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Some details from a fan page...

NEW CDs REPLICATE THOSE OLD 45s --

BUT WITH VASTLY IMPROVED SOUND!

According to Billboard magazine, the engineers who worked on the new remastered SACD discs used Sam's original mono singles as a reference point when balancing the instruments and vocals on the new CD. If that's the case, we could be in for a real treat as some of these mono mixes -- such as the one created for "Good Times" -- are quite a bit different from the more familiar stereo versions used on previous CD releases.

"We went back to the mono singles that Sam had worked on and used those as a guideline for what the releases should sound like," engineer Steve Rosenthal told Billboard magazine. "Now, there's less of the reverb 'gloss' sitting on top of the whole record, and you get to hear how great the musicians were, and more, how great Sam is as a singer. It was a really interesting and rewarding experience to see the music get restored in this way."

Rosenthal transferred the original master tapes from Sam Cooke's recording sessions to a Sonoma DSD workstation in his studio at New York City's Magic Shop. Those master tapes ranged from single-track mono tapes to 3-track and 4-track multi-channel tapes.

The cornerstone of the new Sam Cooke Remastered Collection is "Sam Cooke At The Copa." With an SACD player and multi-channel receiver and speaker set-up, Sam Cooke fans will be able to hear the Copa album in true surround sound!

To create this new mix of Sam's classic live album, Rosenthal played back the original 3-track tape through a modified Ampex ATR 102 tape machine. He then created the 5.1-channel surround mix using a Neve 80 Series wrap-around console. In deciding where to "place" the vocals and various instruments in the surround mix, Rosenthal researched the room dynamics of the Copa itself. He had three separate tracks to work with, but had to fill five tracks on the SACD disc -- front left, front center, front right, rear left and rear right -- with music and ambient sounds from the historic nightclub.

"It was a rather challenging experience," Rosenthal told Billboard. "I spent a lot of time trying to develop room geometry, trying to get the original measurements of the club and what the wall surfaces were like so I could create a surround-sound environment that duplicated what it was like to be in that room. My sense of doing the surround sound was that you were sitting in the front row. I worked very hard to get the feeling that Sam was right in front of you, five or six feet away."

Billboard magazine reports that the new Sam Cooke CDs convey
"both greater realism and previously unheard nuances, which are easily discernible."

Rosenthal credits the original session engineers -- including Al Schmitt, Bones Howe, Dino Lapis, Dick Bogart, Ray Hall and Dave Hassinger -- with laying the ground work from the new discs.

"These guys were amazing balance engineers," Rosenthal told Billboard. "The way they recorded stuff was just remarkable. It really has stood the test of time."

And more......


SAM COOKE AS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD HIM BEFORE!
ABKCO ANNOUNCES THE REMASTERED COLLECTION


The career of the late Sam Cooke, the man who made "soul" a household word, is the focus of a restoration and reissue project from ABKCO Records.
The Sam Cooke Remastered Collection includes releases in DVD as well as audio-only titles on dual layer SACD hybrid disc, including a magnificent 5.1 surround sound version of the classic "Sam Cooke At The Copa."
ABKCO Founder and President Allen Klein commented, "After our great experience with last year's Rolling Stones Remastered Series, I decided to do whatever it took to restore the Sam Cooke catalog." The result is a series of releases, set to debut on June 17. Members of Cooke's family, including his brothers David, Charles and L.C. Cooke and sister Agnes Hoskins played active roles in the project. His daughter Zeriiya (Linda Womack) also
participated.
The impetus for The Sam Cooke Restoration program came in 2001 with the airing of "Sam Cooke: Legend" on VH1. That program, written by best selling author (Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, Sweet Soul Music) Peter Guralnick, generated renewed interested in the life and legacy of Cooke. After establishing himself as the dominant force in the music that came to be known as "soul," his untimely death on December 11, 1964 was, certainly in American's inner cities, on a par with the loss of a head of state.
Narrated by Tony Award Winner Jeffrey Wright, the DVD version of that program runs for 70 minutes and features rare and never before seen performances as well as appearances by Aretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali, Dick Clark and others. Two hours of additional interviews including, Lloyd Price, Bobby Womack, Lou Adler, Lou Rawls and Cooke family members are part of the bonus features on the program.
Working with original master tape sources uncovered in vaults in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles, ABKCO has painstakingly restored the bulk of Cooke's audio catalog and will release a total of six titles (five domestically) the centerpiece of which is Sam Cooke At The Copa. This classic album will be made available in three configurations, all on one compatible disc. It will play as a standard CD in original stereo, as an SACD, also in stereo, and in 5.1 surround sound. The recording documents the nights of July 7th and 8th, 1964 when Cooke's sets were recorded at New York's famed Copacabana.
Upon hearing an advance version of the 5.1 program, L.C. Cooke, with tears in his eyes, exclaimed, "It's like he's here with us again." ABKCO's 5.1 mix of the album took into account the actual dimensions and acoustic characteristics of the Copa with the result being a replication of an authentic nightclub experience, complete with audience participation and the subtle sound of silverware, glassware and china.
"Sam Cooke Portrait of a Legend: 1951 1964," is another cornerstone of ABKCO's Cooke program. It is a 30-track career retrospective that traces Cooke's artistry back to his gospel days with the Soul Stirrers ("Jesus Gave Me Water") through his essential recordings up to "A Change Is Gonna Come," his epochal paean to the civil rights movement that was recorded the year of his death. Among the major pop and R&B chart hits included are "Wonderful World," "You Send Me," "Only Sixteen," "Chain Gang," "Twistin' The Night Away," "Nothing Can Change This Love," "Shake," and "Bring It On Home To Me."
Additional titles in The Sam Cooke Remastered Collection that include enhanced liner information will be made available as dual layer (hybrid) CD / SACD discs. These include "Ain't That Good News," the first album recorded under Cooke's own Tracey Records imprint.
"Keep Movin' On," a collection that was released for the first time in 2002 is now re-released as a CD / SACD hybrid, while "Tribute To The Lady," Cooke's original homage to Billie Holiday -- now with nine additional tracks -- is going to be available overseas.
Later this year, "Sam Cooke's SAR Records Story," a two-disc collection consisting primarily of tracks by artists that Sam Cooke signed and produced for his own label, will also be re-issued on dual layer SACD, further extending The Sam Cooke Remastered Collection.








