McIntosh Releases a Record That Tells You How Bad Most Records Sound

that wasn't the point but that's what it points out

The problem with records like this is that they tell you how mediocre sounding many of your records are—unless your collection consists only of "audiophile" records, of which there are two kinds: "sounds great, less filling", or more rarely, "sounds great, is filling". For younger readers, that's a play on the old Miller Lite commercial: "tastes great, less filling".

McIntosh Sessions celebrates the company's 75th anniversary and the company says this is the first but not last album it will produce. This isn't McIntosh Labs' first record release, but it is the storied company's first in a really long time. I've got one its original mono classical records here somewhere and if I could find it, I'd paste it directly below this paragraph but I can't find it.

Sterling Sound, a mastering house almost as storied as McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. gets co-production credits, though Jeff Levenson is the record's actual producer.

While this is not a "touring band", drummer Peter Erskine did not assemble this group solely for the purposes of this recording. In 2010 the same group recorded Standards 2 Movie Music (Fuzzy Music), so there's a history. In addition to Erskine, the band consists of saxophonist Bob Mintzer, keyboardist Alan Pasqua and bassist Darek Oles (Oleszkiewicz).

Erskine joined Weather Report in 1978 (post Heavy Weather and the crossover tune "Birdland"), recruited by Jaco Pastorius, where he lasted for four years and five albums, probably longer than any in the parade of Weather Report drummers. Erskine started in the big bands of Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson. He's best known for playing in fusion-style groups.

Mintzer is another big-bander/fusion player who played in Buddy Rich's big band and later with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. He's also involved with the fusion group The Yellowjackets.

Alan Pasqua was a member of The New Tony Williams Lifetime and he collaborated with Erskine on the Grammy Award nominated album Standards. He has an extensive career as a studio and touring musician with everyone from Bob Dylan to Michael Bublé to Joe Walsh and John Fogerty.

Oles emigrated from Poland to California in the late 1980s and studied at Cal Arts where he's currently on the faculty. He has an extensive recording career as a leader or co-leader and he was the bassist on Bill Cunliffe's excellent direct to disc record Live at Bernie's (Groove Note) recorded in the space adjacent to Bernie Grundman's mastering suite. I was there for that recording. Was fun!

The quartet on this record eschews fusion and instead delivers eight straight ahead jazz tunes, a pair each by Erskine and Oles, three by Pasqua and one by Mintzer, many of which are musically reminiscent of Blue Note's less funky '60s output.

The opener, Erskine's "Leaving LA" from the 2024 "road comedy" film Sacramento, that happens to co-star Erskine's daughter Maya, sets the album's vibe. It's an uptempo number with a vibrant bass line and a catchy riff with plenty of space for everyone to grab a solo. You'll also note that Erskine's drum kit is unnaturally splayed "bigly" across the soundstage. Hey! It's his quartet and this isn't a recording no-no unless you're expecting a "group in a space" type sonic picture. Those sometimes work well and sometimes they sound boring. This record does not sound boring!

Oles's "Blues For Old Friends" follows and it's a slinky, sultry number that also will sound conceptually familiar. It gives Mintzer a chance to demo his chops and Pasqua takes a tasty ride up and down the keyboard. You can tell they had fun playing it and you'll do likewise listening. Kind of reminded me of Mancini.

Pasqua's lilting "Chilipso" is a tuneful 50's era bop number inevitably reminiscent of "St. Thomas" by Sonny Rollins—at least that's what I immediately got from it. Another fun track listening to the group riff on the changes. No wonder they're shown smiling on the back of the jacket. Erskine takes a solo before the group picks up the main theme and efficiently drives the tune home.

The side ends with the heavily syncopated "Gumbo Time" another Pasqua tune. It's the most "commercial" number on the record and the one that sounds most like a "theme song" from a television show you'd probably want to watch

Oles' "In to the Dark" opens side two and its time signature and riff keys off of '60s era Coltrane "My Favorite Things" with Pasqua hitting the Tyner block chording. Mintzer wisely avoids sheets of sound, pillowcases and/or Duvet covers. It's not an album highlight nor is the next track, Mintzer's 'goofy guy' "A Few Good Notes". It's another tune that sounds like a TV show theme, but one you probably wouldn't want to watch—unless you like "cute".

Erskine follow up with "David's Blues", which quotes without hesitation or particularly interesting incorporation "Stranger in Paradise" popularized by Tony Bennett early in his career from the Broadway show "Kismet" but lifted from Borodin's "Polovtsian Dances" from his opera "Prince Igor". For me the album loses its luster on this track as the group sounds uninspired and in "we're done, let's get out of the studio" time.

The closer, "The Folks" by Pasqua is another theme from an imaginary 70's or '80's era television show ("Cheers"?) almost saved by a fine Oles bass solo but ultimately what you're left with is an album that starts out really well as mainstream, straight ahead, well-played, engaging, superbly well-recorded jazz but eventually comes to an uninspired commercial, "it's well-recorded but so what?) conclusion. Side one's the winner, side two not so much.

The second LP gives you 45 rpm versions of "Leaving LA", and "Blues For Old Friends" on side A and "Into the Dark" and "A Few Good Notes" on side B. In its own way, in terms of musical interest it musically tracks the main record.

The Sound Production

This is a 100% top quality all-analog production recorded and mixed by Rich Breen at Henson Recording Studios-Studio A, which of course was formerly A&M Studios at 1416 La Brea Avenue. The sessions were captured on Studer A800 MKIII 24 track 2 inch tape at 30IPS and mixed to Ampex ATR 102 1/2 inch 2 track tape at 30IPS. If you think that studio and their microphone collection and those machines and Ryan Smith's mastering at Sterling Sound should produce a spectacular sounding record, you would be correct! For $150!

This is a superb-sounding record in every possible way. I'd have given it 11 for sound but I'm not a huge fan of giant drums splayed across the soundstage. If that's fine with you consider the sound a Tracking Angle 11. The actual sound of Erskine's kit is an 11. The snare, tom and cymbal sound will test your system's extension and dynamic limits and in that regard the drum sound is positively addicting and sound oh so real. All of the instruments are captured equally well and as timbrally, spatially and dynamically whole and correct as modern recordings can get.

As an audiophile demo record with system-testing spectacularly natural sound and some excellent musical tracks (all of side one), this is a record that for many will be worth owning. Add the bonus 45rpm record that makes clear why 45 sounds better than 33 1/3 (but not to where you'll think the 33 1/3 sounds "broken" or hopelessly diminished), and a Stoughton "Tip on" gatefold jacket (that's a McIntosh advert inside and not cool session shots), RTI plating and pressing, and you have a record the McIntosh folks should be proud to have funded and co-produced. It surely will be played around the world in McIntosh demos.

The record will show off how good analog sounds, how good the McIntosh systems sound, how good the recording is and, unfortunately, how mediocre are so many recordings in all of our collections—though of course if your collection is like mine, you own many, many records bought for the music that turned out to be spectacular sounding. You can buy a copy of McIntosh Sessions here.

My final verdict Miller-Lite verdict: "Sounds great, somewhat filling".