Complete Recordings 1929-34 [Original recording remastered]

Charley Patton | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 24, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 5
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Jsp Records
• ASIN: B00006BIO0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,000 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #21 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Delta Blues

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Pony Blues

2. A Spoonful Blues

3. Down The Dirt Road Blues

4. Prayer Of Death: Part 1

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Hammer Blues: Take 1

2. I Shall Not Be Moved

3. High Water Everywhere: Part 1

4. High Water Everywhere: Part 2

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Some Of These Days I'll Be Gone

2. Elder Green Blues: Take 2

3. Jim Lee: Part 1

4. Jim Lee: Part 2

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. Some Summer Day

2. Bird Nest Bound

3. Future Blues - Willie Brown

4. M & O Blues - Willie Brown

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 5

1. Dry Well Blues

2. Moon Going Down

3. We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun - Delta Big Four

4. Moaner, Let's Go Down In The Valley - Delta Big Four

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding value; good remastering, February 21, 2003

By 

man from massachusetts (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Recordings 1929-34 (Audio CD)

For anyone who wants Patton's complete recorded works, but who doesn't want to spend half a paycheck on the Revenant Box Set, this 5 disc JSP collection is an unbelievable value. I was flabbergasted when I discovered it online the other day; I couldn't believe it was so cheap. It contains everything on the Revenant set except the interviews and the bonus disc of music by Patton's contemporaries. It does, however, contain Son House's overpowering 1930 recordings (everytime I listen to them my stomach drops). What else is there to say? This is glorious, intense, and important music.

The remastering is very good, but not without its drawbacks. I love JSP's Django Reinhardt and Louis Armstrong remasterings. The Patton recordings here have the same full, glowing sound (with more hiss and crackle, of course, because of the atrocious quality of the original Paramount 78s). Patton's voice is remarkably intense; one can gain a sense of what a powerful instrument it must have been live. Turn up the volume, and it will hit you in your gut. You can literally feel his throat's rough vibrations, his subtle bending of pitch. The slide guitar pieces ("Oh Death" and "Spoonful," for example) come through quite well. They are deep and resonant.

At the same time, as with every remastering of old 78s, something is lost in the transfer. These remasterings seem vacuum-packed, as if all the all the air in the room had been sucked out. Patton's voice is brought forward, but as a result, some of his guitar work seems muffled. It is as if the remastering aimed to simulate a modern recording studio, allowing only sound from the the guitar and voice to come through. This eliminates one of the best aspects of 78s: their open, echoing sound. (This problem, however, is not nearly as bad as on the Catfish reissue.)

Compare this with the Yazoo reissues (my favorites). There is more surface noise on the Yazoo albums, but this also allows more room for the sound to breathe. One can hear the full range of the sound. There is also a more vivid, lifelike tone on the Yazoo Patton, even if he seems a little distant at times. It is easier hear the wistful echoes that Patton built into his work. By contrast, the JSP recordings are much more intense; Patton's growl is right at the surface. In short, the intensity of Patton's voice on JSP is a revelation, but the set does not convey the full, sparkling range of sound found on Yazoo.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Turnip Gives Blood!, October 1, 2002

By 

R. R. Stewart (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Recordings 1929-34 (Audio CD)

JSP has always come through in the realm of remastering essential
music from the pre-war era. This fact had me champing at the bit when I saw that they were preparing a release of The Complete Charley Patton. This set contains essentially the same music as is found on the first five discs of the Revenant Set.
All songs recorded that Cholly appears on are found in this set. The BIG difference is that "The Masked Marvel"(probably John R.T. Davies or Ted Kendall) has finally done justice remastering the existing records and has succeeded in squeezing blood from the turnip that is known as Paramount Records.(infamous for manufacturing records that sounded like sandpaper when they were brand new!) At first I was very skeptical but after listening to just a few tracks my jaw dropped. None of the ear bleeding stridency of the Revenant masters and none of that blanket over the speakers masking that I heard on the Catfish Box. The music is alive and Cholly's voice is PRESENT. Obviously, there is no cure for the physical damage that is found on some of these relics but on the remaining sides there is pure enjoyment. Along with the best Patton remastering yet, you'll get to hear Son House, Louise Johnson, and Willie Brown's historic contributions to the legendary 1930 Paramount sessions at their best too. I can't stop raving. Enjoy!!!!

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How is the sound quality on JSP versus other choices?, May 15, 2010

By 

Mr. Get Real (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Recordings 1929-34 (Audio CD)

Unlike all the other reviewers I have actually made real time A-B sound comparisons between five different sets of Charlie Patton CDs.... and yes, I actually do own the Revenant set. Below are the results from my review of Yazoo, Revenant, Document, Catfish and JSP. I was primarily interested in a realistic soundstage and natural realistic vocals and guitar. I compared several tracks from each of these sets to each other by hooking up two CD players and switching back and forth in real time as the CDs were playing the same track from two different labels. After about seven or eight tracks a definite and consistent pattern emerged....

