Bobby Hutcherson featuring Harold Land – San Fancisco (UHQCD)

The musical collaboration between vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson – one of the most important representatives of the Blue Note style since 1963, the year he arrived on the New York jazz scene – and famous tenor saxophonist Harold Land truly blossomed with “San Francisco”. The two artists had already explored the most extreme reaches of post-bop two years earlier, with a series of highly intriguing albums such as “Total Eclipse”, “Spiral” and “Medina”, but it was ultimately “San Francisco” that gave Hutcherson a distinct identity and made him one of the most in-demand modern jazz players.

For “San Francisco,” Hutcherson and Land were joined by pianist Joe Sample, bassist John Williams and drummer Mickey Roker, creating a band with a powerfully rich sound: From songs like “Goin’ Down South” and “Ummh” to pieces with a Latin flair like “Jazz” and “A Night in Barcelona” to the hypnotic “Print Tie” and the innovative “Procession” – “San Francisco” offers an exciting and varied program that is one of the highlights of early 1970s jazz. The recordings for this classic took place on July 15, 1970 at United Artists Studios, Los Angeles, with Duke Pearson as one of the producers.

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series”, Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for the analog reissues of Blue Note US such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited-edition UHQCD.

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. Goin’ Down South

2. Prints Tie

3. Jazz

4. Ummh

5. Procession

6. A Night In Barcelona