🎷 AotW: CTI Jackie & Roy: Time & Love (CTI Records CTI 6019)

Jackie and Roy: Time & Love

CTI Records CTI 6019
Released 1972

A1: Day By Day 4:38
A2: Time & Love 2:21
A3: Summer Song / Summertime 4:35
A4: Bachianas Brasileiras #5 4:20
B1: A Simple Song 5:45
B2: Heading 2:47
B3: Lazy Afternoon 4:35
B4: We Could Be Flying 4:40

Arranged By, Conductor – Don Sebesky
Bass – Ron Carter
Bass Trombone – Paul Faulise
Cello – Alan Shulman, Alla Goldberg, Anthony Sophos, Charles McCracken, Lucien Schmit, Seymour Barab
Clarinet, English Horn, Bass Clarinet, Alto Flute – George Marge
Design [Album] – Bob Ciano
Drums – Billy Cobham
Electric Piano – Bob James
Engineer, Mastered By – Rudy Van Gelder
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Alto Flute – Phil Bodner, Romeo Penque
French Horn – Jimmy Buffington, Peter Gordon
Guitar – Jay Berliner
Harp – Margaret Ross
Liner Art – Gerrie Blake
Organ – Pat Rebillott
Percussion – Airto Moreira, Phil Kraus
Photography By – Pete Turner
Piccolo Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Flute – Hubert Laws
Piccolo Trumpet – Marvin Stamm
Producer – Creed Taylor
Trombone – Garnett Brown, Wayne Andre
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Alan Rubin, John Frosk, Marvin Stamm
Viola – Alfred Brown, Emanuel Vardi
Violin – Bernard Eichen, Charles Libove, David Nadien, Elliot Rosoff, Emanuel Green, Felix Giglio, Harold Kohon, Harry Cykman, Harry Lookofsky, Irving Spice, Max Ellen, Max Pollikoff, Paul Gershman, Raoul Poliakin
Vocals – Jackie Cain, Roy Kral

Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, June 1972


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[Harry]

I had written this long post back in October of 2019 upon my discovery of this album's charms. I'll repost it here but you can also find it in this older thread:

Time & Love - Jackie & Roy

TIME & LOVE Jackie & Roy Arranged and Conducted by Don Sebesky CTi 6019 Recorded: June 6-8 and 20, 1972 Released: 1972 Track listing (each song linked to YouTube): 1. Day By Day (Stephen Schwartz) (4:45) 2. Time & Love (Sebesky/Meehan) (2:28) 3. Summer Song / Summertime...

forum.amcorner.com

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• “This is not a jazz album, nor is it a rock album,” wrote (Rex) Reed about TIME & LOVE, “but it beautifully delineates Jackie and Roy’s unique grasp of both musical forms…If there is such a place as Heaven, this is the music played there; it is a journey into inner space, peaceful, verdant, and beautiful, not like anything you’ve ever heard before. And it’s the best album I’ve heard all year. – Taken from the liner notes to the CBS Records reissue on CD in 1988.

In the past couple of weeks, it got a mention in a thread in the Sergio Mendes forum, and I began to think about it. Since I was on vacation at the time, my only source was YouTube, where virtually all of the tracks are found. So I gave it a listen on some down-time, which told me that I’d needed to seriously revisit it once home. So, that’s where my head has been at in this past week or so. The title track I must have heard before, “Time & Love”, as it’s found on one of my old reel-to-reel recordings of songs I liked from the old radio station that I listened to before I worked for them. But it was a quick appearance and disappearance as the record is only vaguely familiar to me all these years later.

My album is a promo version, rescued from a discard pile. It has a hole punched through one corner, has white labels and the words “Radio Station Copy” printed on each label side. “VAN GELDER” is stamped in the runout grooves, and overall the disc is in excellent shape.

OK, so who the heck are Jackie and Roy? They were a married couple (Jackie Cain and Roy Kral) who were active from the 40s on. They were essentially of our parent’s generation, kind of an early melding of a married, Steve & Eydie-type duo, and The Carpenters with some of their overdubbed harmonies, with a dash of Brazilian and other jazz influence at times. Their released albums spanned from the late forties through the nineties. Roy, a piano player/singer/musician/composer, passed away in 2002; Jackie, a singers’ singer, left us in 2014. Roy’s vocal talents perfectly complimented Jackie’s range as they mirrored each other an octave apart. Jackie had a nice vocal range and was always accurate and on-key. The duo performed for years in Las Vegas. In fact, if you are ever watching the 1960 episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE called “The Fever”, you’ll see a billboard for the Thunderbird Hotel listing “Jackie & Roy” at the opening of the episode.



As our member “lj” mentioned, Eumir Deodato was so enamored of Jackie Cain’s good looks and talent, he wrote a song for her called “Jackie, All”, found on two A&M CTi records from George Benson and Walter Wanderley.

