“Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra” 70th Anniversary LP and Hybrid SACD from Impex Records

Alan, our sincere thanks! We're so glad you love this release so much...

 

I just watched the interview above. As a result, I've ordered the lp. Thanks for your dedication to Frank's legacy!

 

Chuck, your write-up and the whole design of the accompanying booklet is truly special. Please convince the powers that be to allow more high quality Sinatra Vinyl from the master tapes. All the albums deserve a premium treatment.

 

45 RPM Audiophile… Special Guest: Abey Fonn Founder of Impex Records

 

Thank you, Bob. That's an interesting video and it's great to see the passion and commitment of Abey Fonn to produce gold standard vinyl records but I must admit I laughed out loud at one of her closing statements. Of course, this needs to be taken in context as we know what she's really saying but I couldn't help thinking some vinyl enthusiasts would be face palming themselves with a statement inadvertently endorsing the superiority of CD:

"If you want perfect sound buy the CD and put it in your CD player".

"Perfect sound forever"?

 

Yes, the founder of Impex made that her concluding statement, though she added the word "flawless" when describing why someone might select the CD/SACD.

I decided to open up a still sealed first pressing of Ring a Ding on Reprise the other day, and was disappointed to find a serious flaw in the first track. Unopened for about 60 years, but defective.

 

I‘m in.
This reissue is just amazing. The Legacy issue Swing and Dance ... was great too, but the sound on this SACD is terrific.

 

Markus, our thanks! We're glad you love it!

 

My copy of Sing and Dance just arrived. 1684/5000

Stereo is warming up, mono turned on and have a couple cold ones getting ready in the fridge. To say I'm excited to hear this baby, would be quite the understatement!

 

@TheVinylBuck what do you think of that AT cart?

 

Cannot wait to read your review @scotti !

 

I'm stunned. The transparency of this recording coupled with dead quiet vinyl is incredible. I know it's overused but I feel like I'm "In the room" control room in this instance watching ol' blue eyes recording these songs.

 

Many thanks for the extremely generous comments on the 'Sing and Dance' package. As you can glean from Abey's interview segment above, creating a well-crafted product is a team effort, and selecting the team's members for their individual knowledge, skills and experience is paramount to achieving the goal. Then, direct collaboration and supervision of each phase (conception, design, mastering, manufacturing) by the appropriate team member ensures that exceptionally high quality standards are met. The process doesn't happen in a vacuum; it takes commitment, trust and obviously costs more in terms of financial investment, time and effort. The results can't be beat and are beyond worth it to those of us who attach our names to the work. The biggest factor separating the ordinary from the exceptional is simply not 'settling.' In this instance, Bob Donnelly and Chris Bellman made numerous lacquer tests before we decided on whether a specific cutting setup (tube vs solid state) brought out the best tone and detail in the recording. Once it was decided that the tube system had the best qualities overall, Donnelly and Bellman put in extra effort to tweak the cutting further, to deal with areas of concern (which they ultimately negated). Finally, three rounds of test pressings were made and auditioned separately on a multitude of home systems by Abey Fonn and Bob Donnelly (in LA) and Andreas Meyer, Martin Melucci and me (in New York). A final (fourth) TP indicated that our aggregate comments were on point, and that we had the best sounding LP cutting possible.

I guess the point of all this is that the characteristics of what you're hearing, on the LP and CD, aren't anything mystical, magical or elusive. It's possible to attain this level of quality with any decent recording, IF you're committed to nothing less than exceptional quality, AND you're invested in and willing to do the job properly. I'm sure you can tell that I'm proud to be affiliated with IMPEX. There's good reason for that: the philosophy of the IMPEX team aligns with my personal philosophy: "If you're not going to do the job right, don't do it at all."

Thanks for listening!

 

And, a nice review of the album from All About Jazz...

