Album Reviews

(Update: I was wrong. These were cut from files and not from tape. The information I received was not clear. Some of the commenters are correct and I was wrong. I am always happy to end up with egg on my face to get correct facts published. These digital transfers are the best I've heard. I'm leaving the review "as is".. Brief and to the point: This is a previously unreleased Sarah Vaughan fan “must have” double LP set recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie November 9th, 1969 with Vaughan sympathetically backed by a trio of relative unknowns: Johnny Veith on piano, Gus Mancuso on bass and Eddy Pucci on drums. Mancuso’s story is fascinating and worth a read. You’ll have to fend online for yourself for more about the others.

Sam Records’ Fred Thomas kindly sent this record. The Lost Recordings is an audiophile label belonging to Mr. Thomas’s friend Frederic D’Oria-Nicolas. The label specializes in releasing limited to 2000 copy editions of unreleased live sessions recorded in Europe by classical and jazz greats. Packaging is deluxe gatefold and includes an AIFF CD resolution download card. Since there wasn’t an original release, there’s no artwork to re-use.

This is an absolutely mesmerizing Vaughan performance of 20 smartly chosen and sequenced tunes—some standards in 1969 and some then new and now standards— intimately mic’d that puts her startlingly and transparently in front of you between the speakers.

Vaughan opens with “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” from the 1960 Broadway Show “Bye Bye Birdie” sung in the show by the lead character Conrad Birdie. It’s an oft covered opener that the then 45 year old Vaughan makes her own and lets the audience know she’s still got the vocal goods.

She moves from there to a re-worded Beatles song “And I Love Him”, and later in the evening does “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”—all strained through Vaughan’s dark, sultry, meticulous filter. She also covers “real” standards like “Misty”, “My Funny Valentine” and “Tenderly”. Few will be unfamiliar but totally recast by the great Vaughan they get a new lease on life.

I didn’t read credits or anything before playing but when it was over I told myself “This was obviously recorded to tape, but what are the odds it was cut from tape? Long shot at best.

Then I thought “If this is the state of digital transfers, so transparent, vivid, three-dimensional and tell-tale digital artifact-free is the presentation (and this was before I knew it was a mono recording—so ideal is the hall/vocal balance) I have to admit that A/D conversion has finally gotten “there.”

Then I read the credits: cut by Kevin Gray using the original master tapes, lacquers processed at QRP and pressed in Germany (at Optimal) on 180g vinyl. And that’s how it sounds!

Highly recommended and available at Acoustic Sounds and Elusive Disc. Sometimes these never before released projects feature second or third rate sound but are musically worthwhile. This one offers first rate sound and music and don't let the MONO scare you away.