Suggestions for Dutton Vocalion Multichannel SACD Releases

[bmoura]

That's a very good and strong point to ponder.

It's more likely that the US-based reissue labels would issue a 2-disc set vs. a two-fer made up of two different albums since the licensing and royalty guarantees are on a per-album basis.

 

[JonUrban]

Maybe AF should set up a UK division!?

 

[fredblue]

Maybe AF should set up a UK division!?

Genius..!!! :yikes

I bet it'd be cheaper and easier for them to licence most of the Sony (that includes Columbia, Epic, RCA.. a lot of Quad!) stuff in the UK!

Just look at the tiny budget labels in the UK that routinely re-issue things like the Edgar Winter 70's albums, the Feliciano, Chase, etc etc, often as 2-fer's - and usually for peanuts..

..and of course as I mentioned here previously other labels like BBR/Cherry Red have been flooding the market with CDs of lots of the 70's R&B/Soul that saw Quad release back in the day (they have done reissues of things like Billy Paul/War of the Gods & 360 Degrees Of.. Isley's Go For Your Guns, HFTW.. O'Jays Ship Ahoy.. MFSB..) Sony are clearly up for licensing all this stuff in the UK.. and I can't imagine those small labels would be able to afford much or be able to commit to thousands of copies sold by way of a guarantee or anything like that..

hmm... who has Marshall Blonstein's ear and could explore the viability of establishing a UK division of AF with him (and his shareholders or whoever if he is answerable to anyone, maybe he calls the shots and isn't answerable to anyone!) I mean, what would it take?

Could it be as simple as they set up a Private Limited Company over here and give the Inland Revenue a Registered Company Address in the UK and just carry on running the day to day operation from the States.. in order to get the licensing.. or even easier can they just license from the UK labels and cut all that other crap out?

 

[Franklin]

Maybe AF should set up a UK division!?

Not if it's going to focus on easy listening.

 

[fredblue]

Not if it's going to focus on easy listening.

I didn't see that suggestion..!? Alright, well leave the easy listening ones to Dutton Vocalion and AF can do the rest of the U.K.-licensed Quads!

 

[bmoura]

Oh let's just have them all and be done with it!

I think (I hope) Vocalion know now they have a hot bed of customers right here who have their cash in hand for this kinda stuff in Quad.. More! More!

I'd vote for all of the Hugo Quads on Multichannel SACD.
Realistically, if the first Hugo SACD sells well, I'm guessing we might get one or two more Hugo Montenegro Multichannel SACDs from Dutton Vocalion.

 

[JonUrban]

Would be nice if Vocalion would mine some of the Project 3 stuff, most notably the "Big Band Hits" from the 30s and 40s. As a kid I never paid much attention to that era of music, but I kinda dug it when I heard it in discrete quad - stuff like Glenn Miller and Count Basie classics. Enoch Light's orchestra really did a fine job with some of those old tunes.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Would be nice if Vocalion would mine some of the Project 3 stuff, most notably the "Big Band Hits" from the 30s and 40s. As a kid I never paid much attention to that era of music, but I kinda dug it when I heard it in discrete quad - stuff like Glenn Miller and Count Basie classics. Enoch Light's orchestra really did a fine job with some of those old tunes.

Jon, I was always fascinated with the Command and Project 3 recordings but if one takes a gander at the 2016 Dutton Vocalion catalogue........there's NO Enoch Light releases, at all. The most we could hope for are London Phase 4 releases (Edmundo Ros, Frank Chacksfield, Ronnie Aldrich, Ted Heath) which did release QUAD Open Reels back in the day. I do have a few Project 3 QUAD Open Reels (The Free Design comes to mind.....Kites Are Fun) but they were pretty hissy (NO dolby b encoding like the London Phase 4's).

But then again, one can ONLY hope!

 

[cupboy]

Very few of the London Phase 4 have dolby B. Ampex tapes were pretty clean anyway. And I wonder if dolby B hastened the demise of the reel to reel format. That seems to be about when sales dropped off.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Very few of the London Phase 4 have dolby B. Ampex tapes were pretty clean anyway. And I wonder if dolby B hastened the demise of the reel to reel format. That seems to be about when sales dropped off.

Cupboy, there were very few outboard dolby b decoders available at the time for Open Reel and if you recall, Nakamichi was introducing Dolby C for cassettes. I did manage to score a TEAC four channel outboard dolby b decoder for my TEAC QUAD open reel and one of the few two channel machines incorporating Dolby b was the Revox A77. I believe Open Reel's demise was hastened by the advances in Cassette technology and those ORs were probably too expensive to manufacture and were not profitable enough. And the switch to 3 3/4 ips hardly helped matters (Columbia and A&M never produced a dolby b reel, FYI).

 

[surroundophile]

I second the vote for Ray Conniff and Ed Ames!

Agreed. The other reissue labels do not focus on Easy Listening titles like Hugo Montenegro, Floyd Cramer, etc.

Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Jose Feliciano, Danny Davis & the Nashville Brass, Ronnie Milsap, Mac Davis, Andy Williams and Johnny Mathis would be obvious ones for them to consider licensing from Sony Music UK.

They might even be interested in some of the Easy Listening titles from Peter Nero (Summer of '42), Peter Matz, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Jim Nabors, Liza Minnelli, Ray Price, Al Hirt, Ed Ames, Eddy Arnold and Andre Kostelanetz in Quad.

