A Day In Copenhagen, Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton Sextet, 15ips, 2 Track 14” tape from Horch House – Review.

I’ve been very remiss in reviewing several open reel tapes that have been landing at McIntosh Towers over the last few months due to other projects, but I’ve battled those and so now can get back to covering for, what for me is the best format around – Open Reel Tape.

A Day In Copenhagen was originally recorded in March of 1969 at Metronome Studios in Copenhagen for MPS records then later released on the Prestige label and features 2 real giants of their instruments namely tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon who really rose to fame in the mid-fifties but had slipped out of view somewhat in the 60’s and the “new generation” slide trombonist Locksley “Slide” Hampton leading 4 other players to form their Sextet. Hampton composed 3 of the 6 tracks that come on the 2 x 10” reel format I have (it’s also available in a short 3 track format on 1 tape). He arranged all the tracks barring the Dexter Gordon improvised “Shadow of Your Smile” and it really shows Slide’s skill as a medium-sized band arranger. Gordon and Slide are joined by Dizzee Reece on Trumpet, Kenny Drew on piano, local man Niels-Henning Orsted-Pedersen on bass and the drums are taken care of by Art Taylor.

The studio producing these current master tape copies is Horch House of Austria whose ethos is summed up on their site as “Truth in sound” which is a nod to their approach of no remastering or digital adjustment of the analogue masters (at the time many decades old) but instead a goal to deliver for listeners what was intended at the time of recording. I dipped into the term Master Tape in previous reviews and highly recommend anyone new to tape to go check that out as it does cause some confusion outside of the open reel/mastering community.

To be able to achieve high-quality reproduction of what could be a 50+-year-old master tape, which will undoubtedly have suffered some degradation over time, Horch’s lead engineer Christoph Stickel brings his many years’ experience of recording and working with analogue tape and applies a process Horch refer to as “soft refurbishing” before the final copies for sale are made. Rather than applying any digital mixing techniques to address sound quality issues such as employing compression, Christoph instead reproduces what he believes is the original intended sound by first creating analogue and digital copies of the tape that are used to extensively assess the sound quality over the tape rather than wearing out the original. This then allows him to identify any areas of the tape that may require adjustment in playback. From here he can manage the reproduction on the fly, and by ear using only analogue monitoring and levelling to achieve the desired output leaving any original recording artefacts intact.

Straight out the gate on “My Blues” , Slides 1^st composition while in Europe, we have the incredible hard bop energy of Gordon with Drew and Taylor echoing his verve in spades across piano and drums. The track never drops to less than high tempo even through the solos of Dizzee, Orsted-Pedersen whose deft bass offers some small swinging respite before we get back on the brass of Hampton on that slide trombone with the rhythm and timing of Taylor keeping us all copacetic before all closing out together. A superb number to get us going into this Danish delight.

“You Don’t Know What Love is”, composed by Don Raye/ Gene de Paul, takes an initially slightly more languid swinging melody direction reminiscent of those late 60’s and 70’s spy films with luxurious settings and sinister billionaire villains but of course who were never without a glamorous femme fatale to keep us in the romantic mood. Quickly it gains pace and was arranged and played by the boys in veneration of the late great Billie Holiday and was aimed to be sympathetic to the stylings and sound of Miles Davis. Gordon as usual takes a slightly harder bop approach to raise the energy, Slide and Reece punctuating with that extravaganza sound, Reece in no way a poor man’s Miles.

Art Taylor’s tight breaking drums tip us off on “A New Thing” until before long Gordon’s sax and Drew’s piano seduce and swing us in equal measures within a couple of minutes. The bass work of Orsted-Pedersen never fails to gel the players together explaining why he was asked to play from everyone from Sonny Rollins to Bill Evan, Oscar Peterson to Ella Fitzgerald, he excels at driving that lower-end foot-tapping groove. Kenny Drew as always demonstrating how great a jazz pianist he was both in and in solo, Art Taylors ubiquitously fine drumming framing the piece and highlighting how tight all are playing.

Tape 2 kicks off with the well know and well played by many bands “What’s New” a 12/8 timed number, delicate and considered at times and rising and rousing at others, but with a deep swing groove it’s wonderful playing by all – as Slide says himself in the liner notes “all the cats were hip to this one”.

The Dexter Gordon improvised arrangement of “The Shadow of Your Smile” (composed by Johny Mandel/Paul Francis Webster) starts with some almost melancholic saxophone from Gordon, yearning and remembering a past love perhaps, with Burrell and Taylor providing the sympathetic and even at times more optimistic bed on which he’s carried before Burrell take lead on piano, probably showing more than at any time on this album how competent and sensitive a player he really is. A sultry, romantic number with Gordon as the only for this track, relatively short at under 5 minutes, it’s a perfect penultimate track on what has been album balanced well between Hard Bop and romantic melody.

Lifting us immediately in mood and rhythm we head for the close with the bopping energy of “A Day in Vienna” is dedicated to the Jazz Workshop of the Viennese Austrian Radio Network. A busy, complex, robust number full of driving drum breaks and vibrant horns galore. Burrell’s piano is all complex chords and staccato punctuation but always manages to accentuate not clash. His solo supported by Taylor and Orsted-Pedersen is lively, packed with goodness and uplifting.  From the relaxed reflective mood of the previous number, A Day in Vienna is a great, foot-tapping, bombastic excursion and I defy anyone not to love it!

For those interested (like me) the recording chain itself is all analogues, all played back and recorded on Studer A80 decks and the tape is SM900. Album art, photography, and specification data as well as liner notes (in both original German and in English), and recording information are all produced to a high standard and bundled into a finely presented boxed package, embossed with the Horch House logo. The copy I have comes on 2 aluminium 10” reels and as you’d expect the tape arrives tails out and with added leader tape to protect the media. Even just opening a Horch House recording, involves the anticipation of unwinding a thread-locked envelope and together with the finesse of the recordings themselves it all adds up to a very gratifying experience indeed – of course 2 track 15ips tape as a medium is a big part of how enjoyable the listening experience is.

Hard to believe it’s over 50 years old, this is a superb album from 6 great artists that has been meticulously reproduced in the analogue domain. Tape, packaging and sound quality are all of the highest quality and the music for me is a joy. Sound quality as You’d expect with open reel tape, this close to the master and reproduced in such a high-quality chain is unbeatable. Horch House for me has done it again – managing to transport me back, even for a little while, to some of the best years Jazz had to offer – and absolutely deserves to be on your list of labels to hear.

Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton, A Day in Copenhagen 15ips/38cms, 2 Track, CCIR is available direct from HorchHouse.com in 3 formats ranging from €164 (for 1 x plastic reel ) up to €408 (for 2 metal reels) + shipping and tax (UK customers).

Track listings and timing (across 2 tapes).

My Blues 9:11

You Don’t Know What Love Is 6:03

A New Thing 5:07

What’s New  8:04

The Shadow of Your Smile 5:01

A Day in Vienna 7.49

Total running time 41:45

Alan McIntosh