John Coltrane Quartet Ballads UHQCD

Although some critics found Coltrane's ballads too easy, there is nothing wrong with this album. The jazz saxophonist does what he always did: with a tireless will to develop personally as well as artistically, he explores new modes of his playing. On Ballads, he emphasizes its gentle side - a path he took with Johnny Hartman and Duke Ellington. This collaboration with McCoy Tyner is neither aggressive nor outward-looking. Coltrane is quite by himself, sometimes predictable, and yet these are the merits of the album.
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 are cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to protect the softer photopolymer against scratches. The combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an incomparably precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with normal CD players. Musically, this results in a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.
The discs offered by Universal Japan are additionally coded MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). If you output the digital signal from the digital output of your CD player or the previously ribbed data stream of your music server to a corresponding MQA-DA converter, you can generate a 24 bit signal with up to 352 Khz sampling frequency from the CD data.
The current UHQCD series is based on the DSD data of the Single Layer SHM-SACDs released by Universal Music Japan in the years before. Thus, the UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close to the sound of the recording as possible, but do not have a SACD player.

Musicians:

• John Coltrane
• McCoy Tyner
• Jimmy Garrison
• Elvin Jones

Selections:

1. Say It (Over and over Again)
2. You Don't Know What Love Is
3. Too Young to Go Steady
4. All or Nothing at All
5. I Wish I Knew
6. What's New?
7. It's Easy to Remember
8. Nancy (With the Laughing Face)