Frank Sinatra – Sinatra at the Sands [Stereo] (Mobile Fidelity GAIN 2 Series Half-Speed Mastered Edition)

(AAA) — Lacquers cut from the original analog master tapes at half speed by Rob LoVerde at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.

Frank Sinatra Sinatra at the Sands on Numbered Limited-Edition 180g 33RPM 2LP Set from Mobile Fidelity: Audiophile Pressing Recorded at Copa Is Out of Print

1966 Live Album with Count Basie and Quincy Jones as Good as Music, Performance, and Chemistry Get

1/4" / 15 IPS analog master to analog console to lathe

Frank Sinatra. Count Basie. Quincy Jones. Las Vegas. This combination of performers and venue just don’t get any better. And by every measure, Sinatra at the Sands is as good as music gets. Comprised of live material recorded during five nights in early 1966 at the famed Copa Room, Ol’ Blue Eyes’ 21-song album stands as one of his pinnacle achievements, the results a blend of superb chemistry, sparkling arrangements, infallible singing, and contagious energy. As part of its continuing series of essential Sinatra recordings, Mobile Fidelity is proud to offer the record in definitive sound. Listeners will be transported to a table close to the stage, with the image of a tuxedo-clad Sinatra unfolding right in front of them.

By 1966, Sinatra had conquered the world. His tenure as a teen idol and maturing crooner behind him, he was confident, assured, focused, and quite simply, untouchable. Music’s top arrangers and composers came to him, knowing the magic that he’d bring to their labors of love. It’s for these reasons that Count Basie and his orchestra backs Sinatra here, and why Jones, in demand by everyone, chooses instead to lend his arrangement insights onstage at the Sands. Indeed, Sinatra at the Sands harkens back to the day’s when concerts were a true event, and the album is nothing short that promise. This is a happening you won’t want to miss.

Containing many of Sinatra’s most well-known and celebrated performances--“I’ve Got a Crush on You,” “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)” among them--Sinatra at the Sands finds the entertainer in immaculate voice. He improvises lines with effortless and ease, casually adorns lyrics with hidden rhythms, stretches notes to instill meaning and emotion, and utilizes his impeccable knack for phrasing to turn a line and beget instrumental responses that complement each song’s mood. Meanwhile, Basie and Co. swing on uptempo numbers and lay back on melancholy tunes that still bring a tear to the eye.

Warner Bros. executive Stan Cornyn, writing about these very shows, observed that, doing more than sing, “Sinatra turns actor. The man whose broad’s left him with some other guy and all of the loot…And there is silence about, for this audience is watching a man become that last lucked-out guy at the bar, the last one, with no where to go but sympathy city.” And so it goes, Sinatra proving it’s the singer and the song, demonstrating a seemingly unlimited range as he transports you to saloons, romantic parks, lonely streets, and bustling cities. Everything—the pacing, structure, passion, interpretation—is perfect.

Mobile Fidelity has half-speed mastered this exquisite analog set from the original analog master tapes. Clear, big, and sumptuous, Sinatra at the Sands now resonates with previously unheard details, transparency, imaging, projection, smoothness, and dimensionality.

"Mastered from the original analog tapes by Rob Loverde, the Mofi vinyl is more dynamic, carries a richer tonal palette, and removes a layer of grain from Sinatra's voice that can be heard on the original Reprise. The Mofi's soundstage is wider than the Reprise, with sound that extends well beyond the width of the speakers, and its presentation is more detailed--as woodwinds, brass, and strings can easily be differentiated from one another in the mix. This is simply the best that this material has ever sounded--and a must-have for any serious fan of Sinatra."
--My Vinyl Review Blog, September 2010

(Above description from MusicDirect.com)