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| A.deG 2002 |
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| N E W S P A P E R |
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| P E R S O N A L |
| Dwight Andrews began recording jazz records during the mid 1970s. To date, he has served as accompaniment on more than 20 jazz and new-age releases playing alongside a plethora of artists including Branford Marsalis and Geri Allen. His early work was all pressed onto vinyl from original analog tapes. He said Butler and Mason’s presupposed notions of both vinyl and jazz are, for the most part, “completely ridiculous.” “I still think vinyl is a little warmer to my ear,” said Andrews, 53, who is also a professor of music and jazz history at Emory College in Atlanta. “That ‘warmth’ has to do with sonic quality — it doesn’t seem to be so artificially pristine or sterile like a CD. There’s a growing connoisseur pool that listens to music so carefully that they’re really able to distinguish the difference [between digital and vinyl]. But, then again, there are those too who simply have a romance with the past.” Andy Babuik is the author of “Beatles Gear” (Backbeat Books), a chronology of the instrumentation used by the Fab Four from their early days as the Quarrymen to their final recording, “Let it Be.” He also performs with the Rochester, N.Y.-based outfit Chesterfield Kings, which releases all of its recordings on both CD and vinyl. He believes the contemporary educated listener isn’t merely trapped in the past, but rather a more cultivated and scrupulous consumer. “People don’t zombie out and listen to the radio anymore,” Babuik, 38, said. “Real music buffs take their time and research the material. They listen and go into deeper exploration of the music and the artists. You’re going to find pockets of guys who are just fanatical about vinyl — and that’s cool in and of itself.” Andrews said all of his work now is recorded digitally and everything in his discography — with the exception of one record, 1979’s “The Little People” — has since been reissued on CD to keep in step with market demand. He said with some dismay that the authenticity of vinyl just can’t compete with the convenience of a CD. “More and more artists, as they age, remain cognizant of their creative output,” Andrews said. “We are interested in the art itself — the creative aspect — not so much the method of delivery. And we always gravitate to the next new way of expressing ourselves, which is why you don’t see old jazz musicians clinging to vinyl.” And it is old, rare jazz recordings that seem to stimulate a majority of the contemporary vinyl hounds. Steve Sowley, who works at Chicago’s North Side branch of Reckless Records, has collected LPs since he was in junior high school. Now 25, Sowley has amassed a vinyl collection that exceeds 300 records. And work by free-jazz virtuosos like Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Archie Shepp, he said, constitutes the majority. “Re-mastered, Mingus sounds hollow,” Sowley said. “But if you hear a vinyl pressing of [1958’s] ‘Weary Blues,’ you can hear the difference. You hear everything. The trumpet, the trombone sound so rich — it’s unlike anything salvaged digitally.” David Nash, who owns Stereo Exchange located on Chicago’s Northwest Side and restores busted turntables and other electronics for a living, believes audio production and presentation has the ultimate say in how music comes across to the listener. Nash has literally dissected hundreds of record players — some that were manufactured during the late 1800s — and he owns upwards of 4,000 LPs that span a broad base of genres. Yet he contends that music is only so good as the effort and expertise sunk into its production and the system on which it’s played. “It comes down to how [an album] is mixed and put together,” said Nash, 44. “A lot of CDs are poorly engineered and [consequently] people freak out when they listen to vinyl. They’re like: ‘Wow, that sounds really good.’ Old [turntables] are pretty well put together, compared to stuff … nowadays. A lot of people think ‘oh, I can get a turntable for $69.95,’ and they balk at spending a $100 to $150 on an old one. They think newer is better, but, if you listen to the sound quality, they’re worlds apart. Cheap turntables can sound OK, but … if you can buy one for $69.95, imagine what it really cost to make it.” In the end, Sowley contends, equipment is a beast unto itself and, so far as he has observed, money seems little object for the more discernable vinyl enthusiast. Instead, when it comes to purchasing LPs, any debate over substance flies out the window. Aesthetic speaks volumes. “There are people who come into Reckless and just hang out for an hour or two looking at and listening to a handful of albums,” Sowley said. “And they’ll lay down $150 to $200 at a time. Some people will go to the ends of the Earth looking for all five copies of the same record that was originally pressed on different color vinyl.” Added Nash: “Everyone kept saying [vinyl] is going to die. ‘Oh, it’s obsolete.’ But people come here all the time looking for turntables and their kids don’t even know what one is.” |
| Continued ... |
