Andy Duncanson And The High Cross Sound — May 2021 Chicago, Illinois

Finding an original pianist who can front a jazz trio and not sound like myriad others is a daunting task. How many jazz pianists have a fresh voice? Well, Reggie Thomas does. His soulful, hard-swinging brand of piano immediately grabs the listener, imparting joy and a positive energy. Ballads? Yes, he also plays those flawlessly and does so in in this outing. Joining Mr. Thomas is a veteran rhythm section with Dennis Carrol on bass and George Fludas on drums. Dennis and George both support and complement Reggie’s piano artistry with excursions of their own. The result is a masterful trio creating exquisite music. The performance was captured with the finest custom (tube) and vintage microphones including a pair of legendary cardiod AKG 414 EB’s on piano, two AKG ULS’s on drums and a single AKG ULS on bass, directly to a highly modified Studer/Revox 8-track master recorder. The result is an audio and musical gem.

Where technology meets art

Andy Duncanson And The High Cross Sound — May 2021 Chicago, Illinois

This is IPI’s first pure Chicago Blues release, a wonderful performance of down home blues. And to add to the excitement this will be the first in a series of tapes that are recorded multi-track but mixed down to a two track master right in the session, creating a two track master on the fly in real time. That is, the music is being mixed down to two tracks as the musicians are playing in the studio. No post session EQ, compression, mixing, etc. The result is fresh spontaneous sound done in a wonderful studio atmosphere. The name “High Cross Sound” will denote this in the future, recorded by engineer Anthony Gravino of High Cross Sound. But without the wonderful musicians and their authentic blues performance it would mean nothing. In this case both the sound and performance came together to produce an electric result.