Customer Reviews

Boogie Woogie & Barrelhouse 1 1928-1930

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this to get the classic version of "Pine Top Blues" by Pine Top Smith. The other artists on this compilation (Charles Avery, Freddie Nicholson, Jabo Williams) were also top-drawer artists from this period of piano players (late 1920's).

The problem is that you are going to have difficulty hearing them. This is one of the worst-sounding CD's I have ever listened to and for that reason it gets 1 star. It sounds as if the mastering was done to get rid of the surface noise on the 78's (or from whatever sources it was dubbed). The vocals & piano sound like there was a pillow over the microphone in the recording studio. (I believe the tracks here were electrically recorded).

For this reason, you likely won't want to buy this CD. Look elsewhere for these titles; they may be available on another label where better copies were used for the mastering, or intrusive noise-reduction techniques were not employed.

Also, my copy came with the insert sleeve cover showing a photograph of people hanging around a piano watching a couple dance. The advertised version on the Amazon site shows a nifty shot of Jabo Williams wearing his wide-brimmed fedora and a big grin.

One star only because of the talent presented on this disc, otherwise I would have rated it as zero.