Jack McDuff: Live at Parnell's, 1982

In June 1982, Brother Jack McDuff was in Seattle to play a week-long run at Parnell's, the city's major jazz club. Joining the organist was Danny Wollinski on tenor saxophone, Henry Johnson on guitar and Garrick King on drums. McDuff even brought along his own Hammond B3 organ for the date. Fortunately, the club's resident sound engineer, Scott Hawthorn, who was friends with McDuff, recorded the quartet. Now we can hear what this monster combo sounded like with the release of the previously unissued and digitally restored Jack McDuff: Live at Parnell's (Soul Bank).

But getting to the music's release wasn't a smooth ride. As the liner notes relate:

“Recorded [by Scott Hawthorne] on a C60 cassette through the venue's fairly basic sound desk, there were obvious shortcomings with the condition of the recordings themselves, tape degradation, flutter and the fact they were converted to MP3 in the very earliest days of that technology. Another serious problem was the organ's Leslie speaker, as Scott explains: “The Leslie 147 speaker cabinet had a rip in the bass woofer. The thing sounded fine until Jack would step on a B-flat or A bass pedal, and then a very loud buzz ensued."

Enter Soul Bank Music and the label's A&R chief, Greg Boraman, who played some of Hawthorne's original recordings for a friend, Claudio Passavanti, of audio production company Dr Mix. As Boraman notes, Passavanti explained how the new audio technology might upgrade the recordings. Boraman made detailed notes on the location and severity of each audio issue. Then Passavanti followed them, moving through the recordings second by second to remove noise and faults, one at a time. Passavanti also consulted with Christoph Hartwig and the development team at iZotope, the maker of the technology used for the restoration process, on particularly knotty issues.

Since the source were old analogue tapes of a live recording, care was needed to gingerly remove some of the background hiss and other ambient sounds. Finally, after four or five passes, the most balanced sonics were achieved. Then Passavanti mastered the result for digital formats. As for the vinyl, Boraman writes that he approached Frank Merritt at The Carvery in London and explained the back story. Merritt further tweaked Passavanti’s work so the source could be used to cut the lacquers for the vinyl format. [

As the liner notes rightly point out:

Listeners on all formats of this album will still hear in places, remnants of the original tapes imperfections, and occasional touches of the buzz of Jacks torn Leslie speaker, but all things considered, especially when compared to the recordings as they were—only the most cynical critic would say the end results were not worth the considerable effort.

Congrats to Soul Bank. The 15 tracks on this album sound fantastic: Make It Good, Untitled D Minor, Deja Vu, Fly Away, Another Real Goodun', Blues in the Night, Satin Doll, A Night in Tunisia, Killer Joe, Greensleeves, Take the A Train, Wives and Lovers, Walkin' the Dog, Lover Man and Blues 1 & 8.

Best of all, McDuff is in top form, as are all the backing musicians. What has always sets McDuff apart is his deep groove and his in-the-pocket arrangements on each song. I'm sure he could swing the Star Spangled Banner if chose to take it on—and you'd look forward to hearing it. Each song has a different personality, and all of the sidemen are given a chance to shine on solos. McDuff doesn't disappoint and nor did the crew who worked on this recording.

Brother Jack McDuff died in 2001.

JazzWax clips: Here's Déjà Vu...



Here's Fly Away...



And here's Blues in the Night...