Herbie Hancock – The Prisoner (UHQCD)

Recorded in 1969 and released in 1970, Herbie Hancock’s last album for Blue Note is an extremely powerful but underrated masterpiece. This nonet session is a moving tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King and brings together some of the most extraordinary instrumentalists in jazz, including Joe Henderson (alto saxophone, alto flute), Johnny Coles (flugelhorn), Hubert Laws (flute), Garnett Brown (trombone), Buster Williams (bass) and Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums). Hancock said of “The Prisoner”: “With this album, I got closer to my true self than with any other before”. Herbie Hancock has expanded his already illustrious sextet with three additional wind instruments for this beautifully arranged set, which combines the style of his album “Speak Like A Child” with the Miles Davis Quintet. Highlights of the album include “The Prisoner”, “I Have A Dream” and Buster Williams’ “Firewater”.

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 “The Prisoner” took place on April 18, 21, and 23, 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

UHQCD

1. I Have A Dream

2. The Prisoner

3. Firewater

4. He Who Lives In Fear

5. Promise Of The Sun