About Atmosphere For Lovers and Thieves (Pure Pleasure) by Ben Webster:
Ben Webster is still a whale of a tenor player, his approach for the ballads being as poignant and lyrical as ever. On such romantic tunes as "My Romance" and "What's New" that breathy tone and broad-beamed phrasing are well in evidence, whilst the underlying humour and swing are more to the fore in the more muscular "Easy To Love". "Autumn Leaves" is great Webster. The tempo is exactly right and Ben is in the groove from the start. The pianist is a long way away from Ben's beloved stride men, but he swings gently and forms nice background patterns for the tenor player's improvisations. The bass has been somewhat heavily recorded, but his drive is admirable nevertheless.
"Stardust", a lovely tune but sometime a drag for jazz improvisation, shows that Ben is a real master of flowing, keenly phrased ballad construction. "Yesterdays" is played so close to the microphone that momentarily I suspected a gas leak. But Ben always has that aerated vibrato well under control, and never overdoes what has throughout the years become something of a mannerism in his playing.
Musicians:
- Ben Webster (tenor saxophone)
- Ole Kongsted (tenor saxophone)
- Arnved Meyer (trumpet)
- John Darville (trombone)
- Kenny Drew (piano)
- Niels Jorgen Stein (piano)
- Niels-Henning Ørsted Pederson (bass)
- Hugo Rasmussen (bass))
- Alex Riel (drums)
- Hans Nymand (drums)
About Pure Pleasure
At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.
During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.
A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.
We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle.
We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.
To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.
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