When Greatness Comes Knocking Around

This article was originally published in August 1998.

James Lee Stanley: Freelance Human Being
Beachwood Recordings BR2425-2 (CD)

Esteemed readers, what I'm about to say here is not hype, or exaggeration, or a manifestation of my admitted propensity to go a little overboard when talking about recordings I like. It's simply the truth:

This is one of the most incredible recordings I have ever heard, musically and sonically; one of the handful that combine sublime musicianship and superb sonics. This, my friends, is one of those ultra-rare recordings that stand at the pinnacle of the recording art, the kind of masterwork you only come across once every few years and every few thousand albums.

As is the case with many of the best things that happen to us in life, I was introduced to James Lee Stanley by serendipity, circumstance and luck. One of my co-workers is a fervent admirer of Stanley—who has recorded several albums and has been around for years—and knew of my status (such as it is) as a record reviewer. She told me how much she loved Stanley—whom I had never heard of—and suggested I might like to hear him. Naturally, I agreed—I am always open to new music and new artists, and it's a thrill for me to be turned on to great music I've never heard before, as I'm sure it is for all of you too (and probably one of the main reasons you're holding this magazine in your hands right now). Shortly thereafter, a copy of Stanley's newly-minted Freelance Human Being CD arrived in my mail, and shortly thereafter I put it in the player...

And very shortly thereafter-as in immediately-found myself agape in slack-jawed astonishment at what I was hearing: a man and his guitar singing songs of extraordinary beauty, depth and power, creating more musical substance and emotional profundity from just his pure, agile, expressive tenor voice and adept acoustic guitar picking than most artists are able to achieve using a full band, hundreds of takes and overdubs and a space shuttle's worth of studio devices, effects and tricks. This man is a great artist—his songs are finely-crafted and richly-textured, with immediately memorable melodies and thoughtful and thought-provoking lyrics, and his guitar playing is simply gorgeous, alternating between subtle finger picking, lush chording, stark simplicity and rhythmically-charged complexity and many and varied shades in between. The recording was made "live"—just Stanley singing and playing, no overdubs, punch-ins or jive—the real thing.

James Lee Stanley connects—his lyrics are direct and unambiguous, elegant and poetic, often starkly elucidating stark truths, as in "Somewhere In Between": "All you really had to do was talk to me/all you really had to do was let me know/that you thought we had a chance of making it/I would have never let you go/But we turned our heads/and left it all unsaid/and we let it slip away...in between the time 'hello' just fell in place/and the helpless was we said goodbye."

Every song is a brilliant gem—really, I struggle to select any standouts, as they are all so wonderful my favorites change with each listening, and each song could be a career-maker for any other artist. At this moment, my favorites are the wry "I Don't Want to Talk About It" ("Last time should have been the last time/I don't want to talk about it"), "Somewhere In Between," "Freeway Wine," and the breathtaking, utterly magnificent "When Love Comes Knockin' Around"—an instant classic, one of the most moving and powerful songs I've ever heard and a song that would be an instant classic if we were living in a more enlightened musical era. There's even a playful cover of Jefferson Airplane's venerable "Fat Angel" ("Fly Trans-Love Airways; gets you there on time").

The sound is also brilliant—amazingly clear and present, with that "you-are there" almost-tactile quality you almost never, truly, hear in even the best recordings. You hear it here—this recording puts nothing between you and Stanley's direct-to-tape performance. The frequency response is exceptional, with dynamic, articulate low end, a midrange that is as close to perfection as I've heard and a sweet, detailed upper midrange. The recording is so well-balanced you don't "hear" it—the purity, tonal balance and lack of compression is so good you simply listen to the music without focusing on any flaws. My description isn't doing it justice, I'm afraid—really, we're talking greatness here.

I had to call the label to find out how Freelance Human Being was recorded. Wouldn't you know it—Producer Peter Lit set up two matched AKG 1000E microphones in X-Y configuration, along with a Russian condenser mike called an Octava used as a room mike. Stanley's vocals were recorded using an AKG 414 tweaked by noted microphone rebuilder Steven Paul. In addition, Stanley ran his electric-acoustic guitar (an acoustic guitar with a built-in pickup) directly into the board to blend with the microphone sound on some tracks, and used some added echo and time-delay effects on a couple of cuts. According to Beachwood Recordings' Stephen Chandler, the album was recorded "live" as Stanley believes this is the only way to get that "special synergy" that is inevitably lost when vocals and guitar are tracked at different times. He's not the only one who believes it—what is captured here are stunning performances, not merely good "tracks."

