Topic: Texas Alexander & His Circle: 1927-1951

[Blues Vintage]

Cool new release from JSP Records

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Texas-Alexander-His-Circle-1927-1951/dp/B06VVBRHK4/ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[CF]

Heard samples online and it doesn't sound good. Bought a Papa Charlie Jackson JSP set recently because it was supposed to be "remastered". Ha! Sounds horrible, barely listenable. Fun artwork though

[Hwy80]

The thing about the JSP releases are they try to find the best 78s available and don't do much in the "mastering" process.  There are two ways to look at that philosophy: 1) attempt to clean-up, EQ and take out hiss, despite losing much of the original fidelity and 2) employing a 'less is more' approach and offering an accurate sound of the 78s.

I am a fan of the JSP catalog, not only are they documenting and preserving a disappearing collection of music but they price them far below what Bear Family does.  Granted Bear Family boxes are the apogee in this field and I've bought my share of their product - but JSP puts out a lot more and as I said at budget pricing.  Also, although they don't provide glossy books, their notes are excellent.

Regards,
~ David

[jpeters609]

The thing about the JSP releases are they try to find the best 78s available and don't do much in the "mastering" process.

Actually, JSP does not work with original 78's. They take existing material that has been re-mastered by other companies. In other words, they appropriate the work of other labels -- including Bear Family, which won a lawsuit against them several years ago when JSP used that label's Carter Family re-masterings. This behavior can be called any number of things; it does, however, allow JSP to release recordings cheaply. Someone else, after all, has already done the heavy lifting. (To be fair, JSP did release a couple of CD's back in the early days that they sourced from original recordings. These include the Sleepy John  Estes' "First Recordings" CD and a few by the Memphis Jug Band. In those instances, the songs were re-mastered by John R.T. Davies specifically for JSP. But that was a long time ago, and they haven't pursued that course since.)

[Hwy80]

The thing about the JSP releases are they try to find the best 78s available and don't do much in the "mastering" process.

Actually, JSP does not work with original 78's. They take existing material that has been re-mastered by other companies. In other words, they appropriate the work of other labels -- including Bear Family, which won a lawsuit against them several years ago when JSP used that label's Carter Family re-masterings. This behavior can be called any number of things; it does, however, allow JSP to release recordings cheaply. Someone else, after all, has already done the heavy lifting. (To be fair, JSP did release a couple of CD's back in the early days that they sourced from original recordings. These include the Sleepy John  Estes' "First Recordings" CD and a few by the Memphis Jug Band. In those instances, the songs were re-mastered by John R.T. Davies specifically for JSP. But that was a long time ago, and they haven't pursued that course since.)

I must have them confused with another label.  I had just been reading something about using the 78s and doing little in the way of mastering - and seemed to remember it was JSP.  Guess I got it wrong.

Regards,
~ David

[oddenda]

David -

          Maybe it was Frog Records?

pbl

[waxwing]

More likely Document. Wasn't Johnny Parth's goal to get everything he possibly could on LPs and then CDs, accepting poor sounding taped transfers from record collectors who were not willing to ship the records. In later years Document got into remastering.

Wax

[alyoung]

David -

          Maybe it was Frog Records?

pbl

Nope. Frog's mastering is generally good. Some of it is very good.

PS: Gidday, Pete.

[Hwy80]

It was probably Document. 

[Blues Vintage]

Jelly Roll Morton's recordings sound excellent on the JSP set. I compared them with many other releases and JSP came out superior.
From what I remember this was a one of the projects were the original 78's and Davies expertise were used.

[jpeters609]

That is correct -- the Jelly Roll Morton CDs on JSP were remastered from original 78s by John R.T. Davies, and they sound great. Davies also did much of the remastering for the Frog (UK) label. It's too bad that JSP didn't continue in this fashion. It should be said that many of the recent JSP releases also sound good, as they are simply appropriating material from other labels (such as Yazoo and Bear Family, etc.) that had already spent a lot of time and money professionally remastering the music from original 78s. Of course, that course of action hurts those labels -- after all, they put considerable resources into locating rare records and carefully remastering them, only to have JSP sell the results as their own. In the end, it may cause such labels to stop investing in the remastering process. Then again, the same can be said for YouTube.

[Stuart]

More thread drift...I also have the JSP Jelly Roll Morton set and I agree, the sound quality is superb.

The thing that tipped me off to the provenance of the JSP CDs was when I'd be importing them into iTunes and the Gracenote CDDB would ID them as being from some other reissue label. It was usually a case of part of the set being OP re: the original CDs, or just getting the best bang for the buck.

I agree that appropriating the efforts and investments of other labels is neither legal in some jurisdictions nor ethical, but given how the CD market has shrunk and that many CDs are probably OP for good, it leaves those of us who still prefer CDs with limited options. The used market can be hit or miss. For example, I didn't buy Archephone's "The Complete Wolverines: 1924-1928" when it came out, only to later find out that it was OP. I was lucky enough to find a "like new" used copy within range, but other things I've looked for are just not available. Lesson learned.

[Hwy80]

I agree that appropriating the efforts and investments of other labels is neither legal in some jurisdictions nor ethical, but given how the CD market has shrunk and that many CDs are probably OP for good, it leaves those of us who still prefer CDs with limited options.

Yep, and I won't lose any sleep over the JSP recordings I've bought.   Mostly I'll buy from Bear or others, but if those other options are OOP or super expensive, and JSP happens to be the most available source for the complete recordings of a musician I want to hear - there it is.

My current interest is with Old Hat Records and Dust to Digital.  Both are excellent labels.