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SACD

Babatunde Olatunji – Love Drum Talk (1997) [Reissue 2004] [SACD / Chesky Records – SACD275]

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Babatunde Olatunji - Love Drum Talk (1997) [Reissue 2004]

Title: Babatunde Olatunji – Love Drum Talk (1997) [Reissue 2004]
Genre: Jazz, Afrobeat
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Nigerian-born drum master leads an ebullient ensemble of guitarists, singers and percussionists through a series of spirited meditations on the nature of love. Lust, kinship, sensuality, courtship and spirituality are the themes Olatunji uses to fuel his joyous infectious playing. Highlights include “Mother, Give Me Love”, “Don’t Know Why My Love”, “Spell Mónisola” and more.

The drums were a daily backdrop to life in Babatunde Olatunji’s birthplace, the fishing village of Ajido, some forty miles outside Lagos. He arrived in America in 1950 and traveled on a segregated “Jim Crow” train to study at Morehouse College. “I started the whole music thing to protect my sanity,” he explains. Stunned by the ignorance of his fellow students, who assumed all Africans lived among lions in the jungle, Olatunji began inviting them to drum and sing in his rooms and discovered his life’s mission as Africa’s musical ambassador. Babatunde Olatunji’s words are sung in his tribal language, Yoruba, and the drums that surround him – his ashiko, the big, curvaceous mother drum, the smaller, cylindrical djembe, the djun-djun and the talking drum – transmit the message as eloquently as the lyrics. Each track invokes another face of love and tells stories of Olatunji’s own life. On “Spell Mónisola”, Olatunji sings of his American-born granddaughter going to study at her grandmother’s school in Ibadan, Nigeria, as he articulates the young girl’s name in drumbeats. The travails of romantic love are addressed on “Saré Tete Wa”, yearning as it begs, “Lover, please come running back to me”. Fear of commitment permeates Long Distance Lover, and a parallel anguish fuels the doomed passion of “Don’t Know Why My Love”. Upbeat dance floor lust grooves through “What’s Your Number, Mama?”, in which a dancer’s devious routine to acquire a love object’s phone number vies with his mental calculations of her measurements. A more abstract love, the intimate conspiracy between dancer and drummer, inspires “Bebí Alolo” and “Love Drum Talk”.

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SACD

Babatunde Olatunji – Drums Of Passion (1960) [Reissue 2002] [SACD / Columbia / Legacy – CS 66011]

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BozBabatunde Olatunji – Drums Of Passion (1960) [Reissue 2002]

Title: Babatunde Olatunji – Drums Of Passion (1960) [Reissue 2002]
Genre: African
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Drums of Passion is an album released by Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji in 1960. Unquestionably, it was the first recording to popularize African music in the west, becoming immensely successful and selling over five million copies. In 2002, it was released as a single layer stereo and 5.1 SACD by Columbia Records. In 2004 the album was added to the National Recording Registry.

Having come to USA. from his native Nigeria to study medicine, percussionist Babatunde Olatunji eventually became 1 of the 1st African music stars in the States. He also soon counted jazz heavyweights like John Coltrane (“Tunji”) & Dizzy Gillespie among his admirers (Gillespie had, a decade earlier, also courted many Cuban music stars via his trailblazing Latin jazz recordings). And, in spite of it being viewed by some as a symbol of African chic, Drums of Passion is still a substantial record thanks to Olatunji’s complex & raw drumming. Along with a cadre of backup singers & 2 other percussionists, Olatunji works through 8 traditional drum & chorus cuts originally used to celebrate a variety of things in Nigeria: “Akiwowo” & “Shango” are chants to a train conductor & the God of Thunder, respectively, while “Baba Jinde” is a celebration of the dance of flirtation & “Odun De! Odun De!” serves as a New Year’s greeting. The choruses do sound a bit overwrought & even too slick at times (partly due to the fact that most of the singers are not African), but thankfully the drumming is never less than engaging. The many curious world music fans who are likely to check this album out should also be sure to look into even better African drumming by native groups like the Drummers of Burundi & the percussion outfits featured on various field recordings. (The 2002 CD reissue on Columbia/Legacy adds the track “Menu Di Ye Jewe (Who Is This?)”, which was recorded at 1 of the 1959 sessions for the album, but was previously unissued in USA).

