""When you do get your "Kind of Blue" SACD, do you mind reporting on the sound and mix?"
OK, my package got here last night, and the SACD of Kind of Blue is indeed terrific.
Only listened in multi-channel, but there is much better separation of the various players than on the Redbook version, the mix is tilted towards the front soundstage, with just some ambience, and supporting sounds coming from the surrounds, and everyone is firmply planted across the front soundstage. Cannonball always to the right, 'Trane always to the left, drums and Miles frmly planted in the center, Piano to the lower left. What I really like about this one, that I think was missing from the other various editions I have had is a good sense of the room that it was recorded in, which was a pretty large room for a studio, compared to what was the norn for that era. Bob Beldin did the multi-channel remastering, and I think he does a great job in general, and has done some great work with Miles' recordings in the past.
I'll have to do some A/B-ing with my other copies, but so far I can say that I much prefer it to the 5.1 mix on the Dual Disc. That seemed a bit bloated and blousy, and not as firmly planted as this one seems.
And, as I have found with my other SACDs, multi-channel or not, I find that the depth and thickness of everything to be wonderful.
You can hear 'Trane's reeds vibrating during quiet passages, and sounds that I used to think were the springs vibrating on the bottom of the snare are now easily recognized as the light sweeping of brushes on cymbals. The cymbals just seem to shimmer forever. That first big cymbal hit, at the beginning of So What just leaps out at you.
All in all, very well done, and very much worth the extra effort to track down.
If you are a Jazz or Miles fan, I would say that this one is a must have.
And if you are not, then this one just might be that final nudge needed to get into Miles and Jazz.
I'll report back on In a Silent Way, and the two Bill Evans I picked up later.
