Album Reviews

A more pleasant pairing of musical icons you’re not likely to hear and the backing by The Oscar Peterson Trio (Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar plus Buddy Rich on drums) completes the setting. Add a superb monophonic recording and a literally astonishing 45rpm re-mastering that just about brings them all back to life in your listening room and you have something truly special that’s clearly stood the test of (a long!) time.

A more pleasant pairing of musical icons you’re not likely to hear and the backing by The Oscar Peterson Trio (Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar plus Buddy Rich on drums) completes the setting. Add a superb monophonic recording and a literally astonishing 45rpm re-mastering that just about brings them all back to life in your listening room and you have something truly special that’s clearly stood the test of (a long!) time.

At a time when putting African-Americans on the cover of jazz albums meant for a broad audience was simply not done, Norman Granz went for a wonderfully disarming, informal (and some might say disrespectful) “snapshot” of these two giants.

The song selection and the way they are performed are as straightforward as it gets—no vocal pyrotechnics and minimal scatting from two that could really do it as good if not better than anyone. Both wrap themselves around the songs and each other in the process, producing a swinging, intimate serenity that’s not often experienced from a recording.

Unless you’re very young or have been locked up, you’ll know all of the ballads chosen from “The Great American Songbook,” including “Moonlight in Vermont,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Tenderly” and “Cheek to Cheek”—all performed with a disarming, relaxed quality that’s sure to put you in a great mood long after the last lingering note fades.

The production puts the pair upfront “on mic” and the backing group way back. So far back if you don’t pay attention you may forget they are there. Even Louis, when he plays his trumpet, seems to step back a few steps compared to when he sings. On "The Nearness of You" you can actually hear him backing up after a more closely-miked solo.

The recording quality is stupendously transparent, natural and intimate. Don’t let the age or the “mono-ness” of it fool you into thinking you’re getting moldy sound.

I bought my first copy of this off a homeless “used record salesman” somewhere on the upper West Side of Manhattan. Part of the cover was missing but the original pressing was in pretty good condition. I got a later pressing someplace else but neither compares to this new mastering from the original tape cut at 45rpm by George Marino at Sterling Sound.

You can save $15 and some standing up and sitting down by getting Speakers Corner’s 33 1/3 single disc cut by Kevin Gray at AcousTech probably from a tape dupe and pressed at Pallas. It's very good! But like the reproduction of Phil Stern’s cover photo for the double 45, which looks like it was produced with great care, the sonics on this new Analogue Productions release are far superior. The backgrounds are jet black and the vocal textures take on a thrilling realism the 33 can't match. You can feel the touch of the musicians and hear their contribution far more clearly.  “Pops” leaves beads of sweat on the floor. Yours, not the studio’s. I swear. Or maybe the kitchen sink above my listening room only leaks when I play this record?