Search - Jelly Roll Morton :: The Pearls

Great song selection, but over enhanced sound

Ken Doyle | Park Ridge, NJ USA | 12/14/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"They made a muddy mess of the sound of these great recordings. There is no excuse for this shoddy restoration. Even the last 2 tracks (10 years newer-from the late 30's) are enhanced to pieces so they sound like the others. Come on RCA, you can do better than this!"

RCA should indeed be held to high standards

bukhtan | Chicago, Illinois, USA | 07/20/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I thought this was OK until I heard better, namely the JSP 5-CD set. True, John R.T. Davies leaves in more surface noise, but he also leaves in more music. RCA's remastering is tolerable but very far from exemplary. Robert Parker's "Great Original Performances" series is also preferable. There are two of these for Jelly Roll Morton.
There's also some overlap with another RCA single CD product, "Jelly's last jam : original music from the motion picture". I don't know if that one's still available.
The "Victor" in RCA-Victor comes from the Victor which recorded Jelly Roll in the Webster Hotel in Chicago in 1926 with state-of-the-art electronic equipment. Suddenly we could hear everything the musicians were doing. And what musicians!
RCA-Victor (or is it "BMG" these days?)should live up to this heritage."

Avoid this

Peter Gordon | Canberra, ACT Australia | 09/27/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Of course Morton's music is superb. The trouble here is that you hear so little of it because the transfers are strangled to death. A big disappointment. The JSP box offers far better sound and value and does justice to the music."