Concord Records continues to be one of the more prolific of record labels issuing SACD discs in 2003. In their newest SACD release, they have issued two single inventory releases available only on SACD – Out of Sight! by Poncho Sanchez with Ray Charles, Sam Moore and Billy Preston (Concord Picante SACD-1031) and the Concord Jazz Super Audio CD Sampler, Volume 1 (Concord Jazz SACD-1032). This is in addition to five more Multichannel SACD releases from their rich catalog of Jazz albums. The five catalog albums feature titles from Herb Ellis & Joe Pass, Mongo Santamaria, Susannah McCorkle, Mel Torme & George Shearing and Gary Burton with Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes & Dave Holland.
As with their previous releases, all of the new Concord SACDs are Hybrid Multichannel discs. They feature SACD Surround Sound, SACD Stereo and CD Stereo versions of the music on each album. They are playable on SACD, CD and SACD compatible DVD Video players.
Poncho Sanchez & the Concord Jazz SACD Sampler
Out of Sight! by Poncho Sanchez features Sanchez, his band and several special musical guests performing a mixture of Latin Jazz and R&B on the album. It’s a very tasty musical combination and fans of both Sanchez and the guest stars (Ray Charles, Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, Billy Preston and members of the James Brown band) will enjoy the album. In addition to a very good Surround Sound mix, the CD Audio layer of the Out of Sight! SACD disc is actually an “Enhanced CD” which includes a video interview of Sanchez and his band along with a couple of brief musical demonstrations. As with the recent Jaco Pastorius Band Hybrid Multichannel SACD on Heads Up, it shows that the SACD labels are getting creative when adding extras to their releases. Also of note, the album carries Concord’s SACD series number even though it is a single inventory release.
Concord Jazz Super Audio CD Sampler, Volume 1 features 13 selections from the first 15 of the Concord Records catalog reissue series. Taken from the SACDs available at the halfway point of this series, the sampler features Multichannel SACD selections from a number of the label’s top artists including the Jim Hall Quartet, Tania Maria, Rosemary Clooney, Chick Corea & Bobby McFerrin, Poncho Sanchez & Mongo Santamaria, the Gene Harris Quartet, Carmen McCrae, Tito Puente, the Stan Getz Quartet, Mel Torme, Rob McConnell & the Boss Brass, Cal Tjader, Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers, the Charlie Byrd Trio with Ken Peplowski and Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Taking a page from the Channel Classics SACD Sampler, the Concord Jazz SACD Sampler also carries a list price of only $11.98. This makes it an excellent way to get an introduction to the Concord Jazz Multichannel SACD releases.
The Concord Multichannel SACD Catalog Series Continues
In addition to the two new SACDs mentioned above, Concord Records continues its release of Multichannel SACDs from its extensive catalog. The next group of five titles brings the total number of releases to 20 catalog SACDs this year.
Concord notes that the five new SACDs include the Herb Ellis & Joe Pass album was their first live recording and it features “a head to head guitar sparring match by two jazz legends”, a live recording by Mongo Santamaria that includes “sizzling live versions of Dizzy Gillespie’s Manteca and Mongo’s own Afro Blue”, a “masterful recording of velvet toned Mel Torme and elegantly swinging pianist George Shearing”, one of Susannah McCorkle’s “most popular albums featuring a mesmerizing performance of The Waters of March” and a top 5 selling and Grammy award winning album by vibe player Gary Burton with Chick Corea, Pat Methaney, Roy Haynes and Dave Holland. The new titles are:
Availability
The 7 new SACD releases from Concord Records are now available from several web sites that carry SACDs including Acoustic Sounds, CD Universe, Elusive Disc and Music Direct. In a bit of a surprise, all 7 SACDs are also now available at Borders stores which just started carrying some SACD titles recently. The new Concord Records SACDs should be available in other retail record stores in the next week or so.