Search - Professor Longhair :: Ball the Wall Live at Tipitina's 1978

Sound quality not so great

Boris Starosta | Charlottesville, VA USA | 12/20/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This might be a must-have for serious Longhair collectors, but I found the recording quality is not so great, and this distracts from my enjoyment of the music. It sounds like it might have been recorded digitally (not likely in 1978), with compression artifacts audible."

Not the best of 'Fess

S J Buck | Kent, UK | 09/10/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is the great Professor Longhair live on 10th March 1978, at the famous Tipitina's club in New Orleans. When I first bought this and played it, I was for a few minutes very confused by the strange sound. Then I realised that there was a Steel Drummer playing, which clashes badly with the Piano IMO. Supposedly it adds a caribbean flavour to proceedings, but in all honestly I'd have rather have had the conga player who used to play with Fess a lot of the time.



On the plus side all the best 'Fess numbers are included and the last 3 numbers are solo Piano (introduced by James Booker). But I have to add the sound quality on these 3 numbers is poor - the Piano is very distorted.



Certainly its a historic recording as having been to Tipatinas myself the club had a unique atmosphere but because of the unusual instrumentation and poor quality sound I would have to say this is for collectors only. Theres much better 'Fess out there to get than this.

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