Sheffield Lab

Thank you, Al. The audio hobby, like any hobby, is supposed to be fun. Yet people often take it too seriously. So much so that it can be difficult to ignore their bloaviating vituperance.

'Blazing Redheads' was a Reference Recordings release. For me being an absolute Latin Jazz fanatic, this record is the 'Jazz At The Pawnshop' of the genre (I own it!), a spectacular recording of a very pedestrian band, more of a collector's item for me than anything else. As far as Sheffield's concerned, I own a few, but rarely re-visit them. Their Tower Of Power release (I'm also a TOP fanatic, and still love me some hard-chargin' horn based funk!) is probably my least favorite recording by this band. The Harry James records stand up. Sheffield does have what I consider seminal records in a sub-genre that I still enthusiastically listen to, what I affectionately call Rock Jazz. Instrumental records by primarily Rock/studio (for lack of a better term) musicians. The James Newton Howard & Friends is a favorite due to it featuring many members of Toto and being a primo recording of one of the great drummers; the late Jeff Porcaro. Coincidentally, I recently re-visited the Sheffield Track/Drum record after not hearing it for many, many years. This record was one of the 1st things that made me think Harry Pearson wasn't the end-all/be-all guru of Audio back in the day as he referred to this as "Absolutely the best sounding Rock & Roll recording ever made!" Really!? It's good, but the best? Even back in the day, I didn't even consider it R&R. Anyhow, I didn't realize it than but the record features a current favorite of mine, the amazing Michael Landau on guitar. The instrumental recordings on 'The Usual Suspects' still hold up also.

The only exception to the musical value comments was the boxed set Moscow Sessions. I keep around for the Barber First Essay.

SBrown- without getting into the musical merits, the Moscow Sessions, as I recall, was not direct to disc.

I have just a couple of Sheffield Lab on vinyl and a few CDs. I also have a couple of Cheskey records that I enjoy very much. The one Cheskey Jazz album is toe tapping good plus has the largest soundstage of any record in my collection- even more than Fresh Aire III. I'm not at home right now and I cannot recall the title. I got it back in the 80s and I just pull it out and play it.