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Hugh Masekela Hope 2LP 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl Kevin Gray Analogue Productions QRP 2018 USA

Title: Hope
Catalog Number: APJ 117
Label: Triloka
Reissued by: Analogue Productions
Barcode: 753088000614
Original release year: 1994
Reissue year: 2018
Number of discs: 2
Revolutions per minute: 33⅓ rpm
Disc size: 12"
Vinyl Weight Grade: 180gr
Limited Edition: Yes
Total Item Weight: 693gr
Pressing country: USA
For Market Release in: USA
Added to catalog on: February 25, 2018
Vinyl Gourmet Audiophile TOP 100: Yes
Note: Never eligible for any further discounts
Vinyl Gourmet Club: No
Dramatic live musical performance and one of the most dynamic recordings ever made will take you and your audio system to the limit. Long time established audiophile demo track Stimela (The Coal Train) is pure emotional energy and dynamic punch rarely captured on tape. Full recordings cut from the Original Master Tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and now pressed at QRP on 180g virgin vinyl.
Featured in Vinyl Gourmet Audiophile TOP 100
- Limited Edition
- Double LP on 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl
- Pressed at Quality Record Pressings, QRP USA
- Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
- Cut from the Original Analog Master Tapes
- Deluxe Gatefold Cover by Stoughton Printing
- Insert with David Hewitt notes (original recording engineer)
- Full 12 Track performance for the first time on vinyl!
The Analogue Productions reissue of Hugh Masekela's masterpiece Hope, now available on 33 1/3 double LP. Mastering from Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio; 180-gram silent heavyweight vinyl plated and pressed by Quality Record Pressings. Stoughton Printing tip-on old-style heavyweight gatefold jacket. The ultimate edition of the complete performance.
A longtime audiophile demonstration disc. Hope will show off your system's dynamic range as well as any record ever released. Hugh Masekela, the outstanding South African trumpeter, assembled a seven-piece group and recorded this great set live at Washington, D.C.'s Blues Alley. The songs stretch over a period of nearly five decades and serve as an informal guided tour of Masekela's life. The songs are honest and bare, and as for the sound — WOW!
Unlike a prior 45 RPM version that included seven songs, this 33 1/3 reissue contains the full program as originally recorded with all 12 tracks included! Plus, as an added bonus, we've included a special insert — featuring an exclusive interview with Grammy/Emmy Award-winning engineer David Hewitt, who recorded Hope originally.
"Hugh's record is right up near the top for a lot of reasons," Hewitt says. Hewitt and his team were afforded the time they needed, and they pulled out all the stops to pull off what's now recognized as an all-time great recording. They used better-quality microphones, they were micing the room for ambient sound, and Masekela was performing for a sophisticated and appreciative audience.
"We used stuff from our stash of mics as opposed to what you'd find typically at a jazz club. We actually had control via the record label and producers, so we could take our time. We had the ability to mic the room for abient sound. ... you've got people that actually know and appreciate the music and respond accordingly. What you've got there is all the right stuff at the right time and the right people, and then something magical happens."
Listen to that magic unfold — put on this Analogue Productions reissue of Hope, and be transported.
"Hope is one of those intensely visceral, large as life, and immediately present recordings that will make pretty much any system sound at least very good, and will cause better ones to raise goose bumps. Horns are brilliant, rich and brassy-bright; drums have the kind of punch-to-the-gut power they have up-close, the soundstage is huge." – Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound
"A stunning demo disc to test or show off any stereo system." – Playback
"Here's another masterpiece from Chad Kassem and Kevin Gray… you would swear that you are listening to a master tape in your living room… this one is great for showing off what your stereo system can do." – Jeff Dorgay, Tone Audio
"Believe me, this double LP makes the CD sound like digital dog crap. It you thought the CD version sounded good, you ain't heard nuttin' yet." - Michael Fremer, Analog Planet
A longtime audiophile demonstration disc. Hope will show off your system's dynamic range as well as any record ever released. Hugh Masekela, the outstanding South African trumpeter, assembled a seven-piece group and recorded this great set live at Washington, D.C.'s Blues Alley. The songs stretch over a period of nearly five decades and serve as an informal guided tour of Masekela's life. The songs are honest and bare, and as for the sound – WOW!
Hugh Masekela is a world-renowned South African flugelhornist, trumpeter, bandleader, composer, singer and defiant political voice. Masekela began to hone his, now signature, Afro-Jazz sound in the late 1950s during a period of intense creative collaboration, most notably performing in the 1959 musical King Kong, written by Todd Matshikiza, and, soon thereafter, as a member of the now legendary South African group, the Jazz Epistles (featuring the classic line up of Kippie Moeketsi, Abdullah Ibrahim and Jonas Gwangwa).
In 1960, at the age of 21 he left South Africa to begin what would be 30 years in exile from the land of his birth. On arrival in New York he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music. This coincided with a golden era of jazz music and the young Masekela immersed himself in the New York jazz scene where nightly he watched greats like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Mingus and Max Roach. Under the tutelage of Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, Hugh was encouraged to develop his own unique style, feeding off African rather than American influences.
In the late 1960s Hugh moved to Los Angeles in the heat of the ‘Summer of Love’, where he was befriended by hippie icons like David Crosby, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. In 1967 Hugh performed at the Monterey Pop Festival alongside Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. In 1968, his instrumental single "Grazin’ in the Grass" went to Number One on the American pop charts and was a worldwide smash, elevating Hugh onto the international stage.
His subsequent solo career has spanned 5 decades, during which time he has released over 40 albums (featured on countless more) and has worked with such diverse artists as Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie, The Byrds, Fela Kuti, Marvin Gaye, Herb Alpert, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and the late Miriam Makeba. In 1990 Hugh returned home, following the unbanning of the ANC and the release of Nelson Mandela – an event anticipated in Hugh’s anti-apartheid anthem "Bring Home Nelson Mandela" (1986) which had been a rallying cry around the world.
Track Listing:
01. The Abangoma (The Healers)
02. Uptownship
03. Mandela (Bring Him Back Home)
04. Grazing in the Grass
05. Lady
06. Until When
07. Languta
08. Nomali
09. Market Place
10. Ntyilo Ntyilo (The Love Bird)
11. He le Se (The Dowry Song)
12. Stimela [Coal Train]
Click here to listen to samples on YouTube.com ♫
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