surround master tape quality..!

Flat out AMAZING.
 
Simon, do you know if DV do one big release splurge at the end of every year, or do they steadily release product throughout the year more like AF?

No clue Lad. For the moment being, I'm simply really thankful that these will be coming out.
 
I'm really glad to see that word of these has finally gotten out - I've known about these titles for a little while (and had involvement with a couple of them) and it's hard to to keep quiet when you have juicy info like this.

I wrote pretty extensive liner notes for The Main Ingredient 'Euphrates River' and Tower Of Power 'Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now', about 2,000 words for each which translates to 7 pages or so in the booklets I think. All the information is newly researched from Billboard magazine and other newspapers and magazines of the time - I didn't want to just regurgitate what was already on the web in biographies etc. and I've hopefully found some original information and insight in the process. I tried to strike a balance between band history, chart information and commentary on the album itself, the idea being to give you some context for where these albums sit in both the bands careers and music in general. I was even able to make mention of the quad mixes toward the end of each of them, which I hope might catch the interest of people who buy these albums just for the CD portion and get them wondering about SACD/surround sound etc.

I also wrote a 2,000 word blog entry about the rise and fall of quadraphonic sound and tied it in to the current resurgence of SACD surround titles with quad and 5.1 mixes for Dutton Vocalion's website, which I think will be published tomorrow with their formal announcement of these dozen titles. It's more geared toward their CD buying audience who isn't familiar with quad or surround sound in the hopes they can be intrigued enough to upgrade their systems to be SACD capable, but I think there's some interesting info in there for everyone, and lots of soapbox-standing about sound quality and how great surround sound is, something I'm sure we can all agree on.

I haven't actually heard any of these discs yet but I have full confidence in Michael Dutton and his team, as the sound quality of all their previous releases has been second to none. I had an email from him earlier today - he's seen this thread and wanted me to pass on that the reason the titles are so cheap is because Vocalion believes in surround and wants it to get more coverage. The prices of these discs will be going up in the new year so get as many as you can while they're as cheap as they are now. He also added that all of Vocalion's new classical recordings will be done/available in SACD based on the positive customer feedback they've had thusfar.

Speaking personally, I would encourage you to buy as many copies of these discs as you can. I know Marshall from AF said 'only buy the discs you like' but it's clear that more support = more future releases. I know this isn't a dozen Blue Oyster Cult style hard-rockers, but one of my favourite things about my "quad journey" so to speak was that I discovered all this music in other genres as a result, a lot of which I love now. There's some really great music here across a variety of genres, and you could buy all 12 of these discs for 2/3 the price of that Soundgarden 'Badmotorfinger' box set alone. As is the case with AF, Vocalion only licenses these albums for a limited time so the potential for them being hard to find in the future is very high. I actually plan to buy a few copies of the two albums I did liner notes for to stock away as investments, because they're so cheap now and I have a feeling that won't be the case in a couple of years.

Some random thoughts and info about these titles:

