Jimmy Smith – Home Cookin‘ (UHQCD)

The “Incredible” Jimmy Smith was a self-taught keyboard virtuoso who decided in 1954 to give up the piano to devote himself entirely to the Hammond B3 organ. He settled in a warehouse in Philadelphia and played for a year before attracting attention with his revolutionary approach to the instrument, which immediately caught the attention of Alfred Lion. Between 1956 and 1963, the founder of Blue Note recorded the B3 innovator as often as possible in a variety of contexts and released an extraordinary series of albums with him that laid the foundation for the soul jazz movement. “Home Cookin’”, which was recorded during three different sessions, features Smith alongside a furious trio consisting of tenor saxophonist Percy France, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and drummer Donald Bailey, and is one of the most soulful albums Smith ever recorded. The quartet presents a series of soul jazz masterpieces that include cover versions of Ma Rainey, Ray Charles, and Jimmy McGriff, as well as original compositions by Smith and Burrell.

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 “Home Cookin’” took place on July 15, 1958 and May 24 and June 16, 1959 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.    See See Rider
2.    Sugar Hill
3.    I Got A Woman
4.    Messin’ Around
5.    Gracie
6.    Come On Baby
7.    Motorin’ Along