Blue Mitchell

Down With It Blue Mitchell Japan Import edition

Born in Miami, trumpeter Blue Mitchell became known for his brilliant style, which blended blues and swing, but he was also completely at home in jazz, R&B, and funk. Mitchell was one of Blue Note's most popular sidemen and made a name for himself on a long list of albums by Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Smith, and Jackie McLean. As a member of the Horace Silver Quintet, he contributed to several albums that became timeless classics before he began recording albums as a leader for Blue Note. In 1965, Mitchell assembled the same dynamic quintet with which he had recorded “The Thing To Do”, his debut album as a leader, the previous year for “Down With It!” – tenor saxophonist Junior Cook and double bassist Gene Taylor, both also members of the Horace Silver Quintet, as well as two young musicians who still had brilliant careers ahead of them: 24-year-old Chick Corea on piano and 22-year-old Al Foster on drums. The band kicks off with “Hi-Heel Sneakers”, a lively boogaloo rhythm piece, while other highlights on the album include the rousing “March On Selma” and the beautiful ballad “Alone, Alone And Alone”.

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series” Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for Blue Note US's analog reissues such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited Japan only UHQCD with OBI stripe. The original recording session for “Down With It!” took place on July 14, 1965 at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan's first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.