Sonny Clark – Dial „S” For Sonny [Mono] (UHQCD)

Sonny Clark, unanimously regarded as one of the most brilliant pianists and composers of the hard bop era, gave everyone the impression that he was perfectly prepared when he recorded his intense, swinging debut album “Dial ‘S’ For Sonny” on Blue Note in 1957. For this record, Clark assembled a top-notch sextet consisting of trumpeter Art Farmer, trombonist Curtis Fuller, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, double bassist Wilbur Ware, and drummer Louis Hayes. Clark wrote four of the six tracks on the album, including the title track, the brilliantly lively “Bootin‘ It”, the emblematic theme “Sonny’s Mood” and the lively swing “Shoutin’ On A Riff”. The record is rounded off by two standards: a beautiful reinterpretation of the ballad “It Could Happen To You”, in which Farmer’s trumpet presents the opening theme and concludes magnificently, and George Gershwin’s “Love Walked In”, which proves to be one of Clark’s timeless classics, allowing his imaginative style to shine in all its glory.

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 “Dial „S” For Sonny” took place on July 21, 1957 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

UHQCD

1. Dial “S” For Sonny

2. Bootin’ It

3. It Could Happen To You

4. Sonny’s Mood

5. Shoutin’ On A Riff

6. Love Walked In