Michael Fremer’s 100 Recommended All-Analog LP Reissues Worth Owning – Rated 1/100!
180g 45 RPM Vinyl Pressed at Quality Record Pressings!
Mastered For 45 RPM From Original Analog Master Tapes by Ryan Smith at SterlingSound!
This item not eligible for any further discount offers!
A historic record – recorded just four years removed from the dawn of theanalog tape era!
Masterpieces By Ellington shines from an astonishingly brief period of historythat gave the recording industry two of its greatest achievements theintroduction of magnetic tape recording and the 33 1/3 LP, or long-playingrecord.
Four years. That’s all it took to go from the discovery by Americans, of Germanadvancements in the field of sound recording, to the marketing of tape decks inthe U.S. by the Ampex company, to Columbia’s unveiling of its 12 LP, and thefirst long-playing record to be sold to consumers.
The four selections contained here catapulted the Maestro Ellington into the LPera, as the great composer/arranger/pianist and his matchless orchestra tookfull advantage of the possibilities afforded by magnetic tape recording and thestill-new 33 1/3 RPM LP to, for the first time, capture uncut concertarrangements of their signature songs.
This album wouldn’t have been possible without a chain of events starting at theend of World War II. Recorded in December 1950, just five years after Germanyfell to the Allies, revealing the Germans’ advances in magnetic tape recording,Ellington’s master work holds its wonder still today and the recording qualityhands-down betters the sound of many modern-day albums.
In 1950, two years into the LP era and the transition from disc to magnetic taperecording, Columbia Records got Duke Ellington and his orchestra into the studioto cut a long-playing record. The Columbia 30th Street Studio opened in 1949 andMasterpieces was one of the first recordings done in the studio!
December 19, 1950. Masterpieces by Ellington recorded at Columbia’s 30th StreetStudio. Released in 1951. Recording engineers Fred Plaut and Harold Chapman.Recorded on an Ampex 200, using 3M-111 magnetic tape running at 15 inches persecond.
The Columbia 30th Street Studio (CBS 30th Street Studio) nicknamed “The Church”was considered by some to be the best-sounding room in its time and othersconsider it to have been the greatest recording studio in history.
Masterpieces is a revelation and a throwback to a golden recording age. So muchhistory and so much luck combined make this album truly special.
“Even in this august company, ‘The Tattooed Bride’ is a swinging virtuosopiece that, as everyone present must have known, couldn’t possibly have beencaptured in this manner in any era before this session – this was also one ofthe last sessions to feature the classic Ellington lineup with Johnny Hodges,Lawrence Brown, and Sonny Greer, before their exodus altered the band’s sound,and so it’s a doubly precious piece (as is the whole album), among the lastwritten specifically for this lineup.” -Bruce Eder, allmusic.com
This one gets well-deserved applause every public play around the world.
Features:
• 45rpm 180g Vinyl
• Double LP
• Pressed at QRP
• Mastered from original analog tapes
• Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound
• Gatefold old-school ‘tip-on’ jacket by Stoughton
Musicians:
Duke Ellington, piano
Billy Strayhorn, piano
Russel Procope, saxophone
Paul Gonzalves, saxophone
Johnny Hodges, saxophone
Jimmy Hamilton, saxophone
Nelson Williams, trumpet
Andrew Ford, trumpet
Harold Baker, trumpet
Ray Nance, trumpet
William Anderson, trumpet
Quentin Jackson, trombone
Lawrence Brown, trombone
Tyree Glenn, trombone
Mercer Ellington, horn
Sonny Greer, drums
Wendell Marshall, bass
Yvonne, vocals
Selections:
1. Mood Indigo
2. Sophisticated Lady
3. The Tattooed Bride
4. Solitude