'SAM COOKE: PORTRAIT OF A LEGEND'
HIGHLIGHTS THE HITS


This new disc follows Sam Cooke's full career, from his teenage debut as a full-fledged member of the legendary Soul Stirrers in 1951 to his years as a rhythm and blues phenomenon. His hit songs, most of which he wrote, went on to become pop standards, enduring to this day. Sam Cooke's amazing body of work is now encapsulated in "Sam Cooke: Portrait of A Legend:1951-1964."
It includes 30 tracks and is part of ABKCO's Sam Cooke Remastered Collection, an initiative to offer state of the art editions of restored and remastered Sam Cooke albums on dual layer (hybrid) CD / SACD discs, compatible with any standard CD player as well as Super Audio players. A diligent quality assurance program coupled with painstaking research and the most advanced digital-to-analog transfer and mastering technologies were employed in producing this collection. Extensive analysis was carried out to determine the best mastering sources and first generation masters were utilized throughout the assembly of the album's track lineup. The result is nothing less than extraordinarily authentic with the shadings and nuance last experienced in the studio years ago.
"The sound quality is, arguably, as close to what Sam Cooke and his fellow musicians heard when the engineer pressed the 'playback' button for the first time after those original sessions," notes Jody Klein, restoration producer for The Sam Cooke Remastered Collection.
With a running time of one hour and twenty minutes, "Sam Cooke: Portrait Of A Legend" includes all of his essential hits and provides a major overview of a career that has left an ever lasting mark on American music that remains indelible today almost forty years after Cooke's untimely death. ABKCO presents tracks from Cooke's gospel and early R&B career as well as his pop / soul hits from the Specialty and RCA labels and has combined them with the cream of the masters that are part of his own company, Tracey Records. He was one of the first recording stars, black or white, to command this kind of artistic control, the most noteworthy other example at the time being Frank Sinatra.
"Sam Cooke: Portrait of a Legend:1951-1964" highlights Cooke's astounding command of the gospel idiom when, at age 19, he joined the world renowned Soul Stirrers. With Cooke singing lead, the veteran group recorded "Jesus Gave Me Water," on March 1, 1951 at a session for Specialty Records; Sam Cooke's professional career had begun. More than a half century later, that same song closes this collection that starts with another Soul Stirrers song, "Touch The Hem Of His Garment," that was written by Cooke.
After his decision to sing secular music as a solo artist, Cooke began to dominate the charts, starting with "You Send Me," released by Keen Records in 1957. A simultaneous Pop and R&B #1 smash hit, the career making song is included in this new retrospective. Throughout the late 1950's and until the time of his death, Cooke was one of the most popular vocalists in the world with a streak of Top 10 Billboard Pop Chart hits that, of course, began with "You Send Me" and continued through "Chain Gang," "Twistin' The Night Away," "Another Saturday Night" and "Shake," all of which are on "Sam Cooke: Portrait of a Legend." Three of these hits were also #1 Billboard R&B Chart singles; two peaked at #2.
Seven other songs in the collection were also Top 10 R&B hits including "I'll Come Running Back To You," "Win Your Love For Me," "Everybody Likes To Cha Cha Cha, "Wonderful World," "Bring It On Home to Me," "Having A Party," "Nothing Can Change This Love," and "A Change Is Gonna Come."
A bonus, hidden track entitled "Soul" is included in the album. The melody was extemporaneously brought forth by Cooke during an interview with famed DJ Magnificent Montague of "burn baby, burn" fame. He had asked Cooke to "hum 'soul'" and this is an audio document of that moment in 1962. The songs included in Sam Cooke: Portrait Of A Legend collectively logged 273 weeks or
five years and three months on Billboard's Pop Chart and a mind boggling 508 weeks (nine years and nine months) on the Pop and R&B charts, combined.
Comprehensive liner notes by author Peter Guralnick are provided in the "Sam Cooke: Portrait Of A Legend" package, as are detailed musician credits.
Release date: June 17, 2003
Running time: 80 minutes
Suggested retail selling price: $18.95








SAM COOKE AT THE COPA:
RESTORED, RENEWED,
REMASTERED, REMARKABLE


"Mr. Cooke is on the big, shiny nightclub floor for just short of an hour. A thin talent becomes transparent in all that light in that space of time. Mr. Cooke's talent stands the test. It may surprise but he has dignity, humility and feeling to go with a strong voice... In the years to come, more will be heard of Mr. Cooke. His is a talent that can grow."
-- Robert Alden, New York Times
July 7, 1964

The night those words appeared in the New York Times, and the night that followed, Sam Cooke's performances were recorded for an album that would be called "Sam Cooke At The Copa." The LP was released three months later and sold briskly. Things were, indeed, looking up for this brash young talent, a rhythm and blues 'wunderkind' who had brought the music that would come to be known as "soul" from the inner city directly to café society.

There would not, however, be those "years to come" that Alden had promised in his glowing Times review. Tragically and under mysterious circumstances, Sam Cooke would be gone before that year was out. The document of his remarkable stand at New York's famed show biz proving ground, The Copacabana, is back and now sheds even more light on the talent that was always rock solid, never transparent.

The restored Sam Cooke At The Copa that ABKCO Records is re-releasing on June 17th reveals Cooke's Copacabana performance with all of the nuance and passion that his adoring audience experienced almost forty years ago. The album is being released as a unique hybrid disc playable three ways: stereo for standard CD players as well as SACD (Super Audio) players and, for the first time, multi-channel 5.1 surround SACD. New liner notes written by Peter Guralnick, now at work on the definitive Sam Cooke biography, are included as are full musician credits and refreshed packaging.

Jody Klein, restoration producer, explained, "We did absolutely everything conceivable to replicate the actual sonic ambiance of the Copa and Sam Cooke's performance there. It was a painstaking process and we're thrilled with the result."

In the 5.1 version, the murmuring of the audience, the sound of silverware on china, of ice cubes in highball glasses, is subtly discernable. Sound engineers looked at floor plans of the club and watched the scene from the film "Goodfellas" that was shot in the Copa just before it closed in order to gauge the space and its acoustic characteristics so as to make the new mix "true" to the room. Upon hearing a playback at a private listening of the 5.1 surround sound program of his late brother's Copa performance, L.C. Cooke exclaimed with tears in his eyes, "It's like he's here with us again!" For those who never had a chance to hear Sam Cooke in person, Sam Cooke At The Copa affords the best seat in the house.

All three programs -- SACD Surround, SACD stereo, standard CD stereo -- of "Sam Cooke At The Copa" contained on the hybrid disc include the original introduction by Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded especially for his friend's Copa run. Not included in previous vinyl, tape and CD editions, is the intro that was played each night before Cooke took the stage wherein one show business legend presents another as "the swingin' Mr. Sam Cooke."

The band heard on the album was conducted by René Hall who had been with Cooke for the entirety of his secular singing career. Likewise, the Copa arrangements were written by Hall who led the band that included Clif White, long a member of Cooke's inner music circle, and another guitar player introduced by Cooke on the album as "Bobby Valentino." ("Valentino" is now well known as soul icon Bobby Womack.)

Sam Cooke's set at the Copa is a microcosm of his overall career insofar as it mirrored the artist's own eclecticism. Broadway, blues, folk, jazz, gospel and even country, and, of course, soul are represented on such tracks as "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out," "Frankie And Johnny," "Try A Little Tenderness," "Amen," and the hits "Twistin' The Night Away," "You Send Me" and "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons."

