Herman's Heat & Puente's Beat [Original recording remastered]

Woody Herman & His Orchestra, Tito Puente, Herman/Puente | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 8, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Empire Musicwerks
• ASIN: B0007CYETO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,780 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Explosive rhythms, roaring horns, inventive arrangements-the big-band swing of Herman and the brilliant Latin beats of Puente came together on this 1958 classic. It's finally been restored to its original luster with all its tracks and liner notes intact; includes Balu; Blue Station; Pillar to Post; Midnight Sun , and more, plus six Woody Herman bonus cuts recorded the same year!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's About Time, February 9, 2005

By 

Southern Slim "A Music Lover" (Memphis, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herman's Heat & Puente's Beat (Audio CD)

Anybody who owned this original LP and the subsequent shoddy transfers on CD (if you can find them still) can now rest at ease. Finally someone has taken the original LP and released it exactly as it was - complete original Nat Hentoff liner notes - The real cover of the LP, and finally the real title!! But the best news here is the remastering job - An amazing recording to begin with, finally sounds amazing on CD. It's about time! SMOKIN' HOT !!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of Big Band Sound, December 29, 2008

By 

Buddy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herman's Heat & Puente's Beat (Audio CD)

This recording is the ultimate stereophonic recording of the Big Band sound. The sound of the Big Band does not come any better and natural sounding than this recording. All the players are great, in their prime, and were ready to play at the studio in Long Island City, New York. Most importantly and also as great are the arrangements by the late great Neal Hefti. It is a real important message within the sound project when Neal Hefti was involved.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Really a 5-star...however..., October 15, 2006

By 

Mike DiMartino (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herman's Heat & Puente's Beat (Audio CD)

Do you dig the Vice Prez Paul Quinichette? Man, to hear him trade choruses with Al Cohn--with the Herd and Tito Puente's latin percussion behind them--let me tell you something: GET THIS CD. And another little bonus--besides the all-star band and the great charts throughout, and the gorgeous acoustic guitar guesting with the Herd--is hearing upstate tenorman Joe Romano here with the Herd.

OK, so why just 3 stars? Well, unfortunately a lot of the tracks were mastered from surviving vinyl (you can hear the records' surface noise, and you can hear the crappy process used to try to hide it, albeit only during quiet passages, of which there aren't many, being that this is a powerfully swingin' and hard blowin' HERD). The liner notes boast that this session is restored to it original lustre for this CD. Nope. Not when you can hear the needle grinding on the record's surface during the guitar-big band features, sadly.

So, yes, the Everest LP reissues of this stuff through the years were subjected to fake stereo and the shoddy like, which, as I say, remains on many of these CD tracks, as they were recorded from surviving vinyl (presumably the original master tapes no longer exist--and/or Everest had permanently stereo-reverberized the masters...which is probably why the meticulous Japanese companies won't touch these). And that's why this CD, aside from having the original cover art and Hentoff notes, is not all that improved over the Everests, although the overall fidelity and Rick Pantoja's mastering certainly earn 5 stars, especially when you consider there were no master tapes to work with.

Mike DiMartino in Rochester, NY, USA.