Ben Webster - The Warm Moods - 180g LP ( Waiting Repress )

Product no.: PPANR92001


can be shipped within WAITING A REPRESS days

Ben Webster - The Warm Moods - 180g LP ( Waiting Repress )
£29.95
Price includes VAT, plus delivery


Available delivery methods: UK Tracked with Signature, UK Express, Airmail Tracked with Signature, UK Standard, Heavy Item

AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Pure Pleasure / Reprise - PPAN R9-2001 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering by Ray Staff  at Air Mastering London

AAA 100% Analogue - Limited Edition - Pressed  at Pallas Germany 

hi-fi + Dennis Davis, January 2016  Recording 9.5/10   Music 8.5/10   

After years of having to battle it out on eBay for what transpire to be fatally scratched and crackly fifty year old copies, it’s a dream come true for listeners to have this classic recording back in the catalogue, available in mint condition, and sounding quite superb london jazz news

Warm Moods features Ben Webster backed by a string quartet and a rhythm section. The strings here do not overwhelm the soloist or over-sweeten the mood, yet some jazz lovers will reject this music out of hand because of the strings, to their own loss. While Webster recorded great sessions until he died in 1973, he was at his peak in the late 50s and early 60s, and his playing of twelve balladson his early 1961 session is prime Webster.   From 'Stella by Straight' to 'I'm Beginning To See The Light', Webster is in control of his instrument, blowing pure bliss. If sexual references are ever appropriate to the playing of a musical instrument, Ben Webster's caress of the tenor saxophone surely provides proof of the formula. While his vibrato is not as pronounced as on some recordings, you can still feel the air vibrating in the room and see his vocal chords pulsate as he floats along from one classic to another. The strings and rhythm section stay out of the way and leave all the attention where it belongs-on Big Ben.  The sound complements the great recording, bettering the Reprise original by a fair margin. DD

 The veteran tenor Ben Webster had a very warm tone on ballads that contrasted with the aggressive biting sound he used on faster material. For this 1960 set Webster is joined by a string quartet (arranged by Johnny Richards) and a rhythm section for his melodic interpretations of a dozen standards. Even when simply stating the melody, Webster brings out unexpected beauty in the songs. His tone has never been accurately duplicated and is the main reason to pick up this .

 
Actually I am not big fan of jazz mixing with strings - it seems to have a muzaky feeling to it. But.... this album is so well done, Webster's playing is so amazing, that there is no way anyone could call this muzak. The sound is excellent. It was recorded at Radio Recorders - a great sound studio that was very popular in Hollywood in the 50s. The strings are extremely lush and Webster sounds as if he is in the room with you. One additional note - Webster's signiture breathy sound is much less breathy than in later albums.
Not better, not worse - just a different sound than I am used to hearing. I highly suggest this LP to any Webster fan and anyone looking for a big fat
mellow sound.                      By T. Butler on August 7, 2004
 
I grew up on late 70s and early 80s r&b and soul music and then aggressively got into hip-hop. Hip hop music was the music that began to expose me to the jazz classics that seldomly became sampled in the art form. I'm grateful for that and I have been an avid collector of jazz music for 15 years now. I buy music randomly and at the spur of the moment and from many artists I have never heard of...so yes,  do own a whole lot of musical garbage! but sometimes I get lucky...like this album here. This was my first Ben Webster album (of which I now own five) and this one still remains my favorite. This is music for a grown spirit...it is indeed warm and quiet and lush. Buy this as soon as possible, you'll enjoy it.   By R. Davis on May 1, 2001
 

What a sound! I had thought Stan Getz was my favorite saxist, but now I’m sure it’s Ben Webster. Having just spent nearly an hour with my best headphones, lying down and listening to this album, I feel there is no better sax player ever than Webster. The way he brings a warm and full sound to each and every note is unsurpassed by anyone. The unique breathy tone he achieves is like no other, and can be immediately identified as Ben Webster. “I’ve rarely known a man who loved music as fully and ceaselessly as Ben,” and that seems to sum up this wonderful album. Whether vinyl has a more believable sound than any of the digital formats, I think anyone will find this vinyl remastering fully worth its $40 cost. If you have a good turntable and dig this one, you might also like the vinyl - 5/5 Sound Audiophileaudition