Frank Sinatra: Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra album review @ All About Jazz

 

Thanks, Doug! Robert Sliger is the designer whose extraordinary talents grace the gorgeous booklet in the Sing and Dance LP. Although he's a young man, he has an amazing love for retro design, and translated the authenticity and integrity of the period in which these recordings were made in such a beautiful way! Although I was involved in the process from day one, I can't explain how knocked out I was when I received the first jacket and booklet from the printer. All of Robert's brilliant touches - such as the glossy yellow ink on selected artwork - literally jumped off the page. I've seen (and been involved in creating) some nice packages through the years; THIS one is a true work of art that stands on its own - as an equal to the music - and that is due to Robert Sliger!

Although I haven't come up with another project just yet, we do have more Columbia recordings in the vault that would merit the luxurious IMPEX treatment, and hopefully they can be realized as time goes on. In the meantime, I'm happy to be contributing liner notes to a couple of upcoming IMPEX projects, which they will announce in due time...

 

My LP arrived from Acoustic Sounds today, a few days ahead of schedule.

I have to say, not only is the sound as nice as everyone says, the packaging is very impressive. I was pleased to see that it’s a nice sturdy gatefold that didn’t neglect to include the hefty booklet that SACD buyers mentioned. It’s unfortunate to be one bonus track short (uncontrollable limitations of the format), but other labels probably would have skimped on the literature for LPs as well. It’s also very nice to have a resealable outer sleeve included. This is a rare record where I don’t feel inclined to immediately replace any inners or outers.

A bang-up job, I honestly can’t believe it was only $35. Consider me a new Impex fan.

 

Greg, our sincere thanks! We're glad you love it.

As Chuck noted above, we had gone through a lot of test pressings, etc., and part of that involved experimenting with the length. We could not make this record any longer within a single LP than we did and not hurt the sound quality in some way, especially with it being tube cut, which all of us agreed was very complimentary to our final 30 ips 1/2" analog tape master that Andreas, Chuck and I worked on. The sound of the tube driven system that Chris and Bob so expertly utilized lent a very pleasant glow and shine, without losing transparency, etc. All of us agreed, both us three here in NJ/NY, as well as Chris, Bob, and Abey in California, this was preferable to our attempts with cutting it solid-state. So we elected to leave that one bonus track off the LP vs the hybrid disc as we felt it was more important to have the quality as you hear it on the final pressings than have one more track and compromise the sound in any way.

 

My SACD has been in Indianapolis since the 29th.

 

Received my LP copy yesterday and I'm blown away. I wish I had ordered more copies for friends.

 

We're so glad you like it, Michael! Our thanks.

We hope Frank would have loved this release...

 

I haven’t hooked up the AT cartridge yet...will do that this weekend. I also ordered a replacement 5e stylus for my ortofon and listed to the lp with that...sounds great!

 

We're so glad you like it, Buckley!

 

I got my copy cleaned and decided to spend time admiring the packaging first, and the cost of only $29.75. Just a stellar job with it. Then on to the booklet, WOW! For a moment I thought I noticed some embossed lettering used, nope, just my imagination, ha! Read through the pages and enjoyed the pictures throughout, when I finished, I was like well worth every penny and then some. So I put the booklet back in the sleeve and took the record over to place with the rest of my Sinatra albums and remembered I still needed to listen to it. I got lost in the beauty of the cover/booklet.

So after reading all of the nice raves about the sound, I was expecting something pretty special here. Holy smokes, the sound on this is way beyond pretty special. Absolutely stunning, breathtaking, however you want to describe it, simply blew away my expectations in every way imaginable!

After I listened to the first song, I had to stop for a second and take a deep breath. Did I just hear what I thought I did, the soundstage is off the chart incredible. After the first side was over, I had to crawl my way out of the black hole I just got sucked into and realized I still had side 2 to listen to.

What can I say but thanks to the wonderful folks at Impex, for producing records with such love and care that give us music lovers a listening experience like this!

And a special shoutout to @Bob F for starting this thread.

 

Scotty, thank you so much! We're so glad you love it!

 

Has anyone gotten their SACD shipped from Acoustic Sounds?