Triple play stereo
Friday, 27 July 2007
One of the strangest records that ever was on my turntable, is an LP called Jazz+Pop=Swing By Benny Golson and his orchestra. It was released on Audio Fidelity in 1962 and although the producer was not mentioned, I read in a discussion in a newsgroup that Charles Pater knew it was Tom Wilson. I could only borrow the LP, but I made a tape of it, that I play every now and then to remind me of the fact that the possibilities are infinite.
The LP has triple play stereo, and this are the instructions:
1.To hear a big band blend of Pop and Jazz, adjust stereo controls for full or normal stereo playback.
2. To create a Pop musical concert, adjust controls so that the
Left stereo channel is heard alone.
3. For a Jazz party adjust controls so that only the right stereo
channel is beard.
4. By means of increasing or decreasing the relative volume of the Left or
Right Channels, a continuously variable transition from all-Pop to all-Jazz
music is possible.
I am not a musician, but it seems to me that this is an idea that is way beyond weird. It seems more like a puzzle than music, but as you can hear on the LP, it is music too. In most cases the music is not very exciting, but as a lover of ideas and gimmicks this project fascinates me to no end. Is this the only attempt to do this? Are there more “triple play stereo” records?
Here is one of the tracks; try to find out which songs are played on each channel!