Dave Brubeck Quartet - Best Of All Time

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Best Of All Time

from US Mono Vinyl

This compilation complements Q’s excellent “Complete Time Series” collection by bringing together onto one CD arguably the best 15 tracks from across the series, and in glorious mono!

If you’re a casual fan, or daunted by the thought of the larger 52-track collection, then this compilation is for you. Painstakingly transferred from pristine vinyl and mastered in 24bit by Q, this title is presented in both 24/96 Hi-Res and 16/44.1 Redbook CD versions.

Over 60 minutes of pure Brubeck genius!

01 - Blue Rondo A La Turk

02 - Take Five

03 - Three To Get Ready

04 - It's A Raggy Waltz

05 - Unsquare Dance

06 - Bru's Boogie Woogie

07 - Countdown

08 - Eleven Four

09 - Castilian Drums

10 - Iberia

11 - Unisphere

12 - Theme From Elementals

13 - Lost Waltz

14 - 40 Days

15 - Cassandra

Tracks 1-3 from “Time Out”; 4-6 from “Time Further Out”; 7-9 from “Countdown: Time In Outer Space”; 10-11 from “Time Changes”; 12 from Columbia single 4-42920; and 13-15 from “Time In”.

 

==Why mono? (by Q)==

I’ve always found the stereo separation “distracting”. Great for a concert hall experience, but not for that studio feel. Prior to this project I enjoyed “Time Out” and “Time Further Out”, but just didn’t get into the other titles. That changed considerably though when I heard them in mono. Suddenly there was depth, there was power. Centred drums and deep bass made a huge difference, and I now find that all the mono albums get regular play on my system whereas the stereo CDs are gathering dust in the corner.

Enjoy!

==About the transfers==

With the exception of track 12, these tracks were transferred from albums in near mint minus or better condition (three were near mint and one was unsealed by me just for this project). Track 12 was transferred from an EX single. My aim was to create something that sounds like an “official” release, so albums with groove wear or other obvious damage didn’t make the grade. I then spent many tens of hours manually removing vinyl clicks, pops and ticks. However, you might occasionally hear what sounds like vinyl clicks or noise on some of the tracks. Such noise is not from the vinyl. As many listeners will know, jazz recordings can sound quite "dirty", with clicks and other noises captured on the master tape from vibrating strings, breath intakes, instrument valve movements and just general background noise from recording limitations of the time. For removing clicks and the like I used a second copy or the official CD as a reference. If the noise existed on the reference copy, it stayed on my 'drop as a faithful reproduction of the original master tape and of the exact sound that you heard all those years ago. Likewise I have applied no EQ, NR or filtering, so tape hiss, 60hz cutting hum and other similar noises inherent in the original recordings are still in place.

LP Sources

Time Out: Columbia Records “6-eye”; CL 1397 (XLP47853-1BG/XLP47854-1CC)

Time Further Out: Columbia Records “6-eye”; CL 1690 (XLP53955-1C/XLP53956-1F)

Countdown: Time In Outer Space: Columbia Records “6-eye”; CL 1775 (XLP55595-1AA/XLP55596-2H)

Time Changes: Columbia Records “Guaranteed High Fidelity”; CL 2127 (XLP75904-1E/XLP75905-1B)

Time In: Columbia Records “360 Sound”; CL 2512 (XLP113717-1D/XLP113718-1D)

Lineage (for all)

Vinyl -> Ortofon 2M Blue -> Project Xpression III (w/ SpeedBox II) -> Denon PMA-700AE -> 32/96 -> ClickRepair/Audition -> 24/96 and 16/44.1 (iZotope RX 2 Advanced) -> FLACDrop

CD quality (223mb)

Hi-Res (626mb)