This record has the same kind of amazing sound as the Chabrier disc on London from the same year, but it’s much more rare, perhaps because the cover does not help to sell the album. (The Chabrier cover is not much either, but in both cases the music and sound are sublime.)
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better Mendelssohn 4th.
We admit we foolishly did not expect much from a mid-60s London with a cover this plain.
It’s hard to get excited about an album with such a generic cover, but hearing the recording we were forced to confront our silly prejudices and recognize the greatness of James Lock‘s work for Decca in 1965.
It even beats the famous Solti on Blueback, which has a cover to die for. However, like many of the Londons and Deccas we’ve played over the years, the sound of that pressing is awful.
Is the title a play on Capitol’s gazillion selling Beatles ’65? Only Frank really knows.
This original Green and Blue Reprise stereo pressing has the sound we look for — big, rich and tubey.
With the Count Basie Orchestra backing him on some tracks (“Ev’rybody Has The Right To Be Wrong” on side one and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” on side two just to mention a few we especially liked) the swinging Sinatra is heard in his prime and he sounds just great to us.
“Without a Song” has a killer big band arrangement and a stellar performance from Ol’ Blues Eyes himself.
The better pressings have the kind of Tubey Magical, big-bottomed, punchy, spacious sound that we’ve come to expect from Larry Levine‘s engineering for A&M. If you have any Hot Stamper pressings of Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66’s albums, then you know exactly the kind of sound we’re talking about.
Listen for all the Tubey Magic and space on these recordings. Both sides here were clean and clear, fuller and more solid, with more bite to the brass and separation between parts than the other copies we played.
Both sides are rich and smooth, with practically none of the edgy hardness on the horns that compromises the sound of the average pressing. Here is the kind of sound that really brings to life these funky Mexican-flavored pop tunes.
The leading edge transients on the horns here are excellent, with the pinched quality you hear on some tracks kept to a minimum. The whole of the ensemble is transparently clear.
The drums on this record have a wonderful quality: they actually sound like hollowed out, three-dimensional objects that are being struck in order to make them resonate — which is kind of what they are — the opposite of the cardboard drums you hear on bad rock records. (We hear a lot of drums on old rock records that sound like somebody is slapping a corrugated shipping carton with a mallet. You lose a lot of points if you’re a record with that sound.)
We recently finished a big Maiden Voyage shootout and too many copies we played left us cold and bored; this one kept us engaged throughout. It’s got some of the silkiest highs and the breathiest brass we’ve heard for this album. Most of the other copies we played this against didn’t come close to the richness, sweetness, and warmth we heard here.
One Of The Great Blue Notes
This is one of the greatest Blue Note jazz records of all time — 5 big stars in the All Music Guide, which should surprise no one. Freddie Hubbard on this album is nothing short of astonishing.