Listener comments!

Fri. 5/4/07 10:20am From: Philip Tower

Love these programs. So does my dad.

Sun. 5/6/07 12:43am From: Mitch Golden

Question and comment: The question: Do you know how these records were played for this talk? Were they playing tapes of the records, or playing the records live? On what sort of machine were they reproduced?

The comment: a correction to the playlist - Kunstadt says the spelling was Jordon, not Jordan. (Or was he mistaken?)

Sun. 5/6/07 8:33pm From: Jerry

Hi Mitch- Just before the Fletcher Henderson record, Ray Wile mentions that Merritt Malvern (who was an audio engineer) made the transfers to tape, with no filtering. So, they were listening to a tape recording on that day. Sometime before the program, he must have played the discs electrically using a modern (1970s) turntable - into a tape recorder, probably a reel-to-reel. The reason you hear so much surface noise is because he didn't apply any equalization (a.k.a. "filtering"). Some people prefer to listen to electrical playback of acoustical recordings without any equalization.

Wed. 5/9/07 4:22pm From: Keith

Jerry -- regarding some people's preference for no equalization -- it is understandable when you hear so many digitized recordings ruined by overuse of Digital Signal Processing. I hear so many artifacts and midrange distortions from DSP, overcompression and low bitrates that it becomes unlistenable. A true audio professional can sometimes work miracles, but much of what I hear on the Internet is amateur restoration.

Fri. 5/25/07 4:58am From: stuart

great programme: the enthusiasm and knowledge of the presenters is quite infectious. and i love the transfers: no processing: you get a real feel for the music. more please!!

Tue. 5/29/07 8:12pm From: Linda Fitak

Listen to Kunstadt's comments after the end of song number 6- Undertaker Blues by Helen Gross.Listen specifically starting at 42 minutes 45 seconds.I "think" i hear Kunstadt saying "Rosa Henderson met his requirements.Edison measured them around to see if they had the right circumference figuring out their vocal qualities."
I wonder exactly where Edison measured them around? The waist or someplace higher up?And i wonder what he measured them with?A tape measure or maybe his arms.
And what measurements did Rosa Henderson have that met his requirements?
Maybe Edison "measuring them around" was referring to recording horns but sounds like to me it was some sort of physical measure of the singer themselves.Please listen to this and e-mail me back what you think.I would really like some opinions.Also the other person on the program with Kunstadt seems embarrassed or very uneasy with what Kunstadt says.See id you hear that too. thanks, Linda

Tue. 5/29/07 9:29pm From: Jerry

Hi Linda. I think Len K was goofing around there, not serious.

Wed. 5/30/07 9:13pm From: Linda Fitak

If Kunstadt was not serious and goofing around and improvised the whole story about Edison and singers measurements my husband came up with a good reply if he could have been there-My husband would have asked Kunstadt if any college has a math class on computations for measuring singers and meeting the parameters for fulfilling requirements to determine their vocal qualities.
I never knew before that the qualities of determining a good jazz singer were such an exact science.
But then again, Edison was a very "scientific" man familiar with all kinds of measurements and equasions because of his inventions.

Fri. 6/8/07 9:56am From: Jerry

Okay, my apologies to Linda. Here's a correction. The following quotation is from page 50 of the book "Edison Diamond Disc Record Labels & Discography" by Charles Gregory, in the article titled "The Diamond Disc's Director of Artist and Repertoire - Thomas Alva Edison" by Jack Stanley. Stanley writes of TAE: "He studied many singers and did a major study on Elizabeth Spencer. She was one of Edison's favorite sopranos. He had doctors study her head to see why she sounded so nice to him."
So, Len Kunstadt may have been referring to that story, or a similar one. Maybe he saw or heard about the same documents that Jack Stanley used to write his article. (I knew Edison studied the sound of vocalists on recordings vs. live, etc. But I wasn't aware before that he had a doctor study Elizabeth Spencer's head.)

Wed. 5/28/08 5:06pm From: Colin Age 11 From Austin, TX

Cool playlist. I love the Jazz. The Fletcher Henderson was intresting, and so was the Mal Hallet. Big Fan of the Georgia Melodians and Wilbur Sweatman.

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