Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Ella & Louis – Analogue Productions 180g Stereo Vinyl
It is undeniable that Billie Holiday’s singing changed in her later years. Her voice darkened and shifted to a lower range. Her economy of means distilled her sound to its expressive essence — a kind of heightened speech. The classic LP Songs For Distingue Lovers has also deepened and become burnished with time. Maybe it’s that still-arresting word, “distingue”; maybe it’s that iconic, tinted image of Lady Day on the cover. But now that legendary LP, with the singer’s best studio work of the Fifties, is available through the Acoustic Sounds Series.
Arnett Cobb – Ballads By Cobb – Analogue Productions 180g Stereo Vinyl
Originally released in November 1960, Ballads by Cobb, as its title suggests, is all slow ballads, putting the emphasis on the Texas tenor’s warm tone.
A Texas tenor player in the tradition of Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb’s accessible playing was between swing and early rhythm & blues. His stomping, robust style earned him the title “Wild Man of the Tenor Sax.”
Sonny Rollins – Rollins Plays For Bird – Analogue Productions 180g (Mono) Vinyl
Julie London – Latin In A Satin Mood – Analogue Productions 200g Vinyl
Analogue Productions has brought back Julie London sings Latin In A Satin Mood in dramatic, deserving fashion. Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, and plated and pressed on 200-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, the crispness and vibrancy of this recording is spectacular.
Exotic and Latin albums were big deals in the 1950s and early ’60s, and singers as diverse as Dean Martin, Lena Horne, and Peggy Lee were recording with castanets and bongo drums. Like Peggy Lee, London combines a restrained vocal approach with jazz phrasing and a cool attitude with icy sex appeal on this album of relaxing Latin standards. Julie does look beautiful on the cover, and the backup male “mariachi-esque” serenade ads to the romantic ambiance.
Ernest Ansermet – The Royal Ballet Gala Performances (2 LP + Book) – Analogue Productions 180g Vinyl
Analogue Productions is proud and excited to be bringing back such a classic. Not just for the music, which is superb, but also for the detailed packaging, which in this case takes the form of a 22-page lavishly illustrated book that’s integrated into the tip-on gatefold jacket. If you’re new to ballet, this pictorial history will introduce you to some of its most famous productions — old favorites such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, for example — but also less familiar tales such as Carnaval, Les Sylphides and Coppélia. You’ll also make the aquaintance of famous ballerinas of the Royal company, such as Margot Fonteyn, Nadia Nerina and Beryl Grey. as well as choreographers such as Jules Perrot and male dancers Alexis Rassine and Michael Somes.
Eric Dolphy – Outward Bound (Stereo) – Analogue Productions 180g Vinyl
Eric Dolphy has sometimes been described as an iconoclast, but in Outward Bound, he was not overturning his idol, Charlie Parker; he was building on Bird’s legacy. So deep was Dolphy’s musicianship, so free his imagination, that he enchanted trailblazers like John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. Partnering in this collection with the brilliant trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and a stunning rhythm section, Dolphy is at a peak of energy and creativity on alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute. He and Hubbard work with empathy reminiscent of the young Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Pianist Jaki Byard, bassist George Tucker, and drummer Roy Haynes were ideal accompanists and co-conspirators in this widely influential work.