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It is our understanding that all titles made by Groove Note Records are no longer produced and therefore, out of print. Get these titles quickly before they increase in price or are no longer available.
Bill Cunliffe, a leading West Coast pianist and ex-Sinatra, Buddy Rich and Natalie Cole sideman, leads his long time trio (with Darek Oles, bass, and Joe LaBarbera, drums) in a brilliant and exciting set of standards. The session was also recorded Direct to Disc on LP at Bernie Grundman's studio and was available in that limited edition format.
TAS Recommended! Rated a 'Best Audiophile Label Recording' in the November 2009 issue of The Absolute Sound!
Bill Cunliffe has several albums to his credit. His background includes stints in the Buddy Rich Band and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and he has recorded for several labels including Concord Jazz, Naxos and Discovery. Cunliffe has also toured with Frank Sinatra (twice) and with Natalie Cole. This Groove Note album features Bill's current working trio, a unit that plays together regularly in the Los Angeles area. The program will consist mostly of jazz standards with several ballads.
"Bill Cunliffe is one of the great players of the day."- the BBC Review
"A world class artist with a distinct voice of his own."- Los Angeles Times
This was the first album to be recorded at Bernie Grundman’s Mastering Studio in LA – where all sorts of audiophile and other recordings have been mastered. It was recorded both on analog tape for release on vinyl, and using Sony’s DSD process for both stereo hybrid SACD and standard CD releases. When this session was recorded in 2001 Cunliffe had been performing with his other two trio members for over a decade, so this album documented where he was at musically.
In the past Cunliffe studied jazz piano with Mary Lou Williams, played with Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, Ray Brown, Joe Henderson and a host of others, as well as writing scores for TV and films, doing educational projects and creating big band charts. He has written works for and performed with several symphony orchestras. He’s also heavily into Brazilian jazz and recorded one CD in that country – Bill in Brazil.
Cunliffe’s classical background (Eastman School of Music) comes out in two of the ten tracks: an original which honors British composer John Ireland (titled merely Ireland), and a surprising performance of one of the four Excursions by Samuel Barber – not a composer whose themes frequently show up in the jazz world. In addition to the four originals by himself, Cunliffe has selected one by his bassist, one by Bill Evans, one by Ellington and closes with John Lennon’s Imagine.
The piano sound is rich and crystalline, the drums urge the music along but never sound overly strong, and the very melodic bass lines put down by Darek O. are a real pleasure to hear.
Thousands of albums of all types have been mastered at Bernie Grundman's studios in Hollywood. But pianist Bill Cunliffe's Live At Bernie's is the first to actually be recorded there. Bernie Grundman Mastering, long a shrine to sound engineering, was transformed for this occasion. The waiting room was converted into a studio. A nine foot Hamburg Steinway, signed by the magnificent Sergei Rachmaninoff interpreter Ruth Laredo among others, was brought in for Cunliffe to play.
Out of print and a rare audiophile Hybrid SACD title, a FACTORY SEALED Hybrid SACD PRESSED and ISSUED by GROOVE NOTE of a highly collectible title from their CD catalog, featuring -
The Bill Cunliffe Trio
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Performers -
The Hybrid SACD is from the rare GROOVE NOTE series of audiophile titles (all out of print).
The SACD, JEWEL CASE and INSERTS are all assumed to be in MINT overall condition as this item is actually FACTORY SEALED!
This CD is an audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds, direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).