Forty-two years ago, Chet Baker - one of the most tragic figures of jazz who lived on the fast lane and ruined himself with drugs and alcohol - was constantly on the road from one European jazz club to another. Local rhythm groups were not always top notch so it was only logical to pick the very best from several countries for a film-music production in Italy. And it was equally logical that RCA’s Italian subsidiary brought the musicians into the studio in January 1962.

 

With one exception, the eight titles on this disc are all so-called standards. The two winds demand total concentration from the rhythm section while maintaining relaxed and laid-back harmonic patterns. And this is something the Italian Tommasi, the Belgian Thomas, the Frenchman Quersin and the Swiss Humair carry off with an air of nonchalance. The two ballads "These Foolish Things" and the only new composition "Ballata In Forma Di Blues" are tucked in between the other numbers and give the listener space to breathe. They are surrounded by numbers with a fast tempo, all of which demonstrate Chet Baker’s and Bobby Jaspar’s high standard of musicianship. And then there is "Over The Rainbow", whose theme is coupled with another tragic figure of music history, Judy Garland: Chet on his trumpet conjures up pure magic in the middle section.

Happily, these recordings - made in Rome in 1962 - are not purely restricted to collectors living in the Sixties. This re-release on LP now offers the opportunity to listen to some excellent music and to enjoy the cover – just as it was on the original recording: a priceless gem

                               

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head

 

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.