15 July, 2020

Happenings Hank Jones Baldwin Electric Harpsichord

Click pics to enlarge. Technics SL-1200 Mk II upper right; LP atop Schiit Valhalla, Naim NAC 42, Artemis Labs LA-1.

New York Diary (20-21): The Baldwin Electric Harpsichord

This beat-up and somewhat musty smelling Impulse LP, which I found in a dollar bin, is a personal favorite. It is a star-studded big band production in brilliant sound. But my fondness for it is because here the great pianist Hank Jones plays the Baldwin Electric Harpsichord in 7 of 11 tracks. Even jazz lovers may not have heard of this instrument.

This instrument was ahead of its times, though of course forgotten now. Today's electric keyboard can produce any sound in a much smaller enclosure. This FANTASTIC NMC link. tells you everything about the Baldwin.

This album was emphatically not well received by critics. Allmusic gave it 2 out of  5 stars! But if you look at reviews of actual listeners (e.g. discogs, Amazon) most love it as I do. Apparently, rock and pop musicians took to it a lot more. From the quoted NMC link:

"...Among the most recognizable albums and compositions to feature this instrument include: The Beatles’ “Because” (performed by George Martin) from Abbey Road of 1969; The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows”, “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times”, and “Caroline, No” from Pet Sounds of 1966 and “Wonderful” from Smile of 1967; Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair” from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme of 1966; The Doors’ “Love Me Two Times” from Strange Days of 1967; James Taylor’s “Taking It In” from James Taylor of 1968; Grateful Dead’s “Mountains of the Moon” from Aoxomoxoa of 1969; Nick Drake’s “Fly” from Bryter Layter of 1970; Van Morrison’s “Cypress Avenue” from Astral Weeks of 1968; Donovan’s “Hampstead Incident” from Mellow Yellow of 1967; and, The Kinks’ “Two Sisters” from Something Else By The Kinks of 1967. The instrument was also featured in the opening theme to The Addams Family (1964), and in the film score to The Odd Couple (1968)..."


That's a lot of songs we know well! Now, where is my Abbey Road album?

The reason why it fascinates me is: the instrument is to the fore during Jones' solo's (unlike the cameo ways it is used in pop). The reason I include the part of the liner notes is because I don't think it tells everything. As a classical listener, it is important to say that the term "electric harpischord" is misleading. As the note says, the instrument can produce different keyboard sounds. And Hank Jones made the most of it. Sometimes it sounds like the harpsichord, other times it sounds like the clavichord (even fortepiano as the Baldwin does have a pedal) or the dulcimer. The clavichord is at least as old as the harpichord, which transits through the fortepiano to piano.

I urge you to stream this album in its entirety. I just played it on my Technics which fed into Naim NAC 42 and Akitika GT-102. It swings, critics be damned!

pic of actual item that was sold

7 comments:

  1. Hey DJ, I just start searching those pulled out vintage organ amps from Electrohome or Baldwin. What do you think? Are they well match with my modern ESL? My ss amps 50E are very good match (with input transformers, otherwise not enough gain) with it and sound tube like. That tempts me to look for a real cheaptube amp to evaluate further.
    Joe L

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    1. Nice to hear from you Joe! Many of the organ amps are cheaper but problematic because they use a lot of tubes and need some modifications. Their bandwidth may be somewhat limited too. Do you have a technician?

      It be easier to stick to regular tube amps. Do you have friends who you can borrow amps from? I'd try something like Marantz 8B, Dynaco ST70, McIntosh MC-225 etc. The Dyna is reasonable but the others are not exactly cheap. More power good too, but gets more expensive.

      The best sound for ESL is supposedly the EL84, but it is too low powered.

      Are you using a tube preamp? If so, there is no hurry to change I'd think.

      Hey, how about emailing me a couple of pics for a virtual home visit? Please consider that!

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    2. Thanks for your reply DJ. I can handle a soldering gun & read schematic diagram, having many tech friends around. I've re-wired my 50E to transformer input, re-capped it and adjusted bias to it.

      I'm using an AN M8 line amp now and quite happy with it. Hunting for a tube power amp is only to ease my curiosity vs the 50E ss amps.

      I'll send you couple of pics of my set up separately, thank you!

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    3. Manley Tiny Triode, one nice EL84 amp that had driven my loved ESL 57 to Nirvana!

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    4. Definitely, that's 4 x EL84 per side but run in triode. Actually recorded in this blog!

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  2. ARC VT-200 200watts stereo amp had driven ESL-2812 to hell. Paired with ARC 40years pre-amp, volume control at 87/100 sounded like an ss radio, have tried different speaker loads from 2-16ohms. I still don't understand what is the problem?

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    Replies
    1. Old ARC preamps don't match well with their later amps, but still, it should'nt be that bad! :-(

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