Grant Green – Green Street (UHQCD)

Released in 1961 and produced by Alfred Lion, the album “Green Street” presents the great guitarist Grant Green together with an exceptionally talented trio consisting of double bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey. Green’s second album for Blue Note as leader is still considered one of the best albums of his extensive output on the renowned US label. The gifted guitarist seems to be extraordinarily inspired by the absence of other chordal instruments, as he demonstrates with his intense blues inspiration in original pieces such as “No. 1 Green Street” and Thelonious Monk’s legendary “’Round About Midnight”. Green’s harmonic and interpretive imagination is at its highest level on this unique masterpiece in his discography!

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 Japan only UHQCD with OBI Stripe. The recording session for “Green Street” took place on April 1, 1961 at the 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.

Lista pieselor

1. No. 1 Green Street

2. ‘Round About Midnight

3. Grant’s Dimensions

4. Green With Envy

5. Alone Together