Believe it: Freelance Human Being is a masterpiece in every respect. Truly, this is one of the all-time greats and one of the finest recordings I've ever been privileged to hear.

Special note to Star Trek: Voyager fans: James Lee Stanley often plays one of Odo's Bejoran security guards on the show. He has also played a variety of other roles, including the Singing Klingon in the show's 1997 season premiere.

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Last issue, I said I'd review the rest of the discs I picked up at the Hi-Fi '98 show. Well, I've left out a few—because I didn't like them. As I and others have said before, what good is well-recorded sound if you don't like the music?

Tubby Hayes and the All Stars: Tubby's Back in Town
Classic Compact Discs SRCD 6702

Once again, Classic Records shows impeccable taste in re-issues in bringing back this wonderful (and I'll bet obscure when first released) jazz release featuring British saxophonist/vibraphonist Tubby Hayes, along with fellow tenor men James Moody and Rashaan Roland Kirk (who also plays flute, clarinet, manzanello and stritch, sometimes three at a time!), and the rhythm section of Walter Bishop Jr. (piano), Sam Jones (bass) and Louis Hayes (drums). This is jazz at its finest—brilliant improvisation, extraordinary ensemble playing and musical empathy, harmonically complex and challenging chord substitutions and above all, it swings to make the Duke proud. If you don't dig this, you're dead.

The sound is lush and inviting, with that sweet, solid, airy and "effortless" early Sixties vacuum tube sound we know and love (and I've raved about so many times). Too much left-right separation between instruments as is pretty much the norm for recordings like this-the saxes are all in the left channel with just a bit of bleed into the right-but the music and the sound is so lovely you probably won't care. With a selection ranging from standards to Kirk and Sonny Still-penned originals, this is classic jazz through and through, straight, no chaser, top shelf.

Rebecca Pidgeon: Four Marys
Chesky Records JD 165 (CD)

Never review a record with preconceived notions. I didn't expect to like this, as what I've previously heard from Pidgeon (to be fair, not all her albums) I haven't liked—too mannered for my taste—and when I saw that she was performing an album of traditional Celtic and other songs here, my critical alarm bells went off. Well, more fool me—to my pleasant surprise, this album is wonderful! Pidgeon's voice is the perfect vehicle for these simply beautiful songs, soaring, pure and perfectly appropriate for this timeless music. She sounds not only comfortable with, but at one with the music, blending gracefully with the background singers and the traditional-sounding instrumentation of acoustic guitar, fiddle (in this context, it deserves to be called that, not a violin), uilleann pipes, cello, accordion, percussion and banjo.

Her voice, the all-acoustic, beautifully-played instrumentation and the stunning sound quality make this an audiophile and music lover's dream. Once again, Chesky has used St. Peter's Church in New York for the recording, and struck a near-perfect sonic balance in my opinion, with Pidgeon's voice up-front and the instruments well in the background-an artistic choice that complements the music well. Recorded using Chesky's 96 kHz/24-bit High Resolution Technology (and listened to on my conventional 44.1/16-bit player), the sound is among Chesky's best, which is to say among the best you'll hear, with exceptional clarity, resolution and rendition of ambient space and an equally exceptional tonal balance. A warm and inviting disc, somehow life-affirming too—nice to know such beauty exists in an often ugly world.

The Cars Greatest Hits
DCC Compact Classics LPZ-2056 (re-issue LP)
Elektra 9 660464-1-E (original LP)

The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975
DCC Compact Classics LPZ-2051 (re-issue LP)
Asylum 7E-1052 (original LP)

Finally, I get a change to hear some DCC Steve-Hoffman-re-mastered recordings on 180-gram vinyl, and oh man, was it worth the wait. (Contrary to popular belief, I'm often the last, not the first, "name" reviewer to receive a review copy-good thing I'm relatively psychologically secure or I might get a complex!) In fact, I am shocked at how much better these two re-issues are compared to the originals—and believe me, I've heard plenty of re-issue vinyl in my not-so-short life. In particular, the re-issue of The Cars Greatest Hits is so much better than the original that the difference is actually comical, ludicrous. The Elektra original (itself a "best-of" compilation of various albums) is a bright, brittle thing, with some grain, dynamically and spatially flat and robbed of much of the power and punch of the music, some of the catchiest and well-produced rock ever. I mean, we're talking unforgettable radio fare the likes of "Just What I Needed," "Good Times Roll," "My Best Friend's Girl," "Drive" and "Shake It Up." (Hey, those that don't forget the past are doomed to wallow in it, but so what, it feels good—in fact, it feels better with each passing year.)

