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"…In All My Wildest Dreams…"
Wow is the appropriate
response! I'm loved Joe Sample's 1978 debut solo album "Rainbow
Seeker" like I've loved Steely Dan's "Aja" from the year before.
I can't be rational about either. So any excuse to get a better version is
Nirvana to my ears...
In June and July of 2011 -
Universal Music Japan launched what they called their "JAZZ THE BEST"
series of reissues - 150 titles across their vast catalogue and all on the
SHM-CD format (Super High Materials) and all apparently using the RUBIDIUM
Atomic Clock Cutting Process. Each were pitched at roughly 1800 yen which is
about £9 to you or I (mid price) and came in jewel-cases with new liner notes
and of course the SHM-CD.
Whatever the techno mumbo-jumbo - the remastered
audio I'm listening to right now for "Rainbow Seeker" (one of those
titles) has to be the best I've ever heard - and not just for this album - but
in terms of a transfer that retains the warmth of the analogue original. This
is gorgeous and has me frantically searching for other "Jazz The
Best" titles I can buy in this series (see list below).
Here are the details...
Released 22 June 2011 in Japan - "Rainbow Seeker" by JOE SAMPLE (of
The Crusaders) in on Universal Music Japan/MCA UCCU-6047 (use Barcode
4988005651617) to get the right issue) and breaks down as follows (42:41
minutes):
1. Rainbow Seeker
2. In All My Wildest Dreams
3. There Are Many Stops Along
The Way
4. Melodies Of Love
5. Fly With Wings Of Love -
[Side 2]
6. As Long As It Lasts
7. Islands In The Rain
8. Together We'll Find A Way
The album was released May
1978 in the USA on ABC Records AA 1050 and in the UK on ABC Records ABCL 5245
The core band is STIX HOOPER
and ROBERT 'Pops' POPWELL of The Crusaders on Drums and Bass with RAY PARKER,
DAVID T. WALKER, DEAN PARKS and BARRY FINNERTY guesting on Guitars and stunning
sessionmen like PAULINHO DaCOSTA providing Percussion. All eight instrumentals
are in the Crusaders style of the time - funky one moment - Soulful piano the
next (Bernie Grundman did the mastering - always a sign of class). And the
whole album is really great - not just bits of it - all of it (something that
can't be said of the albums "Carmel" or "Voices In The
Rain" that followed in 1979 and 1981).
There's an Obi band around
the jewel case and the rear artwork is altered. It doesn't say in the new
8-page inlay which engineer remastered what (the April 2011 liner notes are in
Japanese)? There is a blurb on the RUBIDIUM process but again in Japanese. The
SHM-CD of course plays in all standard CD players - it feels chunky - and picks
out the nuances of the recording better. Regardless of the lack of written info
in the booklet for anyone outside of Japan - sonically everything is improved
and up for grabs here. Stuff like "Fly With Wings Of Love" has the
Rhythm Section crystal clear and Barry Finnerty's fabulous guitar work suddenly
alive like never before. Comparing any
of the tracks with the American GRP remaster from 1996 is like chalk and
cheese. The soul-easing warmth of the ballad "In All My Wildest
Dreams" has amazing clarity now bringing out the stunning musicianship -
as does the slap bass and piano/brass funk of "There Are Many Stops Along
The Way".
If you've any love for this
album - or Jazz Fusion for that matter - I urge you to seek out this reissue
and its exceptional sound quality...
PS: of interest are the
following "Jazz Is Best" SHM-CD reissues using the same cutting
process:
1. THE CRUSADERS - Street
Life (June 2011, Universal UCCU-6061, Barcode 4988005651754)
2. THE CRUSADERS - Rhapsody
& Blues (July 2011, Universal UCCY-6123, Barcode 4988005652348)
3. THE CRUSADERS - The Vocal
Album (March 2012, Universal UCCU-6160, Barcode 4988005696335)
4. JOE SAMPLE - Carmel (June
2011, Universal UCCU-6143, Barcode 4988005652546)
PPS: Thanks Joe for all the
great memories - another one of my musical heroes passed - RIP September 2014...
