Bob Witrak continues to find really nice recordings to release over at HDTT. This time around we have a Basie/Ellington Redux reissue, a Coleman Hawkins album transferred from the original Crown Records 15ips master tape, an excellent Fritz Reiner Living Stereo reissue, plus three albums that I've had in my Pure DSD256 From Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile listing but have not previously reviewed. So, it's time for some catch-up. Enjoy.
Richard Strauss, Death and Transfiguration, Le Bourgois Gentilhomme, Fritz Reiner. HDTT 2025 1956 (DSD256, DXD) HERE
Fritz Reiner is known for his performances of the music of Richard Strauss. Reiner conducted German premieres of Strauss's works early in his career and had a strong affinity for his music, mastering both delicate works and massive, rich compositions. His Strauss is clear-eyed, noble, and never sentimentalized. Some would say his interpretations are "unflinchingly honest." One might also say they are definitive.
Whether Also Sprach Zarathustra, Ein Heldenleben, Alpine Symphony, or the two great works included on this album, Death and Transfiguration and Le Bourgois Gentilhomme, Reiner reveals the composer behind the work with clarity. His performances reveal Richard Strauss as a composer of great intellect, as much as passion. While so many of the works of Richard Strauss are monumental passionate works, far too many conductors don't get past this. Reiner slices right to the bone revealing the inner workings of Strauss' massive intellect and emotional core.
When these recordings were originally issued by RCA in the Living Stereo series, Death and Transfiguration was paired with Till Eulenspiegel, and the latter received the more prominent billing due to its popularity. But I will contend that Death and Transfiguration is by far the more compelling, more demanding, more intellectually challenging piece of music.
In this release from HDTT, Death and Transfiguration is paired with Le Bourgois Gentilhomme, an orchestral suite that Strauss arranged out of some earlier compositions. As with Till Eulenspiegel, this is a far lighter work.
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a 30-minute dance-laden, neo-Baroque throwback/homage, with plenty of Straussian orchestral spirit. I really like the solo features throughout, including a surprisingly large role for piano. Despite looking backwards in time for the musical style, Strauss’ orchestrations are thick and heavy akin to his symphonic poems, and his musical inventions are full of eye-twinklings that give this music oodles of charm.
Whether drawing luminous grandeur from the Vienna Philharmonic or razor-sharp brilliance from the Chicago Symphony, Reiner reveals the mind behind the emotion. His interpretations remind us that Strauss, for all his opulence, was a composer of intellect as much as passion. Death and Transfiguration becomes not merely the story of an artist’s soul ascending to glory, but a meditation on control and transcendence; Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme transforms from pastiche into a sparkling essay on taste and refinement. Reiner’s achievement lies in showing Strauss as a master of both thought and feeling, his music radiant, precise, and enduring.
Coleman Hawkins And His Orchestra. HDTT 1960 2025 (Pure DSD256) HERE
No, there is no orchestra. But what an excellent collection of jazz musicians come together on this album from 1960. Notwithstanding the budget character of the label that recorded this, Crown Records, all of Hawkins' sidemen were major players. This is a tight, well communicating, combo of great jazz performers who know how to read each other and respond to each other.
Tenor Saxophone – Coleman Hawkins
Bass – George Duvivier
Drums – Osie Johnson
Piano, Vibraphone – Eddie Costa
Trumpet – Thad Jones
The album starts off with Hawkins' "Bean In Orbit" (reflecting Hawkins' nickname, Bean) in which Hawkins and Thad Jones trade lines with comping by Eddie Costa on piano. Immediately you know this is going to be special. And the album does not disappoint as these players deliver the sound of a larger ensemble sound with each player listening, responding, and leaving just enough space for Hawkins’s deep, eloquent tone to take center stage.
Originally released on LP in mono, the source here is a transfer from the original Crown Records stereo master tape. The imaging tends to be of that hard left, hard right variety. But the drums are solidly planted in the center, anchoring everything. And the sound is crisp, clear, and detailed in this Pure DSD256 transfer.
For a track-by-track commentary, read John Sunier's review of the mono vinyl reissue by Pure Pleasure (2012), HERE. For the best sound quality, my recommendation is this new Pure DSD256 release from the original stereo master tape by HDTT.
First Time! The Count Meets The Duke, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. HDTT 1961 2025 (Redux, DSD256, DXD) HERE
"There are few moments in jazz when history doesn’t just move forward, it pauses, turns back, and salutes itself. First Time! The Count Meets The Duke is one of those rare occasions. Recorded in July 1961 at Columbia’s famed 30th Street Studio in New York City and released the following year, the album brought together two orchestras that had written the very grammar of swing: the Count Basie Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Orchestra."—HDTT
And I agree. What a great meeting of two of the most outstanding jazz orchestras ever to play. And when you look at the lineup of musicians performing with these orchestras, it becomes even easier to understand why they have always been so highly regarded. Just wow!