After having worked with Creed Taylor earlier, the duo recorded this album, TIME & LOVE for the CTi labelin 1972. Reportedly, they recorded a lot of their basic vocal tracks first and then Don Sebesky went to work fleshing out the arrangements and orchestral accompaniment. In many ways, this album reminds me a bit of the Michel Colombier WINGS project that Herb and Lani worked on for A&M. In fact, “We Could Be Flying” from that very album finds its way here as the final track on the LP.

So what’s the hook here? That’s hard to say. This album may not be for everyone. It’s a bit of a conundrum as to what it wants to be. Is it jazz? Is it pop? Is it classical? Is it contemporary Christian? As I said, the title track, “Time and Love” actually got airplay on the Philadelphia MOR station I listened to. It’s an odd track to have been picked as the single from the album (CTi OJ-11), as it didn’t exactly fit in with the 1972 recorded landscape. This is not the Laura Nyro composition of the same name, but rather one by Don Sebesky and Danny Meehan. After a gentle first verse statement of the melody, the orchestration takes over and places Johann Sebastian Bach’s melody known as “Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring” as the foundation for the rest of the track. Herb Alpert fans will surely know that one from his CHRISTMAS ALBUM. So is this jazz? Not in many ways for sure, and the fact that it fit on an MOR radio station in 1972 says, “No”. Maybe pop/MOR/classical? Well, label-mate Deodato was having success with his single based on Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” in 1972, too.

Let’s look at the rest of the tracks on the album. Starting Side One off on a familiar note is “Day By Day”. This is the Stephen Schwartz-composed song from GODSPELL. It was an oft-performed track back in those days and showed up on a number of artists’ albums. This version starts with a gentle orchestral overture. Jackie then introduces the melody slowly with a heavy dose of reverb. Roy then joins in as the track picks up a bit of speed and energy. Two minutes in things turn jazzier for the heart of the recording. Then the opening slow motif repeats till the end. Pop/jazz?

“Summer Song / Summertime” starts with Paul Desmond’s alto sax infusing the track with a little jazz cred. Then a vocal unison with Jackie & Roy taking over until another instrumental break led by Paul Desmond. The duo comes back with some wordless harmonies, leading to an a capella restatement of the main song in an overdubbed stacked harmony reminiscent of what the Carpenters were doing at the time. A classy track all the way. Jazz/vocal?

“Bachianas Brasileiras #5” composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos sounds like it could be at home on a classical recording disc. Jackie does the solo wordless vocal along with Phil Bodner’s flute for much of the track, with an English verse in the middle. Classical/pop?

“A Simple Song” – This is a section of a Mass composed by Leonard Bernstein and is the track on this album that has totally grabbed me. I’d never heard this before, and as I was dubbing the album to CD-R, I caught a bit of the song and wondered what the heck this religious-sounding thing was, and what it was doing on a jazz/pop recording. Starting like something one would hear in church, Hubert Laws then takes over the melody and Jackie & Roy echo with sumptuous harmony vocals. Again, Hubert Laws solos, this time in a jazzy setting, and the horns join in as the thing takes flight. Harmony vocals take over merged with Don Sebesky’s soaring strings. Now we’re in goosebump territory, and then the track returns to its simple roots. Contermporary Christian/jazz/vocal pop?

“Heading” was apparently the b-side to the “Time & Love” single. This is a Cain/Kral composition. Some nice harmony vocals complement Sebesky’s arrangement. Pop/MOR?

“Lazy Afternoon” begins with Jackie’s sublime “oohing” a capella before Sebesky’s gentle arrangement takes over. Orchestral/bop?

“We Could Be Flying” is the capper to the album and the arrangement is similar to the Michel Colombier track on WINGS with Lani Hall’s vocal. Jackie does a good job and Roy adds a bit of harmony help at times. Pop/classical/jazz?

Liking the album as much as I do, I decided I wanted it in its best form, and for me that’s likely a CD. My LP is pretty good, but there’s a hint of “s” sibilance on the inner tracks, so I began a search for what CDs were released, if any, over the years.

It appears that Columbia/CBS did a series of CTi releases in the late 1980s that would be the initial CD issue of this recording. One was released in the US and a companion on the Epic label came out in the Netherlands at the same time.

It then appears that King Records in Japan re-released CDs in both 2002 and 2006 and finally in 2013 they put out a “Blu-spec” CD of the album. “Blu-spec” is one of those Japanese sub-formats that are supposed to sound better than regular CDs. This one is supposed to use Blu-ray encoding laser equipment to make what is essentially a standard CD. CDJapan lists it at a very reasonable price. In fact with some bonus points I had, the shipping was virtually free. I’ll post more about that version when it arrives.

My first CD ordered is the first one issued on Columbia from 1988. This one has some interesting differences. One is that it includes two bonus tracks: “Tapestry”, the Carole King song, and “Tomorrow’s Dream”, a Roy Kral song. These two songs were recorded during the same sessions but I suppose missed the final cut because of time. Creed Taylor and Rudy Van Gelder were sticklers about having a record album sound the best it could.



