Amina Claudine Myers Salutes Bessie Smith

[Bill Hart]

I bought this record years ago. I knew it sounded good, and I knew I liked her performance, but WOW.
The piano is well recorded which in my experience ain't easy- the upper registers have air, rich harmonics and the string bass sounds pretty nice too. Anybody else on to this record? The fact that it is a female blues vocalist is a total bonus in my book- pretty much my favorite genre.
My copy, circa 1980 is on Leo Records, cat. no .LR 103.

 

[Bill Hart]

So, this record was remastered and I bought a copy of that too. Had all the 'audiophile' indicia, including a list of equipment used in the remaster. The thing sounds lifeless, no air, whereas the original, standard issue 8 buck vinyl I bought new, back in the day, has marvelous body on the piano. What do they do to these things? Is it because the tapes are old and they compensate by making it sound 'modern'?
Find an old Leo pressing. Forget the pricey audiophile pressing.