Count Basie Orchestra Live In Japan Album Released in SACD Surround Sound

Basie Is Back, a newly recorded album by the Count Basie Orchestra is now available as a Hybrid Layer Surround Sound Super Audio CD. The album has been released by Eighty-Eight’s, the Japanese Jazz label that specializes in audiophile recordings.

As with a number of their prior releases, Eighty-Eights has released Basie IS Back as a Single Inventory, Hybrid Layer Surround Sound Super Audio CD. It features SACD Surround Sound, SACD Stereo and CD Stereo versions of the music on the album and serves as the SACD and CD edition of the album. No separate Stereo CD edition will be released.

Over 10 Years In The Making
Headed up by long-time Sony Japan SACD executive Yasohachi “88” Itoh, the Eighty-Eight’s label has brought many fine jazz recordings to SACD fans over the years. Itoh says that it has been has dream to record the Basie Orchestra in a live session and that the new album is the culmination of over 10 years of planning this session.

Aaron Woodward, Album Executive Producer and President of Count Basie Enterprises says that “Band leader Bill Hughes has done an incredible job of sharing the Basie legacy with all who will hear this album. He is a masterful leader with a deft touch at getting the guys to see his musical vision. Bill and the guys give dynamic interpretations to many of the Basie classics of the last 50 years and they give today’s younger generation something to swing to.”

Basie Is Back: Recorded Live In Japan
Count Basie Orchestra, Directed by Bill Hughes and Featuring Butch Miles and Melba Joyce
SACD Surround Sound/SACD Stereo/CD Audio

(Eighty-Eight’s VRCL-18833)

Band Leader
Bill Hughes – Leader & Trombone

Saxophone Section
John Williams – Baritone
Doug Miller – Tenor
Doug Lawrence – Tenor
Marshall McDonald – Alto
Grant Langford – Alto

Trombone Section
Clarence Banks
Alvin Walker
David Keim
Barry Cooper

Trumpet Section
Scotty Barnhart
Michael Williams
Shawn Edmonds
Endre Rice

Rhythmn Section
Butch Miles – Drums
James Leary – Bass
Will Matthews – Guitar
Tony Suggs – Piano

Vocals
Melba Joyce

Album Tracks
1. Corner Pocket
2. Discommotion
3. Blues in Hoss’ Flat
4. Segue in “C”
5. Basie Power
6. We’re in Love Again
7. In a Mellow Tone
8. Body and Soul
9. Lover Come Back to Me
10. Whirly-Bird
11. Jumpin’ at the Woodside
12. One O’Clock Jump
13. April in Paris

Basie Is Back features 13 jazz classics that have been performed by the Count Basie Orchestra over the years. The album was recorded live at Denryoku Hall in Sendai, Japan on October 28, 2005. It is a Direct Stream Digital (DSD) recording using Sony’s Sonoma DSD Workstation.

Basie Is Back was produced by Eighty-Eight’s label chief Yasohachi “88” Itoh, recorded and engineered by Yoshihiro Suzuki from Sony Music Studios in Tokyo, assisted by engineers Naoto Tanemura, Hiroya Takayama, Masaki Mori and Hiroki Okida as well as Sonoma DSD Workstation Operator Shigeru Inoue from Sony Japan. The SACD was mastered by Koji “C-chan” Suzuki of Sony Music Studios in Tokyo who has handled the mastering of many Japanese SACD titles over the years. The SACD was made by Sony DADC’s hybrid SACD production line in Japan.

Listening to the Surround Sound Super Audio tracks of the album, I’d say that Woodward’s comments about the new album being “dynamic” are an understatement. Basie Is Back fills your music room with the swinging sounds of the orchestra as they take you through the history of the band. The disc really shows off the Super Audio CD format’s ability to highlight individual instruments and soloists at one point and then really take off and swing at another moment. Big Band music fans will enjoy this new recording. No doubt about that.

Availability
The Hybrid Surround Sound SACD of Basie Is Back by the Count Basie Orchestra is now available in music stores in Japan as well as from the Amazon.co.jp and HMV Japan web sites. It is also available in the U.S. as an import from the CD Universe and Amazon.Com web sites as well as the Amazon.De web site in
Germany.