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SACD

Boz Scaggs – Boz Scaggs (1969) [Audio Fidelity 2013] [SACD / Audio Fidelity – AFZ 168]

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Boz Scaggs - Boz Scaggs (1969) [Audio Fidelity 2013]

Title: Boz Scaggs – Boz Scaggs (1969) [Audio Fidelity 2013]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Departing from the Steve Miller Band after a two-album stint, Boz Scaggs found himself on his own but not without support. Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, his friend, helped him sign with Atlantic Records and the label had him set up shop in Muscle Shoals, recording his debut album with that legendary set of studio musicians, known for their down-and-dirty backing work for Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, among many other Southern soul legends. The Muscle Shoals rhythm section, occasionally augmented by guitarist Duane Allman, gives this music genuine grit, but this isn’t necessarily a straight-up blue-eyed soul record, even if the opening “I’m Easy” and “I’ll Be Long Gone” are certainly as deeply soulful as anything cut at Muscle Shoals. Even at this early stage Scaggs wasn’t content to stay in one place, and he crafted a kind of Americana fantasia here, also dabbling in country and blues along with the soul and R&B that grounds this record. If the country shuffle “Now You’re Gone” sounds just slightly a shade bit too vaudeville for its own good, it only stands out because the rest of the record is pitch-perfect, from the Jimmie Rodgers cover “Waiting for a Train” and the folky “Look What I Got!” to the extended 11-minute blues workout “Loan Me a Dime,” which functions as much as a showcase for a blazing Duane Allman as it does for Boz. But even with that show-stealing turn, and even with the Muscle Shoals musicians giving this album its muscle and part of its soul, this album is still thoroughly a showcase for Boz Scaggs’ musical vision, which even at this stage is wide and deep. It would grow smoother and more assured over the years, but the slight bit of raggedness suits the funky, down-home performances and helps make this not only a great debut, but also an enduring blue-eyed soul masterpiece.

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SACD

Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra – Ravel: Orchestral Works (1974) [Reissue 2004] [SACD / PentaTone – PTC 5186 204]

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Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra - Ravel: Orchestral Works (1974) [Reissue 2004]

Title: Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra – Ravel: Orchestral Works (1974) [Reissue 2004]
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Every orchestra has a characteristic sound & personality that identifies them through the ages, & in the case of the Boston Symphony Orchestra it is their contoured string & wind elegance, panache & suavity that marks them out as the premier Francophone American orchestra. With Seiji Ozawa at the helm, a conductor much identified with French repertoire, these Quad recordings of Maurice Ravel, accomplished during his long tenure as music director, are afforded the sonic treatment they deserve & are now able to receive given the latest SACD technology employed by Pentatone enabling the release of the full spectrum of sound captured by a previous eras sound engineers.

For classical connoisseurs, multichannel recording is state-of-the-art reproduction, and they regularly seek out the finest recordings in the super audio format. Among those discs are some important discoveries from the past, including rare quadraphonic recordings from the 1970s that are being remastered for the new technology. Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra made these quadraphonic recordings of orchestral works by Maurice Ravel in 1974, and they were remastered in 2014 by PentaTone as part of an ongoing project to preserve these early experiments in multichannel sound. Ozawa had a magical touch with Ravel, and his performances with the BSO of Le tombeau de Couperin, Menuet antique, Ma mère l’oye, Valses nobles et sentimentales, and Une barque sur l’océan are among the most transparent interpretations of the period. What quadraphonic recording added were exceptional depth, crisp details, and ideal separation of the parts, so the brilliant solo and sectional writing in Ravel’s scores stood out with the clarity and presence of chamber music. This hybrid SACD can be played on SACD players and conventional CD equipment with stereo playback, but even with that limitation, the spatial dimensions of the orchestra come across with astonishing verisimilitude. Highly recommended as a sonic showcase of the highest quality.

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SACD

Rafael Kubelik, Boston Symphony Orchestra – Smetana: Má vlast (1971) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2011] [SACD / Deutsche Grammophon – UCGG-9029]

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Rafael Kubelik, Boston Symphony Orchestra - Smetana: Má vlast (1971) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2011]

Title: Rafael Kubelik, Boston Symphony Orchestra – Smetana: Má vlast (1971) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2011]
Genre: Classical
Format: SACD ISO

Rafael Kubelík (1914-1996), a Czech-born master of the 20th century who was active internationally, especially in Germany, specialized in the symphonic poem “Our Fatherland” and left five complete recordings of the work. Among them, this recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra is the one that maintains the ideal balance between recording and performance. [The recording was produced by Emil Berliner Studios in Germany and mastered in DSD in 2011.]

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SACD

Boston – Boston (1976) [SACD 2000] [SACD / Epic – ES 34188]

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Boston - Boston (1976) [SACD 2000]

Title: Boston – Boston (1976) [SACD 2000]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

“Better music through science” was the Epic Records-coined slogan that Boston leader Tom Scholz hated, but this masterwork of studio-happy, high-school-parking-lot music earned it. Scholz fine-tuned his overdubbed guitar orchestra to a pitch that a thousand subsequent album-rockers couldn’t resist. And why should they? Where the band’s later records were hardly worthy of note, Boston pulls together classic after classic: “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” “Hitch a Ride.” The pseudo-cosmic ambience invites scoffs as the year 2000 recedes into the past, but it’s really just part of the disc’s charm. Let it take you home tonight.

