The Paul Sawtelle Big Band Live at Pacific Audio Fest One-Step 180g 45rpm 2LP

2025 Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Award Winner!

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the December 2025 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Serendipity and the love of big band music led to the creation of this album.

When Lou Hinkley reached out to Gary Koh about organizing the Pacific Audio Fest in the Seattle area, Gary offered to sponsor a big band through Genesis — if they had a suitable venue. They did, and Gary asked Paul Sawtelle to bring his Big Band.

The joy of the band getting back together after the enforced break of the COVID pandemic was palpable in their performance. The performances at the Pacific Audio Fest 2022 and 2023 were universally acclaimed by the audiences of audiophiles. Led by the Spelleman and Academia Award-winning saxophonist Paul Sawtelle, the Big Band knocked it out of the park that Friday night in 2022. So they invited Paul back to do it all over again in 2023.

The enthusiastic audience channeled that joy right back at the musicians and energized them to greater heights, and it was all captured direct-to-tape on a Nagra IV-S with a pair vintage Neumann TLM50 microphones on SM900 at 15ips. The recording was so good, they decided it had to be shared. They commissioned Bernie Grundman to master the recording, and cut lacquers direct from the 2-track tape. Then, they worked with Fidelity Record Pressing and Paramount Plating for the production. The ultra-premium Old Style Tip-On jacket with included 36-page book was printed by Stoughton Printing.

The Paul Sawtelle Big Band Live at the Pacific Audiofest brings you one step closer to the performance than even a Direct-to-Disc album.

With Direct-to-Disc, there are four intermediate steps between you and the Musicians: Lacquer → Father → Mother → Stamper → Album

With a Direct-to-Tape One-Step pressing, you get one step closer to the Musicians: Tape → Lacquer → Convert → Album

As a One-Step, this album will be limited to 3,000 copies with no re-press or re-issue possible and available as a 45-RPM 180-gram 2-LP set.

Now, Hyper Analogue Production, Brilliance Music and Genesis Advanced Technologies bring the performance to you for your listening pleasure and as a musical reference standard.

"I was there for this concert and observed Gary Koh and pals recording the performance, and they looked like they were having a ball. This is one of those albums that will go down in audiophile history.

The Paul Sawtelle Big Band's Live at Pacific Audiofest is sonically unique. You get an explicit reproduction of the space and the activity, the crowd noises, and all the verbal communications and physical adjustments between the takes, and that adds to the casual sense of fun in the room. Bethany Wilson's voice, for example, is so present and pure since it hasn't been overly processed into something it isn't. She's standing right there, between the band and the crowd, a human being with an utterly lovely voice. It's almost like meeting a singer in person and asking them to belt out a line from a song right then, right there. It's gloriously naked and honest and real, and you'll start wishing that all of your favorite music sounded this unfettered with technology.

Sonically, the album feels very energetic and has a good feel for the recording venue and instrument locations. Dynamics are well represented, and one feels the power and essence of this live big band performance.

You're going to absolutely love the big band musical pieces chosen for inclusion on this album! Plus the tracks provide a good test of your audio system, too. The LPs come in topflight packaging, and I especially appreciated the short historical and musical synopsis of each song in the accompanying booklet. Live at Pacific Audiofest is a no brainer to add to your record collection.