The Horace Silver Quintet – Silver’s Serenade (UHQCD)

“Silver’s Serenade” was the last album in a series of fantastic releases recorded by pianist Horace Silver with the most famous lineup of his quintet, featuring Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor saxophone, Gene Taylor on bass and Roy Brooks on drums. The program on “Silver’s Serenade” consists of five Silver originals that embody his extraordinary compositional style: captivating melodies, sophisticated harmonies, and complex rhythms with a soulful and unerring sense of swing. From the relaxed groove of the opening title track to the rousing finale “Nineteen Bars”, the magnificent quintet celebrates its swan song in style.

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 “Silver’s Serenade” took place on May 7 and 8, 1963 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. Silver’s Serenade

2. Let’s Get To The Nitty Gritty

3. Sweet Sweetie Dee

4. The Dragon Lady

5. Nineteen Bars