Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/062992/0629440.000

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 4KB | 77 lines

                                                                                MUSIC, Page 73

Time Capsules


Saving jazz classics by tuning them to modern ears

By THOMAS SANCTON


    Some of the greatest American music of the 20th century
was recorded in the 1920s and '30s by the likes of King Oliver,
Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Bix Beiderbecke. Trouble
is, the 78 r.p.m.s they left behind give only a scratchy
approximation of what their bands sounded like. Much of this
classic material was reissued on LPs, but the technology used
to reduce the surface noise often left the instruments sounding
dead and flat. Now the advent of the CD has spawned another
prodigious outpouring of reissues. And finally someone has had
the time, affection and sheer wizardry to bring this great music
alive for the hi-fi era: Australian sound engineer Robert
Parker.

    Parker's Jazz Classics in Digital Stereo series, produced
by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) and now widely
available in U.S. record stores for the first time, is a miracle
of sound restoration. Starting with mint-condition 78s (his
collection numbers more than 20,000), Parker applies a variety
of noise-suppression, equalization and enhancement techniques
to produce a digital stereo re-creation.

    The result is a three-dimensional sound image with much of
the presence, depth and dynamics of a live band. Trumpets bite,
cymbals sizzle, bass strings snap and ring. Like an art
restorer who scrapes off centuries' worth of grime to reveal the
vibrant colors of the original, Parker makes it possible to hear
the music as it must have sounded in New Orleans dance halls
and Harlem ballrooms 60 years ago.

    The son of an Australian electrical engineer, Parker began
collecting old 78s at age 12 and soon started experimenting with
various speakers, amplifiers and filters to improve on their
sound. He perfected his method over three decades. When he went
public with some of his stereo re-creations on Australian radio
in 1982, the audience response was so enthusiastic that abc
offered him a regular radio show and began producing his albums.
Parker continued the series after moving to England in 1990 and
has so far turned out some 60 albums, 26 of which have been
rereleased in the U.S. through DRG Records.

    Sitting in his studio in Devon, Parker, 55, speaks
passionately about his work. "It's really miraculous when you
think about it," he says, taking a shiny black record from its
jacket. "These little shellac disks are like time capsules." He
marvels at the amount of sonic information that was originally
captured on the old records -- far more than the primitive
playback techniques of the time were able to reproduce.

    Parker is not aiming at archival preservation. In fact,
some jazz purists fault him for taking liberties with the
original material. Parker shrugs off the charge. "There's this
romantic notion that cracks and surface noise are part of the
charm of the old 78s. Not for me." And certainly not for the
vast majority of the listening public -- particularly younger
music fans -- who have grown used to CDs and sophisticated sound
equipment. "Here's this amazing American cultural heritage
locked in an antique technology," says Parker, "and that's a
barrier to a younger generation that might find much value,
interest and excitement in this music. My goal is to break down
that barrier."