Ry Cooder - Paradise and Lunch - SACD

Product no.: UDSACD2159

In stock

Ry Cooder - Paradise and Lunch - SACD
£34.99
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Mobile Fidelity - UDSACD 2159 -  SACD Hybrid Stereo 

2,000 Numbered Limited  Edition - Hybrid Sacd Plays On All CD Players 

Half Speed Mastered by Rob Loverde  from the Original Master Tape at MFSL

Mastered on the Mobile Fidelity GAIN 2™  Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD 

Paradise and Lunch sounds like a lost Little Feat album—co-producer Russ Titelman also helmed Little Feats’ debut. Remastered from the original master tapes, MoFi’s hybrid SACD features a vibrant recording that packs a lot of punch when the Salvation Army band marches across the soundstage. Sound 4.5/5 Music 4/5 The Absolute Sound

Desert Island-Worthy Paradise and Lunch Will Renew Your Faith in Music: Diverse 1974 Ry Cooder Effort Comes on Like a Secret History of Song, Features Exquisite Interplay

Mastered by Mobile Fidelity from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 2000 Numbered Copies: Hybrid SACD of Paradise and Lunch Graced With Organic Sound and Stunning Colors

Ry Cooder's exceptional Paradise and Lunch takes a popular precept – music as the common denominator across all languages and styles – to extremes few artists have envisioned let alone fulfilled. Considered by many diehards to be the California native's finest hour, the 1974 set unfurls with rarified levels of joyousness, ingenuity, and sophistication. A prime contender for any Desert Island list and an album that repeatedly restores your faith in the inimitable effects experienced upon listening to special performances, Paradise and Lunch is an eternal "musicians' musician" record – an adventurous, ambitious, soulful leap down roads well-traveled and paths less known.

Such eclecticism, virtuosity, and ebullience resonate with unmatched verve on Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD. Mastered from the original master tapes and strictly limited to 2000 numbered copies, this audiophile reissue boasts dead-quiet surfaces, superb transient response, front-to-back soundstaging, and an organic immediacy that heightens the enjoyment, character, and craft of the arrangements. Cooder's inspired guitar playing sounds tremendously lifelike, replete with proper scale, full-bodied tones, and a sense of decay that presents the trail ends of each note. Horns pop with three-dimensional detail and brassy colors. Akin to the contributions of all the all-star participants, Jim Keltner's percussion benefits from added stability and depth. Paradise and Lunch has never been more transparent.

On the surface a collection of seemingly disparate jazz, blues, spiritual, and roots songs, the diversified album comes across as a secret history of music. It remains a paragon of seamless convergence in which sonic DNA differences reveal shared traits and quilt a fabric united by feeling, reinvention, and elation. Beginning with a recast rendition of a traditional folk number, "Tamp ‘Em Up Solid," believed to be a close descendant of the group-vocal tune sung by field hands when they stacked bales of cotton, and ending with a stirring stripped-down cover of Arthur Blake's "Ditty Wah Ditty" – a show-stealing duet sent up with just an acoustic guitar and jazz icon Earl "Fatha" Hines' spritely walking-the-line piano riffs – Paradise and Lunch charms with exquisite interplay, inspirational harmonies, and innate flair.

At no point do the experimentations sound forced, artificial, or retro. Cooder transforms what initially appear to be obscurities into coherent, approachable songs that could have been recorded yesterday – or decades ago. In his world, a marvelous reggae-spiced and R&B-driven rendition of Bobby Womack's "It's All Over Now" coexists with a sanctified, harmony-based march through the gospel hymn "Jesus on the Mainline" anchored by restrained Dixieland accents and tolling bells. Another standard, albeit more modern, Burt Bacharach's "Mexican Divorce" strolls across dusty plains via gently clopping beats, shimmering Spanish motifs, and sympathetic support vocals.

Cooder also turns up the electricity a smidge for his idea of Bobby Miller's "If Walls Could Talk," a melodic snapshot of doo-wop shot through with reverb-drenched grooves. He rains funky vibes, chicken-scratch slide guitar, and churchgoing lessons down on a top-to-bottom remake of Blind Willie McTell's "Married Man's a Fool," the revision evocative of the imagination, proficiency, and blending that help make Paradise and Lunch an absolute must-own album – and now, an audiophile choice for those wished-for Desert Island trips.

Secure your lowest-numbered copy of this SACD 

Musicians:
Ry Cooder, guitar, mandolin, bass, vocals
Ronnie Barron, piano, organ
Earl Hines, piano (B4)
Plas Johnson, alto saxophone
Oscar Brashear, cornet
Red Callender, bass
John Duke, bass
Russ Titelman, electric bass
Chris Ethridge, electric bass
Milt Hollad, drums, percussion
Jim Keltner, drums

Selections:
1. Tamp 'em Up Solid
2. Tattler
3. Married Man's A Fool
4. Jesus On The Mainline
5. It's All Over Now
6. I'm A Fool For A Cigarette / Feelin' Good
7. If Walls Could Talk
8. Mexican Divorce
9. Ditty Wa Ditty

Ry\u0020Cooder\u0020\u002D\u0020Paradise\u0020and\u0020Lunch\u0020\u002D\u0020SACD

 

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Mobile Fidelity believes that mastering systems should be neutral and transparent. The essential idea is to unveil all the detailed musical information on the original master recording without adding deterioration, coloration or other sonic artifacts. 

It is worth noting that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stands out as one of few record labels that independently invests in research and development of audio technology. With proprietary innovations such as GAIN 2™, general music enthusiasts and audiophiles alike have reaped the benefit of a higher consumer audio standard without investing in costly new hardware. Mobile Fidelity is pleased to work with a variety of engineering legends and companies including Tim de Paravicini, Ed Meitner, Pass Labs, Theta Digital and Sony Electronics. 

Our joint efforts to seek out the ultimate audio experience, has resulted in significant advances for the technology of music reproduction. 

GAIN 2™ Mastering Technology for Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD and Ultradisc II™ 24kt Gold CDs 

For over twenty years, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has continually searched for the ultimate audio experience. During this search MFSL engineers and associates created The GAIN™ System, a proprietary mastering technology which brought warmth and ambience to the compact disc format. A few years ago - with higher resolution formats on the horizon - the vision of GAIN 2™ began. As it stands today, GAIN 2™ is one of the greatest technical advancements in analogue and digital technology in the last ten years. It consists of a series of critical modifications and new components to Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering chain. 

We feel that GAIN 2™ has come extremely close to meeting this goal. The key accomplishments of GAIN 2™ System are 1) the ability to extract all the musical information as possible through the Ultra High bandwidth analogue tape playback system with proprietary custom tape playback heads, reproducer electronics and 2) transparently capturing and storing that information with the Direct Stream Digital recording system. 

 

 

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