ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

their church services. For them, and as
it turned out for the modern classical
music public, he somehow found the
time to compose almost three hundred
cantatas, of which about two hundred
survive, enough for every Sunday and
saint day for five years without a repetition.
To the congregations of Bach’s era
it was part of a typical Sunday service,
but to the world’s classical music community,
the cantatas enjoy a more
special status. Says Milton Cross, the
esteemed classical music historian and
critic, “perhaps no greater service has
been performed by recorded music than
the release on discs of Bach’s church
cantatas.”
While other recordings of this material
have often used full choirs, Atma
employs single soloists accompanied by
single, dual, and small group instrumentation.
Though we cannot know for
certain, it seems likely that this soloist
approach could have been the one that
Bach himself had in mind when he composed
these spiritually-inspired works.
Each one flows with variety. In between
the opening and closing chorales are
duos, trios and other combinations of
voice and instrument. Some parts are
short and melancholic, others are longer
and cheerful. Now a male alto gives a
solo alone, then a bass, with organ support,
sings a superb melody mirrored
by the accompanying instrumentation.
What I particularly like is the way the
texture and range of the instruments
match the voices they accompany. Deep
organ tones support the bass soloist
while the cello echoes the tenor’s part.
Violins, flute and recorder often sound
just like the soprano and alto voices
singing with them. My only reservation
is for the continuous vibrato employed
by the male voices in particular. It gets
to be a little too much at times.
Each cantata in the Atma series differs
in mood from the one that follows,
and the quality of sound reproduction
is uniformly high. Voices and instruments
are presented all the way around
the sound stage, with the soloists placed
forward and the instruments sometimes
behind, sometimes beside them. Seldom
if ever does a voice seem to emerge
directly from a speaker. Instead, thanks
to proper stereo effect, the voices and
instruments are separated from the
speakers, not bunched in an irritating
group to each side of the stage.
If Johann Sebastian Bach were alive
today he would surely be impressed
by the reproduction quality offered by
SACD technology. Thanks to it, each
disc in this series reproduces the exceptional
tonal color and subtle dynamics of
the music. Any one or all four deserve to
be in the collection of a classical music
sophisticate.
Aside from the disc shown, La
Nativité, with its Christmas theme, the
other discs are titled Marie De Nazareth,
Saint Michel, and Saint Jean Baptiste.
Open Sesame
Freddie Hubbard
Blue Note ST-84040
Steve Bourke: Your brother-in-law has
never understood why you listen to jazz,
though perhaps he is willing to give it
a try himself. So you search through
your CD collection looking for a great
example that is easy to like, not too
far out in the stratosphere, but not too
predictable either, stimulating, original
music that will draw him toward a new
musical world, something unlike all the
other types of music he has heard before.
It also has to hold your experienced attention
as well. It must be a recording with
real universal appeal.
Freddie Hubbard has the solution
for both of you. It is aptly named Open
Sesame, suggesting that here is another
place filled with musical wonders.
Why choose this as an introduction
to jazz music for a novice listener? The
young Freddie Hubbard’s jazz is easy
listening. Easier than early Miles, and
easier than even Satchmo as the young
prodigy. He forms the primary parts
of each song into musical hooks that
resemble the hooks found in a hit pop
record. Hubbard can actually make a
jazz phrase into a memorable jazz hook.
He accomplishes this by playing his
instrument with supreme confidence and
power. His notes seem to be played more
slowly than they really are, because each
is emphasized so precisely. His strings
of notes do not trail off into a vague blur,
as with some other jazz artists often do.
His trumpet tone is always clear, his
attack ever confident. Balanced and
proportioned evenly, his phrasing never
sounds choppy or rashly conceived. Easy
listening indeed.
Open Sesame also showcases a rivalry
that has continued since Coleman
Hawkins brought the saxophone into
competition with the trumpet more than
75 jazz years ago. Every jazz fan has his
favorite artists on these instruments,
and of course great improvisations have
been performed on each one. Open
Sesame contains both in an unusual form.
For the trumpet it announced the true
arrival of one of hard-bop’s finest sons,
Freddie Hubbard.
Across the room is Tina Brooks, who
recorded with such important jazzmen
as Jimmy Smith, and Jackie McLean on
Blue Note, then somehow never made
another record after 1961. Freddie Hubbard
is quoted: “He wrote and played
beautifully. What a soulful, inspiring
cat. I loved him.”
Was Hubbard able to produce this
high end jazz for the rest of his career?
Like Miles and Satchmo and Harry
James, his lip became damaged over
time, which severely limited his attack,
speed and articulation. Hubbard recalls:
“I heard stories about Louis (Armstrong).
The crowd would be cheering
and hollering, so he would overexert
himself. Instead of playing two choruses,
he’d play four or five or ten. The same
thing happened to me. You get caught
up in the moment; you want to play with
the same intensity as the drummer, so
you play too loud and too long. But lips
are very delicate, I’ve learned — there
are a lot of different muscles in there. I
didn’t realize how hard I was blowing. I
thought I was the strongest trumpeter
in the world.”
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 71
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