Of special note is Cooke's version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" that reflected the struggle for civil rights then underway. Dylan's song inspired Cooke to write his like themed masterpiece, "A Change Is Gonna Come."
Release date: June 17, 2003
Suggested retail selling price: $18.98


On the DVD....

SOUL MUSIC'S PREMIERE HITMAKER AND
GROUNDBREAKER EXAMINED IN DEPTH!
ABKCO PRESENTS THE "LEGEND" DVD

The life and music of Sam Cooke, soul's first superstar is examined in "Sam Cooke: Legend," to be released June 17 by ABKCO Records. The 70-minute documentary, available in both DVD and VHS editions examines the extraordinary career of soul's first and foremost superstar. It traces both his professional and personal life -- from his gospel-singing roots in the early 1950's through his R&B and pop music career to his untimely death in 1964.

The film recounts his commitment to the struggle for civil rights underscored by his last hit, "A Change Is Gonna Come" and his transcendent and consummate popular appeal.

The program was written by best selling author Peter Guralnick ("Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley") who is currently writing a Cooke biography for Little, Brown and is narrated by Tony Award winning actor Jeffrey Wright ("Basquait," "Angels In America," "Ali"). "Sam Cooke: Legend" features rare and never-before-seen performance clips, TV footage and family photos, plus exclusive new interviews. These include a rare interview with soul legend Aretha Franklin, TV host Dick Clark, singer Lou Rawls who was a childhood friend of Cooke's.

In addition, R&B great Lloyd Price and soul star Bobby Womack who, early in his career, enjoyed a rewarding musical association with Cooke who produced his hit "It's All Over Now," later covered by The Rolling Stones. Also featured are LeRoy Crume of the Soul Stirrers who continues as part of the seminal gospel group that Cooke joined as a teen and Sam's surviving brothers and sister as well as daughter Zeriiya (Linda Cooke Womack). Another participant is recording mogul Lou Adler (Mamas and Papas, Carole King), who co-wrote "Wonderful World" with Cooke and Herb Alpert. Beyond the narrative, extra menus include a detailed biography, discography plus two hours of additional interview footage.

The film chronicles Cooke's struggle to make it in the world of popular mainstream music culminating in his triumphant engagement at New York's Copacabana in the summer of 1964. His special relationship with Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, is explored in depth with footage of the two American icons engaging in musical horseplay in the studio with footage from Clay's epochal triumph over Sonny Liston.

From his birth in the Mississippi delta through his family's move to Chicago and the realization of his gift as expressed in his early gospel work continuing through his change to secular music, his life can be viewed as a microcosm of the struggle for recognition and opportunity by African Americans in the mid-20th century. Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi and raised in Chicago's South Side, Sam Cooke was the son of a Baptist minister. He started singing in the Church choir as a child and, encouraged by his father, joined with his siblings to form a gospel group, the Singing Children. By the time he was a teenager, he had achieved significant success within the gospel community on the strength of his distinctive vocal style, and in 1950 he was asked to replace legendary singer R.H. Harris as lead vocalist of the seminal gospel group The Soul Stirrers.

Cooke crossed over into the world of popular music in 1957 and shot to the top of the R&B and Pop charts with his self-penned "You Send Me." From that time on, he was never out of the Top 40, with smash hits like "Wonderful World," "Chain Gang," "Cupid," "Twistin' the Night Away," "Another Saturday Night" and "Shake." His success didn't surprise Aretha Franklin, who had long before seen him perform at her father's church: "Sam was a prince of a man. He just had everything going for him. Sam had the looks, he had the voice, he had the manner, he had the charm, he had the savoir faire."

A triumphant early-'60s tour of the U.K. left a generation of young musicians like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison and Rod Stewart in thrall as well. A champion of creative rights who wrote much of his own material, Cooke was among the first artists to recognize the importance of owning the publishing rights to his own compositions, and later established his own record label and business empire to better realize his far-reaching musical ambitions.

Refusing to perform for segregated audiences in the South, Cooke utilized his stature as a performer to help break down the color lines separating blacks from whites, and in the process became, along with his friend Muhammad Ali, a symbol of the new Black American. Further inspired by Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," Cooke wrote "A Change Is Gonna Come," a song that would become an anthem of the civil rights movement, after Cooke's senseless shooting death on December of 1964. Sam Cooke was 33 years old at the time and more than 40 years have passed since then but interest in his life and work is stronger today than ever before.

"Sam Cooke: Legend" on DVD is a comprehensive look at a figure who is, arguably, one of the most influential musical forces in the twentieth century.

Running time: 70 minutes

Additional interviews: 120 minutes
Release Date: June 17, 2003

Suggested retail selling price: $24.98
DVD Project Credits:
Executive Producer: Iris W. Keitel
Producers: Robin Klein & Mick Gochanour
Art Director / Cover Design: Alisa Coleman-Ritz
Avid Editor: Michelle Gonzales
DVD Mastering: Blink Digital
Subtitles: Visiontext
Cover Illustration: Angelo Tillery
Package Design/Layout: Bonfilio Design
Menu Design: MixUp NYC
Audio Layback: Sound Lounge
Rights & Clearances: Seth Adkins & Cheri Wild
Legal: Peter Howard & Michael Kramer







http://members.tripod.com/clarkkauffman/id34.htm

Quite a bit of info...

The bit about replicating the mono mixes is promising. I wonder what their attitude about doing the mixes was as compared to the original Keep Movin' On disc (I liked the job they did on that, although I didn't think they needed to narrow down a few of the tracks.).

It's also interesting to see the new best-of disc will have quite a bit of BMG material on there. Hopefully that stuff will sound a bit better than the recent BMG efforts, which I haven't been impressed with. They are "clean", but they also sound kind of unnatural.

I wonder if we'll see more stuff in the future, or if that's it for ABKCO.

Not as if anyone cares, but I just went back and listened to Keep Movin' On and the BMG box set.

Neither was as good as I had remebered. The BMG box is anything but natural sounding, especially on the early RCA material. Strange EQ, almost no tape hiss, etc.

The ABKCO disc is better, although the EQ is a bit bright and lacking in bass. Not too bad, though. Better the more you listen.

Hopefully these SACDs will improve on both. It will be interesting to see how Chain Gang sounds, in particular.

