Tom Waits
The Troubadour
West Hollywood, CA
9pm Show
June 19, 1976

JF Archive Series No. 1 via JEMS

Taper: JF

Source: Panasonic or Sony portable cassette recorder with provided plug-in mic (mono)

Original 1970’s Transfer: JF master cassette > Toshiba Cassette Deck > Teac reel-to-reel (3-3/4 IPS)

JEMS 2014 Transfer: JF first-generation reel copy (3-3/4 IPS) > Otari 5050 mkII azimuth-adjusted transfer > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 (24/96) capture > iZotope RX4 > Peak 6.0 with iZotope Ozone 5 > iZotope RX MBIT+ resample 16/44.1 > xACT 2.21 > FLAC

01 Intro
02 Emotional Weather Report
03 Eggs and Sausage
04 Depot, Depot
05 Semi Suite
06 New Coat of Paint
07 The Ghosts of Saturday Night
08 Jitterbug Boy
09 Fumbling With the Blues
10 San Diego Serenade
11 Diamonds on My Windshield (incl. band intros)
12 Cupid > Heart of Saturday Night
13 Fever

JEMS loves to present vintage taper series and we’re pleased to inaugurate another one, this time from the archive of our new friend JF, who taped in and around Southern California in the ’70s and later resumed taping in Boston in the ’80s. He frequented smaller venues, like the Troubadour and the Roxy, leaving arenas to others and leaning more towards the folksier, jazzier and eclectic sides of rock.

His ’70s tapes were made on what I would describe as the kind of rectangular, portable, C-cel powered cassette recorder that my family and surely many others had in the ’70s, either a Panasonic or a Sony (we’re looking through internet pictures to figure out which one). While I used ours to record myself, my friends and my sister around the house, the teenage JF figured: Why not try taking it into concerts?

I only learned what recorder JF used after I had heard some of his tapes and I have to say I was mildly shocked. Given the gear, his tapes are remarkably clear and judging by his recordings from the Troubadour, he knew the right place to set up.

We kick things off with a fine representation of JF’s work at the Troub, capturing a highly entertaining and previously uncirculated set by Tom Waits. It is an appealing, you-are-there sort of recording that seems to balance the music and the ambiance just right. Samples provided.

You might have noticed above that JEMS transferred from a reel to reel source. That’s because JF, due to tight budgets at the time, routinely transferred his master tapes to reels in order to save money. Because he recorded the masters in mono, he would dub the finished recording onto a single track of a reel, allowing him to fit four or more shows on a single 7″ tape and reuse the cassette for the next show. That wasn’t true in all instances, but it is for most. And yes, in hindsight, he is still kicking himself about it.

And yet, based on the tapes we’ve transferred so far, JF did a fine job dubbing off his masters, and the Waits reel doesn’t sound any worse for wear despite the one-generation loss.

JF was also an active trader at the time and we’ve already found a few uncirculated gems from the early ’70s in his archive that we’ll be getting in the series as well.

While I’m only an appreciator and not aficionado of Tom Waits, I thoroughly enjoyed this recording as he gives nearly every song a long, at times hilarious introduction. It ends on a fine note, too, with covers of Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” and Peggy Lee’s “Fever.”

Thanks so much to JF, who reached out to us on DIME and offered to let us curate his archive, which had been sitting in boxes, 6000 miles away from where he lives today, for 20+ years. Like so many early tapers, he had great stories to tell and the memories flooded back as we sorted through tapes. We are pleased to be able to bring his work to all of you. Please let him know through your comments that you are too.

Thanks as well to mi amigo, mjk5510, helping make the JF series happen.

BK for JEMS