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John Williams At The Movies (Dallas Winds)


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Nice!  Love to see Chris Martin performing with them again.  I'll be buying this album for sure.  Still waiting for the John Mackey trumpet concerto recording by the Dallas Winds and Martin to be released that I helped kickstart last year.

 

 

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I just realized, isn't this the first official recording of the "With Malice Toward None" concert arrangement performed by Christopher Martin himself?  It was written for him and he's performed it in concert many times, but I don't know of a released recording before this.

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The band arrangement has been released on Mark Records with the Marine Band and Thomas Hooten as soloist (that release also included the premiere of the Trumpet Concerto revised first movement.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love the spacious recording as well. Martin has such beautiful sound to his playing.

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The Star Wars tracks are the proof that very few conductors can handle all the tempi changes in John Williams's partitions.

 

These are among the worse versions I listened too.

 

Sooooo amateurish.

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They didn't sound so bad to me.

 

Outside of "With Malice Toward None," I was particularly pleased the CE3K suite, Jedi Steps, and the JFK theme.  That CE3K wind band arrangement is very interesting, and the performance of the JFK theme is fantastic.  I just wish, as I always do, that they had gone with the quiet celeste ending for Jedi Steps instead of the big flourish.

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1 hour ago, Bespin said:

The Star Wars tracks are the proof that very few conductors can handle all the tempi changes in John Williams's partitions.

 

These are among the worse versions I listened too.

 

Sooooo amateurish.

Oh dear,

 

I was planning to pick this up. I'm interested to hear these arrangements.

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They are on Spotify.

 

You are an amateur of music in 2018 and you're not on Spotify. WTF? 😜

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Yeah the specialty labels are the only ones who don’t let you “try before you buy” these days.  Of course I know I’m quite an anomaly, someone who will still buy an album digitally if I like it enough from streaming.

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2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Yeah the specialty labels are the only ones who don’t let you “try before you buy” these days.  Of course I know I’m quite an anomaly, someone who will still buy an album digitally if I like it enough from streaming.

 

False, a lot of Geffen reissues and La-La-Lands reissues are now on Spotify.

 

And many new recent remastered versions are only available online.

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Just now, Bespin said:

False, a lot of Geffen reissues and La-La-Lands reissues are now on Spotify.

 

Exceptions that prove the rule!  Also, Geffen is not a specialty soundtrack label

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13 hours ago, Bespin said:

The Star Wars tracks are the proof that very few conductors can handle all the tempi changes in John Williams's partitions.

 

These are among the worse versions I listened too.

 

Sooooo amateurish.

 

I wonder if that's some kind of sense of humor thing... Because I hardly find this amateurish.

Hey, even WCRB considered this their disc of the week! And the Dallas Winds is one of US top bands.

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40 minutes ago, Miguel Andrade said:

 

I wonder if that's some kind of sense of humor thing... Because I hardly find this amateurish.

Hey, even WCRB considered this their disc of the week! And the Dallas Winds is one of US top bands.

 

Have you listen to the Star Wars Main Theme and the Jedi Steps and finale? Seriously?

 

I don't ctriticize the playing of the band, but the conductor.

 

To the rest of the group: It's okay, you can now return to your usual business and discuss about the "the sound". 😎

 

"The sound"... "the sound"... of course... "the sound"! 😉

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29 minutes ago, Bespin said:

 

Have you listen to the Star Wars Main Theme and the Jedi Steps and finale? Seriously?

 

I don't ctriticize the playing of the band, but the conductor.

 

But it's okay, group... you can now return to your usuall business and discuss about the "the sound". 😎

 

"The sound"... "the sound"... of course... "the sound"! 😉

 

What the heck do you mean with that? "The Sound"?

 

And I don't have any issues with different approach to tempi. And if one does not like a particular performance, be glad that so much of this music has been recorded ad nauseam...

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4 minutes ago, Miguel Andrade said:

 

What the heck do you mean with that? "The Sound"?

 

And I don't have any issues with different approach to tempi. And if one does not like a particular performance, be glad that so much of this music has been recorded ad nauseam...

 

I was not answering directly at you Miguel 🙂

 

But I also know that you love "eveything" being totally unable of telling if you like more "A" or "B". 😉

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4 minutes ago, Obi said:

 

You're so right. The record is pretty awful.

