Grant Green – Idle Moments (UHQCD)

Time and space seem to dissolve during the fifteen minutes of “Idle Moments,” the opening track of Grant Green’s magnificent 1963 album of the same name. As the song unfolds, all the unique colors of the ensemble come to the fore: Green’s soulful guitar is accompanied by Duke Pearson’s elegant piano playing, Bobby Hutcherson’s crystal-clear vibraphone, Bob Cranshaw’s soothing bass, Al Harewood’s powerful drums, and Joe Henderson’s magnificent tenor saxophone. The rhythm accelerates as this extraordinary album progresses, with highlights including Green’s agile original “Jean De Fleur,” a blues reinterpretation of the MJQ standard “Django” by John Lewis and a rousing performance of Pearson’s original “Nomad”. The Penguin Jazz Guide sums it up: “Probably Green’s best record!”

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 sessions for “Idle Moments” took place on November 4 and 15, 1963 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.    Idle Moments
2.    Jean De Fleur
3.    Django
4.    Nomad