Here's the tracklist for Portrait Of A Legend:

1. Touch The Hem Of His Garment (Cooke)
2. Lovable (Cooke & Harris)
3. You Send Me (Cooke)
4. Only Sixteen (Cooke)
5. (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons (Watson & Best)
6. Just For You (Cooke)
7. Win Your Love For Me (Cooke)
8. Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha (Cooke)
9. I'll Come Running Back To You (Cook)
10. You Were Made For Me (Cooke)
11. Sad Mood (Cooke)
12. Cupid (Cooke)
13. (What A) Wonderful World (Cooke, Alpert & Adler)
14. Chain Gang (Cooke)
15. Summertime (Gershwin, Gershwin & Heyward)
16. Little Red Rooster (Dixon)
17. Bring It On Home To Me (Cooke)
18. Nothing Can Change This Love (Cooke)
19. Sugar Dumpling (Cooke) (re-make)
20. (Ain't That) Good News (Cooke)
21. Meet Me At Mary's Place (Cooke)
22. Twistin' The Night Away (Cooke)
23. Shake (Cooke)
24. Tennessee Waltz (Stewart & King)
25. Another Saturday Night (Cooke)
26. Good Times (Cooke)
27. Having A Party (Cooke)
28. That's Where It's At (Cooke & Alexander)
29. A Change Is Gonna Come (Cooke)
30. Jesus Gave Me Water (Campbell)

The complete info is up on http://www.samcooke.com/ . Interesting that not only is the RCA and Specialty material included, but that the Keen material has recording dates and locations listed. Both "Greatest Hits" and "The Man Who Invented Soul" have no information on those recordings, and the box set goes as far as saying that the files could not be found (strange, since Keen was purchased by RCA).

Personally, I would have mixed a few of the tracks up (I could do without Tennessee Waltz, and I wish Rome (Wasn't Built In A Day) and Somebody Have Mercy were on there), but all in all I'd say that's certainly a great single disc set. Hopefully the sound lives up the hype.

One interesting sidelight is the release of AT THE COPA in 5.1 multi-channel. That should be interesting; when well done, live recordings really shine in 5.1, but this is Abkco we're talkin' about, and they haven't done 5.1 before. I should be worried....

The other thing this collector wishes could be drummed into label exec's skulls is to stop treating mono like some cheap bastard stuff, and as the historical essentials they often are. The mono mixes of Cooke's hits are often different in tone and style compared to the stereo, and especially the more recent remixes. Would be nice to gather those together, as a few have been scattered about on foreign comps every now and then. With SACD, a separate layer for the mono mixes could have been done, but with a world fixated on stereo all the time, small wonder mono is often all but forgotten in the shuffle.

Also note that the 1964 AIN'T THAT GOOD NEWS Lp has the original full-length version of "A Change Is Gonna Come." One verse was removed for the posthumous 45 release; THAT stereo edit can be found on THE BEST OF SAM COOKE, VOLUME 2 from '65, but I don't expect that to be issued anytime soon, and in any case they'd probably screw it up and use the Lp version yet again, as they have all along.

ED

Ed Bishop wrote:The other thing this collector wishes could be drummed into label exec's skulls is to stop treating mono like some cheap bastard stuff, and as the historical essentials they often are. The mono mixes of Cooke's hits are often different in tone and style compared to the stereo, and especially the more recent remixes. Would be nice to gather those together, as a few have been scattered about on foreign comps every now and then. With SACD, a separate layer for the mono mixes could have been done, but with a world fixated on stereo all the time, small wonder mono is often all but forgotten in the shuffle.

In case you missed it, they (supposedly) used the mono mixes as a guide for the new stereo mixes. And actually, the mono mixes are probably closer to the recent remixes than the original stereo mixes, as the original stereo mixes had a bunch of echo added.

Also note that the 1964 AIN'T THAT GOOD NEWS Lp has the original full-length version of "A Change Is Gonna Come." One verse was removed for the posthumous 45 release; THAT stereo edit can be found on THE BEST OF SAM COOKE, VOLUME 2 from '65, but I don't expect that to be issued anytime soon, and in any case they'd probably screw it up and use the Lp version yet again, as they have all along.

I guess my question would be why would anyone want the edited version anyway?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 2058.story

Remastered Sam Cooke albums capture his soul
By Bob Gendron
Special to the Tribune

June 15, 2003

Few artists have had a greater impact on popular music and popular culture than Sam Cooke, "The Man Who Invented Soul." With his golden tenor, he didn't single-handedly create soul -- Clyde McPhatter, Jackie Wilson and Ray Charles all played key roles in the music's development. But as a consistently matchless songwriter, singer, arranger, producer, label proprietor and performer, Cooke is the single most influential figure in soul history.

On Tuesday, ABKCO Records will release the Sam Cooke Remastered Collection, comprising four remastered albums and one DVD. As a result of refinements in the music's transparency and presence, listeners will experience Cooke as he sounded in the recording studio and on stage. In their unsurpassed quality, the discs bring a greater enjoyment and understanding to the Chicago-raised artist who permanently altered music by bringing sacred black gospel sounds into harmony-based pop and sensual R&B.

From the time he was handpicked in 1951 by Soul Stirrers manager Roy Crain to sing lead vocals for the gospel greats, Cooke was a pioneer. His decision in 1957 to leave the Soul Stirrers and sing secular music was a harbinger of what was to come. With music, business or societal concerns, Cooke brought an elevated conviction to everything he accomplished. In an era in which many successful black artists received a Cadillac and silk suit as total compensation, Cooke owned a record label and publishing company and became the first black artist to negotiate a deal in which he was paid in advance and retained ownership rights to his recordings. He also refused to perform for segregated audiences.

Anticipated the Stones

When Cooke heard the Rolling Stones' hit cover of Bobby Womack's "It's All Over Now" (which Womack recorded for Cooke's label only months before), he anticipated how the Stones would shift not only music tastes but the entire industry itself, and forecast that pop music would start favoring the overall sound over the lyrics.

Produced by the team responsible for last year's 22-title Rolling Stones Remastered Series, ABKCO's Cooke titles are also dual-layer hybrid Super Audio Compact Discs (SACDs). They play on regular compact disc players as well as on SACD-enabled players that provide superior sound and offer the option of surround sound. In an effort to obtain the best first-generation source material, archivists searched vaults in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Series restoration producer Jody Klein said refurbishing the bulk of Cooke's catalog was inevitable: "As we were working on the Stones, Sam Cooke was the next thought because of what SACD offers," Klein said. "This release is important for music history because you can finally hear the productions of Rene Hall and Luigi Creatore, but mostly, of Sam Cooke. People knew what he did as a writer and singer, but this takes his music to a higher level."

Nothing represents that heightened level like the project's showpiece, "Sam Cooke at the Copa," recorded live at the legendary New York City nightclub Copacabana on July 7 and 8, 1964. Ever since its initial release 39 years ago, "Copa" has been condemned as tame and unrepresentative of Cooke's soul routine. Such criticisms miss the engagement's intention and historical merit. This wasn't Cooke's first appearance at the club; at his first in 1958, he was unprepared and, in his own words, "bombed." These nights represented Cooke's second chance to win over a conservative white audience. To Cooke, they were a critical segment he needed to convert, as black R&B radio was already transforming into pop stations that reached larger audiences.