                           Smooth and majestic, sexy and funky….don’t miss it. KK  

 Ben Webster – The Warm Moods  London Jazz News, March 2016

This sumptuous and dazzling album was recorded for Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label in 1961 and in the long years since then it has become a sought-after rarity on LP, elusive and expensive, with immaculate copies almost impossible to find. But that quandary has been solved by the British label Pure Pleasure who have now brought it back into print in a fabulously restored version on 180 gram virgin vinyl. This is great news because the value of The Warm Moods lies not just in the playing of its headline soloist Ben Webster, but also the writing of the celebrated Mexican-American arranger Johnny Richards who has created a hip and decorative nest of strings for the birdsong of Webster’s tenor.   Born Juan Manuel Cascales in Querétaro or Toluca — accounts vary — Johnny Richards came up through the big bands of Charlie Barnet and Stan Kenton, particularly distinguishing himself with his writing for Kenton before graduating to his own albums and composing the standard Young at Heart.    This recording does full justice to Webster’s huge, warm tone, flowing out in a smooth broad wave over Richards’s sardonically skittering strings. Webster first laid claim to greatness playing with Duke Ellington in the early 1940s, so a larger ensemble setting is an ideal musical context for his playing. On The Warm Moods Richards has supplemented the rhythm section with two string configurations — four cellos on some tracks, a cello, a viola and two violins on others. Ellington himself is represented here with an eloquently groovy take on his I’m Beginning to See the Light in which Webster wrings the beautiful sound out of the melody like warm water from a cloth. Gene DiNovi (another Charlie Barnet alumnus) on piano plays with a Basie-like discretion and sparseness, the cellos are lean and effective and the tune comes to a startlingly swift conclusion, composed and stately.   The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi is witty and teasing and demonstrates the piercing precision and modernist angularity in Richards’s use of strings that prevents them lapsing into standard schmaltz. Stella by Starlight is quietly beautiful and showcases the relaxed lyricism of Webster’s playing, revealing the visceral appeal of the lovely melody. Don Bagley’s light-touch bass and Frank Capp’s discrete drums underpin the enterprise. The strings are like frost crystals on a winter window, adding to the beauty of the prospect rather than obscuring it.      There are further treasures here. With Every Breath I Take (nothing to do with Sting) sees sax and strings conspiring to quietly break our hearts while Capp comps and the piano (this time by Donn Trenner) is articulate and artful in its statement of the song. On It’s Easy to Remember listening to Webster’s tenor and the strings is like trying to tune into two fascinating conversations at a party simultaneously. Above all, the intoxicating, swaying swing of Time After Time is a highpoint of this fine record.       After years of having to battle it out on eBay for what transpire to be fatally scratched and crackly fifty year old copies, it’s a dream come true for listeners to have this classic recording back in the catalogue, available in mint condition, purchasable at the press of a button, and sounding quite superb

• Re-Mastering by Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Musicians:


Ben Webster, tenor saxophone
Armond Kaproff, cello
Cecil Figelski, viola
Alfred Lustgarten, violin
Lisa Minghetti, violin
Don Bagley, double bass
Donn Trenner, piano
Frank Capp, drums

Selections:
Side 1:
1. The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi
2. Stella By Starlight
3. With Every Breath I Take
4. Accent On Youth
5. But Beautiful
6. Time After Time


Side 2:
1. Nancy
2. I'm Beginning To See the Light
3. It Was So Beautiful
4. The Whiffenpoof Song
5. It's Easy To Remember
6. There's No You

Recorded at Radio Recorders in 1961.

String section arranged by Johnny Richards

 Ben Webster - The Warm Moods - 180g LP

 
Image result for pure pleasure records
 

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

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!  
 

Customers who bought this product also bought

* Prices include VAT, plus delivery

Browse this category: JAZZ