Telarc, Heads Up, PentaTone i Chesky Issue 8 SACDs [HFR]

Telarc continues to be a key player in the Super Audio CD market. Their latest release includes 3 titles from the Telarc and Heads Up labels they own as well as 4 titles from the PentaTone Classics label they distribute. Also included in this release is a new SACD from the Chesky label which is also distributed by Telarc.

The Telarc and Heads Up albums by Dave Brubeck, Hiromi and Spyro Gyra are all “day and date” releases with simultaneous releases on both Surround Sound SACD and Stereo CD. The four PentaTone Classics discs are Single Inventory Surround Sound SACDs with the SACD serving as both the SACD and CD edition of the album. No separate CD edition is planned.

Private Brubeck Remembers (with Bonus Disc, Limited Time)
Dave Brubeck
SACD Surround Sound/SACD Stereo/CD Stereo

(Telarc SACD-63605)

The liner notes from this SACD note that Private Brubeck Remembers has been released in celebration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied Forces invasion of Normandy Beach in France. It features jazz pianist and composer Brubeck performing 14 songs from that era. The album is also unique in that the initial pressings include a 1 hour “bonus interview disc” which features famed news anchor Walter Cronkite interviewing Brubeck about his time in the war as both a GI and a musician.

Album Selections
Disc 1
1. For All We Know
2. Something To Remember You By
3. Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else But Me)
4. Don’t Worry ’bout Me
5. For You
6. Where or When
7. Lili Marlene
8. It’s a Sin To Tell a Lie
9. When I Grow Too Old to Dream
10. We Crossed the Rhine
11. Please Be Kind
12. Weep No More
13. The Last Time I Saw Paris
14. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To

Disc 2 – Living Legends, Dave Brubeck and Walter Cronkite Reminisce (Limited Edition)

Brain
Hiromi
SACD Surround Sound/SACD Stereo/CD Stereo

(Telarc SACD-63600)

Jazz pianist and composer Hiromi received a lot of attention for unique style and performances on her debut Telarc album entitled Another Mind (Telarc SACD-63558) which was released last year. On this album she is joined by Tony Grey on bass, Martin Valihora on drums and special guest Anthony Jackson on bass. The album is also noteworthy as Telarc recording engineer Michael Bishop also serves as co-producer on the disc.

Telarc describes the album by noting that “Unlike her first release, Brain is a straight-up trio album, with bassist Anthony Jackson filling in the low end on three of the tracks. Without a doubt, this album expands on her furious keyboard skills and genre dissident flair. The eight tracks on Brain are brand new Hiromi compositions that highlight the flexibility of the trio, showing its many faces and colors, and pushing it to its limits of orchestral complexity. The resulting album is a virtual gallery of evocative musical pictures. The diversity of this album runs the gamut of rock, jazz, and classical. Her use of keyboard on this album generates moments of spaceman sounds similar to Radiohead or Flaming Lips, while her arrangements would make Zappa and Beethoven grin and nod their head in time, P-Fuk style.”

Album Selections
1. Kung-Fu World Champion
2. If…
3. Wind Song
4. Brain
5. Desert on the Moon
6. Green Tea Farm
7. Keytalk
8. Legend of the Purple Valley

The Deep End
Spyro Gyra
SACD Surround Sound/SACD Stereo/CD Stereo

(Heads Up HUSA-9085)

The Deep End is the third Surround Sound SACD from Spyro Gyra on the Telarc’s Heads Up jazz label and it celebrates their 30th anniversary in the music business. It follows the earlier SACDs entitled In Modern Times (Heads Up HUSA-9061) and Original Cinema (Heads Up HUSA-9074).

Heads Up notes that “The eleven tracks on The Deep End embrace a broad range of styles and colors—and indeed, emotions—yet hold together cohesively. It’s the kind of delicate balancing act that has made Spyro Gyra the contemporary jazz powerhouse that it’s been for three decades. With over 10 million albums sold, the group continues to break new ground with this latest outing. Rarely does a band weave so many layers of style and substance into a single recording. But then, Spyro Gyra is that rare musical collective that’s not afraid to let go and take the plunge into The Deep End. And isn’t that what music is all about?”

To emphasize that the disc’s surround mix uses all 5.1 channels (vs. the 4 or 5 channel only mix one finds on some SACDs), the label of The Deep End includes a prominent note stating that “There are mix components that require the presence of all five main speakers. A subwoofer is also recommended.”

Album Selections
1. Summer Fling
2. Eastlake Shuffle
3. Monsoon
4. As You Wish
5. Joburg Jam
6. The Crossing
7. Wiggle Room
8. Wind Warriors
9. In Your Arms
10. Chippewa Street
11. Beyond the Rain

4 Surround Sound SACDs from PentaTone Classics
PentaTone Classics in the Netherlands has two series of Surround Sound Super Audio CD releases that are released in the U.S. by Telarc. They include new Direct Stream Digital (DSD) recordings done by the engineers at Polyhymnia International and reissues of 4 Channel Surround Sound recordings from the vaults of Philips Classics that are known as Remastered Quadro Recordings (RQR).

This release from PentaTone and Telarc includes a new DSD recorded, 3 SACD Box Set of Mikhail Glinka’s Opera entitled Ruslan and Lyudmila as performed by Alexander Vedernikov conducting the Chorus and Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. It also features three Surround Sound SACDs from the Philips Classics vaults including performances of Handel’s Organ Concertos 14, 15 & 16 by Daniel Chorzempa with Jaap Schroder conducting Concerto Amsterdam, Bach’s The Art of the Fugue by Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Giuliani’s Guitar Concerto No. 1 and Rodrigo’s Concierto Madrigal by Pepe Romero & Angel Romero with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

  • Glinka: Ruslan & Lyudmila – Alexander Vedernikov, Chorus and Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (PentaTone Classics SACD-66034)
  • Handel: Organ Concertos 14, 15 & 16 (Vol. 4) – Daniel Chorzempa, Jaap Schroder, Concerto Amsterdam (PentaTone Classics RQR SACD-66110)
  • Bach: The Art of the Fugue – Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (PentaTone Classics RQR SACD-66140)
  • Giuliani: Guitar Concerto No. 1 & Rodrigo: Concierto Madrigal – Pepe Romero, Angel Romero, Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (PentaTone Classics RQR SACD-66141)

    Chesky SACD by Phil Woods
    Also new on Surround Sound SACD is Here’s to My Lady by Phil Woods. This Super Audio CD release features saxophone and clarinet player Woods along with a combo that he calls his “little big band” performing 13 well known jazz favorites. The band features Woods along with Tommy Flanagan on piano, George Mraz on bass and Kenny Washington on the drums.

  • Here’s to My Lady – Phil Woods (Chesky CHSA 268)

    Availability
    The new Surround Sound Super Audio CD releases from Telarc International, Heads Up, PentaTone Classics and Chesky are now available for purchase at the Telarc web site as well as record stores such as Tower Records. They are also available from web sites that specialize in SACDs such as Acoustic Sounds, CD Universe, Elusive Disc and Music Direct.