About Earl Meets Harry (Pure Pleasure) by Harry Sweets Edison & Earl Hines:
Leave it to European labels like Black & Blue to come up with inspired pairings of musicians who American labels never seem to get around to considering. This 1978 meeting between pianist Earl Hines and trumpeter Harry 'Sweets' Edison is a match of masters, covering tunes they had likely performed hundreds of times in their respective careers. Everything seems to gel in the opening track, a strident take of "I Cover the Waterfront," with plenty of trills by Hines in support of Edison's brilliant open horn. Edison adds a mute for an exquisite, deliberate take of "Just Squeeze Me" and a sauntering "But Not for Me." Hines' dancing tenths come to the forefront in their romp through "Just You, Just Me”.
There is nothing like two veterans at the top of their game joining forces for a record date.
Musicians:
- Harry “Sweets” Edison (trumpet)
- Earl Hines (piano)
Recording: April 1978 at Studio Sinus , Berne (Switzerland), by Peter J. Mac Taggart
Production: Johnnie’s/Alberto Tognetti
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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