Jazz at the Pawnshop

Hi noromance,

Roger on that. Recordings like this always have overzealous mastering engineers trying to make their reissue "special" among the sea of others...

Best to you noromance,
Dave

I listened to Jazz at the Pawnshop once and that was all it deserved - one listen and then forever on the shelf. Nothing special about this recording or the musicianship at all. If you want a truly great jazz recording then get Homage to Duke by David Grusin. Dave gathered a who’s who of great musicians for this tribute to Duke Ellington - including Tom Scott, Clark Terry and Harvey Mason. And the sound quality on Homage to Duke is stellar - best I have heard in traditional style jazz for all instruments and even the vocals will raise hairs on the back of your neck - awesome scat singing by Clark.

Jazz at pawn shop boring. You need to listen to Coletrane, Milt Jackson, Miles Davis, Adderly brothers, etc.

Decent music, decent recording. I've heard better.....

If you're looking for the Best Live Jazz That's Ever Been Played, then Pawnshop is not for you.  

Pawnshop is a remarkable document of the best players in Sweden on a given night at a given club.  If you can start from that premise and imagine yourself a tourist who happened to wander into the pub on that winter night, you would feel pretty lucky to have caught it.  The value of Pawnshop is that it puts you inside that pub.

Regarding the bass on this recording, if you pay attention you can hear solid-state distortion.  It's because the bassist had a very small combo amp on stage so that he could be better heard, and the poor little thing was working a bit too hard.