Album Reviews

You could produce a jazz record today using ProTools at 192/24 or lower resolution, create a CD master, have it manufactured and then release it. To get in on the “vinyl resurgence”, you could use that 16 bit/44.1k master to cut lacquers and press records at a commercial pressing plant. It’s done all too often, I’m sure.

Or, you could hire a jazz engineering great to record and mix it minimally miked live to two-track analog tape and then have it carefully mastered from that analog tape by a veteran cutting engineer at a first class facility and press it on 180g vinyl at a premium quality pressing plant.

But these days would anyone go through the hassle and expense of doing that for a jazz record not likely to sell in great numbers? The producers Jamie Saft and Bobby Previte did just that for this double LP set (also on CD) released on the RareNoiseRecords label (they are also two-thirds of the trio that performs on the record).

They called upon engineering great Joe Ferla to record the album. If you’re not familiar, check out Ferla’s recording credits.

The jazz artists he’s recorded and/or mixed include Jim Hall, Betty Carter, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, John Scofield, Paul Motian, Cassandra Wilson, Bill Frisell, The Holly Cole Trio, Dave Douglas, Christian McBride, Leon Parker, James Carter and on and on. He’s also recorded Marianne Faithful, Horace Silver, B.B. King, Foreigner and Sonic Youth among others.

The musicians are all veterans of the downtown New York City avant-garde “loft scene” and will be familiar names to some analogplanet readers. Pianist Jamie Saft has recorded with John Zorn and released his own albums on Zorn’s Tzadik label. He’s also recorded with Bad Brains, Beastie Boys and The B-52s. Bassist Steve Swallow’s been in groups and recorded with Jimmy Guiffre, Carla Bley and Gary Burton. Drummer Bobby Previte has also collaborated with Zorn among many others and has an extensive discography. (Were this a “jazz-centric” site, none of these names would need identification).

Before reviewing this record, Stereophile writer Fred Kaplan spoke with Ferla about the production. I’m using these facts with Fred’s permission: The recording at Potterville International Sound, NY (Saft’s home studio) was live to 2-track ½” Ampex tape recorder with no EQ, nor compression, just “a little reverb” and no post-production effects. Previte’s drums placed in an isolation booth were miked with an overhead ribbon a pair of Beyer M-88s on the tom-toms and kick drum and a Neumann KM-184 on snare and high hat.

Beyer’s website describes the ‘60s era M-88 as having “earned its place in history in the Kick Drum….resulting in the tight ‘thump’ without the need for complex signal processing.” After you hear the monster kick drum sound on this record you will not need convincing of that!

Ferla some time ago switched from analog tape to DSD and 96/24 PCM but returned here to analog tape because this record is his engineering swan song: he called it quits after this record to concentrate on his guitar playing. What a way to go!

Seven of the mostly blues-based tunes on the double LP set are Saft’s. The others are collaborative improvisations that keep relatively swinging but not what I’d characterize as light grooves.

The goal is the production of thrust and power anchored by Swallow’s prominent, bass lines. The avant-garde, experimental music these guys play “downtown” are MIA on this set of straight-ahead tunes played with muscular swagger.

Saft is mostly light-handed on piano, hovering deftly on a chord and then rapidly “tickling the ivories” to produce a sonic shimmer (a move he repeats too often IMO) but when he switches to organ on “Blues Shuffle” he has a good time laying it on thick and sounding more like a rocker.

Previte’s drumming throughout is equally and pleasurably “thick and rich” and miked to take full advantage of the weight and power of his choices. This is a jazzy record that will shake your listening room. You’ll need but a few bars into the opener “Clarissa” to figure out that Swallow’s electric bass is plugged directly into the board and that Ferla’s not interested in creating an airy picture with strong L/R stereo spread.

The trio is centered and exceptionally well-focused on the stage with Previte’s drums sitting behind Saft’s keyboards—whatever the reality of the instrumental placement in the room. Only an occasional cymbal hit moves to the side yet there’s a palpable sense of space and three-dimensionality. The goal here is a combination of transparency and visceral power that the musicians and Ferla achieve fully.

Each listen reminded of a high-viscosity, far more dangerous and heavy sounding version of Modeski, Martin & Wood. Instead of The New Standard, they could have called this album No Pussyfooting, but the name’s already been taken.

The album is available as a “combo” (Double 180g vinyl+CD digipack+MP3+FLAC download), as just double vinyl+MP3, as CD digipack (strictly old school), as HD FLAC 96/24 download, as FLAC 16/44.1 download (for those who think 16 bit/44.1 is “perfect”) and as MP3 only, for now, all exclusively from the RareNoiseRecords website.

I originally wrote :"not sure where the record was manufactured (I think Pallas) but the copy I got was well-pressed and very quiet" but the producer corrects me below. It was pressed at GZ in the Czech Republic. I thought that a possibility but usually there's a "GZpress" stamp on records pressed there. This time not. The New Standard is definitely a record you’ll want to play for people who think vinyl can’t produce sensational deep bass and/or wide dynamic swings. You'll also definitely want to play it for your own pleasure.