Donald Byrd – A New Perspective (UHQCD)

The idea of a jazz group and a vocal choir is unusual. But what Donald Byrd and Duke Pearson (arrangements), together with Hank Mobley (tenor saxophone), Herbie Hancock (piano), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Donald Best (vibraphone), Butch Warren (bass), and Lex Humphries (drums) achieved in this session is among the best that the 1960s had to offer in terms of jazz: “A New Perspective” brings the essence of spirituals into modern jazz and is thus more than an innovative experiment. It is music of exquisite beauty, a spiritual world woven from dense choirs and instrumental ensembles. A majestic masterpiece by an intellectual trumpeter who combines jazz and gospel.

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 Blue Note US’s analog reissues such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited Japan only UHQCD with OBI stripe. The original recording session for “A New Perspective” took place on January 12, 1963, at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

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.

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