Criada pela Verve e Universal Music para oferecer edições audiófilas de algumas das melhores gravações de jazz de sempre, a nova Acoustic Sounds Series é supervisionada por Chad Kassem, utilizando engenheiros de masterização de topo e o engenho da Quality Record Pressings, os títulos são masterizados a partir das fitas analógicas originais, prensados em vinil 180g com capas da Stoughton Printing.

• Acoustic Sounds Series
• Masterizado a partir das Fitas Master Analógicas Originais
• Corte por Ryan K. Smith na Sterling Sound
• LP Vinil 180 Gramas Audiófilo
• Prensagem na Quality Record Pressings, QRP USA
• Capa Gatefold Deluxe da Stoughton Printing

"Sarah Vaughan is among the newest, and most highly anticipated, releases in the 'Acoustic Sounds Series' of releases, a joint effort by what Universal Music Group calls its Verve Label Group, consisting of Verve, Mercury, EmArcy, Philips, Impulse! and Decca. The series is curated by Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sounds and pressed by Quality Record Pressings Company, while UNG maintains control of ownership and distribution.

The new year saw the simultaneous release of this title along with Clifford Brown's A Study In Brown, Peggy Lee's Black Coffee and George Russell's New York, N.Y. Of this tranche of new releases, it is the Sarah Vaughan title that gets the pulse rate elevated. Arguably Vaughan's best record, originals are almost impossible to find in collectable condition.

"Sarah Vaughan sits among that triumvirate of jazz's greatest singers, along with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Yet Vaughan's gifts are quite distinct from those of the other two. It is hard to imagine even the most casual jazz lover mistaking Ella or Billie for anyone else. Ella's tone and diction are unmistakable, but her sense of swing was unique. Billie's tempo and tone, not to mention her dark, turbulent emotional content were worlds away and yet what joined them was their gift for improvisational genius. Sarah's greatest gift, on the other hand was her amazing instrument. Her deep vibrato, her operatic ability to turn on a dime or slide through a phrase was more like a horn in some ways than the more limited human voice. She could not come close to Billie's ability to emote nor did she share Ella's engagement with swing but neither of them (or virtually anyone else) could touch her three-octave range and exquisite control. She was a virtuoso like no other jazz singer with breath control to spare, and an exceptional ability to intimately collaborate with the musicians playing at her side.

"These gifts were never on better display than in this 1954 album. Like many artists, she objected to being pigeonholed as a 'jazz' singer, and during many phases of her career recorded mostly commercial pop tunes as well as light classical fare with symphony orchestras. But this early recording catches her at a peak and with the best group of her career. It was her only session with trumpet legend Clifford Brown. Paul Quinichette played tenor saxophone, with Roy Haynes on drums, Joe Benjamin on bass, Jimmy Mones on piano and Herbie Mann on flute. The band plays a set of nine standards, among them 'April In Paris', 'Lullaby Of Birdland' and It's Crazy.' Vaughan leaves plenty of room for instrumental solos, and those of Brown and Quinichette are particularly breathtaking. The album is filled with highlights, but if you want to really hear what is magical about Vaughan's voice, nothing matches her rendition of 'Embraceable You', where the winds sit out and it is just Sarah and the rhythm section. Sarah's soaring voice and gentle vibrato never sounded sexier. EmArcy Records was formed as a subsidiary of Mercury Records to compete with Verve (home base for Ella and Billie) and to achieve parity signed up Dinah Washington, Cannonball Adderley, Max Roach, Clifford Brown and Vaughan.

"The Verve CD, by comparison, stacks the musicians front to back, boosts the bass artificially and sounds. The Kevin Gray mastering and the pressing from Quality Record Pressings, however, is perfect. The packaging is better by far than an original, with the deluxe Stoughton foldout cover offering bonus Hermann Leonard photographs. This is everything a vinyl reissue should be." Recording = 9/10; Music = 10/10 — Dennis D. Davis, Hi-Fi +, Issue 194

"Each step in our production process — from title selection to mastering, pressing and packaging — is designed to meet the highest standards, and we want everyone who hears these albums to feel the love and hard work we put into everything we do," says Chad Kassem CEO of Acoustic Sounds.

Músicos:

Sarah Vaughan, voz
Clifford Brown, trompete
Paul Quinichette, tenor saxofone
Herbie Mann, flauta
Jimmy Jones / John Malachi, piano
Joe Benjamin, baixo
Roy Haynes, bateria

Lista de Faixas:

01. Lullaby of Birdland
02. April in Paris
03. He's My Guy
04. Jim
05. You're Not The Kind
06. Embraceable You
07. I'm Glad There Is You
08. September Song
09. It's Crazy

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