Should Jazz Go Back To Mono?
"This brings up a broader question: Should acoustic jazz as a whole consider a return to mono recording? It might give present-day artists, who frequently sound diffident and distant on their studied, chamber-jazz albums, an impetus to punch their stuff up a little, to give it more swing and impact. Many of the artists recording for labels like Criss Cross, Fresh Sound New Talent, and Posi-Tone are already stylistically indebted—to varying degrees, granted—to the music of the 1950s and early 1960s, so why not adopt the technological methodologies of the time? If they went into the session knowing they’d be documented in a way that would demand a certain broad-stroke vitality, balanced with a need to make room for their bandmates as the music happened, rather than “fixing it in the mix” after the fact, who knows what kind of effect it might have? I can think of a number of groups, from the Nick Hempton Band to the William Parker Quartet, who I’d love to hear in a punchy mono mix."
http://burningambulance.com/2013/11/18/should-jazz-go-back-to-mono/
