Anthony Williams: Life Time UHQCD

Blue Note, 1965

UHQCD Japanese import. Specially remastered from originals by Kevin Gray. Presented in a UHQCD jewel case with obi-strip and the original sleeve notes. Catalog Number: UCCQ-9737.

The precocious and prodigious drummer and composer Tony Williams had already joined the Miles Davis Quintet and participated in numerous landmark Blue Note recordings including Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles, Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch, Andrew Hill Point Of Departure, Jackie McLean One Step Beyond, and Grachan Moncur III Evolution by the time he recorded his own adventurous debut album Life Time in August 1964, when he was still just 18 years old. Williams had no intention of playing it safe on his maiden voyage as a leader and set forth to document his uncompromising expression on this program of innovative original compositions. Side 1 presents the expansive two movement suite “2 Pieces of One” with the drummer joined by tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers and bassists Gary Peacock and Richard Davis. Side 2 opens with the jaunty “Tomorrow Afternoon” featuring Williams, Rivers, and Peacock. Williams plays a variety of percussion on the freely improvised “Memory” which features Herbie Hancock on piano and Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone, and lays out entirely on the ruminative piano-bass duet “Barb’s Song to the Wizard” performed by Hancock and Ron Carter which closes the album.

UHQCDs reproduce the sound of original master tapes as faithfully as possible by utilizing new transfer technologies and improved materials to produce high-quality sound with a better representation of the whole stage. UHQCDs comply with CD standards and can be played on existing players.