Search - Cecil Payne :: Plays Charlie Parker

Rule of Thumb: DO NOT BUY Collectibles CDs

Mike DiMartino | Rochester, NY | 01/18/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"How do sessions of this greatness--5-star greatness--get in the hands of lame-eared oafs like the remastering clowns at Collectibles??? They ruined the original, very clean stereo audio by applying limiters and gates, which served only to choke all the zing and "wash" out of the cymbals, as you hear the entire drums seeming to be alternately turned louder and softer (that's the limiters and noise gates kicking on and off)--so damned annoying; detracts so much from just enjoying the music.



If that wasn't enough tampering, they boosted ALL bass frequencies. The bass drum blobs all over the place and young Ron Carter's lean, defined acoustic bass becomes a boomy mess buried in this overall bass mud bath.



Matter of fact, quite a lot of highs were rolled off of this recording, the tell tale sign of rush job remastering--all in a day's work for jerks who care (or know) nothing about the music assigned to them.



After waiting decades for this session to be reissued on CD, wow, what a disgraceful and shameful disappointment. My scratchy original LP on the Charlie Parker label blows away this irresponsible, garbage remastering.



Rule of thumb: DO NOT BUY Collectibles CDs."