Album Reviews

(Note: this review originally stated that the lacquer cut was from the 3 track master. That was incorrect. The master here was the two track original that hadn't been used since 1980. While the tape had some dropout and other issues, mastering engineer George Marino determined it still sounded superior to any of the copies used for subsequent reissues.)

(Note: this review originally stated that the lacquer cut was from the 3 track master. That was incorrect. The master here was the two track original that hadn't been used since 1980. While the tape had some dropout and other issues, mastering engineer George Marino determined it still sounded superior to any of the copies used for subsequent reissues.)

Jazz Samba, the 1962 album Stan Getz made with guitarist Charlie Byrd first introduced Americans to the lilting Bossa Nova beat and to the great Brazilian songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim. The album contained both "Desafinado" and "One Note Samba," two songs that both define the genre and have become standards.

 It was the also the first Verve album to feature a piece of abstract art on the cover—a graphic twist Verve repeated for quite some time. That album was issued by Speakers Corner on 180g vinyl from a lacquer cut by Kevin Gray processed and presse at Pallas. The album will soon be issued on double 45rpm by Analogue Productions.

Producer Creed Taylor had struck gold. He followed up with Big Band Bossa Nova by arranger/composer Gary McFarland (who married my mother's interior decorator's daughter but that's another story!) and Brazilian guitarist Luis Bonfa's Jazz Samba Encore, both good records, though neither achieved the status or popularity of Jazz Samba.

Getz followed up with this blockbuster featuring two Brazilian Bossa Nova superstars:  guitarist Joao Gilberto and pianist/guitarist/composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. Both but especially Jobim became big stars in America as well.

The mood here is more relaxed, sophisticated and sensuous than on the previous album. Gilberto's wife Astrud sings the iconic opener "Girl From Ipanema"  using a cool, dispassionate almost non-singing style that was startling at the time to say the least. It exuded cool sexuality for its time similar to how Julie London did it on her album  Julie is Her Name reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Joao Gilberto sings most of the other songs in a similarly intimate and relaxed vocal style not previously heard by most Americans. Getz obliged with a big, juicy, wet, vibrato laden, and equally relaxed and sensuous style. Both Astrud and Joao  sing "Quiet Nights" and compared to what most Americans were used to from their popular music the mood was positively porno-fucking-graphic. Take my word for it. I was but a teenager, but hearing this album drew metaphoric bodily fluids from me in Noah's flood epic proportions. 

Though nothing was explicitly stated, listening to this album and not thinking about getting laid was impossible. You couldn't understand a word of Portugese, but you were sure Gilberto was describing something sexy even if it was a recitation of the Rio phone book (which it wasn't). The album includes the unlikely hit single "The Girl From Ipanema," "Desafinado,"  "Corcovado" and other Bossa Novas that have entered the body of Brazilian standards. 

Needless to say, between Getz, who had now attained pop music-like stardom and Astrud Gilberto, whose sexy vocals excited the imagination of a generation of college students and beyond, the album became a huge best seller aided and abetted by  superb album cover art featuring yet another piece or artwork by Olga Albizu highlighted by an unprecedented jet black backdrop. Everything about the artwork screamed "hip and now!" when the album was issued March of 1964, a year after it was recorded.

It went on to win 1965 Grammy Awards for Best Album of the Year, Best Jazz Instrumental Album-Individual or Group and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. That doesn't happen to a jazz album all that often, but this one rightly created a sensation. It was the good fortune of audio enthusiasts that the record was engineered by the great Phil Ramone to 3 track tape.

Needless to say, the record sold millions of copies and the two track master tape was used many times. For whatever reasons it ended up the worse for wear (as opposed to "non the worse for wear") and copies were used for all reissues after 1980. The album was reissued by both Mobile Fidelity and Speakers Corner. The Mobile Fidelity, despite the "master tape" claim, sounds as if it was cut from a later generation tape.

Here is an image of the original master tape box supplied by Analogue Productions:

 The Speakers Corner  reissue was cut by Kevin Gray, probably form a copy of the two track master. Interestingly, the channels are reversed on the Speakers Corner reissue compared to the original, but Kevin Gray insists that the original mastering engineer (apparently "F.G." according to the "dead wax") accidentally reversed the channels and that his mastering for Speakers Corner corrects that mistake.

When Chad Kassem's forensic experts were able to locate the original master tape, the decision was made to use even though the tape was in less than optimal condition. When George Marino cut it, he also chose to correct the original mastering engineer's mistake so if you have an original, expect the channels to be reversed.

Like I said, my mother's decorator's daughter married Gary McFarland, so I was locked into the scene (from afar) and so when this album was issued my senior year of high school, I immediately picked up a copy. My copy featured a white border around the black background that no reissue including this one has used. Otherwise, Acoustic Sounds' gatefolded, glossy paper on cardboard cover art is a superb re-creation of the original.

As for the sound, comparisons between a very well played original (on everything from a Columbia "360 Sound" record changer, to an Onkyo semi-automatic to a Dual 1009SK to a Dual 1219 to a Lustre GST tonearm on a Denon direct drive motor turntable to a Thorens TD-125 to an Oracle Dephi to a VPI TNT to a Simon Yorke S9 to a Continuum Caliburn) were really interesting.

The almost fifty year old tape was not in great shape, nor was it in terrible shape either. Despite the original's many plays and despite the age and condition of the tape, the two versions, pressed fifty years apart sounded remarkably similar. Of course the reissue presents far quieter backgrounds than does the original while the original has a more pronounded top end and cleaner high frequencies.

Overall though, the reissue is cleaner and more transparent, though if you luck into a clean original for a reasonable price, don't pass it up! That said, this is  superb reissue in every way, including the pressing at Kassem's QRP plant. The metal parts represent the best hope for preserving this classic into the foreseeable and unforseeable future.

A very highly recommended reissue. I've been playing the original for nearly fifty years and I never tire of listening to Getz/Gilberto