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Reviews: Christy Baron: Steppin'

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Reviews: 5

Review by Christine Tham April 9, 2003
Performance:   Sonics:
This is Christy Barron's second album on Chesky Records, and the only one available on Super Audio CD. This is a Hybrid Multichannel disc. On this album, Christy sings jazz and R&B arrangements of various pop tunes, including "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel, "This Must Be Love" by Phil Collins, plus 'standards' such as "She's Not There" and "The Shadow Of Your Smile."

First of all, the multi-channel track. Like most Chesky SACDs, the extreme high frequencies are somewhat rolled off and comes across as somewhat unnatural. The centre channel is silent and the rear speakers are only lightly used for ambience and soundstage extension. The subwoofer seemed to be only lightly used. For some reason, I found Christy's vocals to be somewhat "echo-y" and reverberant, and her voice is much more natural on the stereo SACD and CD tracks.

I found the stereo SACD and CD tracks very similar and hard to distinguish from one another based on casual listening.

I remember listening to a friend's copy of this very briefly and was enthralled by it. Now that I own a copy, I'm not sure I like it that much although it is quite pleasant to listen to.

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Review by eesau October 17, 2004
Performance:   Sonics:
Avoid this SACD. It was recorded "live" but with digital samples e.g. for percussion. The result is a sonic disaster. Her voice has also been modified eletronically. I just don't want to listen to this SACD because her performance is poor. This SACD is an exception in Chesky's excellent catalog of multi-channel audio.

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Review by DeSelby February 26, 2005 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Sonics:
stereo sonics: very good sound(stage). I do not agree with the statement of eesau. Admitted, it is not a typical Chesky entirely acoustic latin jazz record. Sometimes it almost sounds psychodelic. What of it? I do not like that always the same, boring latin jazz very much. I am glad about new ideas in music and sound. Who needs the 6744th Bossa Nova record?

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Review by thedogguy January 7, 2006 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   
I had blessedly forgotten about this terrible mis-step in the career of Christy Baron until I came upon the reviews here. I can't comment on the sonics of the SACD--I've only had the sad experience of listening to the original redbook CD. This is truly wretched, folks. Christy is a wonderful singer and Chesky is a fine label for audiofile recordings but this is the worst concept I've ever encountered. The problem is the co-producer Didier Rachou (who apparently had a freehand to experiment with any and all gimmicks available). As if the sampling and programming were not bad enough, he even threw in Tuvan throat singing!

If you're into vandalism, you might appreciate this recording. Rachou was the vandal who was apparently intent on destroying Christy Baron's career and Chesky's reputation. For the life of me, I can't understand why it has been released on SACD. It should have been allowed a merciful death in the back of the catalog.

Performance: Nothing, zero, no stars. I can't rate the sonics.

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Review by Whitehall January 25, 2007 (0 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Just one gimmick after another. Sound in stereo is not too bad but the content is appalling.

Save your money.

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