Album Notes

There is a reason people will always go on romanticizing about listening to "old jazz records." The sounds are tender and powerful and human and magic all at the same time. TorCH is jazz. Swing standards done the standard swing way: Smokey, sexy vocals over sweet, simple arrangements with emphasis on the mood and feel of the song. Jazz is good


Here's more if you're interested....This is by the producer, Brian Beattie:

One of the things I find most charming about mid to late 50's american jazz is the beautiful, almost magical confluence with the music and the recording technology. An upscale american jazz recording session in say, 1957, would really be a relatively simple affair. A few musicians, maybe a couple of german tube microphones and a couple of american ribbon mics, a tube mixing board and a tube reel to reel recorder, most likely an ampex. But when the musicians were hot, and the producers/engineers could keep up with them, the results were no less than staggering.

Torch is a casually mighty group. They play the standards they choose with such ease that it takes a moment to realize how "right" they sound.

That sound is straight out of 1957, with none of the cuteness or irony that mars many modern folks attempts at playing old style jazz. In Torch's hands, the songs are all alive and breathing.

When Seela asked me to record them, I jumped at the chance to use some of those old tried and true recording methods perfected almost half a century ago.

We used tube and ribbon microphones, a tube mixer and a rebuilt tube reel to reel ampex 351, the workhorse machine of the late 50's. The musicians all stood together in a room and made music. The sound they made, and the way it was captured on tape was a lovely and eye opening experience for me. I'm honored to be able to share it.
Enjoy Torch. (It ain't hard to do!)

Brian Beattie
Austin, TX