Analogue Productions - AAPO 009 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - 753088100932
Live Direct to Disc D2D Recording Cut by Kevin Gray
Pressed at RTI - Limited Edition
Like the title says, this is part of Analogue Productions astonishing direct-to-disc series, but for me, it’s also the culmination of a decade-long plea for this label to record the R&B legend. It’s here I must declare personal involvement: I wrote the liner notes, explaining how it came about.
Chad Kassem’s efforts have resulted in a delicious live session which justifies my nagging. Tate reaches down to the soles of his Shoes to deliver exquisite takes of two trademark songs from his classic Verve LP, ‘Look At Granny Run Run’ and ‘Ain’t Nobody Home’, plus four others.
The backing band is note-perfect for the session, the sound bordering on the cavernous. Best of all, over 40 years after his debut, the voice is intact.
Sound Quality: 95% Ken Kessler Hifi News
This direct-to-disc release, recorded in the church sanctuary of Blue Heaven Studios, is so fresh and pure...
Talk about up to audiophile standards! The immediacy, the dynamics - slam and delicacy alike - are just so startlingly real.
There's nothing lost. It's positively lifelike.
Cutting engineer Kevin Gray, using Blue Heaven's Neumann VMS 70 lathe with an Ortofon cutter head and amplifiers, and recording engineer Katsu Naito have made available for your playback the closest thing possible to a live, in-person performance.
With direct-to-disc recording, the signal from the microphone is transmitted directly to the cutter head, which then cuts the grooves into a raw lacquer.
There's no middleman. No tape. No tape hiss. No distortion or other artifacts inherent in any other type of recording.
And the music? It's killer! The session was recorded the weekend of the 12th annual Blues Masters at the Crossroads in October 2009.
Singer Howard Tate cracked the R&B Top 20 three times in the late 1960s, left music and endured hardship and anonymity for nearly 30 years and beginning in the early 2000s returned to his rightful place as one of America's most revered soul performers
• Direct To Disc (D2D)
Selections:
1. Look At Granny Run Run
2. Sweet Sixteen
3. Louisiana 1927
4. I'll Be Home
5. Dear Lord
6. Ain't Nobody Home