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June 21, 2009:

CAST ALBUMS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I thought I might pontificate on the recording of cast albums. Once upon a time there was a man named Goddard Lieberson and Goddard Lieberson set a very high bar in the recording of cast albums. He was, in fact, a bit of a genius and the best there was and probably ever will be. His successors at Columbia were okay, and even though I don’t think they ever quite reached his heights, they at least learned from the master and behaved like real record producers, and put thought into what they were doing. RCA’s producers and engineers were very sloppy and those recordings frequently had distortion and careless production, although a few of them escaped unscathed. Capitol’s producers were very good and those are wonderful sounding albums. When I began producing cast albums, I wanted them to have the feel of the classic Columbia albums, while still adding a bit of my personal tastes. My longtime engineer Vinne and I did things a little differently, and, while I don’t really need to go into detail, suffice it to say that soon every other label began doing exactly what we were doing in the studio and, of course, acting as if they’d come up with the idea (what else is new). I remember when we came up with a great idea to circumvent the pain and suffering and lost time that comes with trying to get headphone mixes for cast and orchestra – you wouldn’t believe the horror stories on some albums, my own and others. I remember Billy Rosenfield of BMG calling me and telling me that on the Chicago revival cast album they didn’t get a take until after noon because of headphone problems. That’s an entire three-hour session wasted. Well, word soon got out about our solution (the first album we did with our new solution was the revival of Bells Are Ringing – the headphone mix problem was solved and we had a take of the overture by 9:10 and I wrapped the session by eight, unheard of on an album and cast of that size), and soon everyone was doing what we’d one – and, of course, acting like they’d come up with the idea. In any case, I love doing cast albums – in one way they are sheer hell because of the time constraints, pressure, and cost, but I love the process of taking a show and making it work as a listening experience. It’s not as easy as you might think and I spend a lot of time figuring it out. I say all this because yesterday I heard the revival cast album of West Side Story. I had no love for the production so I didn’t expect to love it, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be a poorly produced, poor-sounding CD. Obviously, my feelings and opinions are mine own, but I’m not criticizing this because I would have done it better, but because it simply shocked me to hear it. There’s simply no thought behind anything. Not the dialogue choices, not the way in which it’s recorded and certainly not the way in which it’s mixed. If someone tells you there was thought, question their sanity. The bottom line is, how do you make West Side Story, a show with one of the most dynamic-sounding scores in history, sound dull and lifeless? First off, you record at Clinton Studios, maybe the worst place to do a big cast album, because the band and singers must be in the same room or, if you’re isolating one or two singers, those singers go into a very tiny booth. I’ve recorded many things at Clinton, but nothing with over ten instruments, and Vinnie became expert at baffling the space between band and singers. Our bigger cast albums were done in studios where we had total control. So, for example, the West Side Story orchestra, which is not small, sounds small and tinny, with no detail or separation – just an ambient muddle that sounds as if the microphones were across the room. And then there’s the sound of the singers – I’ve actually never heard a worse mix between the sound of the vocals, which are completely dry, small, and ugly sounding, and the band, which at least has ambient space around them. The singers sound like they’re three blocks away from the band. You can barely hear the dialogue at all, although that could have been helped by better mastering – here, with the mastering the way it is, the soft bits are too soft and if you turn your volume up then the loud bits are too loud – that’s just inept mastering. The sound of the singers does none of them any favors. Adding some clean, spacious reverb to them would have done wonders. I was so bothered by this album that to make sure I wasn’t nuts, I went and put on the original Broadway cast album. And guess what? It blew the current recording out of the water in every possible way. It was vibrant, alive, and sounded like a theater recording. And with none of the fancy-shmancy recording techniques they have today. The band sounds electric and alive, and the singers have real theater voices and they, too, sound alive and vibrant. As I said when I saw the revival, I am no fan of its musical director, and some of the rearrangements of Mr. Bernstein’s brilliant score are shameful and disgusting. The gentleman who produced the new recording (there are two producers listed – David Caddick, and the Sony A&R guy, David Lai) need to listen to some classic cast albums and figure out why those sound amazing. I’ve heard other albums by these guys and they all sound the same. Goddard Lieberson was a visionary and did amazing work that holds up brilliantly today – listen to the original pressing of Gypsy (you know, before Mr. Thomas Z. Shepard decided to “fix” Mr. Lieberson’s brilliance – talk about chutzpah) – you won’t hear a better sounding cast album than Gypsy. Listen to Subways Are For Sleeping, West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie – then listen to the new recording of West Side Story. I know there will be some yokel somewhere who’ll say this is sour grapes, but those who know me will know better – those who know me know I stand up and cheer to the high heavens when I hear a beautifully recorded album. I have, in fact, been known to write and/or call record producers to praise them to the skies. But when I hear something this poor, it just irks me no end and there’s just no excuse for it.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must try and get a wonderful night’s sleep, since the workers are off and I can hopefully sleep in.

Otherwise, yesterday was a perfectly pleasant day, filled with perfectly pleasant things. It was a little drizzly when I woke up, so that precluded me from doing the long or even the short jog. She of the Evil Eye arrived at nine and I did my morning ablutions and then drove about in my motor car, doing some errands and whatnot, having a spot of lunch at my favorite barbecue jernt, and then doing a few little bits of work in the home environment. I then watched two count them two motion pictures on Blu-Ray. The first motion picture on Blu-Ray was entitled Revolutionary Road, a drearier than dreary motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. I found the characters completely irritating, and I found the whole affair tedious. The film is certainly competent, and the acting is okay, but at two-hours it taxed my patience, and my patience is tired of being taxed. No taxation without representation, that’s what my patience says. And to add to the irritating characters and script, the score by Thomas Newman was a major irritant. The Blu-Ray is okay. I then watched a motion picture entitled Indecent Proposal, starring Miss Demi Moore, Mr. Woody Harrelson, and Mr. Robert Redford. It’s a really weird sort of off-putting movie, with a pretty bad script. But I can watch Mr. Redford in almost anything and enjoy him, and he’s terrific in this. I’m afraid there are no actors today who have that kind of star presence – it’s just gone and done with. He has a FACE, and, more importantly, he doesn’t whisper his lines – he has a beautiful VOICE and he knows how to use it. The Blu-Ray looks pretty good. The film also has a pretty John Barry score.

Today, I shall try to sleep in, I shall try to do the long jog, I shall begin writing liner notes, and I shall watch motion pictures on Blu-Ray. I shall also celebrate a little day I like to call Father’s Day, as I am an actual father to the darling daughter Jennifer. And a happy haineshisway.com Father’s Day to all other fathers out there in the dark.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, write liner notes, and watch motion pictures and listen to CDs. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I go play a few Goddard Lieberson cast albums.

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