Pure Pleasure / Atlantic - PPAN SD1258 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl

AAA 100% Analogue -Limited Edition - Mastered by Ray Staff at Air London

Pressed  at Pallas Germany - Atlantic SD 1258

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

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

Sonically, given that this is an RVG recording (albeit for Atlantic), you pretty much know what you’ll get. Konitz's sax, whether alto or tenor, is placed up front, with the rest of the band clearly behind him. Yes, due to the recording date, this is very much a left-right presentation with not much in the middle, but the channels blend well enough to keep interest. Bauer’s guitar is lighter in tone than Mosca’s piano (which sounds like a typical RVG-recorded piano). Bass is deep, and when given the chance to solo, tight and woody. It’s only the drums that seem to suffer a bit here. They're not especially clear, but the cymbals have enough shimmer to help complete the illusion.  Inside Hi-Fi is an album any self-respecting jazz lover should want as part of his or her collection. It presents one of our last remaining links to jazz’s glorious past in his prime years and gives us Lee Konitz as we seldom get to hear him, both on his usual alto and on tenor saxophone. That alone makes this a worthwhile purchase. Then there’s the bonus of stereo sound, which is icing on the cake. The Audio Beat

The album has received a beautiful mastering job. The sheer breadth of the soundstage is impressive on its own. There is a definite impression that this band is spread across a stage TheAudiophileMan

This excellent recording features altoist Lee Konitz with two separate quartets during 1956. Either guitarist Billy Bauer or pianist Sal Mosca are the main supporting voices in groups also including either Arnold Fishkind or Peter Ind on bass and Dick Scott on drums. The most unusual aspect to the set is that on the four selections with Mosca, Konitz switches to tenor, playing quite effectively in a recognizable cool style. The overall highlights of this enjoyable album are "Everything Happens to Me," "All of Me," and "Star Eyes," but all eight performances are well played and swinging.    

The introduction of Konitz’s tenor during this period is emblematic of this. His premiere tenor recordings on ’56’s Lee Konitz Inside Hi-Fi document how Konitz first translated the refinements of his alto conception to the larger horn, even on would-be barn burners as “Indiana” (which also features an excellent solo by pianist Sal Mosca), and began to apply the tenor’s capacity for broader, bolder strokes to such fine alto performances as the bluesy “Cork ‘N’ Bib.” The contrasts between Konitz’s alto and tenor are well-represented on “Kary’s Trance,” which includes choruses on both horns; the track is also one of guitarist Billy Bauer’s finest.                                        Bill Shoemaker

A recent convert to Lee Konitz, the more I hear the more I like. Though he went on to record right up to the present day, the 50’s recordings are remarkably fresh, with his alto’s long fluid lines and swinging turns in direction. His alto has a refreshing lightness and his opening alto duet here with guitarist Billy Bauer on “Kary’s Trance” is a surprising sheer delight. Unusually, Konitz also picks up the tenor sax on several tracks for the first time, yielding a record with an additional layer of interest.

The selling point for me, however, was the cover. For any audiophiles out there (yes you Guy! ) the artifice of Konitz, photographed through capacitors, valves and wires in Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studio, is the ultimate Jazz Audiophile image.                                       LondonJazzCollector

Musicians:
Lee Konitz, alto saxophone (A1-4), tenor saxophone (A1, B1-4)
Arnold Fishkind, bass (A1-4)
Peter Ind, bass (B1-4)
Dick Scott, drums
Billy Bauer, guitar (A1-4)
Sal Mosca, piano (B1-4)

Selections:
Side A:
1. Kary's Trance
2. Everything Happens To Me
3. Sweet and Lovely
4. Cork 'n' Bib
Side B:
1. All of Me
2. Star Eyes
3. Nesuhi's Instant
4. Indiana

Recorded in New York 1956

Personnel:

       Alto Saxophone – Lee Konitz (tracks: A1 to A4)

        Tenor Saxophone – Lee Konitz (tracks: A1, B1 to B4)

        Bass – Arnold Fishkind* (tracks: A1 to A4), Peter Ind (tracks: B1 to B4)

        Drums – Dick Scott

        Guitar – Billy Bauer (tracks: A1 to A4)

        Piano – Sal Mosca (tracks: B1 to B4)                

         Recording Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder

         Supervised By – Nesuhi Ertegun

  Recorded in New York 1956

ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES

AAA 100% ANALOGUE

We use the Original Tapes and work with only the Best Mastering Studios

PALLAS

Plated and Pressed at Pallas in Germany on 180 gram Virgin Vinyl

Highest Quality Jackets and  Inner Sleeves

LIMITED EDITION

Low Numbers per Stamper Released in Limited Quantities

 

      

 

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.

60 Years Pallas