Speakers Corner / Columbia - CS 9780 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl -
AAA 100% Analogue - Limited Edition
Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering - Pressed at Pallas Germany
This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 30 Years pure Analogue
With all the exultation about the reconciliation between the capitalistic USA and the socialistic island state of Cuba, it is easy to oversee that the musical fusion between the two countries took place decades ago. Afro Cuban jazz, in which the interpretation and rhythms of swing and bebop are united with all imaginable rhythms from Brazil and the Caribbean, was label enough to describe a peaceful yet exciting and revolutionary music.
At first glance it appears that in his album "Stone Soul" the Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria just took a handful of popular songs from pop and soul and “translated” them into his own musical language. So far so good: but the enthusiasm and joy with which the band performs is anything but ordinary. Once the threshold for a potent Latin combo has been overcome with meaty winds ("See Saw"), Sonny Fortune on the alto sax storms ahead along rhythm & blues tracks and breaks out with hectic cleft licks on his own headstrong path. Incited by crisp percussion, one can experience how traditional music is combined with a musician’s own ideas to create completely new music.
By now, Mongo Santamaria was basically tied to the formula of translating pop and soul hits of the day - "See Saw," "Love Child," "Little Green Apples" etc. - into his Latin soul jazz idiom, but he and his band perform with so much energy and pizzazz that the music seems anything but routine. Way up front on most of these tunes is featured soloist Sonny Fortune, wailing in a blatantly exciting R&B mode on alto sax. Marty Sheller does most of the hyped-up charts, but the best one may be the sensuous cha-cha treatment of "Where We Are" by pianist Rodgers Grant. Mongo even got a Top 40 hit (No. 32) out of his flaming treatment of the Temptations' "Cloud Nine" -- and he gets to work up a fine sweat on his "Hitchcock Railway" solo. A great match of a hot-tempered Latin band and commercial considerations.
Recording: 1969 by Fred Catero
Production: David Rubinson
Musicians:
Mongo Santamaria, congas, bongos
Sonny Fortune, alto saxophone
Hadley Caliman, tenor saxophone
Hubert Laws, tenor saxophone
Art Kaplan, baritone saxophone
Louis Gasca, trumpet
Rodgers Grant, piano
William Allen, bass
Steve Berrios, timbales
Bernard Purdie, drums
Julito Collazo, percussion
Osualdo Martinez, percussion
Side A:
1. See-Saw
2. Son Of A Preacher Man
3. Love Child
4. Where Are We
5. Hitchcock Railway
Side B:
1. Stoned Soul Picnic
2. Who's Making Love
3. The Now Generation
4. Little Green Apples
5. Cloud Nine
20 Years pure Analogue
Are your records completely analogue?
Yes! This we guarantee!
As a matter of principle, only analogue masters are used, and the necessary cutting delay is also analogue. All our cutting engineers use only Neumann cutting consoles, and these too are analogue. The only exception is where a recording has been made – either partly or entirely – using digital technology, but we do not have such items in our catalogue at the present time
Are your records cut from the original masters?
In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limitations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original: there is no such thing as a “Speakers Corner Sound”. Naturally, the best results are obtained when the original master is used. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, – because the original tape is defective or has disappeared, for example – we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains an absolute exception for us.
Who cuts the records?
In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years. Some are even cut by the very same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. Over the years the following engineers have been and still are working for us: Tony Hawkins, Willem Makkee, Kevin Gray, Maarten de Boer, Scott Hull, and Ray Staff, to name but a few.
At the beginning of the ‘90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the reissue policy was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC Compact Classics, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and others, including of course Speakers Corner, all maintained a mutual, unwritten code of ethics: we would manufacture records sourced only from analogue tapes.
Vinyl’s newfound popularity has led many other companies to jump on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source from which to master: CDs, LPs, digital files and even MP3s.
Even some who do use an analogue tape source employ a digital delay line, a misguided ’80s and ‘90s digital technology that replaces the analogue preview head originally used to “tell” the cutter head in advance what was about to happen musically, so it could adjust the groove “pitch” (the distance between the grooves) to make room for wide dynamic swings and large low frequency excursions. Over time analogue preview heads became more rare and thus expensive.
So while the low bit rate (less resolution than a 16 bit CD) digital delay line is less expensive and easier to use than an analogue “preview head”, its use, ironically, results in lacquers cut from the low bit rate digital signal instead of from the analogue source!
Speakers Corner wishes to make clear that it produces lacquers using only original master tapes and an entirely analogue cutting system. New metal stampers used to press records are produced from that lacquer. The only exceptions are when existing metal parts are superior to new ones that might be cut, which includes our release of “Elvis is Back”, which was cut by Stan Ricker or several titles from our Philips Classics series, where were cut in the 1990s using original master tapes by Willem Makkee at the Emil Berliner Studios. In those cases we used only the original “mother” to produce new stampers.
In addition, we admit to having one digital recording in our catalogue: Alan Parsons’ “Eye in the Sky”, which was recorded digitally but mixed to analogue tape that we used to cut lacquers.
In closing, we want to insure our loyal customers that, with but a few exceptions as noted, our releases are “AAA”— analogue tape, an all analogue cutting system, and newly cut lacquers.
PALLAS
Audiophile Vinyl - Made in Germany For over 60 years the family business in the third generation of the special personal service and quality "Made by Pallas" is known worldwide. Our custom PVC formulation produces consistently high pressing quality with the lowest surface noise in the industry. Our PVC complies with 2015 European environmental standards and does not contain toxic materials such as Lead, Cadmium or Toluene. Our vinyl is both audiophile and eco-grade!
