180g 200g 45rpm Box Sets.

Tony Bennett - The Beat Of My Heart - 180g LP Mono

Product no.: CL1079

£29.95

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Description

Speakers Corner / Columbia CL 1079 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - 4260019715081

AAA 100% Analogue - Limited Edition

Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering - Pressed at Pallas

Tony Bennett: The Beat of My Heart Speakers Corner by Paul Rigby (The Audiophile Man), June 2016

Surely a contender for one of the greatest vocal technicians that has ever appeared in recorded history. For proof, just look at his performances during his old age. When most contemporaries wouldn’t even dare open their mouths and others who were were so hampered by a wavering vibrato that sounded more like the starting of a car on its last legs, Bennett managed and corralled his voice, keeping his magnificent vocal crescendos in a bag and only issuing forth two or three of the during any one performance and, hence, when they appeared sounding like he did when he sang at full pelt during his 30s. An incredible interpreter of music standing amongst the best (ie Sinatra, Crosby et al), this LP was only his third album and it appeared on Columbia, way back in 1957: a great time for classic jazz vocalists. This title was a concept piece of sorts because Bennett fronted an array of top quality percussionists including the likes of Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Chico Hamilton, Billy Exiner, Candido, and Sabu. Not bad, eh? In fact, the percussion angle was not the only innovation. Often, the arrangement would be stripped to the bare bones, some songs would only include percussion plus a simple wind instrument such as a flute, for example. On this album, Bennett is on top form. His Love For Sale, backed by the frantic flute accompaniment, tells you everything of the underlying emotion of this track while the Army Air Corps Song even manages to add an intriguing combination of martial beats and swing jazz. And it’s that jazz flavour that really comes through on this LP, proving that the man was more than a ‘mere’ pop singer. Beautifully mastered by Speakers Corner who have (thank god) removed the ‘bottom of the well’ reverb that often ruined many contemporary LPs.

On only his third full-length, 12" LP, Tony Bennett comes up with a concept album, singing against novel percussion arrangements, backed by drummers like Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Chico Hamilton, Billy Exiner, Candido, and Sabu. Several songs feature only drums and flutes. Over this unusual instrumentation, Bennett sings beautifully, giving his usual full-voiced emotion to songs like "Lullaby of Broadway," "Let's Face the Music and Dance," and "Just One of Those Things."

This was the first album to give notice that Bennett was more than just another near-operatic, melodramatic pop singer of the early '50s. Here was a man who had jazz chops, musical imagination, and a sense of swing. He was practically a hipster!

The crooner Tony Bennett fulfilled a lifetime dream with this percussion jazz formation: At last he could go into the studio with the greatest drummers and top-notch jazz musicians and just swing to his heart's content.

Chico Hamilton, Jo Jones, Art Blakey, Candido and Sabu were responsible for the beat while Kai Winding, Herbie Mann, Nat Adderley and Al Cohn took care of the background among other things, and such great musicians as Milt Hinton and Eddie Safranski and John Pisano tied the whole thing together.

The 12 numbers, recorded in four sessions, were arranged by pianist Ralph Sharon in a laid-back and diversified manner and allowed Tony Bennett plenty of room to swing along serenely. Should one recommend a particular title? If the answer is yes, then the 'pure' numbers with Chico Hamilton. And the rest? Yes, the good old jazz evergreens - which, however, sound quite new here. Really one could practically recommend all of them!

To be sure: this is no LP for narrow-minded jazz purists, and certainly not for lovers of the soothing crooner — but why not one for both camps?

Recording: June - October 1957 at CBS 30th Street Studio, New York in mono
Production: Mitch Miller

Musicians:
Tony Bennett, vocals
Ralph Sharon, piano, conductor
Kai Winding, trombone
Al Cohn, tenor saxophone
Nat Adderley, trumpet
Herbie Mann, flute
John Pisano, guitar
James Bond, bass
Eddie Safranski, bass
Eddie Costa, vibraphone
Jo Jones, drums
Chico Hamilton, drums
Art Blakey, drums
Sabu, drums, percussion

Let’s Begin
   Lullaby Of Broadway
   Let There Be Love
   Love For Sale
   Army Air Corps Song
   Crazy Rhythm
   The Bear Of My Heart
   So Beats My Heart For You
   Blues In The Night
   Lazy Afternoon
   Let’s Face The Music And Dance
   Just One Of Those THings

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!

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