For the occasion, Cooke deliberately eschewed his grittier material in favor of safe swing numbers and recognizable standards such as "Tennessee Waltz" and "Bill Bailey." Opening with "The Best Things in Life Are Free," Cooke is in complete control from the start. With each successive song, his confidence increases. His fluttering yodel and charming demeanor make evident that he knew he had crashed through the invisible ceiling, hurdling the only barrier he hadn't yet cleared and solidifying his status as the ultimate crossover artist.

Nurtured gospel roots

While his traditionalist approach pleased the sophisticated crowd, Cooke didn't abandon his gospel roots or turn his back on the social cause. His impassioned interpretations of "This Little Light of Mine," "If I Had a Hammer" and "Blowin' in the Wind" contain messages that, while not as direct as those communicated in "Shake" or "Good Times," didn't go unnoticed. Of equal historic and musical magnitude, "Copa" illustrates Cooke's rare ability to transcend the era's racial boundaries without losing credibility or prominence within the black community.

The new "Copa" plays in stereo on CD and SACD players. But it's a third option -- 5.1 surround sound on an SACD player -- that will cause music lovers to feel as if they are sitting in the front row of the nightclub. Rather than produce a generic surround mix that randomly places crowd noise and instrumental reflections in the rear, ABKCO founder Allen Klein wanted to re-create the Copa ambience as it existed for Cooke's performances. Though the original Copa is gone, sound engineers gleaned its physical dimensions and acoustic characteristics from footage from Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas," filmed at the club shortly before it closed. Having been present at Cooke's original concerts, Allen Klein and Al Schmidt, the original producer of "Sam Cooke at the Copa," supplied dining-table configurations and seating arrangements. The result is a presentation that captures every imaginable nuance -- down to the sound of ice cubes clinking in highball glasses that precedes Sammy Davis Jr.'s introduction of Cooke and his band.

Sam's brother L.C. Cooke still can't get over how realistic "Copa" sounds. "The first time I heard it, it blew my mind. It was just like Sam was there in person -- that's the closest thing to `live' I've ever heard." Along with L.C., Cooke's brothers, David and Charles, and sister Agnes had the final say on the discs.

Whereas "Copa" provides the fireworks, the most significant result of ABKCO's restoration is "Portrait of a Legend: 1951-1964," a new 30-track hits collection that spans Cooke's career. Just two years ago, such a definitive compilation seemed highly unlikely. Cooke recorded for several labels, leaving the publishing rights scattered among the Specialty, RCA and ABKCO labels. Until now, RCA's indispensable "The Man and His Music" had been the only CD to bridge the recording periods. Issued in 1986, the disc has long been out of print, lacks sufficient annotation and possesses wafer-thin sound. Even RCA's four-CD "The Man Who Invented Soul" box ends when Cooke's ABKCO era begins, and while it was remastered, the process used lesser technology and inferior sources.

Feeling his presence

"Portrait" allows listeners to almost feel Cooke's presence. His seductive tone, now fuller and purer, is the most obvious upgrade. With pristine clarity and forward projection, his impeccably smooth phrasing majestically glides, swoops and stretches over regal arrays of strings, horns, guitars, drums, percussion and pianos. Although Cooke's voice remains the focus, previously inaudible orchestral details and rhythmic passages reveal complexities that, along with the singer's perfect timing and syllabic improvisation, have never received proper recognition. Whether on a hopelessly romantic teenage ballad such as "Only Sixteen," a bold revision of Gershwin's classic "Summertime" or a feel-good preaching rave such as "Ain't That Good News," Cooke never fails to land on the correct note.

Cooke's most popular songs sound fresher than ever. As RCA's second-biggest hitmaker behind Elvis in the early '60s, he not only sang but also wrote and arranged a considerable number of songs. A preliminary inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cooke magnetically blended the spirituality he learned at his father's South Side church with urban pop, creating a sound that invited the world to sing along.

L.C. Cooke attests that it still does. "Sam was rare. He had that charisma -- once you got to know him, you loved him. Usually, if the ladies love you, the guys don't. And if the guys love you, the ladies don't. But everybody loved Sam -- teens, old folk, boys, girls, all of them."

Jody Klein concurs. "Sam's music had an amazing ability to deliver a message in a song, messages that are as pertinent today as when it was first written down."

That relevance peaks in the very last, and most ambitious, year of Cooke's career, proficiently documented on "Keep Movin' On." Originally issued in early 2002, the disc's 23 tracks hint at the direction Cooke was headed before he was shot and killed Dec. 11, 1964. Having previously incorporated country, jazz, swing, call-and-response gospel and Latin styles into his work, Cooke had always explored a diverse musical scope. But by late 1963, conflicting life experiences and increasing political tension crept into his songs in the form of blues, folk, hard soul, pensive delivery and deeply emotional lyrics.

While the 1963 drowning death of Cooke's 18-month-old son played a large role in this evolution, the real inspiration was exposed in his crowning achievement, "A Change Is Gonna Come." Written in response to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and as a result of conversations he had with student sit-in demonstrators, Cooke's civil rights anthem epitomizes the black struggle. The song's dramatic sweep has been greatly enhanced, the staggered march of horns and orchestral swell confidently paralleling the poetic beat of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have Been to the Mountaintop" speech.

Just for die-hards

"Ain't That Good News," Cooke's first recording for his Tracey Records imprint and final studio album, rounds out the remasters. The majority of the disc's content is duplicated on the two compilations, so it's primarily for die-hards. ABKCO has also re-released and adorned with nine bonus tracks 1959's "Tribute to the Lady," Cooke's classically styled homage to Billie Holiday, which has been unavailable since 1960. Though licensing prevents the disc from being sold in North America, it is obtainable as an import.

The ABKCO releases are the first phase of an aural, visual and print campaign intended to revitalize Cooke's legacy. Peter Guralnick, roots-music specialist and author of the acclaimed two-volume Elvis Presley biography, has spent seven years researching Cooke for a forthcoming biography to be published by Little, Brown. Guralnick's extensive liner notes in three of ABKCO's releases offer an enticing glimpse into what will be an exhaustive chronicle.

Guralnick also penned the narrative script for the "Sam Cooke: Legend" DVD. Interspersed with performance footage, television appearances, testimonials and still photos, it's an ideal introduction. Two hours of interviews with contemporaries, including Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls and Bobby Womack, distinguish the DVD from the original VH1 special that aired in 2001.

In December, ABKCO will issue on hybrid SACD the two-disc "SAR Records Story," a 67-track anthology of songs by artists Cooke signed and produced for his own label.