 

I talked about the tempi transitions in the Star Wars tracks, don't put words in my mouth.

 

This Junkin is not the first one who don't understand the change of tempi in John Williams's writing.

 

But I mean, in 2018, why record such bad versions?

 

If he wanted to show us he really don't know Star Wars music, he could not do better!

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33 minutes ago, Miguel Andrade said:

We really can't be listening to the same thing...

 

With all my respect, I would not expect anything else from a guy who always love "everything" equally. 😜

 

You know what they say?  Musical tastes do not discuss! 

 

But as an Herbert Von Karajan fan... the transitions, the musical flow of the different parts of an orchestral work, the tempi... they are very important things to me.

 

And John Williams write works which often contains some tricky tempi changes. You usually realize that when you heard bad interpretations of his works.

 

So... it was just my two cents. 😉

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3 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I think you just don’t like wind bands 

 

You don't know I was a clarinet player in a wind band... it was in another life, of course! 😂

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Took a listen to this record yesterday. Quite alright, I suppose.  The ensemble did seem a bit unsure with the tempi in spots.  I think they took things too slow from time to time, like in Adventures in Earth, which slows down to a crawl just when it shouldn't.  I was not enthused with the Star Wars portions, but CE3K was quite good, "With Malice Towards None" very good, and JFK excellent.  Enjoyable overall.

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"This Junkin" is one of the most highly respected conductors in the country, in both wind band and orchestral circles; the fact that you don't know his name says a lot more about you than it does about him. 

 

Different conductors have different takes on the limitless interpretations of every piece of music. Just because you don't personally like it doesn't make it wrong or "amateurish" (which it most certainly is not). Certainly you've heard the recording of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" on Williams' album "Out of this World" with the Boston Pops, right? It is painfully slow. Does that mean that "This Williams" is an amateur because he conducted it differently than Goldsmith? No, of course not. 

 

FYI: I think the album is fine - great playing (I have several friends in that group), but no I don't love Jerry's tempi either in some places. I actually agree with you on those points Bespin, but just please be careful when you make unfounded assumptions. 

 

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He's respected, good for him. He just can't play Star Wars music. That's the only thing I said! 😉

 

I forgot Adventures on Earth from E.T. was on the album too. That's another score with pieces using very tricky changes of tempi.

 

You know, when he released his last album, I said Keith Lockhart was definitely a very good interpret of John Williams, it meaned a lot. There are not so many.

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4 hours ago, Bespin said:

 

With all my respect, I would not expect anything else from a guy who always love "everything" equally. 😜

 

 

That's hardly respectful and I do take offense on the insinuation, with or without funny emoticon on it.

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20 minutes ago, Miguel Andrade said:

 

That's hardly respectful and I do take offense on the insinuation, with or without funny emoticon on it.

 

That was the answer to your condescending comment that just came before. One too many.

 

No emoticon this time.

 

Anyway, I don't want to start a war with you here, our artistic tastes are obviously not the same, it is no big deal.

 

 

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On 7/8/2018 at 12:21 PM, airmanjerm said:

"This Junkin" is one of the most highly respected conductors in the country, in both wind band and orchestral circles; the fact that you don't know his name says a lot more about you than it does about him. 

 

Different conductors have different takes on the limitless interpretations of every piece of music. Just because you don't personally like it doesn't make it wrong or "amateurish" (which it most certainly is not). Certainly you've heard the recording of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" on Williams' album "Out of this World" with the Boston Pops, right? It is painfully slow. Does that mean that "This Williams" is an amateur because he conducted it differently than Goldsmith? No, of course not. 

 

FYI: I think the album is fine - great playing (I have several friends in that group), but no I don't love Jerry's tempi either in some places. I actually agree with you on those points Bespin, but just please be careful when you make unfounded assumptions. 

 

 

Yeah... I had to laugh at the Junkin shade being thrown in this thread - They'd be thrown out of Texas for even suggesting Jerry performed a wrong tempo!

I also know Jerry well enough to know he's going the marked tempo. If the group is responsive enough is another story, not to mention that Williams rarely follows his own tempo markings to the millisecond for live performances. He'll vary by a bit and move around with the group.

