Les Brown and His Band of Renown-Direct To Disc Vinyl Review

Les Brown and his band of renown Goes Direct To Disc – 1977

Vinyl surface noise:  4+  (not pops and clicks)

Dynamic Range: 4+

Stereo Imaging: 4+

Image depth/perspective: 4

Overall frequency response: 4+

Side One

1. On Green Dolphin Street
2. Laura
3. Poor Butterfly
4. Alone Again (Naturally)
5. Sir Duke

Side Two

1. Tickle Toe
2. Satin Doll
3. Fly Me To The Moon
4. Gonna Fly Now (Theme from “Rocky”)

This album was recorded in Capital Records, Studio A, Hollywood, California July 11th and 12th, 1977.

The cutting amplifiers were Neuman SAL 74’s driving Neuman SX74 cutterheads mounted on a pair of VMS 70 lathes.

Lester Raymond Brown was an American jazz musician who led the big band Les Brown and His Band of Renown for nearly seven decades from 1938 to 2000, performing with Bob Hope on radio, stage and television for almost fifty years.

Once Sheffield Lab took the lead in Direct To Disc recording others tried to emulate there techniques and technical prowess. In 1977 the Great American Gramophone Company released several D2D cuts, this is one of them. So with a similar line up to Harry James and His Big Band how did the music and technical aspects compare? Read on.

This is an excellent recording and pressing with good dynamics and presence. The two things it lacks is ambience and depth. The recording exhibits a slightly sterile studio sound with a lack of warmth from room reverb, and the microphone techniques used do not provide a great deal of depth information. My pressing is reasonably quiet with very few pops and clicks. Bass is tight and clean, mid range punchy and dynamic without being hard while the HF detail is clean and bright without being too forward.

All tracks are quite dynamic with some terrific solos from the alto and bass saxophones, trumpets, trombones, keyboards and guitar. The kit while providing a clean tight kick drum, open tight snare and nicely detailed hi-hat and cymbals generally takes a background role with the brass and woodwind sections driving the performances. However, there are a couple of occasions, S1T3, S2T1, S2T2, and S2T3 where the kit provides short solos each of which left me wanting for more, but alas, that was not to be.  The acoustic double bass tailors nicely with the kick drum and is clean and tight throughout each track, providing a  great solo on S2T2.

Throughout several tracks you will hear other percussive instruments like cow bells, chimes, xylophone solos and tin whistles, all of which are pristinely recorded and round out the performances.

Many of the instrumental solos are impressive in their clarity and detail, virtually being there in the room with you. I particularly found that as the recording advanced the musicians became more relaxed and provided a more integrated less stiff performance. In particular I felt that S2T3 and S2T4 were really where the musicians had finally got it all together. Clearly this was a D2D cut as the trumpet soloist on S2T3 came in slightly late and almost missed his note. In the world of multi-tracking that track would have been a re-take!

So while this recording does’t make the Harry James hall of fame, it is still a good example of D2D recording. For those of you that still enjoy the big band sound this album is still a worth while addition to your collection.

Available on vinyl and CD from Discogs.

See my other vinyl reviews here.