Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - Eclipsed
Rock'n'Roll/Boogie FATS DOMINO „I've Been Around - The Complete Imperial & ABC-Paramount Recor-dings"(12CD+DVD) (Bear Family)
Was für ein Liebesbeweis! Nach der vor über 25 Jahren veröffentlichten Fats-Do-mino-Retrospektive erscheint nun eine im-mens aufgestockte Neuausgabe mit 312 Titeln und einem aktualisierten 240-seiti-gen Hardcover-Buch. Buch und Hardco-ver-Inlay für die Tonträger befinden sich in einer mit Strukturcover bezogenen Box (etwas größer als eine 10"), die allen Wün-schen gerecht wird. Der Klang? Fantas-tisch, denn Wärme und Dynamik stimmen (ausgenommen ganz wenige Tracks aus der Frühzeit, bei denen schon das Quel-len-Material fragwürdig war [Azetate], aber auch hier erhält man das Optimum).

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - Stereo
Fats Domino I've Been Around - The Complete Imperial & ABC Recordings Bear Family 12 CDs + DVD „Autotuning" und digitale Tricks zu dem Zweck, Stimmen irgendwie aufzuhübschen, gab es es in den 1950ern und auch fol-genden Jahren nicht. Mikrofone wie das Neumann U87 oder das AKG C12 waren die klanggetreuen Wandler für Gesangsaufnahmen in Top-Studios! Damit Rock 'n' Roll über Jukeboxen oder Mittelwel-len-Rundfunk buchstäblich „flot-ter" klang und „mehr anmachte", nutzte man gelegentlich einen anderen Trick: speeding up! Um wenige Prozente bei der Überspielung beschleunigten Aufnahmen wollte man so ein größeres Hit-Po-tenzial verschaffen. Die damit ver-bundene, etwas andere Tonhöhe bei Hits von Elvis, Fats Domino und anderen Stars fiel kaum jeman-dem auf (übrigens so wenig wie die „PAL-Beschleunigung" bei Filmen auf DVD). Das neue Box-Set mit den kom-pletten Einspielungen der Imperial-und ABC-Jahre von Fats Domino bietet die Aufnahmen nicht nur im bislang bei weitem besten Remas-tering, sondern etliche damals für die Jukebox-Singles überspielten Aufnahmen in korrigiert „ent-schleunigten", nämlich den im Studio aufgezeichneten Fassun-gen: darunter so berühmte Ohr-würmer wie „I'm Walking", „Ain't It A Shame", „Blue Monday" und „Blueberry Hill". Das definitive Sammlerteil für Bewunderer der Rock 'n' Roll-Legende.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - Now Dig This
FATS RE-BOXED Due for mid-October release from Bear Family Records of Germany is a new Fats Domino box-set, 'I've Been Around - The Complete Imperial & ABC Recordings'. Back in 1993, the company assembled all of Fats' known Imperial rec-ordings of the 1949 - 1962 period onto the 8xCD box-set, 'Out Of New Orleans'. That package has now been completely overhauled and expanded into a 12xCD collection also con-sisting of a DVD (Joe Lauro's acclaimed 'The Big Beat - Fats Domino And The Birth Of Rock n Roll'), together with a 240-page full colour book containing an updated Imperial discog-raphy. "We've found a lot of new material", says a Bear Family press release, "[including] some things that were thought to be lost and other things that nobody knew existed. We have alternative takes that have never before been issued. We've got new unedited and non-overdubbed versions of some familiar Fats songs and newly discovered overdubs of familiar songs.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - offbeat.com
Bear Family Records is releasing a new box set, I’ve Been Around, which offers access to 312 tracks from the New Orleans singer-pianist Fats Domino. The set includes Domino’s work with Imperial Records (recordings from 1948-1962) and–collected for the first time in a Bear Family Records set–Domino’s ABC-Paramount Records sessions (recordings from 1963-1965). Also included are originally unreleased takes, undubbed masters and unreleased instrumental backing tracks, making this set a must-have for any collectors interested in Domino’s life and work.

