Sep 292013
 

i’ve been trying to avoid downloading something from dime-a-dozen, saying “wow, this is great!” and turning around and sharing it here.  but i’m going to make a couple of exceptions, for this post and the next, because they both really hit me just right and to celebrate starting up again after the hiatus caused by my move to seoul, korea.

this show by j.r.monterose & hal miller (both new to me, like so many things that I download from dime) was a real case of serendipity.  i was sampling a few recent downloads quickly, with an eye to something that i’d want to listen to, something that would also be suitable for a dinner party that my favorite diplomat was holding, something new and a little bit different than “the usual suspects”…

a bit of a tall order.  but this seemed just that something so i dropped my search and listened to it all the way through: perfect.  then on the night, i put it on early for a bit of reality-checking, heard about half of it: still perfect.  and then again when i restarted it before the guests arrived: yep, just the thing.

clocking in at just under 2-1/2 hours, and good enough to take 3 listenings in 12 hours?  well, that deserves an exception.  so here it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/j._r._monterose
http://chuckdaloiamusic.com/
http://vocaltraditions.com/hal_miller.html


j. r. monterose and hal miller
justin’s
albany, ny
21 april 1990

j. r. monterose – tenor saxophone
chuck d’aloia – guitar
hal miller – drums
luther brown – bass
walter donnaruma – electric piano

set one
01 nardis (first 12 seconds mono-jr monterose out)/tuning up 10:46
02 blue bossa/tenderly 11:58
03 tenderly, cont. 09:51
04 bags’ groove, announcements 11:11

set two
05 a night in tunisia 15:21
06 my old flame 11:58
07 unknown blues, announcements 11:44

set three
08 tuning 02:12
09 my one and only love 11:05
10 lady bird 11:46
11 a nightingale sang in berkley square 14:00

set four
12 well you needn’t 10:48
13 what’s new/announcements 12:00

master:
2 sennheiser 441s and sony tc-d5m
microphones placed on the front of the stage at instrument level
microphones spread 12 feet apart – right pointing towards the drum set and left pointing towards the guitar amp and sax

justin’s is a small club on lark street in albany.
i think the event was billed “hal miller and friends”.

we’re not sound engineers, we were just experimenting with microphone placement and i think we really got it right for this tape!
transfer:
playback maxell xl2-s cassette masters on sony tc-d5m to marantz pmd-670


sample:  jrmonterose_albany_042190_set1_04_sample.mp3

download: JRMonterose_1990-04-21_AlbanyNY.zip