This new release
by Sensation is first class all the way. John R. T. Davies did a
first class job of doing the transfers. I don't know if these were
new old transfers that he had done before or new ones that he just did
but he has really mastered the transfer of these old discs. I know
Preston mentioned that he supplied some of the discs for this CD so I assume
that many of the transfers are new. With the nice transfers, you
can begin to hear the musicians much more clearly, even some of the
mis-cues that made their way through the takes. The liner notes are
mercifully done
on first
class photo paper that will protect it from rabid Annette fans. The
liner notes are
done by the
noted and respected author "Uncle Will". And to add a bit of controversy
Jeff
took the
liberty of re-analyzing the different takes. Long published
recording dates have
been changed
to fit into a more likely scenario and Jeff spells it out in his liner
notes by
saying that
he let his ears be the judge. What I did here is list all the takes
by the old published dates to give the Annette fan a comparison to Jeff's
lineup. One of the most striking differences
in one of
the songs is "If I Can't Have You". The old publication date was
October 31, 1929. However,
when you
listen to take D, the cuts are so, so different that Jeff moved it up to
the October 19
recording
date as they seem to fit better. Part of the controversy here is
that "If I Can't Have
You" was
recorded on October 19, 1929 but "rejected". That would have been
take A. Then
it was recorded
as takes B and C and D on October 31, 1929. What Jeff thinks happened,
I think,
is that the cut we hear on this CD is take B made on the October 19th date,
not on
October 31.
Who Knows? Take C is evidently still missing.
Also, one
nice new thing is that cuts that were never heretofore even listed as available
are
showing up.
An example would be "He's So Unusual" take 2 is not even listed in earlier
references.
Also, with
"I think You'll Like It" we are able to listen to both cuts 2 and 3.
Earlier references only
note take
3 as being in existence.
This album
covers a lot of territory. Some of these cuts were widely recorded
by other
artists such
as: Bing Crosby, Lee Morse, Helen Kane, Janet Gaynor, Helen Morgan,
and Ben Selvin. On the individual cuts I will provide reviews of
the songs along with other artists that recorded them.
One final
note: each of the links to the songs will take you to the
jazzpromo.com
site. There you will be able to sample about a minute and a half
of the song.
If you would like to go directly to the jazzpromo.com
directly simply click on
the link
above.