Besides Domino’s iconic music, I’ve Been Around includes both a 60-minute and 90-minute cut of the PBS American Masters documentary Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll, which was released in 2016 and includes interviews with the late Dave Bartholomew and Crescent City studio owner Cosimo Matassa. The set also includes a 240-page full-color book, filled with updated notes by biographer Rick Coleman, commentary by producers Hank Davis and Scott Parker, a complete Domino sessionography and a collection of previously unpublished pictures.

During the 1950s, Domino was the first R&B artist to gain recognition by the younger generation, bridging the gap between African-American and white audiences. By leaving indelible marks on the history of music–such as “Ain’t it a Shame,” “I’m in Love Again,” “Blue Monday,” “Blueberry Hill” and “I’m Walkin’”–Domino was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. On Oct. 24, 2017, Domino died at his home in Harvey, LA at the age of 89.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - offbeat.com
Bear Family Records is releasing a new box set, I’ve Been Around, which offers access to 312 tracks from the New Orleans singer-pianist Fats Domino. The set includes Domino’s work with Imperial Records (recordings from 1948-1962) and–collected for the first time in a Bear Family Records set–Domino’s ABC-Paramount Records sessions (recordings from 1963-1965). Also included are originally unreleased takes, undubbed masters and unreleased instrumental backing tracks, making this set a must-have for any collectors interested in Domino’s life and work.

Besides Domino’s iconic music, I’ve Been Around includes both a 60-minute and 90-minute cut of the PBS American Masters documentary Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll, which was released in 2016 and includes interviews with the late Dave Bartholomew and Crescent City studio owner Cosimo Matassa. The set also includes a 240-page full-color book, filled with updated notes by biographer Rick Coleman, commentary by producers Hank Davis and Scott Parker, a complete Domino sessionography and a collection of previously unpublished pictures.

During the 1950s, Domino was the first R&B artist to gain recognition by the younger generation, bridging the gap between African-American and white audiences. By leaving indelible marks on the history of music–such as “Ain’t it a Shame,” “I’m in Love Again,” “Blue Monday,” “Blueberry Hill” and “I’m Walkin’”–Domino was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. On Oct. 24, 2017, Domino died at his home in Harvey, LA at the age of 89.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - the Vinyl District
The collection also contains a DVD including both the 60-minute broadcast version and the 90-minute director’s cut of the 2016 PBS American Masters documentary Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll. The film — which includes interviews with the late Dave Bartholomew and Crescent City engineer and studio owner Cosimo Matassa — was directed by Joe Lauro and written by Lauro and Rick Coleman.

Befitting the wide, deep scope of the set and reflecting Bear Family’s longstanding commitment to quality presentation, I’ve Been Around includes a full-color, hardcover, large-format book of 240 pages. It contains updated and extended notes by biographer Coleman; track-by-track commentary by producers Hank Davis and Scott Parker (who have been involved in more than 50 Bear Family projects); a comprehensive Domino Imperial sessionography and the most complete ABC-Paramount discography available to date; and many previously unpublished images.

In its dimensions and clothbound elegance, the box replicates the packaging of two previously released, widely acclaimed Bear Family boxes devoted to a pair of Domino’s fellow inaugural Rock Hall inductees: Chuck Berry’s Rock and Roll Music Any Old Way You Choose It, which compiled the singer-songwriter-guitarist’s complete studio recordings, and Jerry Lee Lewis’ What the Hell Else Do You Need?, the most extensive collection ever produced of the singer-pianist’s Sun Records material.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - the second disc
Get ready to find your thrill, as Bear Family Records has announced the ultimate tribute to singer, pianist, and rock-and-roll pioneer Fats Domino. The new 12CD/1DVD box set I’ve Been Around is due on November 8. It’s packed with 312 tracks including all of Domino’s recordings for Imperial Records, the label on which he made his name and recorded his biggest hits from 1948-1962, and ABC-Paramount Records, where he continued turning out stellar work between 1963-1965. This being a Bear Family box, it also features a treasure trove of originally unreleased alternate takes, undubbed and unedited masters, and backing tracks.

