Sinatra - Jobim Complete Reprise Recordings

I find it hard to believe the powers to be aren't named Sinatra. Interesting to ponder really.

 

Cover Schmover, what about the music!!? Whatever this 'word' is about how Concord supposedly knew about the missing edits I think is retroactive toro-poo-poo. It smells like a gaff, and some people may think its silly worrying about a few small edits missing but as another poster has previously said getting this music right was a big deal. Then and now. Bossa nova was a finely etched and precise genre. It wasn't about unbounded improvisation, it was like a swiss time-piece, each part in perfect sync. The album then was edited for a purpose, it was better after that process had happened. If the 'word' is that the decision was consciously made to remix this without the edits then it's a stupid decision.

 

So now Concord can get some extra publicity cause they created a 'new' version. So at some point later, they (or another label) can put the old version back out and say 'for the first time in 10 years, back on cd....' Then the Concord becomes collectible..........

I also find it hard to believe that a member of the family approved it, tho

 

Ya gotta admit that is one fine LP cover. Very retro.

 

Shame the mastering and mixing wasn't equally as 'retro'...

 

Please don't stone me for saying this, but...

In an attempt to put a positive spin on this thread, even though I miss the wonderfully spacious soundstage of the 1998 EOTC reissue of FAS&ACJ, I must confess that at low volumes and non-active listening, the new Concord disc actually sounds good. Either that or the power of these seductive songs is just too great to deny, flaws and all.

That being said, I don't understand the decision to remix these songs in semi-stereo/pseudo-mono. Why not flat out do one or the other all the way? Eh, que sera sera, right?

 

Indeed.

 

I'm confused as to why Concord would be in a position to make that decision. Aren't they simply licensing the right to release this material from Frank Sinatra Enterprises?

 

If it was partly mine too I apologize for raining the parade.

Frank's The Girl From Ipanema is one of few among the gobs of versions that I really like. Wonder how many folks covered it... a few too many at any rate.

It won't exactly surprise anyone but my other top fav is Nat King Cole's. The differences are interesting, to me anyway. Nat isn't particularly tackling it as a bossa nova as much as he might a swing ballad with a warm breezy luster. Nat emphasizes the beat, is more specifically descriptive and finds a more raptly passionate, emphatic anguish with a bit of a wistful play. That's fitting for the project he was working on.

Frank by contrast, as fitting for his project with Jobim, approaches it much more literally as a bossa nova. Neither the descriptions or each rhythmic beat is a focus, but rather it's the bossa nova vibe in a broader rhythm and the musingly brooding, sad passion of the overlooked protagonist. In fact Frank is very sedate and low-key from the very start, expressing the sad side of it better than anyone else I've heard, in my humble.

 

Makes you wonder if it hadn't been the better decision to destroy the multi-track after the creation of the mono and stereo mix-down - and keep multiple safeties of these two tapes. That way nobody would be able to tamper with the ORIGINAL!!! version more than forty years after its release. All this is depressing...

 

I doubt that 10 years from now we'll read about ANYTHING being "back on CD", unfortunately.

 

Dont want to sound like a broken record but I'll repeat what I said in the old thread:

This is the THIRD release in a series of Sinatra re-releases: My Way, Strangers in the Night and now the Jobim.

Why are people so surprised and shocked? The previous two releases were remixed too with similar mastering. Not trying to defend anyone, but the negativity here is a bit too much, IMO.

 

Steve: Not your fault at all, IMO. I like what you wrote about Sonny Burke's perfectionism and attention to detail. I found that worth the price of the whole thread. You wrote:

"It's probably the best kept secret in show biz but Sinatra's Reprise sessions were heavily edited for release. It's not that Frank didn't "have it" anymore, it's just that Sonny Burke wanted perfect recordings and that meant editing. It's also commonly thought that Frank did one take of a song and moved on. By 1967 this certainly was not true. There are several takes of JOBIM-SINATRA songs. The little snippets you speak of can only be detected by someone who knows the album inside and out (like us!). Problem is, (same for the Charlie Brown Xmas Vince Guaraldi remix) that the people in charge of doing the reissue never know the music like the wacky fans do and miss some crucial edits, etc. Never fails. Just the way of the biz".

 

The sad thing is that most releases of Reprise material during the last decade were compromised in some way. Even such commendable projects like the Hollywood box keep you asking questions like why didn't this or that studio provide material for inclusion - especially if it is known that this or that studio usually generously participates in such projects. Harsh edits on other artists' releases to cut out Frank's performances are another case in point. I will say nothing more...

 

good point and one that should be added to the sinatra family forum where the sychophants are run amok...

 

I think people are overreacting on both forums. Read Steve's quote [post=5430567]above[/post].

 

Yeah, I'm sure they did. The same way that, after screwing up, Pee Wee Herman would explain: "I meant to do that..."

 

It's all about the money!

 

Hardly, this is a discredit to Frank's legacy.

 

yeah I don't know. You buy a reproduction of a masterpiece, say a copy of the Mona Lisa, but there is a slight alteration to the smile maybe...just ever so subtle, but it was clearly unavoidable.

or you buy a medication, but its missing a bit of the dosage

or you buy a new car, but there is a small blemish on the leather interior that shouldnt be there

or you buy new speaker, but its missing the tweeter

or you buy a piece of crystal but there is a tiny chink in its surface

people find the craziest things to obsess about. As I see it, someone dropped the ball and let that awful vocal moment now exist on a priceless recording and it just shouldn't be there. we're not talking about a Fabian release, we're talking Sinatra, the voice of voices. he didn't release bum notes, doesn't give Concord or the LLC the right to do so either.

 

If it helps to bring Frank's music to a new generation of listeners, I'd say his legacy has been enhanced.

Obsession about minutia is the province of experts and diehards ("wacky fans" as SH called them, and I'm one ), but I believe some of the nastiness I've read on several forums and lists does more discredit to Sinatra than the circumstances warrant. My two cents, of course (and not trying to make this thread into another bitch fest).

 

Spoke to an executive at Concord, they don't make the decisions on Sinatra releases. Concord is not "the powers that be"...

 

As I said, these kind of things happened before Concord started re-issuing the catalog. So, go figure...

 

man I just love this performance....wish they would have added this to the package..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2UYVvkpYRo

 

These kind of things are not restricted to Concord OR Warner/Reprise.

When Capitol remixed tracks for ROMANCE: SONGS FROM THE HEART a few years ago, they failed to include an edit for "As Time Goes By" from the 1962 LP, POINT OF NO RETURN. That was surely an oversight, as I'd bet are some of the missing edits on the new Concord issues (despite what anyone claims after the fact). There are other examples from various CD releases of the past twenty years.

This raises some questions from me: Just how well documented are/were such edits? Did the original producers list each and every edit in exact detail, or does detection remain a "voodoo" skill for those with a keen ear and intimate knowledge of the recordings? Is it possible that some of the intercut material no longer exists or can't be located? Etcetera?