One more thing. Since Dutton/Vocalition is licensing for the UK market, and not the US market, their licensing fees and guarantees from Sony UK are undoubtedly lower than the ones charged to the reissue labels in the U.S. by Sony Music USA. So titles, artists and two-fers that would not work out financially for the US reissue labels can work for them.

 

[Simon A]

The most we could hope for are London Phase 4 releases (Edmundo Ros, Frank Chacksfield, Ronnie Aldrich, Ted Heath) which did release QUAD Open Reels back in the day.

I'd be all over those!

I'll add that should Dutton/Vocalion decide to release some of Ray Davies & The Button Down Brass Quads I would buy everyone of them.

I haven't really been around in almost a week so this thread is the best Quad news I've had in months!

I'm already a big fan and owner of many Vocalion/Dutton CD releases, so I know the SACDs will be a real treat.

 

[cupboy]

Cupboy, there were very few outboard dolby b decoders available at the time for Open Reel and if you recall, Nakamichi was introducing Dolby C for cassettes. I did manage to score a TEAC four channel outboard dolby b decoder for my TEAC QUAD open reel and one of the few two channel machines incorporating Dolby b was the Revox A77. I believe Open Reel's demise was hastened by the advances in Cassette technology and those ORs were probably too expensive to manufacture and were not profitable enough. And the switch to 3 3/4 ips hardly helped matters (Columbia and A&M never produced a dolby b reel, FYI).

Well, just one. It was the Star Wars soundtrack that Teac distributed. It's on the gray reel and on the usual Columbia House tape stock. Looks just like a CRC tape. And it's 7 1/2 IPS also.

 

[bmoura]

I don't know if Vocalion has connections with EMI.
If they do, the Quad albums from the 1970's by John Keating and Manuel would be fine additions to their line of Easy Listening releases in Multichannel SACD.

 

[bmoura]

Response from Dutton from above: Many thanks for your kind comment, we’re search for some more to do soon

Glad to hear it.

There are many more possibities from the RCA Quad Catalog when it comes to Multichannel SACDs from Dutton Vocalion.
Artists including Hugo Montenegro, Henry Mancini, Floyd Cramer, Danny Davis & the Nashville Brass and many more.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Glad to hear it.

There are many more possibities from the RCA Quad Catalog when it comes to Multichannel SACDs from Dutton Vocalion.
Artists including Hugo Montenegro, Henry Mancini, Floyd Cramer, Danny Davis & the Nashville Brass and many more.

Brian, based on their recent catalog, I hope Vocalion can mine some of the London Phase IV treasures....many of which were released on Quad Open Reel. One in particular is The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Hermann which HDTT recently released on Quad BD~A [which I DO have on order]. Have you ever heard that particular album. An absolute masterpiece and sonics to die for!

From the RCA catalog, more recommendations would be the wonderful film series Charles Gerhardt recorded with the label. I have a few on QUAD Open Reel and, again, HDTT has released a couple as QUAD BD~As and they are discrete and sound better than expected having been duplicated from consumer Open Reels.

 

[bmoura]

Brian, based on their recent catalog, I hope Vocalion can mine some of the London Phase IV treasures....many of which were released on Quad Open Reel. One in particular is The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Hermann which HDTT recently released on Quad BD~A [which I DO have on order]. Have you ever heard that particular album. An absolute masterpiece and sonics to die for!

From the RCA catalog, more recommendations would be the wonderful film series Charles Gerhardt recorded with the label. I have a few on QUAD Open Reel and, again, HDTT has released a couple as QUAD BD~As and they are discrete and sound better than expected having been duplicated from consumer Open Reels.

My guess is that Vocalion continues with the RCA Easy Listening Quads since they have started there and have a connection with Sony Music UK on the licensing.
Not sure if the Charles Gerhardt albums would sell as well as Hugo, Mancini, Cramer, etc.

We'll see where they go next.

 

[Simon A]

My guess is that Vocalion continues with the RCA Easy Listening Quads since they have started there and have a connection with Sony Music UK on the licensing.
Not sure if the Charles Gerhardt albums would sell as well as Hugo, Mancini, Cramer, etc.

We'll see where they go next.

I think it's a fair bet that simply looking at what they've issued over the last ten years that we can have a glimpse of what could be released. Being a huge fan of Instrumental Pop, I welcome anything Vocalion would decide to release as I know that 75% of it would please me. They can carry on releasing Mancini, Como, Cramer, Montenegro and add the Quad titles from Stanley Black, Franck Pourcel, Paul Mauriat and other great names of the genre. They do cater to a certain niche market, but they do it extremely well and I applaud their efforts with these six recent releases. These discs were released without any fanfare and took pretty much everyone by surprise. I'm looking forward to their upcoming titles and I do hope that sales will prove to them that this new venture was worthwhile.

 

[John Svensson]

I wouldn't think I would buy a Perry Como recording but......I just did, along with Floyd Cramer. I love the Hugo M. SACDs and based on your reviews I'll dip my toe in for a few more. These are great to sip bourbon to..... There was a whole genre of taking Top 40 hits and "elevatoring" them, whatever happened to that? Maybe rap doesn't lend itself well.

 

[Simon A]

The Dutton/Vocalion web site shows this Nero and two new Mancini releases coming soon, but only as Stereo CDs. Were those titles available in Quad?

Henry Mancini - Mancini Concert & Mancini Plays the Theme from Love Story





Johnny Mathis & Henry Mancini - The Hollywood Musicals





Peter Nero - Love Trip & Hits from Hair to Hollywood