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There are two 7.5 ips 7" early two-track reels that really stand out
in my collection.  One is "Where are You?" by Frank Sinatra with
Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra (Capitol ZD-17).  The other might
surprise you - "Mallet Magic" by Harry Breuer and his Quntet.  It's a
fun album that's wonderfully recorded in stereo - you get a sense of
the studio space.

I've also got a couple of what I think are tape-only releases I've
wondered about since I'm not a jazz expert.  Are they of interest to
Jazz collectors?

One is "Sweet Moods of Jazz in Stereo" featuring tracks by Coleman
Hawkins, Earl Warren, Red Allen, Marty Napoleon, Chubby Jackson and
George Wettling.  The other is "Cole Poter Swings Easy in Stereo" with
Bob Haggart, Cozy Cole, Charlie Shavers, Sam Taylor, Buddy Weed, Sol
Yaged, Barry Galbraith, and Urbie Green.

These were part of a promotional series put out by Soundcraft that
were only available as part of some offer they were running at the
time.  The sessions for both were supervised by Larry Clinton.
There's at least four tapes that were released in the series.

Randy

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 7:49 PM, Roderic G Stephens
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I've been digitizing some very early 7 1/2 IPS 1/4" 2 track mono Bel Canto "Hi-Fi" on tape" 5" reels, and although some comments were made regarding the company's low quality of duplication later on, these truly seem to live up to the attempt to manufacture "Hi-Fi" tapes. The recordings include the Ray Charles Chorus' "Moods in Far Away Places" #102, Murray McEachern's buttery trombone and orchestra  "Music for Sleepwalkers Only" #104 and Frank Hunter's orchestra and chorus' "Music for Hearth and Heart" Vol. I #106.  In addition, another same format well recorded album is "Listen to the Hi-Lo's" Jazztape 4002 with Frank Comstock's arrangements and conducting of his orchestra.  So, going by these early tapes, the money spent on these studio sessions must have equaled or
>  even paralleled the LPs being produced.  I haven't checked, but maybe these were/have been released in both formats.  I'm really impressed by the crispness and good signal to noise of these little "easy listening" and jazz reels.
>