Herbie Hancock, River: The Joni Letters

I've got the LP version and it doesn't sound overly compressed to me. I do hear spots of compression here and there, but not the kind of broad compression over the whole spectrum that's ruining many recordings theses days.

Musically I enjoyed it very much. I'm not a big fan of Joni's voice, so I love others interpreting her wonderful songs.

Dave

Several months ago I listened to preview clips at AMG and other music sites and concluded this was not an album I wanted.

I'm not judging sonics, having listened only via internet but musically I heard enough. Like Detlof, I think It's way too commercial and too "smooth Jazz."

I listened to the first two tracks again last night on my headphone system which consists of Sennheiser HD600 phones, ASL MG II tubed amp, and a Cambridge D500SE cd player. It sounded even worse. Listening through the phones, it sounded like a lot of digital circa 1985, brittle, etched, crystaline would be apt adjectives. The vocal mix on Edith and the Kingpin is especially hashy and spitty. I couldn't take any more.

Disregarding the sonics, the music doesn't inspire me either.

RHljazz. I'm listening to the disc as I write this post. The instruments don't sound compresses at all but something was going on with the vocals
I started reading the credits and all the vocals were recorded at other studios. Avatar studio in NY is where all the instrumental was recorded
I think Herbie was creative and trying to give some of the vocals a more classic sound and possible had them recorded on analog tape? The sax work seems suspect to some analog work. I could be just the different techniques at each studio that recorded the vocals tracks 1and2 sound more analog but track 4 sounds very forward almost standing in front of me and singing. Not my favorite Herbi work

Ed

Wow, are we talking about the same CD? "Sonics are lousy" and "hashy and spitty" are far from how I would describe it. Sure, I have plenty of better recordings in terms of pure sonics, but this one, in my opinion, is definitely a considerable cut above the typical recordings out there. Perhaps the Canadian pressing I have is better, I don't know.

As far as the music, I do like it, but it takes a decent amount of plays to grow on you.

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