Living Stereo, Belafonte at Carnegie Hall

Greetings All:

I visited a local Annual Rummage Sale recently to browse any vinyl that may have been donated. I was fortunate to find a very clean copy of RCA Living Stereo's double lp Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall.
Man oh man, pops, clicks, and a bit of surface noise aside, this is a most amazing sonic delight. Talk about dynamics, and vocal presense - not overpowering in any sense, as the instruments are very well defined deeper in the soundstage; what I mean is that this guy is standing in the room between my speakers in a most believable natural voice. The only other time I had a sense of this was auditioning a monoraul Dylan recording through about $100,000 worth of electronics at a not-so-local audio salon. The orchestra is powerful, and the brass has a bite that sounds oh, so right, and as I previously mentioned the acoustic quartet backing Belafonte's is never overpowered. I could not find any mention in the liner notes of who the engineer was, but apparently this person knew their trade.
Belafonte may not necessarily be your cup of tea, but you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy if you ever cross paths during one of your hunts; you will not be disappointed.
Interestingly, Better Records has a Hot Stamper of this for the low, low price of $599.99! I paid a buck, and now I am trying to convince my wife that I should be able to spend at least $300 on additional vinyl because of the incredible savings on my part. Mmmm...

 

Interesting. How did they record that kind of fidelity at Carnegie Hall?

I need to listen to this one. Sounds like I'm in for a treat.

 

The recording engineer for HB Returns To Carnegie Hall was Bob Simpson, God bless him, so I believe it was him the first time also.

Goran

 

It can be found with relative ease for a dollar. I don't know about the HOT stampers, but I'm sure I have several copies of this lp from thrift stores and garage sales.

 

Does anyone have the SACD of this one? http://www.musicdirect.com/product/74726
It expensive and I've heard not great things about it on other boards but I'd like to have the opinion of someone here before I put out for it..

 

RCA many moons ago reissued the album in CD -- only, to save money, the label removed most of the copyrighted songs. A lot of the patter, went, too.

A criminal act equal to Capitol's butchering of the Judy at Carnegie Hall album, which was eventually rectified.

 

Issued and repressed a lot, unlike some other Belafonte work.

Not rare, but the different cuts vary in overall quality as do most of the Living Stereo originals. Some are good, some are magic.

 

I'm gonna have to look to see which ones I have, but I remember at one time I had to stop myself from buying any more of them. I see original HB Living Stereo's all over the place.

 

....or you could hunt for the Classic CDs "Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall" and "Harry Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall"......

 

I have the SACD. It's OK, but is missing a couple of cuts that were on the original vinyl and original CD. The original CD I have is a two-disc Japanese set (RCA R30P-1001-02). The SACD is a single disc that lacks "Take My Mother Home," "Man Piaba," "All My Trials," and "Merci Bon Dieu," all of which are on the original vinyl and the CD. Sound-wise, the SACD is fine, but the original CD is good too, and, with the missing cuts, may be preferable to the SACD.

In answer to a couple of other questions in this thread, the SACD lists Bob Bollard as the original producer, and Bob Simpson and Tony Salvatore as the engineers.

 

I only wished that BMG/RCA* in America would've done it right the first time and reissued it as a Two-CD set...but,they did not...instead,they did the ultimate sin in reissues and reissued it with several tracks missing as a 1-CD set....messy,and reminicent of Kansas' "Two For The Show"! What a waste of money I'd plunked down for THAT disaster! Michael Boyce

 

Damn! I wish I'd said that a few posts earlier.

Oh, wait...

 

The late 60's pressings of the album on the RCA Orange label is also very good and does not have the phase issues of the original nipper pressings.

 

I recently found a sealed copy of this at a yard sale - paid a dollar. Put it up on ebay just to see how it would do, sold for $125. Pretty sure it was a first pressing.

 

"Belafonte At Carnegie Hall" is probably the only non-classical LP from the late 50's/early 60's where the stereo pressings outnumber the monos.

 

I agree, the Classic has wider sound stage and better dynamic range. I also think that paying more than $50 would be too much.

But the original stereo pressing with dead wax ending in -1S, -1S, -1S and -1S on each side (with A1, A1, C1 and A2 mother codes, respectively) pressed at the Indianapolis plant is something special. It has more tube magic.

 

It must be a million to one chance to find such stamper in NM condition consider RCA sold over a million copies.

The Classic 45 rpm,180 gram reissue box set is the best I heard.

 

I thought surely that I must have a -1S pressing due to the sonics on the copy I picked up, but not to be had; -11S is the best I can do. I'm not what one would call a huge fan of Belefonte, but if I come across another copy of this, I'll gladly shell out another $1 just to make a comparison to the one I just scored.

 

I thought that was done to make the album fit onto one 74 minute CD?

 

Most likely it was. The Japanese CD release was done correctly, with two discs and all of the original material. Unfortunately, for the SACD, RCA reverted to one disc.

 

I own the original Living Stereo, Classic Record (LP/Gold)

The Classic remaster sounds great.... more presence and better dynamics.

 

According to my Aunt, I could sing Mama Look A Boo Boo before I could even talk (in the very early 60's)

This album mesmerized me as a little child. My relatives would play it and I would be transfixed to the record player.

Thanks Harry!

 

Yeah, my folks played it a lot; a real ripper!

 

Except releases on Command (Persuasive Percussion) and other audiophile-oriented releases.

Interesting to note that Bob Bollard, A&R on this vaunted disc, was associated with Cook Records, an early audiophile label.