Matt DeMerritt – Fool’s Journey – CD Review
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Plastic – CD
Surface noise: N/A
Dynamic Range: 4
Stereo Imaging: 4
Image depth/perspective: 4-
Overall frequency response: 4
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Track List:
- Zero Intro
- Wellspring
- Venice Lullaby
- Elixir
- Loner’s Waltz
- Limbo
- A House Is Not A Home
- Lunedi
- Montreux
- Earth
- Zero Outro
Instrumental Line Up:
- Matt DeMerritt – saxaphone
- Sam Barsh – piano, keyboards
- Kaveh Rastegar & Johnny Flaugher – bass
- Gene Coye, Brock Avery, Scott Seiver, Oliver Charles – drums
- Davey Chegwidden – percussion
- Satnam Ramgotra – tablas
- Fabiano Nascimento, Josh Lopez – guitar
- Suzy Williams – vocals
Background:
This album was originally recorded in January 2020 being engineered byJohn X Volaitis at Earthstar Creation Center, Venice, CA. Additional recording by Matt De Merritt at Mattcave Studio. It was mixed by Michael Jost & Matt De Merritt and mastered by Reuben Cohen at Lurssen Mastering, Los Angeles, CA. The album was self-released on September 18th, 2020.
Matt De Merritt has recorded on over 75 albums and performed internationally on TV and stage with many well known artists to include: Andra Days, Eels, Allen Stone, Nine Inch Nails, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Diana Krall to name just a few. He has also made several appearances on the Late Late Show with James Corden.
After performing on many other well known artists recordings and as a sideman for 25 years, Matt has released his own album containing many of his own original compositions. This is primarily a jazz album that has incorporated the various styles he has played over the years.
As with many studio recordings instruments appeared panned into position within the stereo image. In this case this “panned mono” resulted in a very narrow and cluttered image with virtually no depth, all being pushed towards the front with the kit image being rather narrow and placed slightly towards the rear. However, all images were placed between my speakers and none were hard panned left or right. The sax, trumpet – yes trumpet! and the acoustic guitar are right out front, with the sax moving between dead center to left of center, the trumpet front dead center, the acoustic guitar just right of center and the electric guitar dead center but appearing a little recessed. The acoustic piano was more dominant in the right hand speaker but created an image that spanned between my speakers. With the keyboards/organ only appearing towards the left hand speaker. Vocals on T2 were front dead center. All these images appeared in the same horizontal plane with little, if any, depth delineation, crowding each other out.
Instrumental placement was generally solid with moderate separation, but the image was not very open creating a cluttered feel with everything pilling up at the front. There was no overtly obvious compression, hum or low level white noise at any point, either during fade up/down, some of the lengthy tailouts or during quiet passages.
Despite the individual musical parts being enjoyable and all instruments sounding very natural, having plenty of detail, sparkle and openness, I unfortunately did not find the musicianship very tight. General dynamics were reasonable overall and instrumental solos and breaks abound for the alto sax and piano plus a few for the trumpet, guitars, acoustic bass and kit.
The recording is clearly focussed on Matt’s alto sax performances which are excellent. Providing a good room presence with a warm, mellow tone and a clean bright brassy edge. Occasionally you could hear a little wind and reed noise but no key action was apparent. The sax teamed up with a trumpet on T4 playing in a pleasing unison for a few bars before the trumpets first solo with its second solo on T6. It to had a clean open sound with a nice sharp brassy edge without being strident or hard. It also sounded as if the sax was either double tracked or a second part overdubbed on T5 and T6.
The piano occupied the forward stereo image from left of center to right of center being weighted towards the right hand speaker. It had a rich and mellow bottom end with a bright mid range and clean top registers that on a few notes were quite forcefull. It had good attack and no key or damper action was noted except maybe on T6. It too had reasonable presence. Good breaks and solos abound on most tracks.
Both guitar parts were placed dead center with the acoustic guitar right up front with a small amount of reverb and the electric guitar placed a little further back having lots of reverb. The acoustic guitar provided a good solo on T9 that was very clean and mellow with just a little finger and fret noise, creating a good room presence, while the electric guitar on T10 sat back in the mix creating that well known fuzz laden effect.
Both acoustic bass players were placed dead center just behind any other instrument. It tended to be just a little boomy with the string plucks coming across as dull and “soft” which caused the image to be less well defined. Despite this it was never lost in the mix providing several pleasing short breaks and a good solo on T3. No significant finger or neck noise was heard.
With four drummers I did expect to hear or feel some difference in the kit sound, this was not so except on T8 that provided the only major drum solo on the album. The kit was barely sat back and during the more lively performances almost appeared at the front. It had a fairly narrow image from just left of center to just right of center. The cymbals and hi-hat were clean and generally well detailed, the snare and toms we’re well damped with a short ring, rim shots were impactful and brush work on T7 and T9 well detailed. The kick drum was generally a dull well damped thud except during the solo on T8 when it was far more solid with a little beater noise making it more impactful. Percussive instruments to include, congas, tablas, wood blocks etc. all sounded open and natural with good imaging.
Overall reverb was short and low level providing just sufficient ambience to fill the sound out and provide a little warmth.
The lack of image depth and cluttered instrumental placement plus the musicians not feeling very tight didn’t enhance the performance. So while many of the individual performances were very good the sum total was less than stellar. Unfortunately my CD sample also had several significant and repeatable drop outs/mutes on track 10.
Despite my technical concerns I am sure that those listening to the music will enjoy the various styles and compositions that Matt has created with his fellow musicians.
Playback note: Reviewed using my Denon DBP A100 over Denon Link 3. Speakers; a stereo pair of Genelec 1038’s and four SVS subs.
Disclosure: This CD was provided by Kari-On Productions for my review. No financial compensation was provided.
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