A Modern Man in Boston
(actually 8 of them)
James Tinsley- trumpet
Al Harrison- trumpet
Bobby Malack- sax
Alfie Williams- sax
Ray Gomez- guitar
Michael Garson- keyboards
Stanley Clarke- bass
Darrell Brown- drums
Orpheum Theater
Boston, Mass. U.S.A.
April 16, 1978
performance quality: B+ to A
recording quality: B
source: master audience tape
runtime: 93:35
setlist:
1: overture 4:17
2: silly putty 6:10
3: Stanley jam > school days 12:25
4: band introductions 1:53
5: quiet afternoon 18:56
6: the magician (spliced at tape flip) 6:00
7: song to John (Coltrane tribute) 9:40
8: confirmation 4:30
9: acoustic bass solo 5:16
10: dayride 9:31
11: piano solo 3:59
12: lopsy lu 10:54
there was one more track after this, about 5 minutes,
but I have been unable to locate the second tape with the encore.
lineage: Sony TC 48 mono cassette deck
(with auto-levelling built in mike)
TDK-AD 90 min. cassette (normal bias and EQ) >
played on Nak. 125 into soundforge 4.5 (wav) >
FLAC 6 > torrentially yours.
A this and that 3 step torrent production.
(master > WAV > FLAC > torrent.)
first seeded in 2008.
reseeded in 2010 with a flac > wav > flac (sb's aligned)
reconversion to remove the sbe's.
A this and that, masters of jazz fusion production.
recorded and digitized by glasnostrd19.
Do not sell this recording.
Share freely, losslessly and gaplessly.
Some "Stanley" tools can be bought almost anywhere.
Not this one.
comments:
This is the full show from Stanley Clarke's Modern Man tour stop in Boston, except the encore
(one song, about 5 minutes, it's not a long jam) and a few seconds of the Magician.
I have hardly ever listened to this tape since recording it mainly because the deck it was
mastered on recorded it offspeed and it played back pepped (too fast). So until recently I had
forgotten what this recording and show sounded like, and after resetting the speed to 102.5% of
the originally mastered speed, now it sounds pretty nice, better than I remembered in both the
recording sound and the music played. Since I was at the show and remember how it should sound,
I think I got the speed set properly. Sometimes when I've tried to adjust speed I go nuts trying
to get it to sound right and it never seems to sound quite right, but I'm quite satisfied now that
this is how it is supposed to sound. Band sounds in key, not sharp, and playing the notes they're
supposed to be playing. It's really tough to appreciate a sharp trumpet (as in all the time totally
offkey) but this little deck has done some good things even after it started recording offspeed-
at least it was a constant speed so not a big project to fix it, only the ICPVR (individual clap
peak volume reduction) was needed alot between the songs and now this thing sounds far better than
I ever heard it before its 1st post in summer 2008. I never recopied this so it's direct from the
original master tape, and these 70's audience tapes really need to be done that way if possible
since the recording is not high fidelity to begin with. I can't remember who opened this show,
Stanley was the headliner. (Al DiMeola opened for Renaissance on May 6th, I think I saw Al open
for someone else at the Orpheum, but pretty sure that was the year before.) I don't think I have
the recording of whoever opened, but someone did (maybe Pat Metheny?). The encore is on a second
tape- if I ever find it, it's on some recorded over pre-recorded tape so it won't sound as good,
but everything before the encore is from a then-new 90 min. TDK tape. I can honestly say, having
used both TDK and Maxell cassettes around this time, they have held up well, and usually sound
better from jumpstart than tapes when I've had to use some different kind of cassette. Maxells
have served me well, both normal and high bias, and TDK's have too, and that is with the help of
Sony tape recorders which have also served well over the years (See Jethro Tull Boston Garden 79-
My Deck's sittin' in a puddle of Pepsi!). When the frequency range is roughly 500-5000 hz, as is
the case for most of the mono portables, some folks won't bother, but this came out quite well.
(The Sony 48, 55, 56 and 58 models are all very similar fidelity if you've heard any of those.)
They do considerably better with jazz than loud rock, only some loud rock here, a nice variety
of jazz, rock and fusion, and some hot guitar from Ray Gomez. If you haven't heard him play before,
you're missing something good. School Days was his highlight of this show, I thought, nice jam in it.
