Getz/Gilberto Impex 1STEP 180g 45rpm Stereo 2LP (2024)

Getz/Gilberto is probably my favourite non-classical album. Right up there with The Dark Side of the Moon, a couple of classic Sinatras and Miles’ Kind of Blue. My history with the album goes back a long way. My father, a professional tenor player and disciple of Stan Getz, had a copy soon after its 1964 release and would play it for us constantly during our time living in Malaysia and Germany. I grabbed a copy when we moved to Canada in 1969 and played it endlessly. That Italian pressing followed me back to England when I studied there and back home to Montreal, then to Toronto, and finally to Victoria. The record was now pretty useless with wear—time for an update.

As my love for the best pressings/performances of favourite albums has grown recently to obsession, I figured I’d be getting the Analogue Productions 45 rpm 2011 release remastered by George Marino. It took some time and I purchased the Marino only recently (33 RPM version from 2020) specifically as comparative vinyl for this new IMPEX 1STEP review. I have not heard the 1994 MoFi cut by Ken Lee or Kevin Gray’s 2007 Speakers Corner reissue.

As always with Impex, you get top production values for $129 (USD MSRP). 1 STEP process on 180g 45rpm double LP and pressed on VR900-Supreme Vinyl. Most importantly, it was mastered from the original analog master tapes by Bernie Grundman. If you want to get into the weeds about the provenance of this famous recording (and the tapes), head to the Steve Hoffman Music Forums for a crazy dive into the 50 or more different recuts, East Coast/West Coast remasters, mono/stereo, original tape/copy tape, Marino/Gray/Lee reissues, Astrud’s channel placement, Getz’s reed spittle and key sound and on and on and on.

Never mind, enough to begin that this exquisite new Impex production comes in a super-luxe "Monster Pak" Jacket with a superb, informative 36-page booklet and tactile, yellow outer slipcase. The release is strictly limited to 7500 numbered pressings.

My records arrived flat, with labels and spindle holes centred. You can see how professionally the set is shipped here.

This new version of the record was sanctioned by the Getz Estate, specifically by his devoted widow Monica and son Nick.

The lineup includes Stan Getz on tenor saxophone, João Gilberto on guitar & vocals, Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano, and Sebastião Neto playing bass (incorrectly credited to Tommy Williams on the original and reissues: source), with Milton Banana on drums. Astrud Gilberto is on vocals.

All smiles. From L to R: Stan Getz, Milton Banana, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Don Payne, João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto at A&R Studios in New York in March 1963. Source and photo credit: https://www.jazzwax.com/

Tracks include:

Side One:

1. The Girl from Ipanema

2. Doralice

Side Two:

1. Para Machucar Meu Coração

2. Desafinado

Side Three:

1. Corcovado

2. So Danco Samba

Side Four:

1. O Grande Amor

2. Vivo Shoando

3. The Girl from Ipanema (MONO bonus track)

4. Corcovado (LIVE bonus track)

Notice the final two numbers, both all-analog bonus tracks; an alternate mono 7" mix of "The Girl from Ipanema" and a live recording of "Corcovado" from Carnegie Hall (I did not listen to the bonus tracks for this review).

I want to thank Abey Fonn of Impex Records for providing a pre-release copy to Audiophilia. The 1STEP will ship on March 8, 2024.

The famous cover art is the work of Puerto Rican artist Olga Albizu.

The original recording was engineered by Phil Ramone at his A&R Recording Studios in New York. It was produced by Creed Taylor. The recording was for Verve Records. This is the stereo version.

Legend has it that getting everybody into the studio to make this follow-up after the unexpected success of Jazz Samba (500,000 copies with Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd) was challenging—egos, personalities, you know. Getz/Gilberto was an even bigger hit, selling over a million albums, and won three 1965 Grammy Awards for Best Album of the Year, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group and Best Engineered Recording—Non-Classical.

One short anecdote before I get to the sound. When I was studying in London, my English family would take regular holidays in Wales, a six-hour run on the M4 from London. I had the G/G cassette. We wore the damn thing out over my five years of travelling, playing it so much that I would use the tape, specifically Getz’s extended solos, for ear-training practice—attempt to sing back the solos exactly with correct phrasing and jazz inflection. For classically-trained me, what jazzers call a “legit player”, it was a tough ask. But I know the album better than most in my collection. That’s why I was so stoked to hear the news from Impex, one of my go-to companies for the very best in vinyl reissues.

