New DV Releases for January 2021! (Mott the Hoople, BTO, Burton Cummings, Grover Washington Jr!)

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Grover Washington, Jr. • Soul Box

N.B. The original discrete quadraphonic master of Soul Box no longer exists; therefore, the best available discrete quadraphonic sources have been used for this reissue.

It's the curse of having "Box" in the title, right? (Same thing happened with Don Sebesky's Giant Box.) Can anybody name another one, for the trifecta?
 
Grover Washington, Jr. • Soul Box
[SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]

THE ORIGINAL 2-LP SET KUX 1213 (1973) STEREO
KSQX 1213 QUADRAPHONIC
1: AUBREY (Gates)
2: MASTERPIECE (Whitfield)
3: TROUBLE MAN (Gaye)
4: YOU ARE THE SUNSHINE OF MY LIFE (Wonder)
5: DON’T EXPLAIN (Herzog; Holiday)
6: EASY LIVING (Robin; Rainger) – AIN’T NOBODY’S BUSINESS IF I DO (Robbins; Grainger)
7: TAURIAN MATADOR (Cobham)

Personnel:
Grover Washington, Jr. (alto/tenor/soprano saxophones), Bob James (acoustic piano/electric piano), Richard Tee (organ); Ron Carter (acoustic bass/bass guitar), Idris Muhammad (drums) [tracks 1-6]; Billy Cobham (drums) [track 7], Airto Moreira, Dave Friedman, Phil Kraus, Ralph MacDonald (percussion), Jay Berliner (guitar) [track 1]; Eric Gale (guitar) [tracks 2-7], Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis, John Frosk, Bernie Glow (trumpets/flugelhorns), Wayne Andre, Santo Russo (trombones), Paul Faulise, Alan Raph, Tony Studd (bass trombones), Jim Buffington, Peter Gordon, Brooks Tillotson (French horns), Harvey Estrin (flutes/piccolo/recorder), Donald MacCourt (bassoon), Wally Kane (flutes/clarinet/contrabass clarinet/bass saxophone), Hubert Laws (flutes/piccolo), George Marge (flutes/piccolo/oboe), Romeo Penque (flutes/piccolo/clarinet/bass clarinet/oboe/cor anglais), Harry Cykman, Max Ellen, Paul Gershman, Emanuel Green, Harold Kohon, Charles Libove, Harry Lookofsky, Joe Malin, David Nadien, Gene Orloff, Elliot Rosoff (violins), Alfred Brown, Theodore Israel, Emanuel Vardi (violas), Seymour Barab, Charles McCracken, George Ricci (cellos), Ron Carter, Richard Davis (arco basses), Bill Eaton, Eileen Gilbert, Barbara Massey, Randolph Peyton, Maeretha Stewart, Bernard Thacker (vocals), Arranger/conductor: Bob James

N.B. The original discrete quadraphonic master of Soul Box no longer exists; therefore, the best available discrete quadraphonic sources have been used for this reissue.
I just realized...this was lost in the Universal fire, wasn't it?
 
I just realized...this was lost in the Universal fire, wasn't it?

I don't know for sure either way, but I think it's just as likely it was "lost" in the fog of war during the CTI bankruptcy.

The nutshell version of this is that CTI tried to set up their own distribution network after Deodato's self-titled album went gangbusters, but within a year it had crumbled - CTI turned to Motown to distribute their releases after that, but the relationship turned sour within a year or two, with CTI accusing Motown of not fulfilling their promises, and withholding payment etc. and filing lawsuits against each other for breach of contract. Subsequent to that, CTI went bankrupt (I think maybe circa 1978) and since they had no money, when the judge ruled in favour of Motown in the lawsuit, he awarded the rights to all of Washington, Jr's CTI masters to Motown as compensation for what they were owed by CTI. It wouldn't surprise me given the acrimonious circumstances that if, in the handover of assets from CTI to Motown, they weren't entirely forthright about how many tapes they held - obviously they'd have to hand over the stereo masters and multitracks, but I doubt (m)any people would be asking about quad masters in 1978 or 1979. It's equally possible that the quad tapes were junked at some point before the handover to save storage costs since CTI was teetering on the brink of collapse and the format was considered dead by that point. There's also the remote possibility that the quad masters were simply mislabelled, misfiled, or in unlabelled boxes and are just sitting somewhere waiting to be found, which could possibly never happen considering UMG holds north of three million tape assets across their various vaults.

