Description
Released in stereo for the first time!
Mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab
Mixed live for stereo from a 4-track unmixed master original tape!
Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
Anyone who ever heard Count Basie launch his band into a blues with several choruses of effortless piano has lamented that there is far too little of Basie the soloist among his recorded legacy. This shortage was rectified to a certain extent by the trio albums Basie made with Ray Brown and Louis Bellson in the Seventies, of which this is the sequel to the For the First Time set of the previous year.
Once again, Basie's poetic introductions, precise calibrations of touch and coloration, and definitive swing create a joyous program of four venerable standards and an equal number of new blues. Bellson is empathetic throughout and dances with his brushes on "Sandman," while Brown's robust tone and earth-moving walking lines bring out the best in Basie the soloist and accompanist.
When the original master tape arrived at The Mastering Lab in Salina, Kansas for disc cutting, engineer Matthew Lutthans discovered the tape was in mono. The record had only been released in mono, but after a bit of "crate digging" of the master tape kind, a 4-track unmixed master was located and sent to Salina, where Lutthans "live mixed" the three tracks and cut the lacquers.