Boston is one of the best-selling albums of all time, and deservedly so. Because of the rise of disco and punk, FM rock radio seemed all but dead until the rise of acts like Boston, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen. Nearly every song on Boston’s debut album could still be heard on classic rock radio decades later due to the strong vocals of Brad Delp and unique guitar sound of Tom Scholz. Tom Scholz, who wrote most of the songs, was a studio wizard and used self-designed equipment such as 12-track recording devices to come up with an anthemic “arena rock” sound before the term was even coined. The sound was hard rock, but the layered melodies and harmonics reveal the work of a master craftsman. While much has been written about the sound of the album, the lyrics are often overlooked. There are songs about their rise from a bar band (“Rock and Roll Band”) as well as fond remembrances of summers gone by (“More Than a Feeling”). Boston is essential for any fan of classic rock, and the album marks the re-emergence of the genre in the 1970s.

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SACD

Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right (2003) [SACD / Island Def Jam Music Group – B0002019-36]

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Bon Jovi - This Left Feels Right (2003)

Title: Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right (2003)
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

God knows why Bon Jovi felt the need to recut its best songs in an adult alternative style with Patrick Leonard as the producer. In the thorough liner notes — presented as an interview between Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora — by the suddenly ubiquitous David Wild, Jon claims that the roots of the album derive from a Japanese show he recorded where the intent was to release live, acoustic versions of the band’s standards. Alas, the recordings weren’t up to snuff, so the band reentered the studio and cut versions that have more overdubs than the original releases. To its credit, the band sounds committed to this rather bizarre project, an endeavor so unconnected to reality that actress Olivia d’Abo — best known for either her role on The Wonder Years or her lead in the brilliant ’90s indie film Kicking and Screaming, depending on your viewpoint — provides counterpoint vocals to “Living on a Prayer,” while “Bad Medicine” boasts breathy, echoed vocals that suggest it was conceived as a reflective affair, not as a dumb hard rock song. This holds true throughout the album, and while the arrangements are relatively interesting, they’re rarely improvements on the originals and rarely rise above the level of novelties. And while longtime fans may find it worthwhile on that level, it doesn’t offer proof that the band’s songs are resilient enough to withstand new arrangements, nor does it shed new light on Bon Jovi or prove that the group is maturing gracefully. And all of that is really too bad, because the songs have stood the test of time, sounding better in their original incarnations than they did upon release, plus the group was moving in the right direction with its last album, adjusting to the sound and feel of middle-aged maturity seemingly effortlessly. This, however, sounds simultaneously safe and hazy; it’s the sound of a band that’s earned the right to indulge itself and has followed that inclination here.

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SACD

Bon Jovi – Greatest Hits (2010/2021) [SACD / Island Records – 5394030]

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Bon Jovi - Greatest Hits (2010/2021)

Title: Bon Jovi – Greatest Hits (2010/2021)
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO

2010 release, a career-spanning collection from the Rock icons featuring two new songs: “No Apologies,” and “What Do You Got?”. This release will transport listeners back in time through Bon Jovi’s worldwide monster hits of the past and offer a bridge to the future with the debut of the four new tracks. “Music marks milestones in all our lives,” notes frontman Jon Bon Jovi. “These songs have stood the test of time and they remind us all where we came from, even as we keep our eyes towards the future.” Hybrid SACD pressing. Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American rock band Bon Jovi, originally released in 2010. This 16-track album includes fourteen of the bands hits and two brand new singles “What Do You Got?” and “No Apologies.” Universal. 2021.

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SACD

Bon Jovi – Bounce (2002) [SACD / Island Def Jam Music Group – 063 391-2]

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Bon Jovi - Bounce (2002)

Title: Bon Jovi – Bounce (2002)
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Given that Bon Jovi successfully pulled off a comeback in 2000 with Crush, a shiny pop album pitched directly at the mainstream, it’s kind of a surprise that they returned two years later with a record as turgid as Bounce. Instead of continuing the colorful blueprint of Crush, they fearlessly backpedal, turning out dull, heavy, serious rock — the kind of music that sounds “serious” even when it’s about trivial things. Of course, much of the record is given over to “serious” topics, as if the band felt that the events of 2001 necessitated a grave response for Bounce, regardless of what they were singing. Such sobriety would not have been a problem if the band had solid material, but they’re not only lacking songs, they’ve inexplicably altered their musical approach. In particular, guitarist Richie Sambora sounds as if he’s aping James Hetfield’s lumbering downstrokes throughout the album, giving the record an oppressively heavy sound that never lets the music breathe. This casts a pall over the record, but this stumble is not the sole reason Bounce is such a misstep for the band. After all, this is a record where Bon Jovi seems to have consciously decided to avoid everything that gives their music character, melody, and muscle, a move that would have been odd at any point during their career, but is particularly puzzling after they delivered an album that found them growing old gracefully. It’s as if they want to undo everything Crush did for them.

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