In the meantime, Washington, Jr. had moved to Motown himself, and I think he recorded 2 or 3 albums for them before moving again to Elektra, where he recorded a bunch more albums (including Winelight, in 1980) before moving to Columbia in 1983 or so.

As far as I know, the Motown masters are somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard - I recall reading an older article that suggested they were in New Jersey or something, but that may have changed. I would presume that Washington, Jr's acquired CTI masters would probably be stored along with his Motown masters there. The fact that this new release contains the stereo mix from the master tapes suggests that the issue with the missing quad tapes isn't fire related.
 
DV have issued a few other CTI quad masters iirc right? The George Benson was a true master used, no?
 
I didn't work on the classical titles, so I don't have the information to hand, but it's been my experience that about 90% of the time, the engineer credited for the stereo mix also did the quad mix too. So if that's the case the credits would be as follows:

Stokowski / LSO - Beethoven: Symphony No.3 / Coriolan Overture (ARD1-0600) Engineer: Bob Auger
Stokowski / New Philharmonia - Brahms: Symphony No.4 / Academic Overture (ARD1-0719) Engineer: Anthony Salvatore
Stokowski / LSO - Mahler: Symphony No.2 'Resurrection' (ARD2-0852) Engineer: Anthony Salvatore

There are some credits for these guys in the quad engineers database if you want to see what else they've worked on - I suspect they're responsible for many more of the RCA quad mixes between them, we just haven't definitively confirmed it yet because the stereo and quad LP sleeves use the same credits. These new D-V releases will have quad engineering info if it's available, and so far with all the RCA releases it has been.

@humprof I just followed up on this and can confirm that Anthony Salvatore did the quad mixes of all three of these albums (Auger only acted as the recording engineer on Beethoven Symphony No.3) with producer Richard Mohr acting as the quad remix supervisor for all of them too.
 
Ordered just now:
Mott the Hoople • The Hoople, All the Young Dudes & Mott [SACD Hybrid Multi-Channel/Stereo]
LEONARD BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS STRAVINSKY • The Rite of Spring/Symphony of Psalms & POULENC • Gloria [SACD Hybrid Multi-Channel]
BOULEZ CONDUCTS BARTÓK • The Wooden Prince & Dance Suite [SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]
 
I don't know how I keep missing the day these are announced, but I am very happy to see more popular and classical remasters from Dutton for this month!

I ordered what I could. The only shocker is that I skipped Burton Cummings, because his solo stuff generally sounds a bit too soft for me, to the point that his version of "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" almost sounded like a parody, if I may be so arrogant! On the other hand, the BTO two-fer and the Mott the Hoople three-fer (!) are close enough to what I like.I sampled some of Soul Box and I want to hear that in quad, so it was an easy addition.

Since I wanted to buy more than two or three, I "threw in" the Stokowski Mahler 2, which should, if my sums are correct, be over 80 minutes in length, despite somehow being a single disc this time and still only £11.99!. Opinions on it seem slightly divided, as Stokowski would have been 92 when it was recorded in July/August 1974, but most say it is excellent, and Stokowski of course has the distinction of being Mahler's contemporary and conducting the American premiere of his Eighth Symphony in 1916 (less than five years after the composer died), so I'm curious to hear this late version of Mahler's Second from him. The back cover says that the quad mix was done in 1975 as a "remix" which is a little curious, as I'd thought it was recorded for quad originally. I'm also unclear on if the stereo LP was released earlier in 1975 and then the quad mix was done and released later that same year, or if the stereo and quad releases were brought out at the same time.

Anyway, I was looking into the recording and I found an interesting review of it from the original CD box set put out by BMG in 1997:

For some reason, Jack Pfeiffer was keen on getting this recording out. In conversations we had he said, "Well, we've got to get out the Mahler 2." In fact, the digital masters for this were ready years ago, as I knew from our conversations...Well, this is what Jack wanted. In fact, he and I talked often about issuing a Stokowski Stereo Edition, but he had to convince "them" that it would sell. Anyway, here it is.

There is a lengthy story behind this recording. It is a wonder that it got finished at all. Stokowski was ill during the recording process and had to cancel several sessions. What we hear in this recording was the result of patching together various takes. It is amazing that the thing sounds as a whole, and God does it!!

