Pure Pleasure / CTI  PPAN CTI6024 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - AAA 100% Analogue

Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering by Ray Staff  at Air Mastering London

Pressed at Pallas in Germany - Limted Edition - CTI 6024

 

When one thinks of the 70s and remembers the mammoth stints of many rock bands writing and recording whole albums in the studio, it's hard to believe that this entire album was recorded in just 2 days, the 12th and 13th December 1972 in the legendary Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, where it was engineered by Rudy Van Gelder himself and this rapid recording process has obviously helped by making the whole thing sound like a cohesive package, rather than as some studio albums can be, something that has been assembled by numbers.  Jackson's undoubted mastery of the vibes really shows out here and the interplay with Hancock's electric piano has the most amazing life.  The brass, percussion and other instruments are by no means mere punctuation.  They produce words and sentences in their own right.  If this was a book, it would be one of those you can't put down without reading it from cover to cover.Now, to be fair, some companies get this right and, sadly, some get it drastically wrong.  I have heard vinyl albums, that far from being cut from the original analogue sources, have been cut from, at the best, mediocre CDs.  Believe me, this is not the case with the reissues  from Pure Pleasure Records.  Not only do they cut from original master tapes, they also remaster with experts in their field to ensure the quality of their 180g audiophile pressings is as good as it can get and the detail doesn't stop there.  The covers are beautifully presented, high quality reproductions of the original, correct in every detail.  This company's output is a feast for the eye as well as the ear.  Based on that, I'd give all these releases huh marks to start with and that's before one even listens to the music. Sound 5/5 Daily Express

 

Recorded over two days in December of 1972 at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood, New Jersey home studio, vibraphonist Milt Jackson's "Sunflower" is the first -- and best -- of his three albums for Creed Taylor's CTI imprint. (And one of the finest offerings on the label.) With a core band consisting of Herbie Hancock (playing electric and acoustic piano), bassist Ron Carter, drummer Billy Cobham, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, drummer/percussionist Ralph McDonald, and guitarist Jay Berliner. A chamber orchestra exquisitely arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky adorns the session as well.

 

Jackson's "For Someone I Love", opens the five-tune set, with Berliner playing solo flamenco guitar before the vibes, trumpet, and elements from the chamber orchestra delicately, impressionistically color the background. It gradually moves into a languid, bluesy ballad that slowly gains in both texture and dynamic until the strings trill tensely. Hubbard and Hancock engage them in solos that gently swing out the tune. The reading of Michel Legrand's "What Are You Doing for the Rest of Your Life" is a gorgeous showcase for Jackson; his solo dominates the arrangement. Carter gets downright funky on his upright to introduce Thom Bell's "People Make The World Go Round," and Hancock follows him on Rhodes. Jackson takes the melody, striking a layered contrast as Hubbard slips around all three playing an extension of the melody with requisite taste, fluidity, and taut phrasing. Hancock gets funky to the bone in his brief solo, as the vibes soar around and through his phrases.

 

The title track is a Hubbard composition that floats and hovers with a Latin backbeat before shifting tempos as the solos begin. The expanded harmonic palette of trumpet with the reeds, woodwinds, and strings on the melody add an exotic textural palette for his solo. Jackson's "SKJ" closes the set with an old-school, swinging hard bop blues with barely detectable embellishments by Sebesky. While "Sunflower" sometimes feels more like a group session rather than a Jackson-led one, that's part of its exquisite beauty. 

 

On the PurePleasure LP reissue, engineer Ray Staff could not interfere with the intent of CTI, and his remastering brings forth no complaints.

 

Musicians:

Milt Jackson (vib)

Freddie Hubbard (tp, flh)

Herbie Hancock (p)

Jay Berliner (g)

Ron Carter (b)

Billy Cobham (dr)

Ralph MacDonald (perc) & strings

 

Recordinged December 1972 at Van Gelder Studios by Rudy Van Gelder

 

 

 

Pure Pleasure Records
The Restoration of the Art of Sound
180g Vinyl Mastered From The Best Available Sources

At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records. During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped 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 to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle. We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production. To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.

There really is nothing quite like it.  It’s the touch, the feel, you have to stop and stare, the cover,  the real thing, even the smell.

Its tangible, you can feel it, see it, study it,   muse/dream over it, it’s real, someone  has spent hours and hours over its construction and presentation. Pure Pleasure Records is just that, Pure Pleasure and that is what it has set out to be.  

The music and the physical record.  Something to keep, treasure, admire and above all enjoy.Of course with vinyl it’s not just a record, it’s the cover,  the sleeve notes, you are  holding a unique package, produced by craftsmen.

Pure Pleasure  Records bring you vinyl albums of quality Jazz - Blues - R+B - Soul - Funk, remastered by some of the best engineers in the world and pressed on 180 gram audiophile vinyl at what is probably the best pressing plant in Europe 

Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering - Plated and Pressed at Pallas in Germany on 180 Gram Virgin Vnyl - Released in Limited Quantities