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Re-Assessing RVG

Sorry. This is not another Beatles thread.

A while ago I put up two posts about Rudy Van Gelder’s CDs, ‘RVG: Genius or Just Lucky’ and ‘Beating the RVG Horse’, suggesting that his recordings are really over-rated. Listening to the newer CD reissues is frustrating, with such high quality performances and such mediocre engineering. His catalog of music is astounding, including most of the Blue Note, Prestige, and Impulse recordings of the 1950’s and 60’s.

First, let me start out by saying that you can’t turn Van Gelder recordings into miracle CDs. The piano still sounds like an upright recorded on its side in a closet, and the stereo recordings often have a very hard-panned left/right effect with the instruments. They rarely sound particularly natural. They are what they are. There are better jazz recordings from the era, notably IMHO the Contemporary Label.

However, I recently made some changes to my system that had a significant positive impact on the sound of these recording and I thought I’d share the results. First I swapped out my CD player and cables from a Jolida JD100 to a Cambridge 840C, and from Audioquest Copperheads to Nordost Blue Heavens. The clarity of the recordings improved immensely.

The final change though was the most significant. I adjusted my speaker position of my Spendor S8es so that instead of having them toed in directly at my seat, they are now on a crossing axis about four feet IN FRONT of my chair. The effects was not at all subtle. Scale, both width and height actually grew, maybe not in absolute width, but certainly in presenting a more natural soundstage. On recordings with hard-panned stereo imaging the effect was reduced. Stage Depth, not something Rotel components are good at, also improved.

Suddenly recordings like Bobby Hutcherson’s Stick Up, and Wayne Shorter’s Adams Apple sound really good. Not like the best audiophile recordings, but very nice indeed. A few of them still suffer from bad CD glare: The Ultimate Blue Train is really bright (and smoked by the 45RPM vinyl on every level) and A Love Supreme, while presenting a better image is also harsh sounding. Donald Byrd’s Byrd in the Hand is really good. Horns and cymbals sound great. That piano is hopeless on virtually every recording. Can you imagine recording Duke Ellington and NOT making the piano sound great?

I’ve really been enjoying these RVG recordings. There are a few clunkers, but for the most part they’ve become a staple in my listening rotation. Not nearly as bad as I thought they were.
grimace

Showing 1 response by jazzcourier

jazzcourier
205 posts
 
There is an inherent imbalance on all the Van Gelder stereo Blue Note recordings.This is by microphone set up during recording.By creating the "Blue Note" sound the same set up was used on almost all the sessions.In the "mix" the piano ends up in the center of the recording on virtually all sessions,the horns (say a trumpet and a saxophone) each share a separate channel with the bass on the left and the drums on the right.You have a nice balanced sound during ensemble passages and when the trumpet solos-you hear the trumpet on the left channel and the drums on the right,then the saxophone solos and the left channel drops out and creates a gaping imbalance.This is repeated over and over again by Van Gelder.Just listen to a mono BlueNote vs. a stereo and it will sound like a different record.
I am not criticizing Rudy,it is what it is.Other recordings by him for other labels at the time tend to favor a different set up,and listen to any Van Gelder session over the last 20 years and the recordings are balanced and very good.These classic,as we refer to them now,sessions were held in a few hours with a tight schedule and budget,little rehearsal and a "factory" like approach.It is a testimonial to the talent of the artists to have created something so lasting and important out of these circumstances.It was just the way it was done and the players knew how to deal with it and make the best of it.
Speaking with Maureen Sickler this past December in New York i addressed this microphone set up situation and the end result on record.Maureen has worked as Rudy's assistant on many sessions and her husband,trumpeter Don Sickler has recorded extensively at the Van Gelder studio.These classic Blue Note sessions were before her time but she knows the material well and replied "All those sessions were done so quickly and there just wasn't time" The magic on those records came together in 3 or 4 hour sessions and like some amazing burst of energy,imagination and artistry burned like a comet and then died out.What remains is a priceless legacy,continually re investigated, reborn with each generation,and with each rebirth the "need" to screw with the sound of the music.Please leave the music alone and enjoy it for what it is.We will not see it's likes again.
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