My first experience with this piece was this recording. You will not hear Bernstein's Freudian/Jewish anguish in Stokowski's interpretation. Much as I like Bernstein's way with Mahler, Mahler's sound world is not confined to one way. In Stokowski's hands you can hear a symphony embracing the world, with all the tragedy and absurdity that is in it. The close of the second movement is ethereal. The third has all the absurdity you could want. The sound on this transfer may be the best of the lot (having only sampled the rest so far). The strings have a feathery quality when needed, the detail is amazing (the surround/quad aspect??) and yet it is all very warm. You know, I just glanced at my notes and there's so much here in this music and this recording and this interpretation that just astounds me. I can hear why Gilbert Kaplan was reduced to tears when hearing this symphony for the first time (with Stokowski conducting). Now I know why Jack was so keen on getting this out.

A few final comments reporting on this experience. Listening tonight (the 14th of March, 1997) it is like a first time. I have been close to tears many times. You really ought to hear this. I am now listening to this symphony for the second time tonight. If these discs ever become available separately you better make sure you add this set to your collection. If not, I'll have to send a big gorilla to your home and have it rip out your phone and beat your stereo equipment with it.
 
I ordered what I could. The only shocker is that I skipped Burton Cummings, because his solo stuff generally sounds a bit too soft for me, to the point that his version of "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" almost sounded like a parody, if I may be so arrogant!
Not a shocker at all really.
 
Ordered yesterday

Grover Washington, Jr. • Soul Box
PIERRE BOULEZ CONDUCTS RAVEL • Daphnis et Chloé & STRAVINSKY • The Song of the Nightingale
 
Thank you McCrutchy for the Mahler review. I have the Dolby surround version which splits it across two discs (I hate that DV does that on their 3fers on 2 discs ) but it does include the exquisite Brahms 4th symphony which DV is pairing with the Stokowski Beethoven 3rd. Oops! Different Brahms work not his 4th.
It will be interesting to compare the quaddiness between the two editions.

Re the Brahms now I know where Rick Wakeman got his Cans and Brahms from that appears on the Fragile album.
 
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Thank you McCrutchy for the Mahler review. I have the Dolby surround version which splits it across two discs (I hate that DV does that on their 3fers on 2 discs ) but it does include the exquisite Brahms 4th symphony which DV is pairing with the Stokowski Beethoven 3rd.
It will be interesting to compare the quaddiness between the two editions.

Re the Brahms now I know where Rick Wakeman got his Cans and Brahms from that appears on the Fragile album.
The only Brahms being paired with the Beethoven is the Academic Festival Overture. Maybe we'll get the Brahms 4th Symphony in the next batch...
 
I don't know how I keep missing the day these are announced, but I am very happy to see more popular and classical remasters from Dutton for this month!

I ordered what I could. The only shocker is that I skipped Burton Cummings, because his solo stuff generally sounds a bit too soft for me, to the point that his version of "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" almost sounded like a parody, if I may be so arrogant! On the other hand, the BTO two-fer and the Mott the Hoople three-fer (!) are close enough to what I like.I sampled some of Soul Box and I want to hear that in quad, so it was an easy addition.

Since I wanted to buy more than two or three, I "threw in" the Stokowski Mahler 2, which should, if my sums are correct, be over 80 minutes in length, despite somehow being a single disc this time and still only £11.99!. Opinions on it seem slightly divided, as Stokowski would have been 92 when it was recorded in July/August 1974, but most say it is excellent, and Stokowski of course has the distinction of being Mahler's contemporary and conducting the American premiere of his Eighth Symphony in 1916 (less than five years after the composer died), so I'm curious to hear this late version of Mahler's Second from him. The back cover says that the quad mix was done in 1975 as a "remix" which is a little curious, as I'd thought it was recorded for quad originally. I'm also unclear on if the stereo LP was released earlier in 1975 and then the quad mix was done and released later that same year, or if the stereo and quad releases were brought out at the same time.

Anyway, I was looking into the recording and I found an interesting review of it from the original CD box set put out by BMG in 1997:
As mentioned, I really like the Stokowski Mahler 2nd - I see it as being part of the same group with Bruno Walter's 1960 stereo recording and Otto Klemperer's 60s stereo version, separate from the recordings of others like Bernstein who were from the following generation. And Stokowski has the best sound of any of them. To my mind the Mahler 2nd really needs surround sound - it has enormous dynamic range and is enormous in scale. Mono is just insufficient and even stereo has limitations that are obvious when you get 3-dimensional picture from surround. Bernstein's recording is fantastic but it's about an individual and his angst. That's more relevant for later Mahler, but the Mahler 2nd was composed when he was still in good health and it's more an abstract romantic vision of a hero's death and resurrection. And the price is fantastic on one disc...hard to go too wrong.
 
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