With his brash, joyful piano pounding, New Orleans native Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. was one of the first “crossover” artists to bridge the divide between R&B and pop in the 1950s. It’s no surprise that he was one of the first ten inductees in the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as he was a major influence on such artists as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Elton John, Bobby Darin, and Randy Newman. All 61 of his R&B chart hits (including nine No. 1s) are present on Bear Family’s box, including his 37 top 40 crossover hits. These songs are still as familiar today as they were six decades ago: “Ain’t It a Shame,” “Blue Monday,” “I’m Walkin’,” and of course, “Blueberry Hill.” The original master tape to the latter, a No. 1 R&B/No. 2 pop smash, is badly damaged, but is presented in superior sound here as derived from a clean, original 78 RPM disk.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - goldminemag
Domino (1928-2017) was the first major artist to explode off the R&B charts and into the teenage consciousness during the 1950s. He made his mark both as a session pianist behind Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Price, and Smiley Lewis (whose work backed by the keyboardist is heard on I’ve Been Around) and as a star in his own right, notching hit after hit with his sunny vocalizing and romping, rolling work on the 88s.
He changed American music in the process by crafting universally popular songs that bridged the then seemingly vast chasm between African-American and white audiences. New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew called him the “cornerstone” of rock ’n’ roll.
As biographer Rick Coleman noted in Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ’n’ Roll, the musician “[stepped] beyond blues and jazz to the crossroads of a new, wider world that he would help create both musically and socially.” In 1986 he was one of the 10 inaugural inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - metal rules
Bear Family Records, the international gold standard for excellence in music reissues, offers the most in-depth look yet available at the groundbreaking R&B and rock ’n’ roll hits of the pioneering New Orleans singer-pianistFats Domino in its new box set I’ve Been Around, to be released November 8, 2019.

The monumental collection contains 312 tracks comprising all the Crescent City titan’s work forImperial Records, for which he cut his first and greatest hits from 1948-1962, and ABC-Paramount Records, his recording home from 1963-65. A motherlode of originally unreleased alternate takes, undubbed and unedited masters, and newly discovered instrumental backing tracks, is included.

Domino (1928-2017) was the first major artist to explode off the R&B charts and into the teenage consciousness during the 1950s. He made his mark both as a session pianist behind Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Price, and Smiley Lewis (whose work backed by the keyboardist is heard on I’ve Been Around) and as a star in his own right, notching hit after hit with his sunny vocalizing and romping, rolling work on the 88s.

He changed American music in the process by crafting universally popular songs that bridged the then seemingly vast chasm between African-American and white audiences. New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew called him the “cornerstone” of rock ’n’ roll.

As biographer Rick Coleman noted in Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ’n’ Roll, the musician “[stepped] beyond blues and jazz to the crossroads of a new, wider world that he would help create both musically and socially.” In 1986 he was one of the 10 inaugural inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - shepherdexpress.com
A case could be made for 1948 as the birthdate of rock and roll. "Okie Boogie," recorded that year by The Maddox Brothers and Rose, was western swing stripped to bedrock with a furiously pounding rhythm yanking the usually tragic pedal steel along for a reckless ride. Then again, a track by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, "Seven Come Eleven," recorded in 1945 and also included in The Bakersfield Sound, also hints at rockabilly with its fierce slapping rhythm.

The Bakersfield Sound is a magnificently authoritative 10-CD box set whose heavily illustrated hardbound book contains artist bios and track-by-track notations. Wills was included in the set for his seminal influence on the country music scene that coalesced in the environs of Bakersfield, Calif. The city was a mecca for Dust Bowl refugees with farm fields and oil wells offering work for any man willing to roll up his sleeves. Honky-tonks were their place of refuge when the workday ended.

Bakersfield is recalled as an alternative to Nashville, and during the 1960s, it challenged the Tennessee town as country music's capital. All of the folks whose recordings are collected here had aspirations of popularity, and some made it. To generalize the difference with Nashville, the Bakersfield boys (and several gals) were proud of their authentically rural roots and had no interest in hiding them behind slickly conceived pop arrangements.

