The Ornette Coleman Trio – At the „Golden Circle” Stockholm Vol.1 (UHQCD)

There was magic in the air when alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman presented the latest chapter of “New Jazz” at the Golden Circle (Gyllene Cirkeln) club in Stockholm on December 3 and 4, 1965. He was accompanied by the trio with whom he had explored new soundscapes the previous year: the virtuoso bassist David Izenzon, who is equally at home with the bow and with pizzicato playing, and the likeable drummer Charles Moffett, who shone with his structured cymbal work and hard-hitting rim shots. “At The “Golden Circle” Stockholm, Vol. 1” shows Ornette and Co. at their absolute best: John Litweiler, author of ‘Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life’, describes the album as ‘extraordinary’ and adds that ”the sheer creativity of Ornette Coleman’s improvisation here at any time in the history of jazz is a marvel.” Moreover, by his own lofty standards, he made some of the best recordings of his career with The Golden Circle.

“At The ‘Golden Circle’ Stockholm, Vol. 1” consists of four Coleman originals and begins with the moderator introducing the trio, to which Ornette shyly replies, ”We had a great time here and hope everyone else did too.” Then he launches into the lively “Faces and Places”, which expresses his exuberant alto saxophone mood. Coleman’s joy of improvisation continues in “European Echoes”, a piece with simultaneous group improvisations that begins as a quirky waltz. 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 the analog reissues of Blue Note US such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited-edition UHQCD.

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. Announcement

2. Faces And Places

3. European Echoes

4. Dee Dee

5. Dawn