Customer Reviews

Bunk Johnson Live at Stuyves

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... the other gentleman who reviewed this cd is actually dead on, great music but bad sound quality (and the record label that put out this cd, document, warns you on the liner notes as well BTW). however, these are the second to last recordings of bunk, and in some cases, show him to be near his prime. these recordings were made live (by harold drob) in november 1947 at the stuyvesant casino to give an idea for the quality of bunk's band. harold later recorded bunk and this band (save for sammy price, who was replaced by don kirpatrick) for three sessions in december 1947(the ones that ended up on the columbia lp, now on the delmark cd). bunk is in good form, i can understand that he preferred to play to dancers and it shows here. though "please" has transfer problems (why did they not employ the late john r t davies to save the sound and to correct the speed pitch is beyond me, but i am happy that this exists at all), to hear bunk playing such a song gives us a more complete picture of the late great man's music. i believe this band is actually closer to the music he was playing in the later 20's and 30's when he was in the banner band than the recordings made in the earlier 40's (though both the american music and jazz information records are desert island music to me). this is timeless music, they are NOT trying to recapture anything here, just playing MUSIC to make the dancers and partiers here happy. the band is very good, with sammy price on the keys, bunk has an equal great to work with, and it shows (bunk liked great piano players and sammy was one of the best), and both garvin bushell and danny barker are excellent choices for any band (bushell is actually near top form here, judge him on his 40's to 60's work with rex stewart, bunk johnson and wilbur deparis, forget the early 20's recordings he made, garvin would not want to even listen to the records he made before 1928), and i am very pleased that i purchased this cd, but like the other gentleman i warn you as well, if you are a man who needs bunk's every breathing note OR if you (like me) can listen to great music in bad fidelity, buy it and enjoy, if you cannot take bad transfers take john courtade's advice, the choice is yours, all the best, yves francois (a self confessed - and proud to be - bunk johnson fanatic)

It's difficult to believe that a session recorded in 1947 could have sound this bad. It's sounds worse than something from 1920 lifted off someone's old acetates. There are a lot of great Bunk Johnson recordings and no reason to buy this one unless you are a compulsive completist.