Reuben Wilson – Love Bug (UHQCD)

After his debut in 1968 on the renowned Blue Note label with the album “On Broadway”, renowned organist Reuben Wilson returned to Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studio in March of the following year to record his second album “Love Bug”. On this occasion, renowned producer and co-founder of Blue Note, Francis Wolff, placed Wilson at the helm of a dynamic quintet consisting of trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, guitarist Grant Green, and drummer Leo Morris, who went down in jazz history under the name Idris Muhammad. The result is one of the most extraordinary soul jazz albums of the late 1960s – a record featuring six brilliant tracks, including Wilson’s sophisticated original compositions “Hot Rod”, “Back Out” and the album’s title track as well as beautiful cover versions of some of the biggest R&B hits of the time: “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” by Gamble & Huff (performed by The Supremes and The Temptations, among others), “I Say A Little Prayer” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David (Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin) and “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Isaac Hayes and David Porter (Sam & Dave).

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 “Love Bug” took place on March 21, 1969 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. Hot Rod

2. I’m Gonna Make You Love Me

3. I Say A Little Prayer

4. Love Bug

5. Stormy

6. Back Out