Art Pepper + Eleven – Modern Jazz Classics (UHQCD)

Big band instead of quartet – for the recordings of „Modern Jazz Classics” in 1959, the Contemporary Records label brought out the big musical guns around alto saxophonist Art Pepper. The album contains twelve jazz standards, such as Thelonious Monks’ „‘Round Midnight,” Denzil Best’s „Move” or Gerry Mulligan’s „Walkin’ Shoes,” but Davis, Parker, Rollins and other big names can also be heard. Highlights include Pepper’s clarinet playing in „Anthropology.” The arrangements were done by the American multi-talent Marty Paich.

For the re-release on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Contemporary Records, the recordings of legendary sound engineers Roy DuNann and Howard Holzer were mastered by Bernie Grundman.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan’s first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.

Lista pieselor

1. Move

2. Groovin’ Hight

3. Opus De Funk

4. ‘round Midnight

5. Four Brothers

6. Shaw ‘nuff

7. Bernie’s Tune

8. Walkin’ Shoes

9. Anthropology

10. Airegin

11. Walkin’

12. Donna Lee