Search - Bunny Berigan :: I Can't Get Started

Collectables: How to Butcher Great Essential Recordings

Mike DiMartino | Rochester, NY | 04/15/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The remastering clowns at Collectables have outdone themselves this time--this is the most attrocious remastering I've ever heard over the 46 years I've collected jazz--and let me tell you, I play the trumpet and have been listening to Bunny since my day one! Collectables could have brought Bunny's rich, fat, soulful trumpet sound to today's listeners who may not yet have heard Bunny. (From this CD, they'll never hear the Bunny Satchmo called "the blackest sounding white trumpeter I've ever heard." You can bet, coming from Pops, that has little to do with color and everything to do with FEELING.)



Instead Collectables subjected the music to a torchure ring of digital "enhancement" toys, such as limiters and gates that you can actually hear kicking in and out. Responsible, skillful and careful enhancement and restoration should be something you don't really hear being applied; all you hear is, the music just sounds great. These idots simply didn't care--all in a day's work, then go home and listen to their trash of choice.



There's so much tampering here that the frequencies have gone out of phase! Yes, the cymbals now have a psychodelic swirl, as if going through a '70s phase shifter--oh, my goodness! Then they swell only to be abrubtly squelched, sounding as though a blanket was thrown over them. Bunny's gorgeous trumpet is all but suffocated of its life and reduced to a nasal wimper.



This is a crime. Totally irresponsible, lame-eared remastering.



RULE OF THUMB: STAY AWAY FROM COLLECTABLES!!!"

Don't bother

Bruce W. Graham | Norwell, MA USA | 02/04/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I have always loved the title track and hoped that other Berigan songs might be equally enjoyable. They're not. Stick with the title track, available on other albums (I especially recommend "We'll Meet Again: The Love Songs of World War II", which is where I found "I Can't Get Started" originally) and save your money. The biography was interesting, and perhaps explains why Berigan might be considered a "one hit wonder"."

A classic; a must for anyone's collection

Thomas J. Herling | New York | 11/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although Berrigan wasn't around for very long, he sure put out some great sides. I'd recommend this to anyone who who wants to add to the essential library of early jazz greats."