{"product_id":"heathswing_2605xx","title":"Heath, Ted - Swings In High Stereo - Super Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis album has Demo Disc sound like you will not believe. Just listen to Heath's arrangement of \"Big Ben,\" the second track on side two, for audiophile quality Big Band sound the likes of which you may have never heard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Swings In High Stereo Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221958%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1958\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduction and Engineering\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22Kenneth-Wilkinson%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKenneth Wilkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e was the engineer for these sessions in glorious \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22kingsway-hall%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKingsway Hall\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. It's yet another remarkable disc from the Golden Age of Vacuum Tube Recording.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe gorgeous hall the London Symphony recorded in was one of the best venues of its day. Scores of amazing sounding recordings were made there by Decca using an All Tube Recording Chain being fed by the Decca \"Tree\" miking setup.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a solidity and richness to the sound that goes beyond practically any other recordings we know of, yet clarity and transparency are not sacrificed in the least.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Sound\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth sides are smooth, dynamic, open and clear with all of the richness and weight that makes the music seem bigger and more energetic. When the band gets going the sound is really jumpin'!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe brass is never \"blary\" the way it can be on so many Big Band or Dance Band records from the 50s and 60s. (Basie's Roulette records tend to have a bad case of blary brass as a rule.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSharp transients and mostly correct tonality and timbres, powerful brass -- practically everything you want in a top quality Hot Stamper is here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Swings In High Stereo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, full-bodied bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSwing Is King\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany consider Ted Heath's early London recordings to be some of the best big band ever recorded. (We had a copy of Heath's Shall We Dance not long ago that had some of the biggest, richest, most powerful sound I have ever heard. Watch for Hot Stampers coming to the site soon.) The American big bands rarely got the kind of sound that the Decca engineers were able to achieve on records like this. For one thing they didn't have Kingsway Hall, Kenneth Wilkinson or the Decca \"Tree\" microphone setup.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike some of the American big band leaders who were well past their prime by the advent of the two-channel era, Heath is able to play with all the energy and verve required for this music. He really does swing in high stereo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTed Heath was a giant in the world of Big Band and everybody who was anybody knew it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCount Basie:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003eYou’ve got a band... Ted Heath... He scares me to death... When they sent those first Heath records over to the States they really knocked everybody out... For me I think Ted is the best precision band and so very entertaining…I mean so far as I’m concerned I think Ted is the most.\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStan Kenton:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003eYour music has become such an institution it seems that we have always had it... I do know that without you, big band music and jazz would not be as it is today... Your taste and integrity in guiding your arrangers, composers and musicians has always been of the highest order... You’ve done more than your share in exposing the best grade of music to those hungry for it all over the world...\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWoody Herman:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003eI saw the band and was incredibly impressed...one of the cleanest and swingiest of the big bands of the era... Always rated at the top of the list... You would hear more Ted Heath records than ours, Basie or Ellington...\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTubey Magic\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy of Swings In High Stereo has a lot in common with the other Decca and Living Stereo titles we've listed over the years, albums by the likes of Henry Mancini, Esquivel, Dick Schory, Edmundo Ros, Prez Prado and a handful of others. Talk about making your speakers disappear, these records will do it!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn album like this is all about Tubey Magical Stereoscopic presentation. For us audiophiles both the sound and the music here are enchanting. If you're looking to demonstrate just how good 1958 All Tube Analog sound can be, this killer copy may be just the record for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy is super spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience. Talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny. This is vintage analog at its best, so full-bodied and relaxed you'll wonder how it ever came to be that anyone seriously contemplated trying to improve it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis \u003ci\u003eis\u003c\/i\u003e the sound of Tubey Magic. No recordings will ever be made like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. Someday there may well be a CD of this album, but those of us in possession of a working turntable could care less.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the way, the \"audience\" for this recording is dubbed in, a common practice back in those days. It's not a problem; in its own way it kind of works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful originals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heath, Ted","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51800513839400,"sku":"heathswing","price":149.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/products\/heathswing.jpg?v=1765912378","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/heathswing_2605xx","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}