Art Taylor – A.T.’s Delight – Blue Note/Analogue Productions/EMI stereo-only SACD CBNJ 84047 SA, 38:09 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****:
(Dave Burns, trumpet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Wynton Kelly, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Art Taylor, drums; “Potato” Valdez, conga)
This is another of the Blue Note jazz classics which was selected for audiophile reissuing by Acoustic Sounds and now is being distributed by Harmonia mundi. The original early stereo master from Rudy Van Gelder was mastered to SACD by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman and authored for SACD by Gus Skinas on the Sony SONOMA system. Being early stereo (1960), it suffers from the ping-pong widely-spaced soundstage effect which in a way could be seen as a step backwards from Van Gelder’s superb mono recordings which preceded it. (But not if I still had the Apt-Holman preamp I once had with adjustable mixing of the L & R channels.) I wish that had been addressed in the remastering! The acoustics of the recording venue don’t sound as good as most of the Blue Notes – it reminded me of a large self-storage unit, actually.
Must admit I’d never heard of either Dave Burns or Art Taylor before but they are terrific players and make this a superb outing musically. Burns played in the Dizzy Gillespie band and later with James Moody. He sometimes sounds a bit like Dizzy. Taylor is a drummer of great taste who never dominates the proceedings except when he has a solo. He played with both Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, and this was his first Blue Note album as a leader. Speaking of Monk, his Epistrophy is one of the highlights of the six tracks in the session. Cuban conga-drummer Valdez adds an unusual spin to this track, and two others on the album. Stanley Turrentine was just starting out at this time and sounds great. The piano trio of Kelly, Chambers and Taylor are tops in holding everything together, supporting the solos by Burns and Turrentine, which are reproduced with amazing presence at their respective speakers in front of you.
TrackList: Syeeda’s Song Flute, Epistrophy, Move, High Seas, Cookoo and Fungi, Blue Interlude.
– John Henry
