Wayne Shorter: Adam’s Apple (1966) Blue Note Classic Vinyl (2022)

Selection: Footprints

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Tracklist

A1.  Adam’s Apple 06:52
A2.  502 Blues (Drinkin’ and Drivin’) 06:36
A3.  El Gaucho  06:32
B1.  Footprints  07:31
B2.  Teru 6:10
B3.  Chief Crazy Horse 7:30

Artists

Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; recorded Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 3 & 24, 1966; released over 20 months later, November 1967, first pressing by Liberty Blue Note .

Music   

The old Blue Note record formula – one boogaloo track aimed at radio-play and the charts, one Latin swinger, one ballad, and one for the bop traditionalists – has gone.

 All Music: “Shorter – in quartet – carries most of the melodic and improvisational duties himself, offering a largely undiluted creative portrait. He plays quietly, his tone is measured and relaxed, only bursting into shout for emphasis in a few places, a balanced tension.”

Shorter’s compositions are moody and understated, subtle shifts with lots of space rather than leaps of melodic invention. Hancock works his percussive-discursive magic in the background rather than developing harmonies and countermelodies. Joe Chambers percussion is abstract, colouring rather than timekeeping, while Workman signals the changes underground. 

But there is an elephant in the room.

A few Discogs Commenters: “…Only complaint is Shorter is hard panned to the left channel only and drums are prominent only in the right channel. Gives it an unbalanced sound at times”

 

 “The imaging is so realistic; my dog was staring at the left speaker wondering how Wayne Shorter got in …”

Yup, that is how Van Gelder recorded it.  I was hoping Kevin Gray would fix the stereo balance, but it’s unchanged. Shorter, hard panned left, and in my judgement too loud relative to the other instruments. By 1966 RVG had stereo totally under control, and this one comes out of the blue. Gray didn’t fix it because it is how Rudy recorded it – Gray’s obligation is fidelity to the original tapes, it’s not his job to change or “correct” Van Gelder’s judgement. 

In the late 50s, hard-panning was a characteristic of Van Gelder recordings, instruments recorded on two-track tape, not intended for stereo.  As the early 60s progressed, the Van Gelder stereo soundstage evolved into a more balanced intended stereo presentation.  Only a few commenters (me included) noted the “unbalanced” presentation here, most never thinking to question the engineer’s judgement, praise the  the music.

During one of my Listening Surgeries with some hi-fi buddies, opinion around the hard-panning was confirmed, but eagle-eyed Man-in-a-(brand new) Shed spotted something in the liner notes:

 Liner Notes credited to Don Heckman, Jazz Editor, American Record Guide

Absence of guitar? Very unexpected observation from a jazz writer. It is not that I was expecting Shorter to bring in a guitarist, but it prompted the thought that possibly the “empty space on the soundstage” may be a studio place and microphone positioned for a sideman who didn’t show up. The session went ahead regardless. The hard-panned position of Shorter on the left channel was characteristic of Van Gelder stereo in 1958, not 1966. Was Shorter expected to be offset by another brass instrument on the right channel? It may also explain a long section in which Hancock comps in a pedestrian manner, also very uncharacteristic, intended to be backing for a solo which didn’t happen.

Shorter is to my ear awkwardly positioned in a quartet session planned to be a quintet.  Of course the 1969 moon landing was faked, Princess Diana’s death was no accident, 9/11 was an inside job, and COVID escaped from a Lab. But a missing Fifth Musician? I’m not given to conspiracy theories… but this album is an odd fish. It doesn’t fit with Van Gelder and Blue Note ways of working at the time.  Perhaps they thought to dub in the missing fifth player at a later date, but it didn’t work out. Maybe Player No 5 had a short-notice conflicting commitment, or an accident on the way to the studio (checks obituary notices) Or maybe LJC has completely lost the plot, a conspiracy theory. I wonder, could I bag a Netflix Exclusive on the tail of this? Or a big budget franchise, Bruce Willis as Van Gelder, Die Hard-Panning.

If you already have an original Adam’s Apple, I’m not convinced that the Classic Vinyl edition adds a lot more to the 1967 stereo edition, but it is mint from new, and not expensive, may just tick your box.

Vinyl: BST 84232 (2022)

Vinyl Classics edition released last year, Universal official, remaster by Kevin Gray, pressed in Germany.