By comparison, the DCC re-issue is amazing, no, make that astounding. The tonal balance is warm and extended, with great bass weight and impact—which you gotta have to put the rock in rock and roll. The brittleness and grit of the original has been vaporized—the DCC is exceptionally clean and detailed. Depth has been restored—while most of the tracks aren't exactly panoramic, soundstage-wise, at least there is depth to be heard now, along with dynamics and punch—the rhythm guitars sound chunky and forceful, the bass and drums pound and the synths cut through the mix with clarity and sizzle (that's a good thing). In fact, the most significant improvement is that the instrumental sounds now have tremendous body, weight and presence, seeming almost like physical entities sculpted in aural virtual space. And Elliot Easton's lead guitar solos and tones are intense, concise, powerful and perfectly crafted—this man is one of the most underrated guitarists in rock. Whoa—put this sucker on and it's party time!

A similar transformation has been wrought for The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 album. Although the original is much better sonically than the Cars LP, fairly respectable although severely dynamically constricted, it's DCC counterpart blows it away, with a far greater sense of openness and presence.

In fact, listening to these re-issues is alternately thrilling and depressing-thrilling because its a rush to hear the music sounding so much better, and so much closer to the way the master tapes must sound—but it's also a bummer when you stop to think about how much better hundreds of your favorite albums might actually sound if they were re-mastered with care and attention. Hey Steve, Chad, Mike, Ying and all the rest of you, I've got a few suggestions....

(Note: Once again, a disclaimer. The Cars LP was cut using VAC Renaissance One-Forty amplifiers as cutter amplifiers. I have a professional relationship with VAC, but believe me, I'm not writing this because I want to slip in a plug for the company—I'm writing this because the re-issue is fabulous. Play it and you'll hear what I mean.)

Hubert Sumlin: I Know You
Analogue Productions Originals APO 2004 (LP)

Jimmy D. Lane: Legacy
Analogue Productions Originals APO 2005 (LP)

Based on the evidence of these two albums (and a number of other releases over the last few years), it looks like Acoustic Sounds' Chad Kassem is on his way to becoming a true patron of the blues, and Joe Harley is on his way to becoming one of the music's greatest modern-day producers. Both discs were recorded direct to two-track by Michael C. Ross at Chicago Recording Company, home of many classic blues recordings, and both feature hot guitarists accompanied by veteran blues players.

Hubert Sumlin needs no introduction to blues aficionados—he's the man who played that stinging lead guitar on many of Howlin' Wolf's legendary sides, and inspired more than one generation of blues guitarists. He's in fine form here, singing a selection of classics and originals with a rough (but good) voice and guitar solos that jab and weave with a fat, ragged tone. Sumlin takes chances with his playing—sometimes he goes off on weird tangents, all the more musically exciting for their unexpectedness; even the "wrong" notes sound right, oh yeah.

Jimmy D. Lane is an up-and-coming musician steeped in the roots of the music—his father was noted bluesman Jimmy Rogers. While Lane's music and playing has more of a rock/contemporary flavor and energy level to it, make no mistake—this is the blues he's playing here, singing with passion and conviction and playing guitar with string-bending, soul-shaking intensity. Lane uses that "moaning" Stratocaster sound to great effect, wailing and soaring through the material and sounding a hell of a lot more convincing than so many other by-the-numbers guitarists with Strats and stolen licks.

Oh yeah-both albums sound great. There's nothing like a band cutting it live to get the feel, and there's nothing like cutting it live to get that sense of "captured as it happened" sonic realism. The (multi-miked) sound is open, wideband, pristine, ultra-detailed, well-balanced and exceptionally natural-sounding-no surprise considering the fact that they were recorded direct to two track analog using audiophile-grade microphones, cables and recording equipment throughout, mastered at the superb AcousTech facility and pressed at Record Technology, Inc. And to think they were saying vinyl was dead just a few short years ago.