Klein also hopes that ABKCO will eventually be able to partner with RCA and reissue on SACD Cooke's seminal 1963 blues album, "Nightbeat," and "Live at the Harlem Square Club," the sweaty counterpoint to "Copa." Coupled with 2002's superb "Sam Cooke With the Soul Stirrers, The Complete Specialty Recordings" box set, these would make available in newly remastered form every essential Cooke recording.


Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune

lukpac wrote:In case you missed it, they (supposedly) used the mono mixes as a guide for the new stereo mixes. And actually, the mono mixes are probably closer to the recent remixes than the original stereo mixes, as the original stereo mixes had a bunch of echo added.

I didn't miss it; I'm just born skeptical. And, given Abkco's history, very untrusting when it comes to their press releases. I'll pick up the KEEP MOVIN' ON to see if, in fact, they referenced the mono. It is gratifying, however, that they cared enough to go back and redo this one for SACD, rather than just transfer the previous edition to the format.

My point was also that there's room on the disc for the original mono mixes, in addition to the stereo remixes. As I said, the labels(except for Rhino, domestically)treat mono as some sort of curse.

I guess my question would be why would anyone want the edited version anyway?

It was the single version, a good enough reason, historically.

ED

Ed Bishop wrote:I didn't miss it; I'm just born skeptical. And, given Abkco's history, very untrusting when it comes to their press releases. I'll pick up the KEEP MOVIN' ON to see if, in fact, they referenced the mono. It is gratifying, however, that they cared enough to go back and redo this one for SACD, rather than just transfer the previous edition to the format.

For what it's worth, the mixes on Portrait Of A Legend are very similar or the same to the ones on the 2002 Keep Movin' On. Either they used the same mixes or made the new ones just like the old ones. Either way I'd say they sound good.

It was the single version, a good enough reason, historically.

While I might be inclined to give you that in most cases, I don't think an "edited single version" is really justified in this case.

Has ANYONE picked up the DVD release ????

Going to Circuit City and Best Buy, this, was the ONLY thing, aside from the "Portrait of a Legend" CD release, that was in stock at both stores, it seems !

Figures, right ? But this is something we all have to get used to, as the future, is just going to be Best Buy/Circuit City, who have NO clue !

It's nice when they get it wrong sometimes. From allmusic.com:

The Man and His Music

When this 28-song compilation (two LPs/one CD) originally appeared, it was the first serious exploration of Sam Cooke's catalog ever done. What's more, a lot of care went into the selection, if not the packaging — despite the fact that it has no annotation, or even release dates on its 28 songs, The Man and His Music is still the only comprehensive single-volume collection of the hits and highlights of Cooke's career from the mid-'50s to his last sides in 1964. What's more, it's out of print, and it is likely to be the last such compilation that we'll ever see, because in the years since its release, the ownership of Cooke's post-1963 sides (comprising his most advanced and ambitious soul recordings) shifted from RCA to ABKCO, and the chances are next to non-existent that either company will ever license its portion of Cooke's catalog to the other. There are better-sounding collections and better-annotated collections, to be sure, and fuller collections — in 2000, RCA issued The Man Who Invented Soul, a four-CD that goes deeper into Cooke's output from 1958 through 1963; and in 2002, ABKCO issued Keep Movin' On, a single-disc compilation covering Cooke's 1964 sides, including his final hits. But The Man and His Music is the only Sam Cooke compilation that covers all of the major phases of his career, from his gospel work with the Soul Stirrers through all of the early pop hits and his move into soul music, culminating with his final classic soul sides. The Soul Stirrers' classic "Touch the Hem of His Garment" slides effortlessly into and through sides like "You Send Me" and "Chain Gang," to the early soul numbers like "Nothing Can Change This Love," "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day," and the achingly beautiful "Just for You," to "Having a Party" and the wrenching balladry of "Sad Mood," and through to the transcendent final sides, the rousing "Shake" and the Civil Rights ode "A Change Is Gonna Come" (the latter showing up for the first time in decades, and the first of only two times on CD, in its full-length version). There are better collections with all of these songs and more on them, but none handier than this in presenting every facet of Cooke's work — the only flaw, if there is one, is the absence of one of the better tracks off of the Harlem Square live album. — Bruce Eder

Who'd a thunk it?

mikenycLI wrote:Has ANYONE picked up the DVD release ????

Going to Circuit City and Best Buy, this, was the ONLY thing, aside from the "Portrait of a Legend" CD release, that was in stock at both stores, it seems !

Figures, right ? But this is something we all have to get used to, as the future, is just going to be Best Buy/Circuit City, who have NO clue !

My local Best Buy had both the "Portrait" collection and "Ain't That Good News" in the CD racks. I didn't check for the DVD.

I picked up "Portrait," and had a quick listen to the first few tracks last night. I think I'm gonna like this one. Very nice liners as well.

Ryan

Here's a short interview of Steve Rosenthal, Resoration Engineer of the project...

Steve Rosenthal, owner of The Magic Shop Recording Studio in Manhattan's Soho district, is the sound restoration and archive coordinator for the five new CDs in Abkco's Sam Cooke Remastered Collection.
Rosenthal is known to rock music fans as the restoration coordinator on last year's highly acclaimed Rolling Stones remasters which, like the new Cooke discs, were issued by Abkco as dual-layer hybrid SACDs. To folk music fans, Rosenthal is the archivist for the Alan Lomax Collection, a treasury of American folk and blues field recordings.
In this exclusive interview with the Ultimate Sam Cooke Web Site, Rosenthal talks about his work on the Sam Cooke tapes and the process that resulted in what are, by far, the best-sounding releases in the entire Sam Cooke catalog.



Q: I was listening to the new "Portrait Of A Legend" disc last night and it sounds like you were really able to bring these songs to life -- even the old Keen-era masters such as "Wonderful World." Are those tapes still in pretty good condition?


A: Yeah, and that's the wonderful thing about a lot of the Cooke tapes. They've held up really well over time. In terms of the exact tape formula -- what kind of tape they were -- my memory is that some of them were old Scotch, some were old Agfa. Anyway, the good news is that tape from the 50s and tape from the early 60s has held up very well over time. Where you get into trouble is the late 1970s or the 1980s. That's when Ampex started using the scrapings of driveways on Long Island to formulate their tape stock.


Q: I spoke to one of the people at Specialty Records, which put together "The Complete Specialty Recordings Of Sam Cooke" box set, and for that release they apparently used masters from a reissue program of about 10 years ago because they were afraid to go back to the original, first-generation session tapes -- they weren't sure what kind of condition they'd be in. For the Specialty recordings you used on the "Portrait Of A Legend" disc, did you use those original session tapes?


A: Oh, yeah. Jody Klein (from Abkco) got those from Specialty. He took a trip out to California to get them. I'm very, very tough about using first-generation masters. My perspective on that is this: That's where the magic is, and it's my job as the restoration producer to find those first-generation masters. Tape copies are so problematic. You very rarely find a tape copy that hasn't in some way been compromised. Part of my job is to be very cranky when I get tape copies, and I just keep complaining until the first-generation masters show up.


