Should There Be More TJB Remixes?

[Bullish '84]

Having Herb's "Passion Dance" album and other artist's projects in DTS 5.1 or DVD-Audio, I would fully agree with Steve Sidoruk on a possible Surround Sound project. Imagine something like "The Sea Is My Soil" lushly remixed, with those strings filling the room, with Herb's trumpet discreetly coming from the center channel or at least nicely split throughout the front soundstage. Fantastic!!

My feeling about "REWHIPPED" is that the original album should have been only used as a platform. Meaning the main "hit" cuts and just a few others forming the heart of it, with other well known TJB cuts that were better suited to remixing forming the rest of the album! That way I don't have to leap for my remote to skip by a hip-hop polka!!!!

Better yet, Herb or whatever producer/collaborator he hooks up with next need to simply start fresh with 10-12 new cuts, and pair him with a dream list of artists-in the mold of the album that put Carlos Santana back on the map a few years back(Remember "Smooth", and all those Grammy's!). I really wouldn't mind a Herb Alpert-Sting or a Herb with Rob Thomas duet for example. But celebrating that classic Alpert sound. It's time!!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

maybe Herb will finally change his mind

There's no need for him to change his mind. We've been told the rest of the catalog will be released. Patience will bring rewards.

 

[Dave]

Well, it would be neat to see WHAT albums we'd like to see/will be remixed... We could still keep the "Certain Song" and "No!" option... I think it would be interesting to keep track of "which albums" are in the lead...


Dave

 

[ormandy]

No, I don't think there should be any remixes at all - who needs them? What's wrong with the originals?

I agree. The only remix I want to hear
is the mono versions of these great albums.
That's the one thing Capitol Records did right
with their biggest selling act.

 

[Ed Bishop]

5.1 remixes, if feasible, I'd go for...nothing else, though.

 

[Rudy]

5.1 remixes, if feasible, I'd go for...nothing else, though.

Wish they could--weren't many of these albums all recorded on 3-track at Gold Star originally? There was a Quad-8 of "Greatest Hits" though, wasn't there? I'm wondering how that sounded.

 

[Ed Bishop]

The early stuff is 2 or 3-track, IIRC...but eventually they must have recorded 4-track and higher, and that's the most logical stuff to remix to 5.1, if Herb were up to it. SH would know more about that, though...

 

[Rudy]

The early stuff is 2 or 3-track, IIRC...but eventually they must have recorded 4-track and higher, and that's the most logical stuff to remix to 5.1, if Herb were up to it. SH would know more about that, though...

I'd guess that everything through "Beat Of The Brass" was Gold Star. Not sure about "Warm" and "Brass Are Coming" (don't have the rekkids in front of me), but I know that "Summertime" and everything after had a different sound to it.

I think that the Brasil '66 album "Equinox" was the first multitrack A&M album; Bruce Botnick engineered it. Some of the Brasil '66 albums would sound neat in surround, IMHO...

 

[Harry]

Having not heard them, I wonder if the quad mixes of GREATEST HITS were actually discrete 4 channels, or was it some kind of matrix sound trickery that gave the illusion of four channels, like switching one's amp to a fake-surround sound setting.

Harry

 

[Ed Bishop]

Agreed on the Mendes: that stuff would be quite nice in Quad!

As for the GREATEST HITS 8-track....haven't played that in many a year, but do remember that more than a few tracks had little more than either ambience in the rears, or the same information in the back as in the front, only slightly time-delayed at best. Not true of ALL the tracks, though, a few of the later recordings were more discrete in the mix, IIRC.

If most of the '60s TJB's were 3-track, making a sensible 5.1 mix would be difficult, since you'd realistically have to mix them for the front L/C/R's, leaving ambience or duplication in the rears. Which is why the more logical choice would be 4.0, and the rears saved for, perhaps, percussion and the occasional vocal sounds. It could certainly be done, and goes without saying the later the recording, the more satisfying the mix would be. Although I'm not a big fan of the late '70s/'80s Herb material(not the way I am of the '60s), those tapes would be great fun remixed to 5.1, there's a lot of potential there.

The only recording I'd figure to be hopeless in Quad was one that was: "The Lonely Bull" itself. Mixed to mono only, with the redone trumpet to fill the second stereo channel, a twin-track, in essence, so there's really not much that could be done(or was)to make it work as a 4-channel, and impossible as a 5.1, obviously. But if a 5.1 comp were made, they'd have to do something with it, can't very well leave out the first and most important recording in A&M's(and the TJB's)history.

 

[Harry]

"Mexican Shuffle" would present another problem, since it's essentially a mono track.

And the original "Whipped Cream" song is a basic centered mono track with Herb's twin trumpets on either side of the stereo "stage".

Harry