 

You can't do that on a sound stage though. His lyrical slow stuff has quite a bit of stretching on beat 4 to make a hit point on one, etc. If anything, I think Williams is the worse of the two conductors here if you're going by gesture (and he would probably agree), BUT Williams is an excellent music director with an ear and knack for understanding little musical "moments" and how they fit in the whole that I would put up against any great conductor in history. He's certainly a perfectionist for intonation and blend when it comes to recording. It would be a blast to hear Williams record some famous romantic symphonies on a stage just to see what he pulls out vs others.

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I really enjoyed listening through this.

 

LOVED Christopher's playing in the Lincoln track, what a beautiful trumpet sound.

 

I liked hearing band versions of The Cowboys Overture, CE3K, and Harry Potter.

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12 minutes ago, MrJosh said:

I really enjoyed listening through this.

 

LOVED Christopher's playing in the Lincoln track, what a beautiful trumpet sound.

 

I liked hearing band versions of The Cowboys Overture, CE3K, and Harry Potter.

 

No Potter on this album, but I’ve always thought “Window to the Past” would work wonderful as a band arrangement.

 

Is there a published concert arrangement for that though?

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I like Chris Martin, he's an amazing player. But I prefer Tom Hooten's version of With Malice towards none. Maybe JW conducting the recording helped.

I'll be performing the trumpet and piano version in the next couple of months for a recital, and the Hooten version will be my reference. 

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I listened to this album on Youtube. Although the Dallas Winds and their conductor could have benefited from a bit more rehearsal time, overall, I was impressed with their performances. (The 'building and climax' section of The Imperial March is among the best of all available recordings of the piece.)

 

Unfortunately, the sound as presented is shockingly disappointing in most of the selections: poor mixing (changes mid-track, distant-sounding instruments, unnatural balance, acoustical changes) and mastering (reduced treble, hard-limiting, clicks/pops, mid-track volume level changes). The album sounds like was over-produced to the point of disaster. A single-point, stereo, Y-orientation, microphone about 10-feet behind the conductor and 10-feet high - with the recording completely untouched - would have resulted in a substantially better presentation.

 

I was considering purchasing the Hybrid SACD of the album, but these sound issues are deal-breakers for me. Can anyone confirm that the paid version has these issues?

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Who said I abandoned the site? Like all members of JWFan, I'm here to converse with fans of John Williams and his music. Why did you ask me that question?

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  • 1 month later...

Sounds very interesting. Not your typical orchestral flourishes here and there but this looks like a very decent performance overall. I'm getting this.

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On 7/19/2018 at 8:36 AM, Mattris said:

I listened to this album on Youtube. Although the Dallas Winds and their conductor could have benefited from a bit more rehearsal time, overall, I was impressed with their performances. (The 'building and climax' section of The Imperial March is among the best of all available recordings of the piece.)

 

Unfortunately, the sound as presented is shockingly disappointing in most of the selections: poor mixing (changes mid-track, distant-sounding instruments, unnatural balance, acoustical changes) and mastering (reduced treble, hard-limiting, clicks/pops, mid-track volume level changes). The album sounds like was over-produced to the point of disaster. A single-point, stereo, Y-orientation, microphone about 10-feet behind the conductor and 10-feet high - with the recording completely untouched - would have resulted in a substantially better presentation.

 

I was considering purchasing the Hybrid SACD of the album, but these sound issues are deal-breakers for me. Can anyone confirm that the paid version has these issues?

 

I'm told the SACD doesn't sound that well and has issues. I dunno if they are the same as you describe.

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They must be. It's not a coincidence that the Youtube uploads and disc releases have both been reported to have major sound issues.

 

The band and conductor performed admirably, so it's really a shame that the sound engineers/producers turned out a stinker of an album. I feel it's so bad that Reference Recordings should re-issue the album - with free replacements for the early purchasers.

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  • 3 months later...

I purchased the CD and listened to my FLACs this morning.

 

Wow what are all thoses clicks?

 

I have read the previous posts... so it’s not only my copy?... 🤔

 

I will have to manually declick pretty much all the tracks to make this album listenable!

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Strange. Did you tried with headphones?

 

Yes, no clicks.  Nothing super noticeable at least, like with The Post.  I didn't buy the CD, I bought it digitally direct from Reference Recordings, the '44.1 kHZ/16 Bit Apple Lossless' option, which I then converted to 320 MP3.

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