  • Rózsa conducts Rózsa (1965) As far as I know this was never released in quad or 5.1 so this release is either an unreleased quad mix, or a 3-channel presentation like the Living Stereo discs that Sony and AP have put out over the last few years.
  • Michel Legrand - Twenty Songs Of The Century (1974) This is a double-LP, released on the Bell label. Bell was one of the labels that was folded in to create Arista Records in 1975 after Clive Davis took over. This was only available on SQ vinyl and is really difficult to find - I assume they probably took it out of print after Bell became Arista, which means it was only in print for a year or so. It's also the only US quad release that Bell did - they did one other in Japan, a Michel Legrand live album.
  • André Kostelanetz Plays Music of Villa-Lobos & André Kostelanetz Conducts Music from Spain (1974) Kostelanetz was doing easy listening before the term 'easy listening' was even coined. I haven't heard these but presumably they'll be very accessible versions of Spanish classical music. They're also notable because they were both produced by legendary Miles Davis & Dave Brubeck producer Teo Macero. I believe these are the first Macero quad productions that have seen modern digital release.
  • Hugo Montenegro 'Love Theme from The Godfather (1972) & Music from A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1969) A couple of Montenegro firsts: 'Godfather' was the first US RCA QuadraDisc ever released (catalog number APD-0001) and 'Fistful Of Dollars...' (which is all covers of Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack material) was part of the first batch of RCA 'PQ8' Q8's released in 1970. The Montenegro quad mixes are pretty much uniformly great - I'm especially looking forward to 'Fistful..' because it was only ever released on Q8, but even what I've head of the mixes in that format sounds great.
  • Hugo Montenegro 'Neil's Diamonds' (1973) and 'Hugo In Wonder-Land' (1974) If you bought the Montenegro discs Vocalion put out last year, you're probably already buying this one. Features Montenegro's space-age bachelor pad musical take on the songwriting catalogs of Neil Diamond and Stevie Wonder. It's no accident that the quad mixes of Montenegro's albums were demonstration material as he actually did his arrangements with the format in mind. The original LP release of 'Wonder-land' actually featured an endorsement from Stevie Wonder himself.
  • Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass 'Travelin & Carribean Cruise' (1973) This stuff reminds me a lot of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, just with less jazz and more country/bluegrass elements in the arrangements. Fun stuff maybe verging on a little cheesy but in a good way I think. As far as I know neither of these albums has ever been released on CD at all before, let alone quad SACD.
  • Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops 'Greatest Hits Of The 70's Vol. 1 & 2 I haven't heard these albums, but I have heard their cover of Mack The Knife in quad and it's a lot of fun, imagine popular music of the time rearranged for a symphony orchestra but including a drummer, etc. This is my favourite kind of easy listening. Another set of albums that have never been on CD before.
  • Percy Faith 'Romeo & Juliet' (1969) & 'Chinatown' (1974) The first of the Percy Faith quad mixes to be released on SACD, I think this is actually the first album he ever did in quad (Romeo) and the last (Chinatown). These are really active, discrete quad mixes of covers of a lot of popular music of the time. Of all the Columbia easy listening material, Percy Faith is my favourite.
  • Ray Conniff 'Laughter In The Rain' (1974) and 'Love Will Keep Us Together' I'm not a huge fan of Conniff (a bit too syrupy for me) but Mike Dutton told me that the sound quality on these two is really great. The Laughter In The Rain Q8 is incredibly hard to find, and I've never seen a copy of Love Will Keep Us Together in the wild ever, so getting these two albums together on one disc for a bargain price makes this a no-brainer for me as a collector.
  • Henry Mancini 'Mancini Country' (1970) & 'Country Gentleman' (1974) Mancini's quad mixes are second to none..well maybe second to Montenegro, but still fantastic, as you'll know if you have the Vocalion Mancini discs from last year. Really glad I can just sell the two Q8's I have of these without having to bother transferring them to digital myself!
  • Tower Of Power 'Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now' (1976) As Jon said, one of the last Columbia quad albums, released in October 1976, and out of print by 1978. If you can find this on Q8, be prepared to pay $75 or more. And as Adam mentioned, the mix is a bit unconventional - drums in the right rear and bass in the left rear, but this album has loads of horns and strings and vocals spread all over the place. I kinda think of it as being like the quad mix of Sly & The Family Stone's Greatest Hits, just on steroids. Music-wise, it's a fantastic album, widely regarded as the last 'classic' Tower Of Power album by most. Highly reccomend this one!
  • The Main Ingredient 'Euphrates River' (1974) If you like the Isley Brothers (HELLO FREDBLUE) I can almost guarantee you'll like this. It's like the Isleys, with the lead guitar replaced with some amazing swirling string and horn orchestrations from Bert DeCoteaux, along the lines of what you'd hear from guys like Gene Page (Barry White's arranger) or Motown arranger David Van De Pitte (Marvin Gaye etc.) RCA went back and remixed this in quad more than a year after the stereo version, based on the fact that it had 3 hit singles (Just Don't Want To Be Lonely, Happiness Is Just Around The Bend, & California My Way) and was a top 10 R&B album, releasing it in the summer of 1975, but as we know they basically abandoned quad shortly after that. As a result the quad version is really difficult to find, especially the Q8 which I've never seen with my own eyes. The lead vocalist in the Main Ingredient is Cuba Gooding Sr., father of Cuba SHOW ME THE MONEY!! Gooding Jr. I didn't really know this album intimately but after doing the liner notes for it I've fallen in love with it, and this is the Vocalion release that I'm anticipating most highly.

You can listen to samples of most of these albums on Youtube, but if anyone has any questions about them, historical or mix-wise I'm happy to answer whatever I can.
 
Great news, I think I will get me all of these. I have have 6 of the previously releases - think that was all of them? And I like them a lot, perfect chilling music with great fidelty and surround.
 
I just pre~ordered ALL eleven titles from D~V and it came to (in US currency) $172.94 incl s/h and considering that 8 of the titles are two~fers (16 individual albums total) and 3 are single SACD releases........not bad for 19 QUAD SACD titles.* The shipping total was £18 for all eleven titles.

