CV-1014 · Session Nº 1414 Nov 1958

Late Light atMarsh Street

Ida Varnell Quartet · The Marsh Street Room, Baltimore

Recorded after closing, with the chairs already on the tables.

Varnell asked for the house lights to stay half-lit, so the engineer worked by a reading lamp clipped to the console. The quartet cut six sides in a single pass. Nothing was spliced, and the bass is slightly flat on the second chorus of the title track, which Varnell refused to fix: “that is the sound of the room getting cold.”

piano: Ida Varnell
tenor sax: Lionel Pruitt
bass: Hal Whitcombe
drums: Moss Calder

Corvina Ledgerfol. 27

Plate & sidesMatrix MS-2207 / MS-2208

CV-1014Late Light at Marsh StreetIda Varnell Quartet

Plate XIV. First pressing, laminated sleeve; label in oxblood with gilt rule.

A1Late Light at Marsh Street7:42
A2A Coat for Thursday5:16
A3Lamplighter’s Waltz6:03
B1Harbor, 4 a.m.8:11
B2The Cold Room4:58
B3Chairs on the Tables6:27

Engineer — Walt Sorensen

fol. 28

Part II · fol. 60–71

Catalogue of Issues

Every Corvina long-player, in the order the matrix numbers were assigned. Six of the forty-one are shown; the rest are held in the ledger.

CV-1003 · 1957
Spoken For
Ruth Abernathy
CV-1009 · 1958
Two Pianos, One Lamp
The Lowell Brothers
CV-1014 · 1958
Late Light at Marsh Street
Ida Varnell Quartet
CV-1019 · 1959
Solo in the Afternoon
Ida Varnell
CV-1022 · 1959
The Tidewater Suite
Otis Fairleigh Septet
CV-1031 · 1961
Nine Rooms, No Windows
Maren Kessick Trio

Part III · Personnel Registerfol. 72

Personnel Register

Players and engineers, alphabetised by surname. References are catalogue numbers, read against the matrix ledger on fol. 60.

Abernathy, Ruthvoice1003, 1027
Calder, Mossdrums1014, 1019, 1022
Fairleigh, Otiscornet, arr.1022, 1029
Grieve, Anselmtrombone1022
Kessick, Marenpiano1031, 1036
Lowell, Amospiano1009
Lowell, Peterpiano1009
Ostrander, Dellaengineer1031, 1036, 1040
Pruitt, Lioneltenor sax1014, 1022
Sorensen, Waltengineer1003, 1009, 1014, 1022
Varnell, Idapiano, leader1014, 1019
Whitcombe, Halbass1014, 1031

Part IV · On the Mastersfol. 88

Why we never remastered

Corvina’s tapes were cut on a single Ampex 350 that Walt Sorensen kept in the back of a laundry van. When the label closed in 1964 the masters went into a church basement in Fells Point, and they stayed there, dry and forgotten, for thirty-one years.

The reissues in this ledger are transferred flat. No noise reduction, no reverb, no re-balancing. When a bass is flat, it stays flat. Where a stamper cracked, the tick is documented rather than removed.¹

“A record is a receipt for a room. You don’t edit a receipt.”
— Della Ostrander, 1987

Late Light atMarsh Street

The TidewaterSuite

Nine Rooms,No Windows

Catalogue of Issues

Spoken For

Two Pianos, One Lamp

Late Light at Marsh Street

Solo in the Afternoon

The Tidewater Suite

Nine Rooms, No Windows

Personnel Register

Why we never remastered