Judy Garland Judy in Love/Judy Garland at the Grove/That's Entertainment!/The Garland Touch

AVID Easy continues with its Classic Album series with a re-mastered 2CD second release from Judy Garland, complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details 'Judy In Love'; 'Judy Garland At The Grove'; 'That's Entertainment' and 'The Garland Touch' plus 6 bonus tracks Notes by Lawrence Schulman - AVID remastering engineer Nick Dellow and I have worked closely on this CD set to make sure all the songs on it sound as good as they can possibly be. The remastering process included declicking and denoising transfers taken from mint original sources, such as the ultra-rare British 78 rpm record of It's Lovely To Be Back In London. Dellow has also skillfully re-equalized many tracks and discretely reduced excessive reverb where necessary, all the time respecting the skills of the recording engineers that Capitol employed across these recording sessions. It should also be noted that a number of tracks were found to be sharp and these have now been adjusted so that they are correctly pitched, in many cases for the first time. Judy Garland was naturally musical and her speaking voice and singing voice were seamless and synergistic; as a result, she could switch from one to the other effortlessly. And this natural quality has been the guiding light that ensures these half-century plus recordings retain a vibrancy when remastered that is worthy of 21st century ears. The tracks heard here are among Garland's greatest: Judy In Love (1958) was her fourth LP for Capitol Records and includes love songs as only she could sing them; Judy Garland At The Grove (1959), Garland's fifth LP, was her first live album, and the insitu stereo recording quality is particularly remarkable for the era; That's Entertainment! (1960), Garland's seventh album, is considered by many as her best in that it was recorded when she was in particularly good voice; finally, the compilation The Garland Touch (1962), which includes tracks from various Capitol sessions, was Garland's very last studio album released in her lifetime. As two of the recordings on The Garland Touch also appear on the album Judy In Love, these have been removed to avoid duplication. A positive aspect of this necessary deletion is that it has allowed more space for bonus tracks. The only mono recordings on this CD set are among the bonus tracks. In addition to the above-mentioned British 78 rpm single of It's Lovely To Be Back In London, the mono take of Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart from Judy In Love is also included. The only notable musical difference compared to the stereo version is the improvised tenor sax solo; Judy Garland's vocal, which was recorded on a separate tape to the band, is identical. The remaining bonus tracks are stereo and come from the animated feature, Gay Purr-ee (1962), for which Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, composers of The Wizard Of Oz (1939), wrote the words and music, and for which Garland is in resplendent voice. Lawrence Schulman is an award-winning music producer, critic and translator, and a widely acknowledged expert on Judy Garland. In addition to being a consultant on this AVID release, he has compiled a number of notable CD sets devoted to Judy Garland, including the recently issued 'Judy Garland: Lost Tracks 2 1936-1967.' (JSP Records). Check out:- Judy Garland (AMSC1228), Eartha Kitt (AMSC970), Julie Andrews (AMSC1007), Frances Day (AMSC926), Nat King Cole (AMSC1303) and Frances Faye (AMSC1177).