Herbie Hancock – Speak Like A Child (UHQCD)

In the mid-1960s, Herbie Hancock was a busy man, exploring new jazz styles with his colleagues as a member of the Miles Davis Quintet. In addition to this work, he went to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in New Jersey in March 1968 to record the long-awaited follow-up to the successful album “Maiden Voyage” – “Speak Like A Child”. In the three years between releases, Hancock had matured significantly as a pianist and developed his skills as a composer. His influences came from the Davis band members – tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Tony Williams – and the orchestral arrangements of Gil Evans, Oliver Nelson and Thad Jones. But the key to “Speak Like A Child” lies in Hancock’s graceful, lyrical playing and compositions that are sweet on the surface but provocative and challenging on closer listening. Unusually, none of the horn players – Jerry Dodgon (alto saxophone), Thad Jones (flugelhorn) and Peter Phillips (bass trombone) – play a solo on any of the songs. The rhythm section consists of bassist Ron Carter and drummer Mickey Roker. Critic Nat Hentoff described “Speak Like A Child” as “an impressive further step in the development of Herbie Hancock as a composer and musician”, distinguished by a “unique quality of concise, searching lyricism”.

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 sessions for “Speak Like A Child” took place on March 6 and 9, 1960 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.

Lista pieselor

1.    Riot
2.    Speak Like A Child
3.    First Trip
4.    Toys
5.    Goodbye To Childhood
6.    The Sorcerer