Tina Brooks – Minor Move (UHQCD)

Recorded in 1958, “Minor Move” is Tina Brooks’ first album for Blue Note Records. It was not released until 1980, six years after his tragic death at the age of only 42. In fact, “True Blue” (1960) was the only album the great saxophonist released during his all too short life. “Minor Move” features compositions by Brooks, Lee Morgan (trumpet), Sonny Clark (piano), Doug Watkins (bass) and Art Blakey (drums) and cemented Tina Brooks’ status as one of the most innovative tenor saxophonists in jazz. Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote: “When you listen to ‘Minor Move,’ it’s hard to understand why the record was never released.” The famous composition “Nutville” (not to be confused with the Latin piece of the same name by Horace Silver) is sometimes attributed to Lee Morgan, but as producer Michael Cuscuna explains in the liner notes to the 2000 release: “Lee brought the melody to the session but never claimed it as his own. Curtis Fuller also confirms that it is indeed an original by Tina Brooks.”

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 “Minor Move” took place on March 16, 1958, 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

1.    Nutville
2.    The Way You Look Tonight
3.    Star Eyes
4.    Minor Move
5.    Everything Happens To Me