Count Basie & His Orchestra 88 Basie Street (Pablo Series) 180g LP

Analog Planet Rated 10/10 Music, 10/10 Sound!

This item not eligible for any further discount offers!

One of the pieces on this album is called "The Blues Machine," which could stand as a description of the big band Count Basie operated for half a century. In the 1983 edition, Basie molded the talents of a mixture of veterans and relative youngsters to produce the immediately identifiable Basie sound and spirit.

Sam Nestico's arrangements, so vital to the band in Basie's final years, are featured on four tracks. On the remaining two, Basie heads up a small unit with saxophonists Chris Woods and Kenny King, the rapidly developing young trumpeter Bob Summers, and guitar wizard Joe Pass.

Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tape, and pressed at Quality Record Pressings for optimal sound quality, this Analogue Productions 180-gram reissue is everything jazz fans expect from an audiophile reissue. Housed in a single pocket Stoughton Printing tip-on jacket.

Now, I don't pretend to be a Basie expert per se, but I was kind of blown away from the opening notes of this album — recorded about a year before his passing in 1984 — as the band launches into arranger/conductor Sammy Nestico's 'Bluesville' (Side 1, Track 1). Those introductory moments feature some of the purist piano sounds I've heard coming off a vinyl record, with an absolutely beautiful sense of the instrument and room, off of a dead-quiet noise floor. This new edition was mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, and it shows. Recorded at Oceanway Studios in Hollywood the sound on 88 Basie Street is nothing short of outstanding. Demo-disc worthy? You bet!