The Four Freshmen Are Still Fresh, Man!
Vance Garnett (garneva@mail.northgr | USA | 01/07/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've had these albums in LP form for many years. In fact, my esteem for the Four Freshman may be indicated by the fact that I have every LP they put out. These two are fine examples of their work, both in the ballads and the uptemp songs. I have recommended, and do here recommend,anything by the Frosh, or Four Freshmen. You won't go wrong with this combo of two albums for the price of one!"
Close to a perfect 5-star...
Mike DiMartino | Rochester, NY | 11/14/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"European reissues continue to be a hit-and-miss gamble for our CD buck. One common shortcoming of the EU reissues is the lousy cover art reproduction, as we see again on this re-issue. Hey, I'm grateful they at least DID reproduce the original rather than to dispense with it altogether in favor of some quick, slapped together unrelated junk. But what they did was to simply crop it from the CD cover, which has a kind of "hairnet" design over it--thus on the full-page repros, you get that hairnet design in there, too, just because EMI was too cheap (or careless) to make a separate repro for the full page picture (or maybe they think we're dummies who wouldn't notice).
And what's with those teeny tiny liner note repros? I've seen Japanese reissues with those exact-scale repros, but you could clearly read the notes. In other words, the Japanese, with their meticulous attention to every detail, did it properly, whereas on this EMI reissue, you have to wear magnifyers, and even at that you can only decipher the name of a sax or guitar soloist just here and there. Ehhh, I just shake my head and dig out the original Capitol LPs to read the notes.
But on the most important point--the audio quality--EMI scores 100. Sounds beautiful! And NO typical EU digital tampering with the original audio, no added reverb crap. (EMI ruined their reissue of Ray Anthony Concert--don't ever buy that one; you hear this swirling, key jingling sound left by the digital process EMI subjected that great music to.) And the sound's the most important thing to us CD buyers, right? I'm listening to "Sometimes I'm Happy" as I write. Yep, they did an excellent audio restoration here. I have ...AND FIVE TRUMPETS and ...AND FIVE TROMBONES coming, too. Hope they're as nice sounding as this one.
Thanks from ol' Mike DiMartino in Rochester, NY!"
The evergreen Four Freshmen
J. Paravic | Zagreb, Croatia | 01/07/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Along with their previous records, Four F. & Five Trombones and FF & Five Trumpets, this only confirms that the Four are one of the best vocal groups ever in jazz (along with the HiLos and the Singers Unlimited). If you enjoy this music, this is a MUST. Keep swinging!"
Track Listings (24) - Disc #1
