With this release, the folks at super-budget
Naxos
begin what listeners hope will be a long string of low-priced, but not cheap, reissues of the output of
the Quintet of the Hot Club of France
. Throughout,
the Quintet
consists of
Django
and
Joseph Reinhardt
, and
Roger Chaput
or
Pierre Ferret
on guitars, bassists
Louis Vola
Tony Rovira
, and the inimitable
Stephane Grappelli
on violin; on
"Avalon,"
they are joined by three trumpets and a trombone. Now that these recordings are in the public domain, lots of small labels have taken a crack at them in the CD era, so these performances are around and will continue to be circulated as long as people have ears. But
' edition is very tempting not only for the price, but for the manner in which producer
David Lennick
has tried to let the natural sound of the original 78s come through. Unlike most labels large and small,
Lennick
doesn't roll off the bass, so at last those who do not collect 78s can hear the booming tones of
the QHCF
basses. Nor does he roll off or exaggerate the treble, or remove all of the swishing sounds in some of the pressings. As a result, although transfers like those of
"St. Louis Blues"
"Some of These Days"
still do not quite have the presence of the originals, they do have a surprising amount of life, and
"It Don't Mean a Thing"
actually benefits from the improved clarity. As a result, these transfers could change a lot of present-day perceptions about this vital, swinging outfit. While the CD covers most, though not all, of the early
Ultraphone
Decca
sessions of
,
scrambles up the chronological sequence, the one miscalculation in an otherwise promising launch. ~ Richard S. Ginell