Horace Silver Quintet – Further Explorations By The Horace Silver Quintet (UHQCD)

At 27, Horace Silver was the artist with the longest contract in Blue Note history. The legendary pianist and composer recorded his first Blue Note session, “Horace Silver Trio”, in 1952 and his session for “Silver ‘N Strings Play The Music Of The Spheres” was the very last recording before the label ceased operations in 1979. In between, Silver recorded some of the most popular albums in the Blue Note catalog, spanning bebop, hard bop, and soul jazz, and forged his own path through the fusion movement in the 1970s. “Further Explorations” documents the Horace Silver Quintet with Art Farmer on trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone, Teddy Kotick on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums. You can always expect a Silver release to groove, but this January 1958 session is particularly inspired: “The Outlaw” is one of Silver’s most unrestrained creations, with brilliant solos from Jordan, Farmer, and Silver. “Moon Rays” is what Silver called a “walking ballad”, giving the band plenty of space to unfold.

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 “Further Explorations By The Horace Silver Quintet” took place on January 13, 1958 at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, 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.    The Outlaw
2.    Melancholy Mood
3.    Pyramid
4.    Moon Rays
5.    Safari
6.    Ill Wind