Telarc Releases Ann Hampton Callaway Debut Album In SACD Surround Sound

Telarc’s latest Surround Sound SACDs feature actress, singer and songwiter Ann Hampton Callaway and the Diva Jazz Orchestra with Blues In The Night and the Soprano Christine Brewer and Donald Runnicles conduting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing compositions by Wagner and Strauss. As is usually the case these days, both of these new Telarc Surround Sound SACDs are “day and date” releases – with both the Surround Sound SACD and the CD Audio edition of the new album being released on the same day.

Telarc also has plans to release two Surround Sound SACDs in September by Al Di Meola and Paavo Jarvi conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra followed by a new Surround Sound SACD in October from Erich Kunzel conducting the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Here’s more on the new Telarc SACD releases.

Blues In The Night
Ann Hampton Callaway
SACD Surround Sound/SACD Stereo/CD Audio

(Telarc SACD-63641)

Blues In The Night is the Ann Hampton Callaway’s debut album on Telarc. Callaway is an actress, songwriter and singer who is probably best known as the songwriter of the Theme to the TV Series “The Nanny” as well as tunes for Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Celine Dion. The album features a mix of familiar classics and some original material written by the singer. On the album she is backed by a rhythmn section of Ted Rosenthal, Christian McBride and Lewis Nash as well as guest artists including her sister vocalist Liz Callaway, guitarist David Gilmore and Sherrie Maricle and the “all-female” Diva Jazz Orchestra.

Callaway describes the album by saying that “This is the feistiest, gutsiest, most let-your-hair-down (album) I’ve ever recorded. There are quiet and soothing moments, and there are moments when I wail. The recording expresses the full range of who I am. Of all my recordings, it comes closest to a live concert.”

Blues In The Night is a new direct to Direct Steam Digital (DSD) recording made at Avatar Studios in New York on February 13 – 15, 2006. The session was recorded to a Sonoma DSD Workstation with a Genex DSD Hard Disk Recorder, EMM Labs Meitner Mk IV DSD Converters with monitoring done on a Lipinski L-707 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System using the EMM Labs Meitner Switchman II Monitor Controller. The album was produced by Ann Hampton Callaway and Elaine Martone, and recorded, engineered and mastered by Michael Bishop. The SACD was made by Sony DADC at their Terre Haute, Indiana Hybrid SACD replication line.

Listening to the SACD Surround Sound layer of the album, you find that it is a combination of songs performed with Callaway and her trio as well as songs performed in full big band style with the Diva Jazz Orchestra. While the album suggests that it is a “blues” album, Callaway is very energetic and upbeat throughout. So while some of the songs are of the blues, her performance is not. Sonically the album is a excellent. Engineer Michael Bishop makes full use of the sonic tools at his disposal here. Swingin’ Away The Blues (Track 1) launches the album with a very high energy swing performance from the band and full use of the Surround Sound field. Stormy Weather/When The Sun Comes Out (Track 5) features a wonderful Bass solo and then introduces the balance of the trio followed by vocals by both Ann Hampton Callaway and her sister Liz Callaway. On It’s All Right With Me (Track 9), the Surround Sound mix places the vocals and primary instruments up front and uses the Surround Channels for the drum brushes in an interesting approach to mixing. There are other treats as well here, but the bottom line is that this is another excellent Telarc Surround Sound SACD release that music fans are bound to enjoy.

Album Musicians
Ann Hampton Callaway – Vocals
Ted Rosenthal – Piano
Christian McBride – Bass
Lewis Nash – Drums

Guest Musicians
Liz Callaway – Vocals
David Gilmore – Guitar
Sherrie Maricle and the Diva Jazz Orchestra

Album Selections
1. Swingin’ Away the Blues
2. Blue Moon
3. Spring Can Really Hany You Up the Most
4. Lover Come Back to Me
5. Story Weather/ When the Sun Comes Out
6. The I’m-Too-White-To-Sing-the-Blues Blues
7. Willow Weep for Me
8. Hip To Be Happy
9. It’s All Right with Me
10. No One Is Alone
11. Blues in the Night
12. The Glory of Love

Strauss: Four Last Songs, Death & Transfiguration; Wagner: Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Christine Brewer, Soprano, Donald Runicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
SACD Surround Sound/SACD Stereo/CD Audio

(Telarc SACD-60661)

As with the new album by Ann Calloway Hampton, this is another original Direct Stream Digital (DSD) recording. It was recorded in DSD on April 1 & 2, 2006 at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia by Telarc Recording Engineer Michael Bishop assisted by Bill McKinney and Todd Brown. The session featured the Sony DSD Workstation, Genex 8500 DSD Recorders, EMM Labs Meitner DSD DACs, the EMM Labs Switchman II Monitoring System and ATC SCM 150 Monitor Speakers.

The SACD was produced by Robert Woods, edited by Thomas C. Moore and SACD production was supervised by Erica Brenner. It was made by Sony DADC at their Hybrid SACD replication line in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Telarc describes the album as “a new recording of masterworks by Richard Wagner and Richard Stauss. Encompassing reflections on human mortality, the program is Runnicles’ fourth Telarc recording since he began his tenure with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2001. Runnicles is well known for his affinity for the music of such German composers as Wagner, Strauss and Mahler and is one of today’s most consistently acclaimed conductors of opera and symphonic repertoire. American soprano Christine Brewer’s opera, concert, and recital appearances are marked with her own unique timbre, combined with a vibrant personality and emotional honesty. The Guardian once wrote that her “voice is, quite simply, one of the greatest in the world.”

Album Selections
1. Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
2. Strauss: Tod und Verklarung, Op. 24 (Death and Transfiguration)

Strauss: Four Last Songs
3. Fruhling
4. September
5. Beim Schlafengehen
6. Im Abendrot

Upcoming Telarc Surround Sound Super Audio CD Releases in September and October
Telarc has more Surround Sound Super Audio CDs in store for High Resolution Audio fans in September and October. In September, we will be treated to Al Di Meola’s new Consequence of Chaos album in SACD Surround Sound as well as Paavo Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra performing Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and Elgar’s Enigma.

This will be followed in October by yet another new Surround Sound SACD. The October Telarc SACD release by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is entitled The Never Ending Waltz.

Telarc Surround Sound SACD Releases – September 26, 2006

  • Consequence of Chaos by Al Di Meola (Telarc SACD-63649)
  • Britten: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes; Elgar: Enigma by Paavo Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Telarc SACD-60660)

    Telarc Surround Sound SACD Releases – October 24, 2006

  • The Never Ending Waltz by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (Telarc SACD-60668)

    Availability
    The Surround Sound SACD editions of Blues In The Night by Ann Hampton Callaway and Strauss: Four Last Songs by Christine Brewer, Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are available in music stores. They are also available for purchase from the Telarc web site as well as several web sites that carry Super Audio CDs including Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc, CD Universe, Amazon.Com and Jpc.de.