POINCIANA - Hamilton, Birro, Zunino, Kramer - TAPES

TAPE 1

1 Birk's Works 04:52

2 By Myself 05:56

3 You Taught My Heart To Sing 05:31

4 Chloe 08:24

5 Confirmation 05:50

Total time 30:33

TAPE 2

6 I Remember Clifford 05:51

7 Poinciana 05:57

8 Put On A Happy Face 06:24

9 Eu E A Briza 06:27

Total time 27:56

Conceived, recorded and produced by Giulio Cesare Ricci
Recorded at the Auditorium Museo Piaggio Pontedera May 31st - June 1st, 2021
Recording assistant: Paola Liberato
Valve microphones: Neumann U47, U48, M49
Mike pre-amplifiers, cables (line, microphone, supply): Signoricci
Photos by Andrea Manno & Paola Liberato

The Master has been implemented with Ampex ATR 102 (Electronic Tube Ampex Model 351 - 1965) 2 tracks, 1/2 inch 30ips modified by David Manley. 

This album is part of recordings I realized for the fonè Music Festival Piaggio 2021 concerts. I made this recording at the Piaggio Auditorium located inside the very famous Museum located in Pontedera, the place where Piaggio was born and where it still continues to produce today. Inside the Museum, every year the public from all over the world can admire the Piaggio production made over the years, all the Vespa and Ape models, all the Aprilia, Gilera and Moto Guzzi motorcycles that have won national and international awards over time. For this recording I brought all my equipment both analog (Ampex ATR 102 Electronic Tube Ampex Model 351-1965 2 tracks, 1/2 inch, 30ips modified by David Manley) and digital (Pyramix Recorder, dCS A/D and D/A converters).

As for the microphones, I used my original collection of Neumann U47, U48, M49 as well as mike pre-amplifiers and Signoricci cables. Pairs of Neumann valve microphones from the years 1947 and 1949 (U47, U48 and M49) are used with a very natural timbre using field effect bimicrophonic techniques. These microphones have an important history: they are in fact the original microphones used to record, among others, the performances of the Beatles in the Abbey Road Studio and by RCA for the "Living Stereo" recordings.

The sound I can capture with these legendary microphones is perfectly in line with my taste in sound. No other microphone has such a true timbre and the ability to record all the nuances of sound and all the richness of the harmonics. The uniqueness of these microphones is linked to their ability to take a perfect "sound photograph" and to put the music perfectly placed in the sound space chosen for the recording. This is because I have always made two Masters for each recording: an analogue master for Vinyls and a DSD digital master for SuperAudioCDs.

I made the mastering for Vinyl using Signoricci's analog and valve system. A state-of-the-art system with no sound manipulation, no equalization, no reverb, no compression and expansion... but natural sound with real timbre to best enhance the acoustics of the Auditorium of the Piaggio Museum. fonè has been offering for almost 40 years engravings made in the name of technological refinement and aimed at recovering the original musical atmospheres. Also for this recording I used a "field effect" recording technique... all this to make the listener relive the live effect in his own home hi-fi system as if it were present at the performance.

In this album the protagonists are Scott Hamilton, one of the greatest mainstream in the world, on the saxophone in the company of three great jazz musicians Paolo Birro, Aldo Zunino and Alfred Kramer, his usual partners when he performs in Italy. Among songs played to highlight Poinciana (Nat Simon) which gives the album its title, Birk's Works (Dizzy Gillespie) and Confirmation (Charlie Parker).

An album not to be missed

giulio cesare ricci