Billy Cole Trio

In the early part of 1982 the Billy Cole Trio recorded at Flite Three Studios in Baltimore, Maryland. The session took place all in one day utilizing the largest of the three rooms, studio C.

I recall the trio was from Europe. Their objective was to walk out with a finished master to shop around to various jazz labels. I’m not aware if they were ever signed. 

The performances were recorded straight to Agfa 1/4” tape on a Scully 280b running at 15 ips. Meaning, it was mixed as the musicians performed. From that 1/4” master I made a cassette dub, which is the cassette this transfer was made from. So …… your ears are hearing two generations away from the original performance. How cool is that?  See what I do for you?

Here in 2024 the 42 year-old cassette had to be repaired prior to digitizing. The actual tape inside the cassette shell was oh-so gingerly extracted from its 1982 shell and transplanted over into a new cassette shell (whew). Ken Burns was present, filming the tape transplant, and you’ll get to see the process in a PBS documentary in three years.

The Dolby B characteristic of the original cassette was properly decoded in 2024. I am quite satisfied with whole of the analog to digital transfer. There’s some tape flutter near the beginning but it stabilizes after some seconds.

I do not own this music. Using Google I have been unable to locate/contact The Billy Cole Trio. I will remove this post if contacted by a party representing the artist. Me: bakervoice@gmail.com

Enjoy The Billy Cole Trio!