Matt Monro Sings Hoagy Carmicheal / Words and Music

Just noticed this in the Singles Collection thread,

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=204171&page=8

So I thought I’d start a new one!

I know how you guys like all the technical details about releases so here’s the inside track on this one!

Words and Music – Released this coming Monday (Feb 7th) is a 4 disc set containing a (very) abridged recording of Michele Monro’s Biography “The Singer’s Singer – The Life and Music of Matt Monro”
The first set in the disc however is entitled The Hoagy Carmichael Sessions.
This contains the complete ‘Sing’s Hoagy Carmichael’ album along with the only other Carmichael song recorded by Matt, A piano Demo and more or less everything left over from the sessions.

Track listing

Matt Monro Sings Hoagy Carmichael
1. Stardust
2. Small Fry
3. How Little We Know
4. The Nearness Of You
5. Georgia On My Mind
6. Skylark
7. One Morning In May
8. I Get Along Without You Very Well
9. Memphis In June
10. I Guess It Was You All The Time
11. Blue Orchids
12. Rocking Chair

Bonus Tracks
13. Lazy River (Duet with Cleo Laine)
14. The Nearness Of You (With Piano - Acetate circa 1956)
15. Skylark (Previously Unissued Take)
16. I Get Along Without You Very Well (Unissued Take)
17. By The Way (Out-take and Master)

Ok – To the technical details

I had always wondered why the masters for this album contained as much tape hiss as they did.The standard practice back at Abbey Road in 1962 was to cut the master takes directly out of the session reels and this was no exception. The original sessions were recorded direct to Mono and Stereo simultaneously – the same mix feeding both machines. However on this occasion after the album was assembled, George Martin decided that he wasn’t happy with the overall sound. Some tracks required more compression and others required a different EQ. This was probably due to that fact the all the songs were recorded across 3 different sessions over a four month period.

So the Mono session tapes were dumped and new Mono and Stereo tapes were prepared by George and engineer Stuart Eltham. Hence the hiss!

During my research into Matt’s recording sessions for the special edition of Michele’s book, I discovered a tape marked “DO NOT USE FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS” which dated back to the Hoagy Sessions. When putting this album together, I pulled all of the Stereo tapes related to the sessions from the archives. Lo and behold this mysterious tape was actually the original compilation reel with the recordings cut directly from the session reels – George Martin had put the copyright instruction on the box to scare anybody from using it instead of the ‘Mastered’ version.

I listened to both the album master and the ‘copyright’ reels side by side. I was immediately struck by how much compression had been added to the whole album master and how little to most of the ‘copyright’ reel.

I decided that I would work from the newly found reel. The condition of the tape – considering it hadn’t been touched since 1962 – was fabulous apart from a couple of edits, which I’ll get to later.

The new master is NOT an untouched copy of the original compilation reel simply because the same problems that Martin & Eltham still needed to be tackled. The tracks from 2 sessions matched quite well, but the songs from the third needed to be EQ matched and there was a marked difference in the compression used on the ballads (too little) and the swing tracks (as a rule ok). I held back on the compression as much as possible, but couldn’t avoid adding as the originals in places had speaker blowing jumps in volume – something I wouldn’t have expected from Stuart Eltham.

The album was recorded whilst Matt was in summer season. He travelled to London on three Sundays to record the album, and only had a limited amount of time available on each occasion. This meant that each song was recorded quite quickly and so a few of the songs were edited from two or more takes. These edits were made directly to the session reels and compiled on the original compilation reel. A couple of these edits hadn’t survived very well and so a couple of small sections (less than a second) had to be copied from the album master to cover this problem.

On to the Bonus tracks.

Lazy River and The Nearness of You (Piano version) come from Monro Estate acetates. Lazy River is a duet with Cleo Laine from a now lost TV show. Why the acetate was cut (not off air, but in the studio) is unknown. Nearness was from a 78rpm 7 inch acetate from around about 1956 and in pretty ropey condition.

