Max Haymer – Whirlwind-Live At Sam First – 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
Please see here for my comments on reviewing albums.
Track List:
- So In Love
- Whirlwind
- Proof Of Evil
- Gold Plated Dime
- Welcoming
- Killing Time
- Passed Time
- Love For sale
Line Up:
- Piano – Max Haymer
- Acoustic Bass – David Robaire
- Drums – Dan Schnelle
This album was recorded live on the 8th & 9th June at Sam First Bar, LA. It was engineered by Nick Calamine, mixed by Henry Beal and mastered by Nate Wood.
As the pianist for Arturo Sandoval, leading his own trio and acting as the west coast accompanist for singer Jane Mannheim, this album is Max Haymers’ first release since Pickpocket Witness in 2008. Max won 2nd place honors at both the Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano and Great American Jazz Piano competitions, also making finalist in the Horace Silver Piano and UWF Phillips Jazz Piano Competitions.
This is clearly a club recording, with surprisingly very dry acoustics, having a low level short reverb and no echo. It almost sounded anechoic when the audience clapped!
There was negligible system electronics noise as the tracks were faded up and the recordings dynamics were a little restricted for the piano, the kit certainly had its moments and the double bass sounded quite well rounded out. The miking technique produced a set back image behind my speakers with the piano set off to the LHS, the kit central but well spread across the image and placed furthest back, while the acoustic double bass always appeared dead center towards the front. Little information appears right of center accept an occasional tom, the snare, hi-hat and a cymbal. There was never sufficient presence from the performance to “appear” in my room. The image creating a view of the performance as if I was in the audience and back from the stage with image depth being rather shallow.
Musicianship was very good providing a tight, enjoyable and entertaining performance. Room reverb was relatively short and quite low level, giving the performance a slightly muffled and “less than lively” flat sound. The instrumental breaks and solos for the piano, double bass and kit all sounding very natural, tight and clean but lacking in “sparkle”.
The kit provided a good dynamic range with powerful rim shots and a tight well damped snare with clean and detailed brush work (T2,T6,T8). A well damped set of toms and clean and well imaged high-hat and cymbals filled the image out with a rarely prominent kick drum creating a solid well damped thud. T5 & T9 providing good kit breaks. The acoustic double bass provided several breaks (T2,T4, & T8), they were solid and tight and some fingering noise could be heard, but generally sounding slightly soft and dull with little detail, needing in my opinion to be brought further forward into the mix on occasions. The piano had a pleasant tone showing no key or damper action (T7 solo), but generally its dynamics were a little lacking and the notes were short on edge and brilliance, sounding somewhat dull.
The most obvious technical issue was lack of overall impact, top end detail and immediacy. However, these may all be as a result of the club acoustics and/or the miking techniques used. Maybe the piano had its lid down? Either way it was certainly not the musicians performance.
I am not a big fan of many live recordings. While they often retain much of the emotion and excitement that an audience can generate I find that the technical performance is often far from audiophile, it is just the nature of many a live venue.
This musical performance is an enjoyable listen and reasonably well recorded. I am sure that jazz fans, and in particular followers of Max, will enjoy the trios tight and well integrated live venue performance.
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 Mouthpiece Music for my review. No financial compensation was provided.
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For more on Max Haymer see here.
See my other Mouthpiece Music reviews.