One other interesting difference comes on the track “A Simple Song”. It’s a good 45-50 seconds longer on this CBS CD. My suspicion is that it was edited for the vinyl album, probably again as a timing thing for vinyl. All is the same until the track gets to the jazzy/instrumental middle section where the CD has a few more measures. Then when it gets to my “goosebump” moment, one phrase repeats about six more times than on the LP. That’s OK by me!

It’s always fun to discover a “new” old album that you really like. Hopefully this post will lead a few others to the joys of TIME & LOVE by Jackie & Roy.

 

[rbisherw]

Thanks for posting this..
Never heard if them and off to find this CD.

 

[Harry]

I'm sure you can probably find a used disc at a reasonable price, but new ones seem to be rather pricey. Must be out of print. If you can find it, I recommend the Japanese Blu-Spec version. It uses the original mix whereas the Columbia CK CD is slightly remixed. But both have their good points.

 

[Rudy]

I have a theory on the sound of some of the CTI albums but can't hash it out here on a phone. Not a remix, but strange compression used on the LP mastering that could have ended up on some reissues.

 

[Rudy]

I bought the Speakers Corner reissue of Stone Flower and was disappointed--it had an overly-compressed/limited quality to it that was not present on the CD. I chalked it up to Speakers Corner using some strange master tape. I later scored a used copy of the 45-RPM 2-LP ORG (Original Recordings Group) release and it sounded like the CD. I compare the two vinyl versions here:



Fast forward a few years, and I got Paul Desmond's Skylark on SACD. Not the best sounding recording, but this was about as good as it would sound. I had the LP version but honestly probably played it only once. Before the road trip, I cleaned it and gave it a spin--this is on an original CTI pressing.

Wouldn't you know it, the LP has that same overly-compressed quality as the Speakers Corner vinyl reissue. I'll have to post a comparison once I get a free minute. It's very apparent on the "Take Ten," as you hear the cymbals pushed really hard with compression on the LP.

So CTI was doing strange things during the LP mastering phase. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Jackie & Roy CD releases suffered the same fate. The Japan CD probably used an original 2-track master or copy thereof, where the "CK" series Columbia reissue grabbed whatever tape was convenient at the time, which was probably the LP production master (the copy sent to the facility that cut the lacquer for US release). That was one drawback of the early CD era--the labels wanted to cash in on CD's popularity, quality be damned, and would grab any tape available. I doubt it's a remix on the CD. The compression used would emphasize different instruments as quieter ones are pushed to the forefront, and any loud or "lead" instruments would get flattened out. One of these days I might find a way to compare the two.

I'm not about to buy up a bunch of CTI original pressings to see which of them sound compressed. It's possible this was applied only to certain albums, or to a series of albums in the sequence of releases. I had thought of getting a few favorite titles in clean/sealed vinyl versions but it's not a priority.

I will say that the Grover Washington Jr. Soul Box Pt. 2 I own is not compressed at all--the LP and CD releases sound the same. The 180 gram Freddie Hubbard LPs also do not have the compression--they sound quite good and likewise match the digital versions I have.

 

[Harry]

There's definitely something different about the CBS CK CD versus the Blu-spec CD from Japan. As a little experiment, I did an OOPS comparison of the song "Summer Song/Summertime". The song starts with a unison vocal from Jackie & Roy. When OOPSEed, the CBS CD cancels out the main vocal, BUT it leaves a reverb-y after-effect.

On that same section on the Blu-spec, I get a near pure cancellation without any echoe-y after effects.

The same applies to Paul Desmond's sax solo. Echoe-y on the CBS oopsed, but mostly canceled on the Blu-spec.

So it sounds to me as if the engineers/masterers at CBS added a bit of a reverb trail off to one or both sides of the stereo.

As a final comparison, the LP's tracks (a white-label promo), when OOPSed, the vocals disappear without any reverb-y trails, just like the Blu-spec CD. Same with Desmond's solo.

Finally, the difference in the length of "A Simple Song" confirms that something different occurred in the CBS mastering. The song is some 50 seconds longer - and as many of the CBS CK discs do, it has bonus tracks.

 

[Rudy]

Ouch. That sounds nasty.

Was this the oddball version?



Don't know why, but Columbia did some weird things to some of their reissue CDs from that era. I remember some of the first releases in their Columbia Jazz Masterpieces series had such heavy noise reduction that the music often sounded like it had a blanket over the quieter parts. (Miles Davis's first few titles in that series were a bit nasty. Titles a few years later sounded much better.)

I'm going to guess it was some strange mastering decision--add some digital reverb. A shame, because without the reverb and (on some titles) the added compression, the recordings sounded fine as-is right off the master.

 

[Harry]

Yeah, my go-to for digital has been the Blu-spec CD, but I do like the added section to "A Simple Song" on the CBS.

 

[lj]

Here is a favorite of mine--by the great Jackie and Roy--their rendition of the Beatles "The Word." One other thing--Jackie sure looks pretty.