The two alternate takes are all that’s left of the rest of the session reels. Both songs as originally issued were cut from two or three takes. What was left was the parts that weren’t used.

I Get Along Without You Very Well was cut from two takes. Mainly take 8 with a small section of Take 7. For this CD I have reconstructed Take 7 from the off cuts and the section used in the master.

Skylark was a composite of three takes – two complete and one edit piece. This out-take is an edit of the unused sections left on the session reel.

By The Way is not a Hoagy Carmichael song. But it is the only other song recorded in those three sessions. All takes of this song survive, preserved on the reel with I Get Along and Skylark. The tape had never been edited as the song (up until the singles collection) had only been issued as a mono single, cut directly from the Mono session reel. Matt was having fun recording this song and made a rare mistake. This was such a fun out-take it was decided to included it before the master.

Hope you enjoy it!

 

Thanks for the great detailed information, Richard! I look forward to hearing this one. I'm still spinning the Complete Singles Collection set.

Cheers,
Chris

 

I have it on order.


Thanks for the technical info and interesting background story.

 

Yes indeed, most interested here. Pity about the edits but it does serve to remind us of what a personal hands-on manual process such recording was. Thank you Richard, for the insight. That extra mile will, I am sure, be rewarded with an album that is an even better listening experience than before. It's fantastic to see a superior release of this fine music.

 

Although this is an album I won't be purchasing (the box set serves my needs), it's always fascinating to hear the background information on releases such as this.

Much appreciated Richard.


Thanks.

 

Nothing planned at the moment. - The release was actually planned just as a talking book. Then EMI wanted a music disc to go with it and Michele decided that she didn't want yet another "Very Best Of" included.

However the whole set is for sale at £5.99 @ amazon etc so it's hardly going to break the bank!

I should just add that the all the Carmichael material (apart from the acetates) was transfered and remastered @ 24/96 just in case the option of a high res release (or download) appears in the future. Don't get excited this isn't going to happen anytime soon though!

Richard

 

I only have '50 yrs of recording' ,produced by George Martin
Which contains 'Portrait of my Love'
Which is exceptionally well recorded.

Hoagy Carmicheal is a great favourite of mine
This combination would be ace.
Roger

 

Many thanks for the information on this, Richard. Looking forward to it very much indeed - my order is placed!

 

The Matt Monro 'Complete Singles Collection' is most likely the single best value for money release I have in my collection.

Everything about the set is absolutely top rate.

This new set is priced very competitively too. I would hae paid Amazon's price just for the disc of Hoagy Carmichael material. Look on the audio book as an added bonus. If you're not into that sort of thing, you're not really any worse off.

Richard - thank you so much for taking the time to comment on your work on Matt's material - it is really appreciated.

Best Wishes
David

 

Really enjoying this album -it's in heavy rotation in my listening at the moment. Great restoration work, thank you.

I listened to the 'book on tape' biography- which I consider a 'freebie' with the album at this price- on journeys home from work in the car and found this very interesting, too.

Michelle Monro reads the phrase 'Caesar's Palace, Luton' without a trace of irony. If ever a phrase summed up the frustrations Matt Monro felt at times with the way his music was received, at times, in this country, the bathos of that night club location sums it up! Jazz and what apileocole calls 'adult pop', the standards - America's greatest gift to the world IMO - but we just can't quite get it right over here! Matt Monro was true to the cause, however - and this is, for me, his finest work. Thanks again, Richard!

 

Thanks Ian,

Yes, it's a set that can be looked at two ways as either a talking book with a bonus CD or a CD with a bonus talking book!

Glad your enjoying it!

 

I'm always a bit behind with picking up releases. But this new CD set has arrived at my door this week and I listened to the Carmichael album today. Outstanding! Really outstanding. Many thanks for this great recording. Just about everything is right here...

I've been picking up Monro releases for several years now, but have no idea how much Matt really recorded (I have not (yet?) picked up Michele's book). Do you have an approximation about how many of Matt's commercial recordings have yet to be re-issued on CD, Richard?

