ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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Freddie Hubbard became in reality
one of the strongest and most magnetic
figures in modern jazz, before his lip
accident in 1992, and Open Sesame is
proof positive of the beginnings of his
greatness.
Seeds We Sow
Lindsey Buckingham
Eagle Records ER202142
Steve Bourke: First there was Lindsey
Buckingham the west coast guitarist and
folk-rock singer (and boyfriend of Stevie
Nicks), then there was Fleetwood Mac
and the fabulous success of Rumours, one
of the all-time great records of modern
rock and roll. Then came the more
mature and experienced artist, the one
we have admired for several years now,
who sings with a tortured passion that
can be almost difficult to experience.
The difficulty lies in how easy it is to
share and empathize with the artist.
He communicates his understanding of
emotion, both kind and sorrowful, in
such a facile way that there is no escape
from a deep reaction, to him and his
music. He sings with dynamic shifts
that perfectly convey the tenderness and
agony that love can bring, to him and to
us all. Buckingham may have mellowed
out over the last few years — after all he
is a happily married father and family
man. Still he calls up his original creative
drive at will.
Has his personal singing and writing
style changed much since his solo career
got under way? His voice sounds better
than ever. It has a burnished tone that
reflects his maturity, and it can cause an
internal wrenching in the musical heart
of his audience, be it a large group or a
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solo fan listening on the bus to work.
The title song is a message to all,
almost in the same league as Paul
Simon’s lyricism. Though Mr. Buckingham
injects an aging melancholy
into the spaces between the notes of his
compositions that sets his work apart
from everyone else. It is this sincere
emotionalism that marks his music as
worth hearing.
Other observers have called Buckingham
the creative force behind the
Fleetwood Mac band. Certainly his
guitar style is very much his own. No one
else uses rhythmic emphasis in a guitar
solo quite like Buckingham. He does it
just his way, and his way only. Yes, it is
reminiscent of parts of the Fleetwood
Mac repertoire, as it should be. Why
abandon a style that is still vigorous and
immediate? It is a style that holds the
listener, and I suspect still rejuvenates
Buckingham himself. After I had heard
the disc I wasn’t thinking about Fleetwood
Mac. I was still hearing the voice
and the individualism that makes Lindsey
Buckingham an artist who endures.
Rainbow People
Eric Bibb
Opus 3 CD7723
Gerard Rejskind: The American-born
Bluesman Eric Bibb lives part of the
time in Finland, and over the years he
has made a number of recordings for
the seminal Swedish audiophile label
Opus 3. We’ve given highly positive
review to his recent recordings, but he’s
been at this for a long time. How did he
sound at the beginning?
The original was of course on LP,
since it was recorded in 1977. For that
reason also, it’s shorter than more
recent digital discs. Curiously, it has
been released in multichannel format,
though the original was of course in
two-channel stereo. Jan-Eric Persson
has since dropped surround sound, and
is releasing his newer recordings in two
channel. I approve heartily.
This album, like pretty much all the
Opus 3 albums of the era, was a purist
Blumlein stereo job, using an AKG C-24
stereo microphone. Jan-Eric was choosing
the venue where his musicians would
have sounded best to a live listener. He
would then take time — a whole day if
need be — to find exactly the right place
for his microphones…or, in this case, his
microphone. That’s an expensive way of
recording if you have union musicians
with their meters ticking, but the result
is an amazingly coherent recording in
which no detail can escape your attention.
Jan-Eric once treated me to a demo
of one of his Blumlein recordings alongside
a recording of the same musicians
done with the mid-side microphone
method favored by such companies as
Decca. No comparison.
It’s interesting to compare the young
Eric Bibb (he was then just 26) with the
more mature singer we know from the
superb later recordings, Spirit & the
Blues, Good Stuff and Just Like Love. He
didn’t have the confidence he would later
acquire, which is no surprise, but his
talent and potential are already evident.
Lonesome Child Blues is especially excellent.
So is Look Over Yonder, a Gospel
song which presages his work on Spirit
& the Blues. Lead Me, Guide Me is an
astonishing duet with Cyndee Peters.
Peters was also an early Opus 3 artist,
with an album titled Black is the Color,
and I had forgotten how good she was.
On Sunday School, the weakest song on
the album, you can hear that Bibbs’ voice
control on sustained notes was not yet
what it would later become. Still, there’s
a lot to love on this album.
The sound? If you read our last
issue you’ll know that bad tape all but
destroyed the sound archives of a generation.
The master was made on Ampex
tape, too. Clearly it has survived well.
The high-definition on the SACD layer
of this hybrid disc is highly satisfying.
And there’s a vinyl version too!