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Sidney Bechet: "Maple Leaf Rag," 1932
People have been making recordings for more than a century. What is the oldest recording you own that you still find time to listen to?
A 27 year-old skydiving pal of mine and I just had this conversation over margaritas Saturday night. I told him of the three albumns I stacked on my record player every night as I went to sleep. The brand new Doors album, Ray Charles' Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul and Sviatoslav Richter playing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concierto #2. The Doors fell off the list, Mr. Charles' record has been replaced several times and still gets me, but the Rachmaninoff record, from a boxed set, still sounds pretty good, though it is no longer my favorite rendition. I also have some very old Wagner Ring LP sets on both 33RPM and 78RPM discs, but they are new to me.
The Quartetto Italiano from '52 or '53 playing late Beethoven quartets, or maybe Charlie Parker With Strings (late '40s?). Regrettably, and unlike Sam Tellig, I am distracted by the sound and short recording times of recordings from much before that.
I first began attending live concerts as a Freshman at the University of Utah,in 1958: none were available in the thinly-populated areas I grew up in. This is when I began buying records. I still have many of them. The oldest I still play regularly are by Ramsey Lewis ("Hang on Ramsey") and Bruno Walter's Mahler 9th. Both were recorded in 1959, I believe. Both still sound wonderful, better than 90% of the new stuff I still buy. In spite of being plowed by my first player (a Pilot portable)and several ancient Pickerings, Shures, and the like, these furrows are still remarkably fertile...lower noise than many LP's I bought in the '70's and '80's and believable presence and soundstaging. I am convinced they will last another century, at least,even though I certainly won't.
I just listened to the RCA Living Stereo SACD of Fritz Reiner's Also Sprach Zarathustra, recorded in 1954. It doesn't exactly sound like it was recorded yesterdayactually, it sounds like it was recorded long ago in a galaxy far, far away (oooops, wrong movie). It has plenty of hiss, but the hiss is strangely disembodied from the music. Let's just say it sounds otherworldlyrecorded by the gods and dropped down to earth for our perpetual listening pleasure.
Machito Afro cuban Jazz mercury 10" recording from 1950, I pulled it of the shelf today and it's in great shape! I also own some 78s, but I don't listen to them. I have no 78 stylus or cartridge. We're not talking about reissues are we?
I have recordings that were recorded in the 1950s. Many jazz titles by all the greats. The first CD I bought is Stevie Wonder's In Squared Circle in 1983. I still listen to it from time to time. But the recording itself is not good compared to some of todays recordings.