When Columbia Records released the Minneapolis' after hours recordings of Charlie Christian, the listener was warned, 'The technical quality of these selections is admittedly inferior to the commercial recordings.' Not anymore! New digital transfers from the original acetates restore the sound quality. Dating from 1939-40, Christian leaps into the room with his driving rhythm guitar and ultra-modern solos.
Uptown Records acquired the Jerry Newhouse acetates. The collection contained the 4 tracks that Newhouse had recorded at the Harlem Breakfast Club in Minneapolis (after a Benny Goodman concert in St. Paul). Newhouse had contacted Columbia Records in the early 1970s, but provided the record company with analogue dubs (Jerry Jerome also received a set of these dubs). Analogue technology meant that the second generation dubs sounded muddy with no highs. The Uptown CD contains transfers from the original discs. There is one unissued Benny Goodman track (Sheik Of Araby from April 26, 1940), but what is important is that the Benny Goodman transfers are also made from Jerry Newhouse's original acetates. In the 1970s, Jerry Valburn issued some of these tracks on his Jazz Archives label, but Valburn (and Jack Towers) never used the digital technology to make transfers and dealt with acetate noise by rolling off the highs. Sure foreign companies have released these tracks copying Valburn LPs (Proper, the Barcelona Bandits) (Arbors used the Jerry Jerome second generation dubs). Nobody has ever had access to the original acetates and transferred them correctly.We hope you will like the Uptown Charlie Christian CD.
Uptown Jazz