Again, no mention when the titles are being released but as Steelydave posted above....the prices are going up in January so order NOW.

And again, thanks to all for posting this magnificent info and to Steelydave for his invaluable info on ALL eleven titles [post #310] and I especially look forward to reading his liner notes.

[*broken down: $172.94 for 19 individual QUAD titles = $9.10 each incl s/h].
 
I wonder if Dutton Vocalion get a longer licensing period than other reissue labels get in the US? Like how long these will be in print?

I think I will order the Tower of Power and Main Ingrediant titles soon. But I might have to hold off on others due to a slow summer work schedule that I am just now getting caught up from. I got four new tires for car, and a new bed, and another turntable this summer right when work took a deep slump.
 
Well Snood almost ignored this thread based on the titles Snood was seeing - just not my thing

but then Snood scrolling going meh...nah....bleh..... then sees Main Ingredient & Tower of Power and went :yikes

Snood ordered those 2 - hopefully more R&B stuff gets released in the future :smokin

With shipping about 16.71 per SACD Snood likey :banana:
 
This is spectacular news.
Those first 6 discs must have done well to prompt this avalanche.
Especially excited about Tower of Power, Main Ingredient and Hugo Montenegro.
I almost hoe they stagger the releases, these will be hard to keep up with though the prices certainly help in that regard.

I will contact them to offer thanks.
 
Well Snood almost ignored this thread based on the titles Snood was seeing - just not my thing

but then Snood scrolling going meh...nah....bleh..... then sees Main Ingredient & Tower of Power and went :yikes

Snood ordered those 2 - hopefully more R&B stuff gets released in the future :smokin

With shipping about 16.71 per SACD Snood likey :banana:

Surprised Snood no likey the Hugo Montenegro two~fer: Godfather theme/music from The Good the Bad and the Ugly, etc http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLK4595 because if Snood likey Spaghetti and Don Corleone he might likey this two~fer.........just hold the meatballs!:yikes
 
Surprised Snood no likey the Hugo Montenegro two~fer: Godfather theme/music from The Good the Bad and the Ugly, etc http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLK4595 because if Snood likey Spaghetti and Don Corleone he might likey this two~fer.........just hold the meatballs!:yikes

Neil's Diamonds and Stevie's Wonderloaf are the true gems (Diamonds = gems.. err..) ok the biggest Montenegro Quad standouts in this lot (imho! :eek: ) but really they're all good you just can't go wrong with the Quadfather!
 
I'm not sure when the titles ship, but I'll see if I can get in touch with Mr. Dutton and find out.

I'm also not sure how long Vocalion's license period is, and I don't think they'd say, but I would assume it's similar to all the other labels including AF, ie a few years and/or a few thousand units.

Snood, I concur with fredblue and 4-earredwonder, you should think about giving the two Montenegro discs a chance, especially the 'Wonder-Land' album, which has a great cast of backing musicians including Larry Muhoberac (from Elvis' TCB band) on keyboards, Hal Blaine and Carole Kaye from The Wrecking Crew, Larry Carlton and Wilton Felder from The Crusaders, Tom Scott, and others. Not that I'm twisting your arm or anything, but consider the fact that you basically got the Main Ingredient and Tower Of Power discs for the price of one AF SACD release, surely you must have a little cash left over. ;)

I also think it's a great idea to email D-V with your thanks and suggestions. I think when they started doing these quad SACDs last year they didn't realise there was a whole network of us quad supporters so every extra bit of encouragement (both financial and email) gives them more push to carry on. Suggestions are also good as well - the Main Ingredient and Tower Of Power discs that are coming out are actually the result of suggestions I made in a conversation with Michael Dutton. I noticed I actually owned a Vocalion CD, it was a compilation of two albums Bennie Maupin (the sax player in Herbie Hancock's Headhunters) did for Columbia in the 70's so I thought maybe they'd be open to the idea of doing similar types of music on quad SACD, so I suggested it and Mr. Dutton was open to the idea. I ended up sending him a pretty extensive list of things I thought might be do-able in quad and from that list, these two titles sprang. Maynard Ferguson's Conquistador was definitely on there as well, but I don't feel like I have the market cornered on good ideas so the more people that email them the better!

Here are the original Billboard advertisements from 1976 and 1974 respectively for the Tower Of Power and Main Ingredient albums that are coming out, just to whet your appetite a little more:

top-billboard.jpg

ingredient-billboard.jpg
 
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