The Oscar Peterson Trio We Get Requests Hybrid Stereo SACD

Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the Absolute Original Analog Master Tapes!
George Marino says the Verve masters are in excellent condition, with just one exception.
On this album from 1964, the Oscar Peterson Trio plays exactly those hits that have been demanded of them again and again at club concerts in recent years. At the time of the recording, the trio had already been playing together for five years and understood each other almost telepathically. In hi-fi circles, the album has a high status and especially the bowed bass on "You Look Good to Me" was considered the measure of the correct adjustment of a pickup for decades.
"The one problem we had was an Oscar Peterson one – We Get Requests," he says. "We played through it and there was a lot of weirdness going on, and the tape was really deteriorating. But what happened was they got the original three-track on that, and the three-track was great. So it all worked out in the end. That was the one tape that gave us a headache."
So imagine that. We Get Requests, of course, is a timeless audiophile classic. But the stereo master was shot. Given that we know the three-track hadn't been used before, this means that all those great reissues of this record to date? They were made from copies of the master. Now we get to hear the original three-track master!
"And it's the best sounding of all of them," Marino says. "Excellent sounding record."
Those reissues you've heard up until now – definitely still breathy, warm and rich – were made from something less than the master. Prepare to hear the veil removed.
This 1964 studio session features the Peterson trio with bassist Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, a group that had been together for five years by then and performed like a well-oiled machine. The repertoire is mostly pop songs of the day, including bossa nova tunes and film themes, and the treatments are fairly brief, with emphasis placed squarely on the melodies. Even in their lightest moments, though, the group demonstrates some of the qualities that made it among the most influential piano trios in jazz, a group that could generate tremendous rhythmic energy and a sense of developing musical detail. For all his legendary force, Peterson possesses a subtle rhythmic sense, and here he infuses even "People" with an undercurrent of swing.
For the mastering of this hybrid SACD, the three-channel master of the recording was used. There is both a stereo and a three-channel track on the SACD data layer. The Analogue Productions re-issue plays very freely and airily and a bit more restrained compared to the FIM K2HD of this title. An excellent choice for owners of a SACD player. If you can only listen to the CD track, you will find more dash and tackke in the FIM version, but also a tad less naturalness. Owners of a surround system should listen to the original mix as a three-channel stereo.
This recording is part of a series of 25 Verve Re-Issues at Analogue Productions. The original analog tapes are reworked at Sterling Sound in New York by Senior Mastering Engineer George Marino. Many of the tapes had only been sent to other labels as copies for decades, but Sterling Sound works so closely with Universal Music as the owner company of the Verve label that they occasionally make an exception here. The hybrid SACDs sound excellent and clearly outshine early digitizations.

Features:

• Super Audio CD
• SACD Stereo SACD Layer
• This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!
• Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound!
• Cut from the Absolute Original Analog Master Tapes!
• Original Verve Label Recording

Musicians:

• Oscar Peterson, piano
• Ray Brown, bass
• Ed Thigpen, drums

Selections:

1. Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)
2. The Days of Wine and Roses
3. My One and Only Love
4. People
5. Have You Met Miss Jones?
6. You Look Good To Me
7. The Girl From Ipanema
8. D.&E.
9. Time And Again
10. Goodbye J.D.