At times he can resemble Carlos Santana or Al DiMeola a little bit in style and talent. I think the
Philadelphia show of this tour was broadcasted live. This one was not, and now that it sounds like
the correct speed, it's worth hearing. I have a tape of the Philly show, and I think this is a better
performance. It's the "Modern Man" tour, basically the beginning of my being less interested in
Stanley Clarke's new music, although they don't play much of it here (most of what came earlier, and
even later with RTF was alot more interesting to my ears) but there's some nice playing in here too.
It's a good band, the crowd was very into the music, Stanley's first words after saying hello were
"the more noise you make out there the more noise we're gonna make up here", the crowd gave
the band a very warm reception throughout this show, and the band gave them reason for it.
Always nice when that happens at a concert.
I would have done this one sooner, mainly because Stanley is one of the best bassists
I've ever heard, except for not having speed adjusting capability for many years, and
because the 1st time I saw Stanley it may have been the concert of his life (RTF in
Boston 11/14/75, a fantastic world premiere of Romantic Warrior material!) and anything
after that was going to be a BIG letdown (even from Stanley Clarke). Somebody's gotta have a
complete version of that one! (I only have 45 min. of it, best RTF I've ever heard). I saw
Stanley a few times later, one was not very good at all (80's) and one was quite good
(surprisingly, for just a bass/drums/keyboard trio) but I never got a chance to get a copy
of that one after returning it and the equipment to Dr. Muffin boy. (D-5 and Naka. mikes)
so he's got a great complete recording that I made of that 3 hour jamfest. One thing that stuck
in my mind at that show (Jonathan Swift's, early 80's) is that Clarke's fingers are almost as
long as my feet! At this time, Stanley was a long, lean dude but I didn't know anyone had such
long fingers. That is a long factor in how Clarke is able to play some of what he plays.
At one point in that show, Clarke was in the aisle (of club) jammin' away, and I was no more
than 4 feet from him, Naka. microphones on the table on stands clearly in view for all to see,
and Stanley seemed to get off on it, certainly no sign of objections or negative response of any
kind at all (I had no idea at all if he would object to this). At that show, I was thinking this
is a nice show, but it sure would be nice to hear some Ray Gomez (or another good guitarist).
Fortunately in this one I was thinking alot, this guy is pretty damn good (I was still learning
who he is, my buddy on the tape who is a guitar player knew who he was and immediately says
"no wonder" after Gomez is introduced, since we both liked his playing but weren't sure who he was.)
He'd heard alot of Ray Gomez on album but both of us were seeing him live for the first time.
I seem to (very vaguely now) recall I was in the balcony for this concert, but the recording
sounds more like it was made from the floor. Maybe close up in the balcony. There is some talking
in the tape, but both of us were (usually) pretty good about shutting up when the band plays.
It's nice to hear that trumpet playing what the player is playing, after so long with the very
noticable speed problem. I did trade this tape out a couple of times, without any speed correction,
so if you have a tape copy, please take this and erase or dispose of the tape copy. I couldn't stand
listening to it. If (by remote chance) you have the encore of this concert, (either from my recording
or a different source) please contact me and I will be glad to fix that and make this a complete show,
since I've looked everywhere for my master of the encore tape and cannot locate it.
If you have the RTF Boston 11/14/75 concert, please do Stanley/RTF Nation a big favor and post it.
Although the most notible memory of that was from Al DiMeola, there were 4 reasons why I ask that.
4 very big reasons. They all had a very hot night. One of the 10 best shows I've ever seen (by anyone),
in over 35 years of seeing concerts, and that kind of memory deserves/needs alot more recognition.
If you are expecting this to sound like a RTF show, well, it doesn't, but I think this may appeal more
to "other" (than RTF) Clarke fans even more than the RTF fans. There's alot of jazz in here, not as
much as I thought is "fusion", and of course you can't have a good Stanley show without some funky stuff.
If you like the Stanley that goes all over the place, I think you'll find this nice listening music.
Track 9 is a nice bass solo (acoustic stand-up), there are a few nice Stanley solos in here. He is
clearly the featured performer in this show. I split my copy of this starting disc 2 with track 7,
this is a seamless recording (no silent gaps, fadeins or fadeouts except a fadeout at end of track 12),
there are a couple of other options if you prefer. This was a first time master seeding of this recording,
now reseeded, brought to you by This and That Productions, and glasnostrd19. 'Cuz somebody's gotta do it.