 

Apologies for the delay in replying - only just spotted this posting.

Most of Matt's recordings have been issued on CD over they years, with the exception of some tracks from his last two english language albums 'The Long and Widing Road" and "if I Never Sing Another Song" The only other album not to have been issued is 'We're gonna Change The World" but all of the songs from this have been issued on compilations. (In the USA this album was entitled 'Close to you' which included a different song 'Why Can't I Touch You' which hasn't seen CD release -mainly because the song is awful!)

A lot of Matt's LP's have been issued as 2 on 1's, but be warned some have heavy handed noise reduction and others are needle drops!!!

In September we are re-releasing the Box Set 'The Singer's Singer' originally issued in the 1990's ALL of the box set is being remastered apart from the songs that appeared on the Singles Collection or Words and Music as these don't need doing again any time soon. All are now coming from the original UK & US (for the Capitol years) Masters. It includes a couple of first time stereo and ALL of the Capitol tracks that came from a second generation mono master last time will be from a first generation Stereo this time! The main difference is the price (Similar to the Singles) and in a standard 4 disc case without the 96 page book (Now redundent after the full biography)

Is shall be working in 24/96 as usual.

I'll give a full run down of the work carried out when it's complete!

Coming in 2012 will be "The Rarer Monro" (Or Rare Monro vol 2 if you like) and will contain extremely rare material mostly unreleased.

If you want to know exactly what Matt recorded, look out for the special edition of Michele's book (available from Titan Books or Amazon UK - not stocked in any other country i'm afraid) which contains a second book called 'Special Reserve'. This book contains all known TV & Radio shows Matt appeared on, a worldwide discography and a COMPLETE session listing

Richard

 

Richard, as you are working in 24/96 for all of these, how big an exercise would it be to release these in 24/96 on a blu-ray disc?

Would Michele want to see them come out that way?

 

Highly unlikely i'm afraid.

Michele is happy to see anything come out in good quality, but EMI just wouldn't go for it! simply because there is such a small market. However I have kept all the 24/96 files so if EMI ever start selling hi res it's all done.

Richard

 

Thank you Richard Moore for all the information on the upcoming releases. I will look forward to them as I continue to enjoy the Hoagy Carmichael album.

 

Just bought this, and Richard, you are amazing. The Hoagy Carmichael album sounds like it was recorded yesterday, as opposed to 50 years ago. Love it! Been playing it often. Listened to one disc of the audio book so far.

I bought the remastered Singer's Singer box a few months ago thinking it would be all the Matt I need, but the more I listen to him, the more I want. Also bought the '97 Love Is The Same Anywhere CD, and awaiting delivery of the 2008 Matt Monro Sings CD (Blue And Sentimental). Also want to get the 2 rarities collections and the rest of the 60's albums on CD.

Just wondering if April Fool only exists in mono, as it's the only mono track on the stereo Love Is The Same Anywhere CD. Also wondering if there's any Matt releases on the horizon for 2013.

 

I have studied Matt's recording sessions in detail but have absolutely no concrete explanation as to why April Fool only exists in mono! Other songs recorded at the same session are in stereo.

The recording method was that they taped the sessions to both Stereo and Mono tape machines simultaneously and the master tape is actually made up of the master takes cut directly out of the session reels - April Fool being a mock stereo copy on the Stereo issue of course.

I can only guess that there was a fault on the Stereo tape, be it mechanical or technical, who knows! No session reels survive for this album so the exact reasons are lost in the mists of time.

April Fool as issued on the Singles Collection comes from the original Mono master (and there for session tape!)

No news about any other Monro releases - Problem is that his catalogue is now split between EMI UK (1960 - early 66 and 1971 - 84) and Capitol/Universal (rest of 1966 through to 1970) and until the sale of EMI UK goes through to whoever buys it, we don't know where we stand.

Richard