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This direct-to-disc release, recorded in the church sanctuary of Blue Heaven
Studios, is so fresh and pure... Talk about up to audiophile standards! The
immediacy, the dynamics - slam and delicacy alike - are just so startlingly
real. There's nothing lost. It's positively lifelike.
Cutting engineer Kevin Gray, using Blue Heaven's Neumann VMS 70 lathe with an
Ortofon cutter head and amplifiers, and recording engineer Katsu Naito have made
available for your playback the closest thing possible to a live, in-person
performance. With direct-to-disc recording, the signal from the microphone is
transmitted directly to the cutter head, which then cuts the grooves into a raw
lacquer. There's no middleman. No tape. No tape hiss. No distortion or other
artifacts inherent in any other type of recording.
And the music? It's killer! The session was recorded the weekend of the 12th
annual Blues Masters at the Crossroads in October 2009.
Singer Howard Tate cracked the R&B Top 20 three times in the late 1960s, left
music and endured hardship and anonymity for nearly 30 years and beginning in
the early 2000s returned to his rightful place as one of America's most revered
soul performers.
In the mid-'60s, Garnet Mimms urged producer Jerry Ragovoy to check out Tate,
and from 1966 to 1969 Tate and Ragovoy recorded about 10 singles, the first for
the Utopia label, the rest for Verve. "Ain't Nobody Home" (1966), "Look At
Granny Run Run" (1966) and "Stop" (1967), all written or co-written by Ragovoy,
each charted R&B Top 20. But to rock audiences, Tate was best known as the
original performer of "Get It While You Can," which became one of Janis Joplin's
signature tunes. Tate's debut album, Get It While You Can, was released in 1966
to tremendous acclaim. Rolling Stone called the album "a spectacular showcase of
suave, muscular good-powered singing, heavily influenced by Sam Cooke, with a
joyous, shrieking falsetto that became Tate's trademark."
Music luminaries have recognized and celebrated Tate's trademark voice
throughout the years, with Elvis Costello calling him "the missing link between
Jackie Wilson and Al Green." Among the well-known musicians that have covered
songs originally recorded by Tate are Joplin ("Get It While You Can"), Jimi
Hendrix ("Stop"), Hugh Masekela ("Stop"), B.B. King ("Ain't Nobody Home"), Ry
Cooder ("Look At Granny Run Run") and Grand Funk Railroad ("Look At Granny Run
Run").
"Chad Kassem’s efforts have resulted in a delicious live session... Tate reaches down to the soles of his shoes to deliver exquisite takes of two trademark songs from his classic Verve LP, ‘Look At Granny Run Run’ and ‘Ain’t Nobody Home’, plus four others. The backing band is note-perfect for the session, the sound bordering on the cavernous. Best of all, over 40 years after his debut, the voice is intact." - Ken Kessler, Hi-Fi News, Sound Quality Rating: 95%
Features:
• Direct To Disc (D2D)
• 180g Vinyl
Selections:
1. Look At Granny Run Run
2. Sweet Sixteen
3. Louisiana 1927
4. I'll Be Home
5. Dear Lord
6. Ain't Nobody Home
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