The reel tape album features several jazz standards and songs associated with Taylor’s early career in the 1920s.
The Legendary Eva Taylor – Live At The Pawnshop is a live jazz album recorded by American blues and jazz singer Eva Taylor at the famous Stampen (The Pawnshop) club in Stockholm, Sweden. Recorded on 22 March 1976, the performance captures Taylor at the age of 81, performing with Maggie's Blue Five.
It was certainly a magic night at the Pawnshop (Stampen) in March, 1976 when a young lady of 81 completely captured and entranced the audience with her stage presence and vibrant personality. Her communication with the musicians and audience combined to elevate her artistry beyond the aural level to include that indefinable ingredient….. atmosphere. This atmosphere was retrieved from our vaults from 31 years ago, and like a good wine has aged well as lovers of jazz from the twenties will appreciate.
Eva Taylor is a direct link with the great era of jazz when she was singing with the Clarence Williams Blue Five and also with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet who were coming to their peak as influential jazz geniuses in the mid twenties.
The band which perfectly complements her artistry, is Maggie’s Blue Five and includes Tomas Örnberg on clarinet & sopranosaxophone and Bent Persson, trumpet from Tomas Örnberg’s Blue Five and later on, The Swedish Jazz Kings.
Also in the band are Andreas Heymowski - clarinet and bass clarinet, Jens ‘Jesse’ Lindgren - trombone, Hans Hultman-Boye - piano, Göran Stachewsky - banjo, Lennart Bohm - bass and Margaretha Thalén - vocals.
The scene is Stampen (The Pawnshop), the famous jazz pub in the heart of Stockholm, on a Monday night in March 1976.
Perhaps not the best day in the week for jazz listening, but the place is crowded. A couple of hundred people squeezed into the small space. Everybody is concentrated on the music and especially on that little lady, whose singing and presence on the stage never fails to keep an audience spellbound.
At the age of 81, Eva is probably a better jazz singer than in the '20s. Her voice is now lower-pitched than in her youth, it is still strong and clear, and she swings more than ever before. Like most singers of her generation, she is also a real actress, without the pretentiousness of many “big stars”. She has a great' sense of humour and a refreshingly unsophisticated approach to everything she does.
This recording can of course not give a complete picture of Eva Taylor's artistry, with her dancing on the stage and her communication with the musicians and the audience, but it captures as well as possible the music and the atmosphere on one of her most inspired nights in Stockholm.
We were fortunate in having this great woman with us for a few memorable days.
| The Legendary Eva Taylor - Live At The Pawnshop |
Product Reviews: "What makes this such a great sounding (album) is the combination of fabulous acoustic instrumentation, only the voice is amplified, a great venue and real being there ambience in the sound. The presence of Taylor undoubtedly heightened the experience for the audience and band alike with the resulting joy coming through loud and clear on this fabulous transcription. This even was recorded in 1976 but thanks to the quality of engineering and equipment at the time, the tape recorder was a modified Sony TC-756, and that used to transfer it to DSD, EMM Labs converters, it sounds like it could have been made twenty years later..." - Jason Kennedy, HiFi-Plus, Issue 54 "Record Of The Year" Music: 8, Recording: 10!
Album: The Legendary Eva Taylor - Live At The Pawnshop
Label: Opus 3 Records - AMC-22071
Format: Reel Tape, 15ips, ¼", 2-Track, Stereo, 10.5" NAB Reel, CCIR or NAB Eq., Import
Country: Sweden
Released: 2007
Genre: Jazz
Style: Dixieland, Ragtime
Tracklist:
1. Everybody Loves My Baby
2. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
3. I Found A New Baby
4. Papa De-Da-Da
5. Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
6. Of All The Wrongs You've Done To Me
7. Are They Pickin' On Your Baby
8. Mandy, Make Up Your Mind
9. High Society
10. I'm A Little Blackbird
Musicians:
Eva Taylor, vocals
Tomas Örnberg, clarinet, soprano saxophone
Bent Persson, trumpet
Jens Jesse Lindgren, trombone
Andreas Heymowski, clarinet, bass clarinet
Hans Hultman-Boye, piano
Göran Stachewsky, banjo
Lennart Bohm, bass
Margaretha Thalén, vocals
All orchestral and background arrangements are made by Bent Persson.
Recording Equipment:
Microphones: Neumann U-87, Neumann KMS-85, Neumann KM-84 and Shure SM-76
Analogue Tape Recorder: Sony TC-756 (Modified)
Tape: Ampex 9472 (Grand Master)
Reel Tape Production Features:
1st Generation Reel Tape Duplication from the Original Master Tape
Limited Reel Tape Production Run of only 50 Total
Analogue Reel Tape (AAA) from original master tape recordings
10.5" Metal Reel Spool
EQ Curve: IEC/CCIR (35uS)
Format: 2-track, 1/4" at 38 cm/s (15ips)
Production: The duplication in-house, Sweden
A few words about the recording: The Pawnshop (Stampen) in Stockholm is a relatively small Jazz/Blues club in Stockholm and when filled to capacity as it was for Eva Taylor's wonderful performance the natural reverberation is virtually non-existent. Because the main artist is a vocalist a PA system is required in order that the performer can "reach" the audience. Unfortunately this produces an undesirable short delayed echo through leakage into the microphones for the horns etc. which is impossible to avoid in a live recording. The slight "puff" sounds which may be noticed on Eva's vocals are the results of this but are the price you pay for the pleasure of a live performance.
Master Reel Tape Duplication:
The shortest and best possible signal path, without any conversions. To cater for the needs of people for whom only the best is good enough and demand the ultimate in sound perfection, Opus 3 Records is now introducing open-reel master copies of our albums.
The current Opus 3 Records catalogue contains 50 titles which have been strictly analogue recorded and preserved. The last recording was Eric Bibb´s album "Just Like Love" recorded in autumn 2000. All tapes are copied duplicated 'by hand', track by track, where all Mastering corrections are made with meticulous calibration and control.
Opus 3 Records Master Reel Tape Production:
A modified Technics RS-1500 for the playback of the master reel tape. The Technics RS-1500 open-reel tape recorder is world renowned as one of the best for playback. However, it is specially modified to achieve the best possible sound quality playback, where Telefunken M-28 for the recording of master reel tape copy. This tape recorder has been used for the recording of all of Opus 3 Records' master recordings since 1978.
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