Kevin Gray offers his trademark big, wide soundstage, extending beyond the speakers, with immaculately controlled dynamic and tonal range. It is oddly forensic to my ear, deconstructed rather than unified, a reflection of Van Gelder’s mixing choices, and I am tempted to flick the mono switch. 

 

 

Collector’s Corner

The most desirable issues of Shorter’s Adam’s Apple seem to be the rare mono copies, likely issued as “Audition copies” for radio station airplay. (The commercial release is I believe stereo) Liberty issued both mono and stereo copies in East Coast Van Gelder-mastered from original tape and West Coast local remastered from copy tape. The quality of auction pictures is not great, but these salvaged images show important recovered detail. The East Coast copies are VAN GELDER stamped and you can just see the characteristic triple-ring lock groove pre-set of Van Gelder’s Scully lathe reflected in the runout, absent in the West Coast remaster.

Liberty Mono 1967:

Liberty Stereo 1967:

The label print typesetting on the stereo edition has the same East Coast edition, Van Gelder mastered, left, (Keystone label) and a West Coast edition, remastered from copy tape by local Liberty engineer, (Bert-Co printed label)

Personally, I favour mono on this recording to get rid of that disturbing hard panning. It disturbs me, but others seem quite happy with it, you hear what you hear, you like what you like.

My west coast non-Van Gelder master sounds harsher, Kevin Gray’s a little more mellow, and a little more satisfying performance.  I should have got the original Van Gelder, or indeed the rarer mono Van Gelder (promo?), but was not aware of the differences at the time, a difference conveniently below most seller’s radar.

Blue Note Vinyl Classics 2022 – contrast the run-out width!

 As was usual at the time, Liberty cut the groove area the full width of the vinyl. Kevin Gray’s remaster has his usual stacking music grooves towards the outer edge of the vinyl, avoiding the central area of the disc, where tracking is more problematic (allegedly, for lesser equipment). Compare runout, the same length of music: 

Shoot-out! 1967 vs 2022

Judge for yourself (headphones recommended) you can flip from one to the other, at the same point in the music – the volume settings were the same for each rip, any differences are in the engineering i e  one is louder than the other, because it is cut louder. bassicaly I set the gain to keep the peaks just within the clipping point, and left at the same level for each rip.

Footprints (1967) Liberty west coast stereo edition, no Van Gelder, local remaster from copy tapes

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Footprints (2022) Blue Note Classic Vinyl: Kevin Gray remaster from OG tapes.

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55 years later, can you tell the difference, which twin has the Toni? Any observations welcome – on the music, not the perm, obviously.

Let’s kick off the New Year with some controversy: The Missing Fifth Musician.  The perm on the left knows something, the answer to the riddle of the 5th musician. But she’s not saying. Maybe his name was …Toni.

Adam’s Apple:  have I lost the Plot? Indeed, did I ever have it? Happy New Year (again), and back on track with a Friday post. What’s going to be up next Friday? Don’t know, but don’t touch that dial!

LJC

UPDATED Jan 7, 2023: Listen up peoples, Joe Harley speaks, LJC Listens.

The popular Disc Union/ Japan-only mono DBPL edition is remastered from original tapes digital 96/44 files, supplied from within Japan (source confirmed by Joe Harley). “From The Original Master Tapes” does not mean mastered from original tape, but from a digital copy of the master tape.

It is an important difference, because of what is lost in the copying process to digital, and further lost in remastering the digital copy back onto vinyl. 

Repeat: a copy of a copy, is not a copy of an original. 

The promotional documentation of the 62 DBPL Editions (2013-5) says they are “from the original master tapes” (as is every copy), and I read the embellishment that they were remastered by Kevin Gray, pressed in the US,  and shipped exclusively to Japan, in a Disc Union joint venture.  A good story, which turns out untrue but what parts of the story are untrue?

We know Bernie Grundman carried out an industrial-scale digitisation of the Blue Note catalogue in the late teens, a permanent archive, and that these hi-res digital files were the source of the unhappy 75th Anniversary budget editions.  That digital source was created some years after the DBPL series was issued (2013-5). Did Kevin Gray create earlier digital files for this series? More to the point, mono editions of titles more usually seen in stereo? Are there older hi-res digital files circulating in Japan, nothing do do with Kevin Gray remastering?  Were they fashioned in Japan from historic copy tapes, or fresh digital masters from original tapes? Transferred by whom? So many unanswered questions.

Its a tangled web, laced with partial truths and downright fibs. I guess that is the Music Business.

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