AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Pure Pleasure / Blue Note - PPAN BST81357- 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl
AAA 100% Analogue - Blue Note BST81357 - Mastered By Ron McMaster At Capitol
Audiophile Mastering - Pressed at Pallas Germany
100 Recommended All-Analog ressues Worth Owning - Michael Fremer Analogplanet
MUSIC
Cassandra Wilson started out as a jazz singer, doing gigs with several innovative bands (including Brooklyn's experimental M-Base collective) and at the same time recording typical jazz-singer let-me-entertain-you stuff like "Night and Day," "Blue Skies" and shooby dooby dooby. Eventually the Mississippi-born New York–based vocalist, who reigned among the elite jazz singers of the 1980s, became restless and began to look beyond torch songs for inspiration.
So she looked outside of jazz for inspiration. In interviews, she's recalled how she began seeking new challenges for her voice, a mighty instrument blessed with husky overtones and an alluringly smoky woodish hue. She began to integrate gospel and blues and pop songs into her performances, eventually assimilating them into music that blurs genre distinctions entirely. Blue Light 'Til Dawn is the first album to capture that shift. It features wondrously spare, molasses-slow versions of Robert Johnson ("Come On in My Kitchen," "Hellhound On My Trail"), Philly soul (Thom Bell and Linda Creed's "Children Of The Night"), pop (Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey") and torch song ("You Don't Know What Love Is").
Working with a small group of inventive New York jazzmen, emphasizing hand drums and percussion over trap set, Wilson cultivates the opposite of dazzle, hers is an inviting, shadow-filled sound that calls from a lonesome bayou. Atmosphere dictates everything that happens on these tracks, and helps knit together pieces from disparate ends of popular music. It also guides Wilson's vocals: Her sullen "Hellhound" wanders far from typical blues woe, yet winds up an apt, weary summation of it all the same.
Blue Light 'Til Dawn became an adult contemporary hit, and set Wilson on the course she's pursued since. The records are all engrossing and shaped by extremely sensitive musicianship, but Blue Light 'Til Dawn has something more, the renegade energy of one who, having taken a flying leap, is just discovering a new mode of expression.
Featured in Michael Fremer's Heavy Rotation in the May 2012 Issue of Stereophile
"This Pure Pleasure two-record set was not the first vinyl issue of this album, but it was certainly worth the wait. While I have no quibbles about the sound of the CD, these LPs improve on it meaningful ways. Wilson's voice is stunningly real, her presence anchoring each tune within the delicate soundscape that the recording captures so ably. Midrange density and treble filigree combine with a strong bass underpinning, guitars and percussion launch dynamically into digital territory, yet it is the small shifts in volume differentiating the touch of the musicians on their instruments that give the sonic picture its completeness. If you are used to the CD, these LPs will give you both a different and better window on the music, and they cost far less than a first-edition LP. As is usual for Pure Pleasure, the Pallas pressing is top notch, both in terms of its lack of surface noise and bottom-of-the-groove whoosh." - Marc Mickelson, Theaudiobeat.com, Music 4.5./5, Sound 4.5/5
"The British audiophile label Pure Pleasure has given Wilson’s album the royal audiophile LP treatment with re-mastering by Blue Note’s Ron McMaster, done at Capitol Studios. The CD release has been languorously stretched out over two LPs with none of the sides exceeding fifteen minutes. Right off with the Side A initial track, “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” you immediately hear the improvement in acoustics. Cassandra’s smoky, sultry phrasing matched to the steel string guitar’s tone, and Charlie Burnham’s violin set a mood that grabs your attention and tells you something special is happening here. Wilson’s delivery is impeccable and heartfelt. The soundstage is wide and crystal clear." - Jeff Krow, Audaud.com, 4.5 Stars!!
Musicians:
Cassandra Wilson, vocals
Brandon Ross, guitars
Charlie Burnham, violin, mandocello
Kenny Davis, bass
Tony Cedras, accordion
Lance Carter, drums, percussion
Kevin Johnson, snare, percussion, loose change
Vinx, percussion, voices
Olu Dara, cornet
Don Byron, clarinet
Bill McClellan, drums, percussion
Jeff Haynes, percussion
Cyro Baptista, percussion
Gib Wharton, pedal steel guitar
Lonnie Plaxico, bass
Chris Whitley, National resophonic guitar
Cassandra Wilson Blue Light 'Til Dawn
1. You Don't Know What Love Is
2. Come On In My Kitchen
3. Tell Me You'll Wait For Me
4. Children of the Night
5. Hellhound On My Trail
6. Black Crow
7. Sankofa
8. Estrellas
9. Redbone
10. Tupelo Honey
11. Blue Light 'Til Dawn
12. I Can't Stand The Rain
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!