Sound

Much like Steely Dan albums, where some in the vinyl community wax endlessly about the original “audiophile” recording quality, it’s the same for Getz’s Bossa Nova phase. I’ve never been that impressed with either Jazz Samba or Getz/Gilberto's original recording quality—too veiled and romanticized with a lack of transparency and top and tail extension (from Chuck Granata’s superb, comprehensive notes, seems all involved with the recording were chuffed to bits about the quality at the time).

Granted, Steely Dan’s recent UHQR Bernie Grundman remasterings of their albums have launched them to classic audiophile status. Amazing work by Bernie. Great recuts can do that. On reputation, the three other “star” Getz cutters (Kevin Gray, George Marino and Ken Lee) have reportedly restored much of the clarity missing on the original (including correcting the reversed channels error of the original). So, does Grundman catapult Getz as he did with his latest UHQR Steely Dans?

Much of the talk on the various forums is about the state of the original master tapes (Using the original analog master tapes and no computers at all, Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering sought to keep the sense of space and tone on the master tape intact without unnecessary embellishment).

Maybe this hype sticker/SPARS will put all the corporate obfuscation to rest? Yes, please! Well done, Impex.

The 1STEP Process:
The Impex 1STEP process relies on short, tightly controlled runs that require a new lacquer after each 500 pressings. This unforgiving format has the lacquer skipping the regular father-mother process, going right to a single convert and then pressing. Though this dramatically increases mastering and production costs, it also assures each run is more consistent from disc to disc, with less noise, clearer details and deeper bass.

Reducing production complexity to just a single "convert" disc between the lacquer and the press greatly improves groove integrity, diminishes non-fill anomalies and increases signal integrity from the master tape to your system.

Further, because of the state of the tapes and in the name of transparency and clarification, IMPEX includes a technical note regarding tape choice, etc.

From the opening few bars of “Ipanema”, you know you’re in for a special listening experience. Gilberto’s opening “bling blong” sound effects are clearer and more focused, and his guitar is better situated and precise in the soundstage, which feels wider and deeper with the “top and tail” lack of extension gone. This sounds like an “audiophile” recording in the best sense. But with all the immense musicality intact. Where Marino’s is a strong effort to rid his pressing of some of the veiled soundstage and get some clarity to the bass, Grundman’s recut gives you more. It sounds like a naturally recorded LP. Not a salvage.

Bass has thump and Milton Banana’s intricate drumming is nicely forward in the mix. This is a full sextet with collaboration only the best musicians can muster. Previously, I’ve always thought of it as a Getz vehicle with a talented Brazilian guitarist and his wife.

What I love throughout all four sides are the colours heard from Getz’s playing like never before. Sure, he’s a master of breath control and tone manipulation through reed pressure and articulation, but here every subtlety is captured. Nothing goes amiss. What was it Coltrane said about Getz, "Let's face it, we'd all sound like that if we could." Be sure to listen to the reed slaps in “Doralice”, remarkable fidelity. I wonder if Stan realized just how one day these techniques would be heard? While at “Doralice”, yes that’s a crystal clear snare drum you’re hearing.

Rhythmically, the new recut is superb. Far superior to those I’ve heard before. Much like Jazz Samba, the original Getz/Gilberto percussion/bass seemed to be an afterthought—way back in a murky mix. My pristine Japanese pressing of Jazz Samba does not solve the problem. It was not as bad on the original Getz/Gilberto, but I always found the drums and bass far too back in the mix and Antonio Carlos Jobim sounds like he’s playing a toy piano. On “Para Machucar Meu Coração” you still won’t confuse Jobim’s instrument as a Steinway Concert Grand, but it is fuller and richer than before.

And the remaster is a paean to the beautiful Portuguese language and all the wonderful, sexy sounds the master João Gilberto delivers. No wonder Bossa Nova took the world by storm.

Producers Fonn and Donnelly are scrupulously honest about the “Ipanema” dropout, the bass distortion on “Corcovado”, the reversed channels, etc. As I listened many times, I never felt those very minor things altered my enjoyment. Not one bit.

Any song you choose can be labelled a classic, but I always end up with “Corcovado”. It has great meaning for my family. My brother and I chose my father’s favourite Getz track to be played at his funeral. The great Astrud invoked simplicity and sophistication in one voice, singing “Floating on the silence that surrounds us … And a window that looks out on Corcovado, Oh, how lovely”. Then, the Getz sound in all its glory takes her beautiful singing and transcends to something truly heavenly.

As such, the new Impex will give you everything you ever dreamed of in this remastering.

Very highly recommended. And congratulations to all concerned.

GETZ/Gilberto 1STEP
180-GRAM 45RPM 2LP SET | Stereo

CATALOG: IMXLPO6041-1
MSRP: USD 129.99

Pre-order at Impex Records (No financial affiliation).