“Baden Powell Swings with Jimmy Pratt”
Elenco ME-4, 1963
Jorge “Jorginho” Ferreira da Silva, Copinha (fl)
Moacir Santos (sax, vcl)
Sandoval (cl)
Sergio Barroso (b)
Jimmy Pratt (dr)
Rubem Bassini (perc)
unknown piano playerProduction: Aloysio de Oliveira
Direction: Jimmy Pratt
Production Manager: Peter Keller
Studio: Philips of Brasil
Sound Engineer: Norman Sternberg
Recording Technician: Celio Martins
Cover Layout: Cesar G. Villela
Photos: Francisco PereiraGuitar Model: Author 3 by luthier Reinaldo DiGiorgioAlso issued as: Developments (LP, 1970)
O Mestre do Violao Brasileiro (CD-Box, 2003)
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Flabbergasted Vinyl Transfer Specs:
Original Elenco (ME-4) pressing -> Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable / Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge / Pro-Ject Speedbox power supply -> Creek OBH-18 MM Phono Preamp -> M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard. Recorded at 24-bit / 96 khz resolution to Audacity. Click Repair on very light settings to remove some clicks and popsm, some manual click removal using Audition. Track splitting in Adobe Audition 3.0. Dithered to 16-bit using iZotope M-Bit noise-shaping. Converted to FLAC and mp3 using DbPoweramp. ID tags done with Foobar2000.
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I don’t know anything about Jimmy Pratt other than he plays the skins on a whole bunch of jazz records from the 40s and 50s, having done sessions with Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Oscar Pettiford, Bud Shank, and Anita O’Day. Busy guy. But this record may be one of the most famous he played on. Partly because he essentially receives co-billing on the marquee with Baden. But also he was, in a way, in the right place at the right time to really connect with the Bossa Nova explosion.
From the back cover:
“When the drummer Jimmy Pratt was in Brazil accompanying Caterina Valente, he heard Baden play guitar like everyone that was exposed to Baden’s art, he was profoundly enthusiastic. The enthusiasm provoked the idea for this recording. And from the recording was also born a friendship and mutual admiration between the two artists. ‘Baden Powell Swings with Jimmy Pratt’ is a tribute from Baden to his friend and American colleague.” – Aloysio de Oliveira
The observent among might notice Mr. Pratt apparently did not make the photo session for the album or else closely guards his image against potential feitiço and witchcraft.. He is absent from the shots taken in the recording studio, unless we are looking at the back of his head in the shot where Vinicius de Moraes appears for no particular reason — it’s an instrumental record bereft of his lovely lyrics, he didn’t play anything, and he only has a writing credit on the very first tune, ‘Deve Ser Amor.’ Anyway, I find it amusing.
In the photo to the right of this we see Baden playing into a Neumann U-87 microphone, and looking like he wants to walk into the control room and slap somebody. I’m not sure why because it’s a great-sounding recording.
Fantastic playing from everyone involved, including Moacir Santos who contributes his own compositions, Coisas No.1 and Coisas No.2. It`s the clarinet, however, that really slays me on this record: while doing the vinyl transfer and processing, I swear I listened to Coisas No.1 about ten times in a row at one point. When you hear it you will know why. There is nothing groovier on earth.
Sweet!Superb blog!Thank you.
Many thanks. great share!
I always thought, Pratt is the clarinet player…;-))
You say it was the first album issued by Elenco, although it's ME-4, ME-1 being Vinicius e Odette Lara. That's interesting, can you name a source for that fact?
hey porco rosso! I found that "fact" on a German website that seemed to have some rather accurate information on the album, but I too thought it was very strange that Elenco would begin their catalog with the #4. I've changed the description accordingly. (The Odette Lara album is here, coincidentally! I should have caught this!)
You don't by any chance know where I can get a complete listing of the Elenco discography? Ruy Castro's book 'Chega de Saudade' used to have a pretty thorough vinyl discography in the appendix, but he "improved" it buy completely getting rid of it and substituting a CD discography instead. You can imagine how I feel about that. One of these days I will track down a used copy of the first version or at least make some photocopies of the relevant pages…
Update — I went back and found it, I got it from this site here
http://www.brazil-on-guitar.de/home.html
Many thanks for the reply.
There used to be a website about Elenco here:
http://www.bizarremusic.com.br/elenco/elenco2.htm
But it's either temporarily unavailable or offline.
The other source i'm aware of is here:
http://www.bossa.net/elenco/index.html
Albums are sorted by number, so this is quite well-arranged. Not sure if this is a complete list, though.
I have only the 'improved' version of Castro's book, so i can't help you out whith that ;-))
Beautiful. The rip ist also great. Thank you!
Hi,
long time since someone has answered here. Can you re-up the FLAC version? The mp3 can be found in many places, but for this great music it really should be good sound too! I would be so greatful!
Best regards from snowy Austria!
This was one of the first vinyl rips I had ever done, and it was mistakenly in 16-bit thanks to a bug in Audigy wherein people thought they were recording in 24-bit, but in fact it was 16-bit with 8 padded bits of nothing. I haven't restored the link because I have wanted to redo the whole thing. I have a better set-up now etc. I'll try to move it to the front of the que.
Muito obrigado! Thank you!
Hello,
I do not want to push you…but I am hoping each day that now the new FLAC of this record will turn up!
How far is it from the front of the queue?
Best regards
http://freetexthost.com/5aacvuuye2
Oh man, what a great album this is. I am a huge fan of Baden Powell and this one goes on the top shelf of the Powell pantry for sure. BP has many great albums where he is the focus and the star but he is also such a great team player as here. For me, Baden gets more esteemed with every album I hear from him. There is palpable clarity and authenticity present throughout and this has instantly become one of my favorite Bossa albums. Thank you Flabbergast!
saravá!
Thanks a lot!