Tony Williams

Spring Tony Williams Japan Import edition

“Spring” is the name of the brilliant and innovative second album recorded by the 20-year-old Anthony ‘Tony’ Williams as leader for Blue Note. The drumming wonder took part in famous sessions for the label at a young age and quickly became a sought-after studio drummer. As with his debut album “Life Time”, Williams did not rely on interpretations of well-known standards but exclusively on his own compositions. Williams, who was also a member of Miles Davis' second great quintet at the time, is supported on by an outstanding band: saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Sam Rivers, pianist Herbie Hancock and double bassist Gary Peacock use the space Williams gives them to demonstrate their boundless talent and extraordinary musical originality. 

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series” Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for Blue Note US's analog reissues such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited Japan UHQCD with OBI stripe. The original recording session for “Spring” took place on August 12, 1965, at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

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 cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan's first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.