Jazz |
You can read on the Mack Avenue website: “In 1987, jazz immortal Oscar Peterson led his quartet – featuring Joe Pass, Dave Young, and Martin Drew – through the final engagement of their 14-concert European fall tour at Helsinki’s famed Kulttuuritalo. “A Time for Love” captures Peterson’s focus on performing original compositions on the bandstand alongside timeless classics at the pinnacle of the group’s creative stride.”
And what Mack Avenue doesn’t mention, we will reveal to you, namely that Mack Avenue holds certain original tapes of artists such as Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner, and it’s a true delight for Jazz enthusiasts because Mack Avenue has mastered these recordings to offer us an absolutely sublime version, which also adds a new dimension to the LP, as these recordings, originally analog, are presented here in a truly unique audio quality on LP. Having the CD version as well, the sound is much better on the LP in this case. Before discussing this album, I refer you to another article I wrote in 2022 about “On a Clear Day: The Oscar Peterson Trio – Live in Zurich, 1971,” which you can find here and you can buy this LP here.
If the album “A Time For Love” had been released in 1987, the sound probably wouldn’t have been as good. Here, with the mastering done by Mack Avenue, the album sounds remarkably well, and the decision to present it on three LPs is a brilliant idea because each LP in this album has a distinct character. The first album precisely sets the tone for the other two, and experiencing Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Dave Young, and Martin Drew as if you were there is a true delight. It’s truly on the F side of the third LP that you can feel Oscar Peterson being carried by the audience, pushing his interpretation to the extreme and taking along with him the other accompanying musicians. If you purchase this three-album set, take the time to thoroughly listen to the first two albums – they are truly sublime. The third album in this set, the E side, is different, and the F side exudes an incredibly joyful and liberating feeling. In fact, the enthusiastic applause from the audience immediately after the first track on the F side, “Waltz For Debby,” is a testament to that.
The Mack Avenue label clearly has a great sense of aesthetics, which is particularly evident in these older recordings and the way they have been treated, even in recent recordings that they make available on LP. The treatment given to these recordings is as close to perfection as one can achieve, which means that on an album like “A Time for Love,” the documentary aspect that enriches the history of jazz and these impressive musicians is perfectly preserved, both for us and for future generations who can theorize as much as they want about these extraordinary musicians and composers.
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, August 19th 2023
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