Tina Brooks True Blue on XRCD

Mastered to XRCD from Rudy Van Gelder's Original Two-Track Analog Master Tapes! 

One of the Best-Sounding Digital Releases You Will Ever Hear! 

1960 Set is Brooks' Definitive Moment: Inventive, Soulful, Bluesy, Harmonic! 

Tina Brooks' star burned with intense brightness before disappearing in the same tragic manner of too many other bop players of the time. Many fans initially missed Tina Brooks' recordings, the best of which were extraordinary by any measure. A soulful hard-bop tenor saxophonist with a sound of his own, Brooks (1932-1974) had a brief life and didn't even record during the final dozen years of his time on earth due to addictions. Hence, his better-known recordings as a leader and sideman took place during the four-year period ranging from 1958-1961.

Largely unsung during his time, Brooks is now rightly considered a true giant. His passionate sound and minor-key signatures, along with his exceptional compositional gifts, improvisational vision, harmonic grace, and bluesy tones made him a tour de force. Loaded with all of the aforementioned characteristics, True Blue, containing Brooks' finest moments on record, has become one of the most sought-after Blue Note discs. Recorded in June 1960, True Blue showcases Brooks along with the young firebrand trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Duke Jordan, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Art Taylor performing a set of highly inventive originals. For many aficionados of the Blue Note label, True Blue remains the very essence of the Blue Note sound and feel. And how.

In handling one of jazz's all-time best-sounding recordings, Rudy Van Gelder's original Blue Note two-track analog tapes were meticulously mastered to XRCD by engineer Alan Yoshida and producer Joe Harley. This XRCD comes with deluxe hardbound book-style packaging with original liner notes and high resolution B&W session photos. The package alone is worth the investment. This edition of True Blue represents the highest-quality analog to digital transfers from tape to CD available, and is among the finest digital releases you will ever hear.

"...thanks to the XRCD process and the care that was taken transferring these albums directly from the original analog masters, these CDs have to be approaching the limit of what the compact disc is capable of resolving. Instrument timbre is stunningly real, and the amount of air and decay present on these recordings will make the uninitiated swear that there is a record playing on a turntable somewhere. I’ve never heard this music sound this good in any digital format."
-Jeff Dorgay, TONE Audio, Issue 26

“At $30 a pop, these XRCDs are expensive, although not as pricey as the same $50 vinyl sets! And while they may not equal the breathtaking sonics of the vinyl discs, they come very close. So close, in fact, that during one of my listening sessions I was prepared to get up and flip the LP to Side 2 – except I wasn’t listening to an LP but to an Alan Yoshida-mastered XRCD!”
- Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, June/July 2010
 
“JVC has examined the each step in XRCD CD mastering and manufacturing processes and designed specific equipment to improve those processes. Every combination of equipment, connections, AC power regulation, clocking, mastering format, and compact disc construction was evaluated technically and by listening tests.”
- Robert Harley, The Absolute Sound, June/July 2010

Tina Brooks True Blue Track Listing:

1. Good Old Soul
2. Up Tight's Creek
3. Theme For Doris
4. True Blue
5. Miss Hazel
6. Nothing Ever Changes My Love For You