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Reviews: Chet Baker: Baker's Holiday

Reviews: 2

Review by Croc November 4, 2009 (1 of 6 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
very nice disc.
music is easy and relaxed.
sonics are good indeed.

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Review by Dmitry. January 3, 2011
Performance:   Sonics:
Just bought this title on a Hybrid SACD from Verve, and compared it to my late 1990s Japanese MiniLP cd.
The original recording quality appears to have been far from perfect in terms of the microphone positioning, etc, with only Baker in the middle, while the rest of the band is divided sharply between the r & l speakers, almost not mixing. The horns are on the left, while the rhythm section is on the hard right.
For what its worth, the sacd sounds fuller, with more definition, than the Japanese cd, but the difference is not tremendous. I did not play the red book layer of the sacd, so can't comment on its sound.
The music itself leaves much to be desired, imho, with Chet's singing lacking in pretty much everything that these songs contained when sung by Billie Holiday, on both the musical, as well as the spiritual levels. The arrangements are nothing to write home about also. I don't know what the circumstances and purpose of this project were originally, but this is not one of my favorites of Chet's. Perhaps if the whole album [nary 30 min. long] were instrumental, I would have enjoyed it more.
Also, the packaging of the Verve SACD sucks; the art department massacred the original cover, cutting off the edges of the original LP cover art, and inside the booklet there are some tasteless cartoons, which are supposed to represent Holiday, the band, etc. The graphics are poor.
I'm giving this SACD 3.5 stars for the sonics, since it appears that the mastering engineer did all he could with the mediocre recording.

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