Orchestra – Count Basie Orchestra, The Duke Ellington Orchestra
Duke Ellington, Count Basie – piano
Cat Anderson, Willie Cook, Eddie Mullens, Ray Nance, Sonny Cohn, Lennie Johnson, Thad Jones, Snooky Young – trumpet
Lou Blackburn, Lawrence Brown, Henry Coker, Quentin Jackson, Benny Powell – trombone
Juan Tizol – valve trombone
Jimmy Hamilton – clarinet, tenor saxophone
Johnny Hodges – alto saxophone
Russell Procope, Marshal Royal – alto saxophone, clarinet
Frank Wess – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute
Paul Gonsalves, Frank Foster, Budd Johnson – tenor saxophone
Harry Carney, Charlie Fowlkes – baritone saxophone
Freddie Green – guitar
Aaron Bell, Eddie Jones – bass
Sam Woodyard, Sonny Payne – drums
The famed 30th Street Studio, a converted church with high ceilings and remarkable natural acoustics, was the perfect setting for such a summit. The recording captures it well.
This is a Redux edition from HDTT taking advantage of new equipment to remaster in higher resolutions with substantially better sound quality. Sourced from a 4-track tape this is another example of great sound coming from non-audiophile approved source material: Master Tapes, Shmaster Tapes. It has all the clarity, immediacy, frequency extension, timbral accuracy, transient speed, and dynamics that any audiophile could expect.
Syrinx, Harp and Flute Duo, Laurel Wyckoff (flute), Anne Sullivan (harp). HDTT 1982 2016 (Pure DSD256) HERE or HERE
This album resides on my Pure DSD256 From Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile listing. I've long admired it as a sonic masterpiece, but am only now getting around to writing up some further comments about it. Recorded August 27, 1982 at Bishop White Memorial Library of the Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge Pennsylvania by DTR Recordings and transferred from the 15ips 2-track master tape. This was a "direct to tape" recording using just two Schoeps microphones. No equalization, compression, or limiting was applied.
Playing this with its full dynamic range and frequency extension, and reproducing the very natural and accurate timbre of the instruments, as captured in the recording is a phenomenal test of your system. This is one of those "I dare you" albums. Play it and you will be impressed with just how good your audio system sounds, or disappointed by how much more effort you need to invest to get there.
The music is a nice mix from composers Henri Tomasi (1901-1971), Gabriel Faure (1845-1924), Erik Satie (1866-1925), Charles Gounod (1818-1893), Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Eugene Bozza (1905-1991), Francoise Couperin (1688-1733), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), and Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764). There is even a work by Richard Lionheart (King Richard I of England, ca. 1189).
Billie Holiday, Songs for Distingué Lovers. HDTT 1957 2018 (Pure DSD256) HERE
This is yet another album that resides on my Pure DSD256 From Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile listing, but which I've not written a review until now.
Billie Holiday, birth name Elinore Harris, byname "Lady Day." Born April 7, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Died July 17, 1959, New York City, New York. Mark her well.
Little needs to be said about the album itself, nor about Billie Holiday. I'm sure you are well aware of this music. Her style isn't eloquent, but her ability to shape a phrase and communicate the lyrics are unsurpassed. And here she is still in good voice, albeit getting a bit raspy. If you don't know why people make such a big deal of Lady Day, this is the album to help you understand why people so treasured her as a performing artist.
The lineup of musicians is stellar:
Vocals – Billie Holiday
Bass – Red Mitchell
Drums – Alvin Stoller
Guitar – Barney Kessel
Piano – Jimmie Rowles
Tenor Saxophone – Ben Webster
Trumpet – Harry "Sweets" Edison
If you're listening to vinyl, get the Analogue Productions 45rpm reissue from Acoustic Sounds. I think you will not be disappointed. But for those of us listening to digital, this is the release to have. Her voice in this transfer from a 15ips 2-track tape to Pure DSD256 will knock your socks off, make you cry, make you fall in love, all within an hour. I had the AP 45rpm vinyl in my music library for many years, but hearing the sound quality of this Pure DSD256 release leaves me with no regrets.
I have compared to some other audiophile approved digital releases of this album, but none compare with the sound quality you will experience here. It is superb. And that's why it's in my Top of the Pile list.
Dexter Gordon, Go! HDTT 1962 2022 (Pure DSD256) HERE
Continuing the catch-up effort, this is yet another album that resides on my Pure DSD256 From Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile listing, but which I've not written a review until now.
Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at his studio in Englewood Cliffs and released on Blue Note Records, this is an excellent transfer from tape to Pure DSD256. With a very relaxed atmosphere, the quartet of Gordon, Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins are totally together. Go! gets a five-star rating on AllMusic and it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
As noted in HDTT's liner notes, "From the first moments when Dexter Gordon sails into the opening song full of brightness and confidence, it is obvious that Go is going to be one of those albums where everything just seems to come together magically."
Yep, I agree. This is a special set. And it's on my Top of the Pile list because the sound quality of the Pure DSD256 transfer from tape is just outstanding. It's that combination of musical excellence and superb sound quality that just makes you want to stand up and cheer.