Q: Did you ever strike out in your search for first-generation masters of a song?


A: You know, we did really great. The Abkco team spent years searching to try to find the proper material and really did an amazing job and then came to me with an incredible amount of first-generation masters.


Q: You use the term "restoration" rather than "remix" when it comes to your work. So I gather you saw it as your job to present these songs in the best way possible while using the original records as a guide.


A: You bet. What I used sort of as a guideline were those releases that Sam had something to do with. You know, they went back and got me a whole set of mono singles to use as a reference -- because that's what he worked on. It was only after he passed away that all this reprocessed stereo stuff started coming out. So, to me the restoration job is to bring the material back to the way it was when the artist first conceived it and when the public first heard it. And I think a lot of times that's what gets lost over the years, because people can be very intrusive in how they deal with recordings like this and they tend to put their own stamp on it. And, you know, they say. "Well, I want a little more of this and a little less of that (in the mix)." But I like to go back to the original releases, to where the artists themselves had a hand in these decisions. And I think that's very important, especially when dealing with Sam's stuff.


Q: Well, yeah, he played such a big role in how those records sounded in terms of the production.


A: Oh, he is all over these tapes. He's talking before the songs, talking after the songs, giving people instructions on how to deal with stuff, you know what I mean? He's just all over, talking people through the songs, what he wants, what he's happy with, what he's not happy with. Restoration work is about the details. You cannot let things slip by, you have to very diligent and you can't compromise on the source material you're using.


Q: And there's a certain element of righting past wrongs, isn't there? If you're taking those extra steps, you're setting a new benchmark and re-establishing that standard for how the material should sound.


A: Yeah, when we did the Rolling Stones discs, we sort of exorcised all these reprocessed stereo mixes that had made their way into the Stones' releases. And there were so many of them and they were so abominable. Some engineer here in Manhattan had decided to make a stereo record out of mono recordings, so he put all the low end on one side and all of the high end on the other side and said, "Yeah, OK, now we have a stereo version of some great Stones song." So wherever ugly things like that appear, I feel it's my responsibility to just get rid of them. Some of these things were just rotten ideas, at least in retrospect, and that reprocessed stereo stuff was a really bad idea.


Q: Now, am I hearing this new "Portrait Of A Legend" disc correctly? Is that a true stereo version of "Wonderful Word" you have on there?


A: Yes! That's a stereo tape they found searching through the archives. It seemed to be a much clearer, less processed, less "reverbed-out" version of what was already out there.


Q: Oh, absolutely. Another fan wrote to me today to tell me how impressed he was with the sound you got on "Chain Gang."


A: Oh, so you're hearing good feedback on these? That's good, that's good. You know, just in a general sense, I think Sam is so deserving of a first-class restoration job. I think his material has really been under-rated and under-appreciated by the public and it's time for him to sort of take his rightful place -- a place that is commensurate with his talent. So I'm really happy to have been involved in what I think is a first-class restoration job.


Q: You know, I keep hitting the replay button on my CD player to hear "Another Saturday Night" and "Twistin' The Night Away" again and again. I don't know where you dug up the bass, the bottom end, on those two recordings, because it just wasn't there in all the previous releases.


A: Ah, yes, I need to talk to you about this. We used a new technology to get what is on these tapes. We're using DSD technology to create these new dual-layer discs. The basic idea is this: With this new technology, you are not creating new sounds from what's on the tape, you are actually finally hearing things that were on the tape all this time. Now you're finally given the opportunity to hear these frequencies.
At the front end of the chain is a special analog tape machine, a refurbished Ampex machine with a special set of Aria electronics. And these electronics are what I like to call extended-range electronics. So, if you think about this, it's not that we're adding low end to the recordings, it's just that we finally have got the window open on the low end so you're able to hear what has been on that tape all this time. So when I'm playing back these masters, I'm not adding low end to these things. It's what is actually on the tape -- but until now, we just hadn't been able to play it back for the listener to hear.
So, the way this works, the first step is to find the master. We transfer the master by playing it back through the newly refurbished and rebuilt Ampex tape machines with the extended-range electronics..
Then we transfer (to digital) by using an incredibly high bit-rate analog-to-digital converter and we transfer through this new Sony system that is called DSD, or Direct Stream Digital. With this incredibly higher sampling rate, you get a much, much clearer picture of the analog source material. You can get down to the real low frequencies and capture that. I mean, on a regular 16-bit CD there is a hard cut-off on the low frequencies and on the high frequencies. It's very unforgiving. With this DSD technology, for the first time we can hear this bottom end that is on the original tapes.
And the nice thing about the way this works, with these hybrid discs, is that the discs, of course, can be played in a normal CD player and in a SACD player -- and you're still, even with the regular CD player, getting the benefit of this new technology. You're still getting the benefit of the new transfer, the new filters, the new technology.
Now, the SACD players are not that expensive. I mean, at Best Buy you can get one for $140, $160 now. They've figured out how to get the technology out there at a manageable price. And the one that I have also plays DVDs, as well as regular CDs and SACDs. So, you know, if you're happy now with the sound of these discs in a normal player, when you hear the SACD version I think you'll be about 40 percent happier. (Laughing.)


Q: With the new "Tribute To The Lady" disc, obviously we're dealing with some pretty old material there. The Keen CD that is still floating around in some stores is pretty much an abomination as far as sound quality. Just terrible. I haven't heard the new version yet, but were you pleased with the work you were able to do on that album in terms of improving the sound?


A: Well, with that one, I complained and complained -- I just kept saying, "No, no, no..." -- until they walked into the studio with the actual, first-generation master. And the extended range on that master is really very good. And they did something really fun with that release, they added a whole bunch of extra tracks to it. So it's sort of an extended version of "Tribute To The Lady."


Q: Let's talk about one Sam Cooke song that has only been out there for a year or so, and that's "Keep Movin' On." I was really impressed when that song surfaced last year, because it's not very often with an artist of Sam's stature that you come up with something new of such high quality 35 or 40 years after the fact.


A: Yes, isn't that song terrific?


Q: Yeah, can you tell me anything about how that song was discovered or whether it took much work or editing to assemble it and create the finished version we now hear?


A: No, no, that's the master you're hearing. I didn't cut it, edit it or anything like that. No, that's the master.


Q: Well, that makes one wonder why it sat in the vaults for so long.


A: You know, it's an interesting thing. Sometimes, things get lost. You know, for some reason the artist doesn't like a song, or the record company doesn't like it. Then years pass and you find it and it's almost like buried treasure.


Q: And I assume that's the original instrumental backing for the song we hear on the new DVD's menu screen.


A: Yes. You know, the playing on the Cooke records was pretty extraordinary. And as you said you can finally hear the bass player now.


