Various Artists - Newvelle Presents: The New Orleans Collection

 

Newvelle Presents: The New Orleans Collection limited edition vinyl bundle!

Four 180-gram LPs on clear vinyl featuring four new recordings by New Orleans music legends!

Featuring Irma Thomas, Ellis Marsalis, Little Freddie King, and Jon Cleary

Recorded in New Orleans in 2020 by Misha Kachkachishvili at Esplanade Studio

Mixed by Marc Urselli, mastered by Alex DeTurk

Plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings!

Reviews for Going Upstairs (Little Freddie King) and Love is the Foundation (Irma Thomas) from The New Orleans Collection vinyl bundle from Newvelle Records. 180-gram 4LP collection pressed at Quality Record Pressings! — Performance = 4/5; Sonics = 4.5/5 — Fred Kaplan, Stereophile, April 2021

"Little Freddie King, pioneer of electric blues, and Irma Thomas, 'soul queen of New Orleans' were around 80 years old (she just past, he just shy of) when they recorded these albums in early 2020 at Esplanade Studios, once a vast Gothic church, renovated and acoustically treated, in the Crescent City's vibrant Treme neighborhood. They're both in fine, bracing form, their years apparent only in the honed crackle in his voice and the surefooted pace of hers; these characteristics lend the music a grand yet intimate authenticity.

"The King album is pure Delta blues — 'real, real blues' as King puts it in the liner notes ... There's not much to these songs, which have titles like 'Pocket Full of Money,' 'I Used To Be Down,' 'Bad News,' 'Standing at Your Door.' and 'Can't Do Nothing Baby' — the stuff of life and nothing more. King, the cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins and a highlight of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for four decades, sings the songs — and picks their accents and refrains — with a storyteller's zest. The backup musicians, most of them denizens of the NoLa music scene, are stellar in their idiom. It's a spirited delight.

"Irma Thomas is a storyteller too, more in the R&B vein. A contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, Thomas, like them, came up through the church. In a long career, Thomas had moments of near-breakthrough (a Grammy in 2007 for After the Rain; songs featured in Black Mirror and Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law), but she never quite crossed over for reasons I don't understand (Her cover of James' 'Don't Go to Strangers' could easily hold its own.) Her voice spans the registers, but she lingers in the lower-mid, her cadence conversational, her way with a lyric familiar and thorough as if she were singing about her own sagas of love, ache, loss and triumph.

"Both albums sound superb. The musicians — and the room — are right there, every guitar lick, bass pluck and snare sizzle  lifelike in detail and dynamics. The Thomas album in particular tosses up a soundstage as 3D as any I've heard on a record of this sort: The horns and back-up singers are way back there; the air between the players, front to back and side to side, is palpable. The recording isn't "purist." Misha Kachhachishlivi, the engineer and studio owner, told me he used a tube compressor on Hopkins' voice (to avoid overload) and a Roland Space Echo on Thomas's (to give it a touch of early-'60s reverb). But he recorded the session on a set of vintage microphones, added the artificial effects discreetly, and processed it all through a Rupert Neve 5088 analog console. The result sounds natural."

"Yes, this was digitally recorded but if you still insist that means it can't sound great and can't produce three dimensional images, well after hearing this if you're still in that camp, you've got some loose bits. Great microphones, skilled engineering and of course a big beautiful former church are key to the uniformly excellent sound here. ... Alex DeTurk at The Bunker cut the lacquers and QRP in Salina, KS pressed on 180g vinyl. While I’m reviewing this using test pressings, I bought this set without hearing a note and I’m glad I did! It’s well-worth the asking price." — "The New Orleans Collection — Newvelle's Crescent City Excent Adventure" Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com. Read the entire review here.

From jazz label Newvelle Records, Newvelle Presents: The New Orleans Collection features four clear vinyl 180-gram LPs featuring performances by the soul queen herself Irma Thomas, the late joyful jazz pianist and musical mentor to many Ellis Marsalis, the inimitable Delta blues guitarist Little Freddie King, and the wildly expressive funk and R&B pianist Jon Cleary! Recorded in the spring of 2020, (Ellis passed at the age of 85 in March 2020) these four new recordings from the greatest generation of New Orleans artists are produced and pressed with the uncompromising quality that Newvelle fans have come to expect from the label.

The vinyl is pressed at the world-renowned Quality Record Pressings, makers of the world's finest-sounding LPs!

