Burning Spear: Studio One

[99thfloor]

I assumed the Soul Jazz had gone out of print because of the court case after C. S. Dodd's death, didn't all the Soul Jazz Studio One titles go out of print then and a few have been repressed since it was all sorted.

That might be when it went out of print, it has been unavailable some time. I think most (all?) of the other Studio One titles are available. The reason I speculated was that, while other Soul Jazz titles that go out of print remain listed on the site, there is no sign of ”Sounds From…” and actually googling ”Burning Spear” for souljazz.co.uk gives no results at all, I thought that was strange. So I was thinking there was some kind of conflict, similar to what happened with Ernie B’s, but that is just me speculating.

...Soul Jazz tend to use vinyl as a source...

...two tracks (Foggy Road and New Civilisation) run (too) fast on the Soul Jazz...

The liner notes for the Heartbeat says it is ”taken from the Studio One archives”, except for one song that is from a single, so I guess what we are hearing are the master tapes, warts and all, probably without much manipulation since there is quite a bit of noise and distortion on some songs that they have left in. It is a bit distracting at times (then again really not significantly so for reissued Reggae of this vintage), but maybe better that ruining it by running it through noise reduction.

The Soul Jazz must be taken from some other source, since it’s all mono and those two songs do run slightly faster (and I agree they sound wrong at this speed), it doesn't say anything about sources in the notes - but it lists "Mr C.S. Dodd" in the mastering credits(!). I’m not sure it is from vinyl, I don’t hear any such artifacts (but I’m not an expert). There is less noise, so whatever the source it has probably been cleaned up some way, it doesn't have the distortion in the top end that is on some tracks on the Heartbeat. It is also quieter mastered, and on the whole it is easier to listen to for me, but both have their merits, so it is a good thing I have both so I don’t have to choose.

What is the story behind these two coming out at the same time, and with almost identical track listings?

[Dubmart]

I know various people who have been involved in projects for Soul Jazz and they all say vinyl was used as the source, didn't we discuss that on another forum. I have no idea why they take that approach, the second question I ask anyone we're working with is "Do you have the master tapes." Tapes usually sound better and it's where you find unreleased tracks, although you can spend a fortune getting transfers done.

I don't know why both comps came along at the same time, but Reggae reissues are often like buses, you wait thirty years for a Spear Studio One comp and then two come along at once, I assume the two companies didn't know about each other's plans and if Studio One did they forgot to mention it, why reduce their income from licensing.

As well as assorted vinyl issues I do have the Soul Jazz, Heartbeat and one or both of the Studio One CDs, I'd love to do a comparison, but realistically I won't get around to it. There are actually two different Studio One CD issues of "Rocking Time", but I don't know if the mastering is identical or different.

[99thfloor]

I know various people who have been involved in projects for Soul Jazz and they all say vinyl was used as the source, didn't we discuss that on another forum.

...I assume the two companies didn't know about each other's plans and if Studio One did they forgot to mention it...

Ha, ha, yes we have been discussing that before. I just didn't think they used vinyl as the source right across the board on everything. It seems silly, wouldn't Soul Jazz have had access to the same tapes as Heartbeat since they were both working with Studio One...? Is it that much more trouble to use tapes, or is it that it is more expensive?

I would think there were some annoyed people at one, or both labels (depending on how this happened), when they realized their product would be competing with an almost identical release...

[blackarkrock]

...there´s also this Studio One recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYNF3meEQEE

From Heartbeat´s 1989 "Collector´s Edition - Rare Reggae From The Vaults Of Studio One".

[cvac]

I have the Creation Rebel CD on Heartbeat, which I'm happy with, but I have nothing else to compare it to.

[Dubmart]

I know various people who have been involved in projects for Soul Jazz and they all say vinyl was used as the source, didn't we discuss that on another forum.

...I assume the two companies didn't know about each other's plans and if Studio One did they forgot to mention it...


Ha, ha, yes we have been discussing that before. I just didn't think they used vinyl as the source right across the board on everything. It seems silly, wouldn't Soul Jazz have had access to the same tapes as Heartbeat since they were both working with Studio One...? Is it that much more trouble to use tapes, or is it that it is more expensive?

I would think there were some annoyed people at one, or both labels (depending on how this happened), when they realized their product would be competing with an almost identical release...

I really have no idea why Soul Jazz don't secure tapes or high res transfers, in the specific case of Studio One I guess it was much easier for Chris Wilson to go and spend time seeing what was in the Studio One vaults and transferring it as they weren't too far away, also Heartbeat was a label that liked to use master tapes. I have no idea what sort of state the Studio One tape archive is in, what they still have, or what they have actually transferred, I assume they have done transfers of some things, at the very least when they did some of the CD issues. I imagine it's not a case of Soul Jazz emailing Studio One and saying we'd like copies of these masters even so you'd think Soul Jazz could send someone over to New York for 7-10 days to go through the vaults. Major advantages of getting your hands on the master tapes are you find unreleased gems, get nice bits of studio chatter, find alternate cuts/versions and most importantly get the best possible sound quality.

Am I sure everything on Soul Jazz is dubbed from Vinyl or CD, no, but a really good way to tell labels who use tapes is to see how much unreleased content they issue, Heartbeat put out plenty, Reggae Archive Records plenty, DKR also puts out unreleased tracks, I can't think of any unreleased music on Soul Jazz. Having said all that I still think Soul Jazz is a great label and not just with their Reggae releases.

I would imagine both labels were a little upset when they found out about the other's Burning Spear plans, bottom line both of them probably lost at least 30% of their potential sales.

[99thfloor]

I would imagine both labels were a little upset when they found out about the other's Burning Spear plans...

There is an old thread here on the forum where someone said that Heartbeat had had their Burning Spear ready for release for some time, but held up for some reason, and they then were forced to put it out when they learned about the Soul Jazz title coming out (to not have the work wasted). Since the tracks are the same (with several missing songs from the original LP's, but with the same "rare" songs) either Soul Jazz must have know about the lineup that Heartbeat had put together, or these were the only tracks they were licenced to use (or that were useable). All this was also around the time of Coxone's passing, so I guess things were in a state of confusion.