Finally, the Full "Full House"—Wes M. With Miles D.'s Rhythm Section + J. Griffin—Released on 3 LPs
Riverside original and OJC reissues left out much of the performance
The Miles Davis Sextet was in San Francisco and had off the night of June 25th, 1962. Wes Montgomery was in town and with the rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb, plus tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, played to a full house at Tsubo in Berkeley, California.
The great recording engineer Wally Heider set up his gear in a storeroom behind the club, which, thanks to newspaper articles and word-of-mouth, overflowed with fans anxious to witness the historic one night stand. Heider set up speakers in the parking lot so those who couldn't get in could hear the performance—and what a set it was!
Originally released in seriously truncated form in 1962 (Riverside RS 9434) and then on the OJC series in 1984 (OJC-106) and still later (2002) as a double 45rpm edition on Analogue Productions (AJAZ 9434) and as a single LP OJC pressed on 180g vinyl using the OJC metal parts and released by Acoustic Sounds, the epic June 25th 1962 concert had an extended release in 2007 on CD. That disc included the six tracks on the original record plus five bonus tracks.
This new three LP expanded set contains the six originals along with all of the alternative takes plus two previously unreleased takes. In addition, the original version of the title track, which opens the record has always been a composite, with Montgomery's solo from another take edited in. That composite version is kept intact here as it's always been, but the actual "Full House" as originally performed opens side one of the second disc.
Housed in a triple gatefold package (with obi) that includes great photos of the musicians, technicians, the recording gear and even a photo of the crowd outside Tsubo, plus detailed and useful annotation by Bill Milkowski, the triple-LP set's lacquers were cut by Kevin Gray using Joe Tarantino's digital transfers.
The problem is the sound is absolutely awful—and you know it's not the late Wally Heider's fault. Kevin won't talk, so there's no point in asking him but clearly no one involved in this bothered to listen and if they did they didn't know what to listen for and who knows on what they listened.
The bass is seriously attenuated. I've been playing for years both the OJC 180g and the Kevin Gray cut from tape double 45 Analogue Productions and when I dropped the stylus on the first record I didn't recognize the recording. Here it's hard, brittle, bright and bass shy. What should be an open invite to Tsubo is a 'turn it down my ears ache' I'm going outside rendering.
What a $75.00 shame. Below is a YouTube audio in which you will hear about two minutes of the opening track "Full House" twice: once from the double 45 Kevin Gray cut from tape decades ago and once from the 33 1/3 version he recently cut from Tarantino's files. I'm not saying which is which.
You tell me which sounds better! The music, of course, is super-great and it's nice to have all of the extra takes. plus the Optimal pressing quality is outstanding.
