[mfsoa]

I was wondering if anyone else has this CD. I've been a fan of his playing and style of music for a long time. I saw his trio at Farleigh Dickinson U and it was fantastic - The first number was so hot+fiery, the entire audience literally leaped to their feet in wild applause. This was after the first 5 min song! You wouldn't think that a plain ole' jazz trio could do this, but such was the mastery...

Anyway, I got this Telarc release and while the music and playing are first rate, the sonics just sound weird to me.

From the very first handclaps - I mean the first second of sound that came out - I thought "Dull dull dull". Boring, uninvolving sound. Wet blanket city. The music is great, though.

The handclaps and following music have no life to the point that, strange as it seems, my attention is grabbed and focused on the dull sound in a negative way in the same way that a great recording grabs our attention in a positive way.

I find my system to be pretty well balanced in that I can find source material that is too foreward and others that are the opposite. I would not describe any of my other Camilo discs as being dull like this one.

I'd be curious to hear what others think about this CD. My wife agrees with my thoughts re this, and she's got good ears.

Is Telarc trying to make it sound "different", in order to somehow promote DSD? Is this typical of DSD? Is it "right" and I'm just used to "wrong"?

Which leads me to a possible new Circle within the Music Circle - Might it be beneficial the have an area devoted to specific sound quality comments/concerns such as my question above? Or things like "At X:XX minutes in Light as a Feather, do you guys feel that there is too much treble energy" Or "At X:XX in XYZ recording, I'm hearing sounds clearly from outside my L speaker" etc. Maybe over time we could use info like this to try to better understand our own systems. "Hmmm, everyone thinks that the separation of the instruments on this recording is superb, but I hear them as a mushy ball, maybe I need to work on..."

Just a thought.

Any comments on MC at the BN are appreciated.

Thanks

-Mike

[slinco]

Hi Mike -
I'm jealous that you've seen him live, hopefully I'll get too someday.

I have that Telarc disc, and I agree with you it's not the best live recording. Sounds a bit muffled - a very "back of the hall" type of sound. The bass in particular sounds like it was miked too far away. I've listened to both the CD layer and the SACD (two channel) layer, and they're both the same. I get the feeling they were going for a less "close miked" sound, more of a "big room" sound, and it didn't work very well.

Apart from the miking issues, I don't have too many other pure DSD discs, but the ones I have all seem to have a "soft" quality to the sound. It's definitely preferable to "harsh", but it's not ideal either. I've got plenty of plain old redbook CD's that sound better than a lot of the DSD stuff I've heard.

Having said all that, Live at the Blue Note is a very enjoyable disc. After a few songs my brain adjusts to the sound and and I just get into it....

Steve