Translation of the German review

The Lost Recordings company from France started in 2015 with the idea of sifting through and listening to tapes from the past 70 years in radio and concert hall archives around the world to find the most interesting tracks. A network of so-called sound archaeologists and people who remember concerts help with this. Among several tens of thousands of tapes were forgotten recordings of the early art of recording, which were meticulously digitally processed. The restoration process is carried out using the Phœnix Mastering™ restoration method developed by The Lost Recordings. This includes the diagnosis for the evaluation of the original, if necessary, a heating process of the original tapes and the adjustment of the tape machine brought along to play the material in the best possible form and transfer it to the digital world. Specially developed digital processing algorithms minimize noise and restore the original sound quality as far as possible in harmony with expert ears. The Lost Recordings' task is a race against time, because the tapes are subject to a slow but steady ageing process. So far, around 25 albums have been released and successfully marketed as records, CDs or high-resolution downloads. The album Sarah Vaughan - Live at The Berlin Philharmonie 1969 was a historically very valuable audio document available for my review.

Born in New Jersey (USA) in 1934, the artist Sarah Vaughan received piano lessons from the age of seven. She was able to develop her singing talent in a church choir. As a young woman, she sang in clubs and accompanied herself on the piano. After winning a singing competition in 1942, she joined pianist Earl Hines' big band and was with Billy Eckstine a year later. Through members Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan became familiar with the rhythms and harmonies of bebop. After launching her solo career in 1946, she quickly achieved recording success. She became known for her special way of singing. As one of the best singers in the history of jazz, she toured the world and always managed to fly the flag for classic jazz. In addition, she opened up a wider audience with her successfully performed arrangements of entertainment-oriented music. At the age of 35, she sang the concert described here in the Berlin Philharmonie. From 1985 onwards, she was showered with honors. Sarah Vaughan died of cancer in California (USA) in 1990.

In this double concert with a total length of almost 85 minutes, which was recorded on November 9, 1969 in the Berlin Philharmonie as part of the Berlin Jazz Days, the exceptional singer allows us to participate in the entire spectrum of her vocal artistry. It is the refinement in her unique phrasing and modulation, coupled with her own style of soulful and virtuoso expressiveness. Sarah Vaughan and her trio must have seemed like an icon from a bygone era at one of the most important jazz events in Europe, where all styles of modern music were permitted. It is precisely this decision that ensures us today the encounter of professional, sentimental and emotional moments of an artist who, iconic in her own appearance, seems to be enraptured in her songs in order to celebrate them in a completely airy-fairy and stylistically highly sophisticated manner. The trio, consisting of Johnny Veith on piano, Gus Mancuso on bass and Eddy Pucci on drums, finds a fabulous formula for accompaniment: discreet yet present and at the singer's service at every moment.

And now please join me in celebrating the review of this masterful performance, which now includes the previously unreleased part of the double concert for the first time. The master tape copy brings the original as close as possible to the listening room. This reduces the distance to the musicians enormously, allowing you to immerse yourself completely in the sound. The result is a cinematic experience of what it must have been like back then in the Berlin Philharmonie.

The only criticism I have of this tape edition is that I actually miss the low noise levels that I would normally expect from a tape recording from this period. This makes this master tape copy seem a little sterile. Did the digital processing go a step too far in terms of noise removal? Despite all this, this recording comes with the typical pressure and attention to detail that can only be reproduced from a tape.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)