Below are my comments on the various Charlie Patton CD sets. Again, my primary concern is for natural sound quality - noise reduction was secondary to that goal:

The two latest Yazoo CDs are the best of the lot - I am speaking of the Yazoos that came out most recently - "Best of Charlie Patton" and "Primeval Blues, Rags, and Gospel Songs". I am NOT referring to the earlier Yazoo CDs that were replaced by these latest remasters, nor am I referring to any of the really old Yazoo LP issues. These newest Yazoo CDs retain the natural sound of Charlie's vocals and guitar far better than any other collection that I have reviewed here. Yes, some noise and hiss is still there, but it's a more than reasonable trade off - you get some noise, but you also get ALL the music - Charlie is in the room with you. In any direct A-B comparison the latest Yazoos are tough to beat - yes, they really are that good. This is really all you need to know... you can stop reading now.

The expensive Revenant box set - on Revenant the vocals have a slightly sharper edge to them which will often be perceived as "harsher" versus the Yazoo - but, this could come down to personal preference - I just happen to like the vocal EQ on Yazoo a lot better. The Revenant set also has the most noise and hiss out of all the sets I am reviewing here - even so, if you did not have the newer Yazoos to compare to, this Revenant set would sound pretty darned good in terms of natural sounding vocals, guitar and soundstage. You get all the music here, but a lot of noise as well.

The older Document CD set - surprisingly, they did a pretty good job on this way back when (early 90's?). The vocals and guitar on Document retain a very natural sound and for some tracks might be preferred to the Revenant set. This is because the Document vocals sound mellow without the slightly strident sound of sharper vocals that is often a characteristic found on the Revenant set. Document rolled off the highs slightly resulting in far less high end hiss than is found on either Revenant or Yazoo. You still get all the music on Document, but with slightly duller vocals - not quite as sharp sounding as Revenant or Yazoo, but some might say it's also easier on the ears. I should warn you that the Document set does retain a lot more of the mid-range centered crackle and pop that the other labels have managed to tone down. The bottom line is that the newer Yazoos flat out just sound better than the Document set, but Document does benefit from somewhat lower high-end noise and hiss than Yazoo.

Catfish and JSP - if you just want lower "noise" regardless of the consequences, then these might possibly appeal to you, but you should be aware that you are giving up a lot for a little noise reduction. The main problem is that both Catfish and JSP came out before the newer Yazoos were issued. At the time, the noise reduction offered by Catfish and JSP seemed like a reasonable trade-off; Catfish and JSP were ok in their time, but now are hopelessly outclassed by the latest Yazoo CDs. In any case, for Catfish and JSP as more noise reduction and compression is applied the more the "air" around the soundstage fades away, the vocals become slightly harsher and harder sounding, and the guitar can lose room resonance and begin to sound like a dull piano - quite simply, when overdone, all of the life is drained out of the recording - yuk! Why do you think Yazoo never tries to get rid of ALL the noise? Yazoo just does a superior job in pulling out natural sound with, not the most, but the most reasonable application of noise reduction.

Catfish often sounds extremely boxy and constricted in comparison to Yazoo, Revenant or even Document; but I will grant that Catfish does have the least amount of hiss and surface noise out of all the sets reviewed here. Catfish in particular will come in handy on the extremely noisy tracks that Yazoo did not issue - eleven in all. For those eleven, bottom of the barrel, tracks - and they really do sound like sandpaper! - just about ANY noise reduction is going to be preferred to none at all.

And for JSP, it's obvious they started with the Revenant set as their source material and then selectively applied noise reduction (or not) to various tracks.... so, essentially what you are getting with JSP is the Revenant set with more noise reduction. Revenant certainly has the most noise and hiss of all the sets here, so it's not an unreasonable approach for JSP to tackle that. Occasionally the JSP track seems indistinguishable from the same Revenant cut, but most of the time JSP has layered on additional noise reduction - it just depends on which track you listen to. For example, compare "Dry Well Blues" or "Moon Going Down" on JSP versus Revenant and you will note just a very slight reduction in noise, but also correspondingly slightly less "air" around the music on JSP - those tracks sound ever so slightly fuller to me on Revenant and the addition noise reduction offered by JSP hardly seems worth it. So, could the less expensive JSP set could be viewed a sort of poor man's bargain versus the expensive Revenant set? - it really depends on your perspective. My personal take on this is that you are better off with the Revenant set and then YOU DECIDE how much you want to turn down the treble, if at all! - that is really all JSP has really done anyway. With JSP you do get all the additional non-Patton tracks that Revenant originally issued. Both Revenant and JSP give you a lot more songs than any of the other sets reviewed here.

In conclusion, my advice is to get the latest Yazoo CDs as those are simply head and shoulders above all the rest of these Patton sets - however, just remember that if you only had one of any of these various box sets and could not make comparisons to any of the others your ears would quickly adapt and you would likely be happy with what you had.

So, there you have it.