What makes Newvelle so special that discerning audiophiles would want to invest $200 without having a chance to preview these releases? The easy answer is that Newvelle LPs sound absolutely spectacular in every way. Here's their mission statement.

"We set out to build a series of records, of all new music, that cut no corners sonically or artistically. Each year Newvelle records ... records, exclusively on vinyl and with curated artwork and literature. We built a model that treats musicians right and uses the full available canvas of vinyl to make something unique and beautiful."

So, give us the details. What's Newvelle serving up in this special vinyl bundle package? We'll tell you.

The legacy and breadth of New Orleans music is beautifully represented in this limited edition collection of four single-sleeved records on clear vinyl. The New Orleans Collection is a physical testament to the vibrancy of New Orleans music-preserving the legacy of New Orleans for generations of listeners, present and future.

New Orleans Featured Artists

IRMA THOMAS

Returning to the studio for her first album in over a decade, soul powerhouse Irma Thomas is back. With vocals that will sweep you away into a different time and space, Irma Thomas is rooted by her phenomenal accompanying band featuring Preservation Hall Jazz Band pianist Kyle Roussel, Johnny Vidacovich on drums, and the late Alfred "Uganda" Roberts on percussion. Roberts and Vidacovich played together since the late '60s as rhythm partners for many of the '60s and '70s R&B greats, including Professor Longhair.

Providing the brass for the album are Andrew Baham on trumpet, Roderick Pauling on Saxophone, and Terrence Taplin on Trombone. Thomas is supported by vocal backing from Paggy Prine, Sierra Green, and Kyshona Armstrong. And, bridging two great American musical traditions, Paul Defiglia and Stephen Daly join the band to contribute bass and guitar all the way from Nashville.

LITTLE FREDDIE KING

You've never met anyone quite like the charismatic Delta blues guitarist and vocalist, Little Freddie King. Born in Mississippi, King rode the rails to New Orleans at the age of 14, began to study guitar, and soon found himself performing in juke joints across the city. King mastered his craft and recorded the first electric blues album (Harmonica Williams and Little Freddie King) before setting off to tour with John Lee Hooker and Bo Diddley. King is backed by his longtime band members ‘Wacko' Wade Wright on drums and Robert Louis diTullio, Jr. on harmonica. Adding a new element to the music, the album also features the playing of Nashville guitarists Paul Defiglia and Stephen Daly as well as piano accompaniment by Elan Mehler. This project captures the authentic, incredibly raw style that King embodies, but it also expands on his forms of expression with solo, acoustic, and even gospel influence.

ELLIS MARSALIS & JASON MARSALIS

Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis joined Newvelle Records in the studio just a few weeks before his passing in March 2020. This album, his last recording, finds him returning to some of his earliest works. In addition to a few new pieces, Marsalis revisits works from the earliest days of the modern jazz movement in New Orleans. He remembers moments that impacted the trajectory of the genre-such as when Coltrane came to listen to Marsalis and James Black and was blown away by their use of mixed meter. Ellis is joined on several songs by his youngest son Jason Marsalis on the vibraphone, and on one track with special accompaniment by Jason's daughter Marley Marsalis on percussion and piano.

JON CLEARY

Funk, jazz, R&B-these genres are so deeply rooted in New Orleans that it's no wonder the young British pianist Jon Cleary was compelled to move to the city to play. In the early '80s, he was painting the bar at the famous Maple Leaf Bar, where he listened to James Booker play live every week while soaking in the sounds of New Orleans piano greats such as Huey "Piano" Smith, Mac Rebennack, Fats Domino, and Professor Longhair. Now, four decades later, New Orleans has fully embraced Cleary as one of its own. Coming full circle for this recording, Cleary is backed by James Booker's rhythm section — from his last studio album Classified — James Singleton on upright bass and Johnny Vidacovich on drums. They are joined on several tracks by James Rivers, a legendary New Orleans saxophone player who played on many New Orleans funk and R&B classics from Big Chief to Carnival Time.

Customer Reviews (5.00 Stars) 1 person(s) rated this product.

Spectacular posted on 12/15/2020 5 Stars Reviewer: Mark This collection is an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in the New Orleans tradition, or indeed in American popular music in general. This is the real stuff. Fabulous music, incredible recording with a real "you are there" quality. Beautiful pressing by QRP and gorgeous packaging.

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