recordings

[Mattflight <Mattflight...>]

    From someone who listens to way to many records, I think that the second 
Perlman recording is the better one. The space adds so much to that recording 
that it has a feeling that is more realistic, it has more energy. Live albums 
have more energy because the musicians have been playing take after take of 
the same tune. Your first couple of takes in a studio will be the freshest, 
live album will for the most part have this freshness. For those of you that 
have had the pleasure of listening to Acetate recordings know this feeling, 
it is directly from the artist to the end result. This is the same thing at a 
concert.
    Now this isn't always true, some bands you go hear live and say that they 
weren't as good as the album. At least my experience in playing and seeing 
Jewish acts live is that they are better live than in the studio. Their is an 
energy level that can get lost in the studio.  I don't know how many of you 
saw the documentary on "Q"uincy Jones on PBS a couple of months ago. He was 
recording a big band album in two days, and for the last part of the second 
day they bring in a live studio audience, you can hear the way the musicians 
change how they play.  Their isn't this feeling that if I make a mistake we 
can go back and make another mistake, or that just the guys will know about 
it. You have an audience that you have to play for. 
    I could go on, but I think that the send button needs to be hit at this 
point.



Matt Temkin - Mattflight (at) aol(dot)com
    Assistant Archivist; Klezmer Conservatory Foundation
    Jewish Music Percussionist

PS. "Q" produced at least one album of Jewish Music, "Terry Gibbs Plays 
Jewish Melodies in Jazztime," Mercury MG 20812.

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