Q: Tell me about the new "Sam Cooke At The Copa" CD, which you've remixed for 5.1 sound.


A: That was a blast.


Q: I understand there was a real effort made to research the layout of the Copacabana club for purposes of mixing.


A: You bet. I had already done a number of surround sound mixes when we first sat down to talk about this project. I really wanted to come up with a plan with which we could recreate the size and shape of that club so that the listener at home could really get a feel for what it was like to be there. My concept basically was that the listener would be at the front table, sitting about five or six feet from Sam -- they would be, you know, at the high-rollers' table, right? That was the experience we wanted to create.
So I needed to find pictures of the Copa, drawings of the Copa, and I needed to talk to people who had been there and get their recollections of what was on the walls. Oddly enough, there were very few photos of the inside of the Copa. We spent many, many months looking for stuff.
I talked to Allen Klein about the Copa, and he had some great, really clear recollections of the whole couple of weeks Sam was there. I talked to a number of people, and it's funny because different people have very different memories of what it was like. I talked to my sister, who had seen the Supremes and, I think, Paul Anka there. And she had a very different recollection of what the size was and where the stage was. So I spent a lot of time on research.
And then, of course, we remembered that in the movie "Goodfellas" they actually filmed inside of the original Copa. It still existed at that point in time. So we spent a lot of time looking at the DVD, and stopping it to study a frame so we could measure the size of the tables.
Now, I know that may sound totally obsessive, but once I knew how big the tables were then I would know how far back the rear wall was, you know? I didn't want to come up with some kind of phony room ambiance for this thing. I wanted to really try to figure out the room geometry, so I spent a lot of time researching that and the materials that were on the walls so that really the listener today can get as close as possible to what it felt like then to be sitting in the audience.
It may be a little over the top, it may be a little abstract, but I felt that I didn't want it to be just an arbitrary thing where I decided, "OK, well, I'm going to use a reverb effect of 2.4 seconds on this tape because I like the way that sounds." I was not going to do that. I wanted people to feel like they were sitting in the Copa.


Q: And if you were talking to people like Allen Klein, who was there, you were talking to people who, when they heard the finished product, could either tell you, "Yeah, you got it right," or, "No, that's not what it was like."


A: Oh, yeah, we played it for Allen, we played it for (recording engineer) Al Schmitt, and, yeah, they were delighted and really happy. I forget who it was, but one of them told me they could smell the Chinese food!


Q: That had to be gratifying.


A: Well, you know, I don't want to rewrite history. I just want to recreate it so that people can feel it again. That's what I set out to do with that album.


Q: And these were three-track tapes of a couple of shows you were working with?


A: Yeah, there were several shows, but the set-list was pretty much written in stone. It's not as if one night he did a whole different set. There is the one set, but a number of shows that were recorded. One thing I should tell you is that all of these shows -- and actually all of the Sam Cooke material -- has now been archived properly and saved for posterity.
Here at my studio, The Magic Shop, I've developed an archive system to archive the Sam Cooke catalog in three formats. One is this new DSD technology, the second is a Sonic Solutions back-up and the third is an analog transfer. We took the original quarter-inch, 15 IPS (inches per second) analog tapes and transferred them onto 30 IPS, half-inch tapes for the analog back-up.
And, you know, with the Copa, what was interesting was trying to get the surround-sound feeling with only three tracks to work with. Most surround-sound discs are more modern and were recorded on 16-track or eight-track tape, so it was very, very challenging to look for things and grab things in the original recording that you could move around in the surround-sound field. But it was recorded by a master. You know, Al Schmitt is a master, he knows what he is doing and so the material was there and the fidelity was there.


Q: Now, when you talk about archiving these things, are you just archiving those finished tracks now being released, or are you archiving the original session tapes in their entirety?


A: You bet, we`re archiving all of the session tapes, and we're archiving all of the reels of the shows at the Copa. You know, it's really important with tapes that they be properly archived for historical purposes. I don't know if you know this, but besides doing this work for Abkco, I also am in charge of doing all the restoration work on the Alan Lomax collection. I've been doing a lot of work for the Library of Congress and I think we have put out almost 85 CDs now from the Alan Lomax collection. So I approach the Sam Cooke material the same way I deal with Alan Lomax. These things need to be saved for future generations. The tapes have a shelf life and we need to know that 50 years or 100 years from now people still will be able to play these tapes. So I feel a historical responsibility to make sure these tapes are safe. That's part of my job, really.


Q: Anything about this whole Sam Cooke project that stands out in your memory?


A: Well, you asked about "Wonderful World." That had always been one of my favorites, And the moment I heard that tape with the new, clean version of that, was really just amazing to me. You know, to hear Sam do "Bring It On Home To Me," and to hear Lou Rawls on that, the way we hear it now, is amazing to me.


Q: And the stereo tape of "Wonderful World," was that something that was thought to be lost to the ages? I don't know that I ever heard a stereo version of that until now.


A: I think you're right about that. If you listen to these (new) discs and then listen to the stuff that was coming out of RCA over the years, I think these new ones are lot truer to the original intent of the artist. There's a lot less of that sort of reverb gloss that was put on Sam's records posthumously. You know, the artist knows better, and Sam is not around to sort of fight for himself now. But he lives through those original recordings. He lives through the vinyl, because that was something that he dealt with himself.


Q: Now, I can hear you playing Sam in the background there while we talk. After all these months working on these songs, you can still sit down and listen to them for enjoyment? The process of listening to these same songs again and again and again to perfect the discs, that didn't drain the music of any enjoyment for you?


A: Oh, no. I love Sam Cooke. I was thrilled to be able to work on this whole restoration project. It's not like I hear it a hundred times and I don't want to hear it again. It's the opposite. It's like on the 80th time I hear something happening on the hi-hat that I hadn't heard the first 79 times. That helps me to understand why that particular record is so timeless. The more times I hear it, the more I learn and the more enjoyable it gets.
You know what I bought out on the street yesterday? I was walking down the street in Soho, on my way to lunch, and I saw these two Soul Stirrers records and went, "Hey!" They're on Specialty, from the 1970s, but they are really in mint shape. There's "That's Heaven To Me," and the other is "The Original Soul Stirrers Featuring Sam Cooke." They're great. And I got 'em both on the street for 15 bucks. I love vinyl.
And that's the thing with SACD. Finally they're getting CDs that have the warmth of a nice vinyl pressing, but they have the extended dynamic range that vinyl doesn't offer. I think with this SACD thing they seem to have gotten something right.

http://members.tripod.com/clarkkauffman/id34.htm

Yeah, I saw that. Somewhat interesting, but at the same time, typical PR BS. Funny that he says Wonderful World is "less processed", yet for their version they added some type of echo/delay to split one of the tracks.

Overall, he seems to have a healthy attitude about his job, which is reassuring and refreshing for a change.