- This superb live album finally arrives on the site, earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- These sides are exceptionally low-distortion, lively, solid and dynamic – just what this music needs
- Stephane Grappelli’s jazz violin stylings and David Grisman’s “Dawg music” fuse into a magical, swinging acoustic combo
- “One of the most exciting of the many Stephane Grappelli recordings, this live session… teams the veteran violinist with mandolist David Grisman’s band, an ensemble that (in addition to its leader) boasts hot solos from Mike Marshall on violin, guitarist Mark O’Connor (who switches to violin to battle Grappelli on a memorable “Tiger Rag”), and bassist Rob Wasserman.”
This vintage Warner Bros. pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely even BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are listening live to the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.
What the best sides of Stephane Grappelli/David Grisman Live have to offer is not hard to hear:
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes even as late as 1981
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional space of the venue
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
Copies with rich lower mids and nice extension up top did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we’ve heard them all.
Top end extension is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural air and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.
Tube smear is common to most vintage pressings and this is no exception. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich.
What We’re Listening For on Stephane Grappelli/David Grisman Live
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness common to most LPs.
- Tight, note-like bass with clear fingering — which ties in with good transient information, as well as the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the players.
- Then: presence and immediacy. The violin isn’t “back there” somewhere, way behind the speakers. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would have put them.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
The Players
David Grisman – mandolin
Stephane Grappelli – violin
Mark O’Connor – guitar, violin
Rob Wasserman – bass
Mike Marshall – guitar, mandolin
Tiny Moore – electric mandolin
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Shine
Pent-Up House
Misty
Sweet Georgia Brown
Side Two
Tiger Rag
Satin Doll
Swing ’42
Medley:
- Tzigani
- Fisztorza
- Fulginiti
AMG Review
One of the most exciting of the many Stephane Grappelli recordings, this live session (a straight CD reissue of the original LP) teams the veteran violinist with mandolist David Grisman’s band, an ensemble that (in addition to its leader) boasts hot solos from Mike Marshall on violin, guitarist Mark O’Connor (who switches to violin to battle Grappelli on a memorable “Tiger Rag”), and bassist Rob Wasserman. The first two songs (“Shine” and “Pent-Up House”) are taken at breakneck tempos and then, after the group tries to cool off on “Misty,” they really burn on “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Tiger Rag.” Essential music with more than its share of great solos.