Dubois / Reginald Foort - The 7 Last Words FLAC download

This recording is available through The Library of Congress in a CD version which is satisfactory, but should be cleaned up with CEDAR, or some such thing. The vinyl versions are usually of on poor to fair quality because of the use of cheap vinyl (probably re-cooked used vinyl I suspect). However, this is the version to have as the music is recorded brilliantly with really deep and vibrant bass notes from the organ, and the cast of singers is unusually good although I doubt most of us know them at all. Mac Morgan and Carl Nelson are particularly fine, and Nelson has a delightful, almost boyish, cast to his voice which makes his singing superb. This was recorded in the early 1950s (probably '52) by Emory Cook who tweaked his own two-track reel-to-reel recording device to achieve wonderful sound. Unfortunately you start each cut with silence moving into fairly prominent tape hiss and then into the music, and this is where modern cleansing techniques would be appreciated. I was fortunate to have a two-track R2R tape for some time and what a stupendous sound!