The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol.1 (UHQCD)

Trumpeter Theodore “Fats” Navarro was a gifted musician and a great innovator of bebop, whose brilliant career was cut short by his tragic death in 1950 at the age of only 26. Navarro often worked with Charlie Parker and, with the distinctive sound of his trumpet, developed an extremely original style that would influence many great soloists after him, including Clifford Brown. A year after his death, Blue Note released the “Fats Navarro Memorial Album”, a 10-inch LP that honored the memory of this great soloist with a series of carefully selected pieces from various recording sessions in which Fats had participated between 1947 and 1949 with Bud Powell’s quintet, Tadd Dameron’s sextet, and the McGhee-Navarro Boptet, which he led together with trumpeter Howard McGhee.

In 1957, Blue Note released this album in an expanded version on two 12-inch LPs entitled ” The Fabulous Fats Navarro”, which was included in the 1500 series, along with a number of other tracks from the same recording sessions and some alternative versions of various tracks to showcase the extraordinary creativity of Fats Navarro’s original improvisations as much as possible. In this respect, “The Fabulous Fats Navarro” can be considered a kind of master class in bebop, thanks also to the presence of a large group of some of the best bebop performers of those years.

Line-up: Fats Navarro (trumpet), Howard McGhee (trumpet), Ernie Henry (alto saxophone), Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone), Milt Jackson (vibraphone, piano), Bud Powell (piano), Tadd Dameron (piano), Curley Russell (bass), Nelson Boyd (bass), Tommy Potter (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums), Roy Haynes (drums), Shadow Wilson (drums)

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 Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol. 1” took place on September 26, 1947, October 11, 1948, August 9, 1949 in New York.

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 (Mono-Mix)

1. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: Our Delight (Alternate Master)

2. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: Our Delight

3. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: The Squirrel (Alternate Master) 

4. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: The Squirrel

5. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: The Chase (Alternate Master)

6. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: The Chase

7. Bud Powell Quintet: Wail (Alternate Master)

8. Bud Powell Quintet: Bouncing With Bud (Alternate Master)

9. The McGhee-Navarro Boptet: Double Talk

10. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: Dameronia (Alternate Master)

11. The Tadd Dameron Sextet: Dameronia