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - Now Dig This
That package has now been completely overhauled and expanded into a 12xCD collection also con-sisting of a DVD (Joe Lauro's acclaimed 'The Big Beat - Fats Domino And The Birth Of Rock n Roll'), together with a 240-page full colour book containing an updated Imperial discog-raphy. "We've found a lot of new material", says a Bear Family press release, "[including] some things that were thought to be lost and other things that nobody knew existed. We have alternative takes that have never before been issued.

Presse Archiv - Fats Domino The Ballads Of Fats Domino - rocktimes
Und so wird die meist durchgängige Atmosphäre stets ein wenig aufgelockert, durch die eine oder andere nuancierte Zutat. Klar, im Laufe der Spielzeit wünscht man sich zwischendurch immer wieder gern einen 'Rocker', aber damit kann man klarkommen. Stilistisch zeigt sich eine klare Beeinflussung durch Boogie-Pianisten, so war dann auch Albert Ammons eines der großen Vorbilder von Fats Domino.
Neben den umfangreichen und Lesevergnügen bereitenden Liner Notes von Bill Dahl sind, wie man es von Bear Family Records gewöhnt ist, alle Aufnahmedaten, Besetzungen etc. akribisch aufgelistet, alles erstklassig!

Presse Archiv - Fats Domino The Ballads Of Fats Domino - rocktimes
Und so wird die meist durchgängige Atmosphäre stets ein wenig aufgelockert, durch die eine oder andere nuancierte Zutat. Klar, im Laufe der Spielzeit wünscht man sich zwischendurch immer wieder gern einen 'Rocker', aber damit kann man klarkommen. Stilistisch zeigt sich eine klare Beeinflussung durch Boogie-Pianisten, so war dann auch Albert Ammons eines der großen Vorbilder von Fats Domino.
Neben den umfangreichen und Lesevergnügen bereitenden Liner Notes von Bill Dahl sind, wie man es von Bear Family Records gewöhnt ist, alle Aufnahmedaten, Besetzungen etc. akribisch aufgelistet, alles erstklassig!

Presse Archiv - Fats Domino The Ballads Of Fats Domino - Oldie Markt
Fats Domino The Ballads Of Bear Family BCD 17530
Dass einer der großen Rock'n'Roll-Stars vor al-lem ein genialer Balladen-sänger und -komponist war, beweist diese CD von den Bewahrern des Guten und Schönen im Rock'n'Roll, Bear Fami-ly. Man muss nicht die Hits wie Bueberry Hill, Blue Monday oder You Win Again nennen, son-dern jeder der 32 Titel be-weist das große Können des Mannes als Musiker ebenso wie als Balladen-sänger. Seine Stimme ist unnachahmlich und setzt dieser CD die Glanzlichter auf.

Presse - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Access!
In superber Qualität sind sämtliche Aufnahmen zu hören, die Domino zwischen 1949 und 1962 für Imperial gemacht hat. Besonders spannend für Sammler: Die Box, die Bear-Family-üblich in LP-großer Aufmachung mit einem tollen, ebenfalls LP-formatigen 72-Seiten-Booklet daherkommt, enthält sogar einige unveröffentlichte, unverän-derte und nicht overdubbte Aufnahmen.

Presse - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Oldie Markt 1-1994

Presse - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Rock'n'Roll Magazin 1992
Bear Family legt nun nach und ist den Weg zu Ende gegangen. Schon beim Erscbeinen der EMI-Box hatte das Bremer Label die Arbeit an ihrer eigenen Box begonnen. Nun ist ja die 13ärenfamilie nicht dafür bekannt halbe Sachen zu machen. Im Ergebnis ist denn "Out Of New Orleans" schon vom Format her doppelt so groß geworden - die 8-CD-Ausgabe ist im LP-Format gehalten. Bei den Titeln haben sie noch mehr zugelegt. Insgesamt gibt es auf den acht Compact Discs 222 Aufnahmen zu hören. Das sind alle Titel, die Fats in der Zeit von 1949 bis 1962 für das Imperial-Label aufgenommen hat. In der Discographie der EMI-Box tauchen eine Reihe von unveröffentlichten Instrumental-Titeln auf, die in der Bear Family-Discographie nur am Rande erwähnt werden.