I’ll get right to the heart of it: this is one of the most gorgeous records I’ve ever heard, musically and sonically.
It’s aptly titled: the music of Sweet Caress by Franco Ambrosetti and Strings is sublime, reminding me of the great 1950s and 1960s soundtracks by Henry Mancini and others. And the sound, whether heard in stereo or immersive audio, is ravishing.
Sweet Caress (Enja 9852) can be seen as flugelhornist Ambrosetti’s follow up to Nora, his previous collaboration with pianist/arranger Alan Broadbent, as both feature Broadbent’s string arrangements. The music is luxuriant, and for this listener, captivating. The album mostly features originals by Ambrosetti, along with covers of jazz standards like “Soul Eyes,” “Portrait of Jennie,” and others. Ambrosetti is accompanied by musicians of remarkable caliber, including Broadbent, John Scofield on guitar, Scott Colley (bass), Peter Erskine on drums, and Sara Caswell (violin, concertmaster).
Franco Ambrosetti and Strings, Sweet Caress, album cover.
The album was recorded at Sear Sound in 7.1.4 at 192 kHz/24-bit by Jim Anderson, with assistance from Steven Sacco. It was mixed for stereo by Anderson with assistance from Ulrike Schwarz at Studio L at Anderson Audio New York. The 7.1.4 mix was done at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, CA, with Dann Thompson helping. The stereo was mastered by Greg Calbi of Sterling Sound, and the immersive audio mastering and authoring was done by Morten Lindberg at 2L studios in Norway.
I listened to the stereo mix on my home audio systems, based around PS Audio aspen FR10 and Audience ClairAudient 1+1 V5 loudspeakers, and in immersive audio at the James Anderson Critical Listening Room at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in New York. My systems are really, really good. The Clive Davis system was simply extraordinary, utterly mind-boggling and easily one of the best audio systems I’ve ever heard. That system included PMC IB2-XPD AII loudspeakers, and PMC wafer 1 and wafer 2 in-wall/in/ceiling speakers for the surround and height-channels. The playback was via a ProTools HDX system.
In all three systems, the tonality sounded excellent to me, and unequivocally so on the superlative Clive Davis setup. Using the standard audiophile cliché descriptions like “deep, authoritative bass,” and “musical midrange,” and “airy highs with no trace of grain or stridency” simply does a gratuitous disservice to the absolute rightness of the sound. (Though they’re all true.) Sweet Caress is one of the most beautifully-recorded albums I’ve ever heard. The soundfield in stereo is wide and spacious, and in immersive audio, it’s breathtaking, not in an exaggerated way, but in the sense of really feeling like you’re there in the room with the players.
The sound of a fluegelhorn is distinctively warmer and richer than a trumpet, and Ambrosetti’s playing is wonderfully captured, front and center. John Scofield has a clean, straight-ahead guitar sound, yet not the “jazz plonk” that so many jazz players use – his tone has an upper-midrange clarity that lets us hear every nuance of his touch, including some very subtle vibrato. As Scofield told Copper’s John Seetoo, the core band recorded their parts first, with the orchestra overdubbed later, so the musicians had to leave space and anticipate where the orchestration would fill in. Yet the arrangements and soloing all fit impeccably with the band and with Ambrosetti, to create a beautiful sound. As he says in the liner notes, “The dream continues – another record with strings. Why? Because the sound of strings, woodwinds and brass, together, surround you completely. Like a caress, the waves of music go into your soul, leading you to a different attitude, influencing what you play.”
Franco Ambrosetti at a recording session. Courtesy of John Abbott.
Broadbent’s piano is a mellower-sounding instrument that fits perfectly with the rest of the band and the orchestra, both sonically and in the way it ties the orchestra and the core band together. The music is melodic, yet it doesn’t shy away from some extremely sophisticated harmonic voicings and tonal colorations. The music simply unfolds.
I suppose I should point out a few particulars of the sonic delights of Sweet Caress. The fast ensemble string playing at the beginning of “Portrait of Jennie” is subtle, but crucial to setting up the mood of the song, and might be lost on a lower-resolution system. When the woodwinds come in, it’s just sublime. Scott Colley’s bass has a tangible sense of body and complexity. Years ago, the late Art Dudley once said that playing tracks with acoustic bass should be outlawed at audio shows, since it was the easiest instrument to use in a demo to make speakers sound “impressive.” I think he’d make an exception for this record – the stand-up bass is so realistically conveyed that I’m sure it would put a smile on his face.
The subtle reverb/room sound is just right. I don’t know if this is the actual room sound, or an effect. I don’t care. The instrumental balances are also really just right.
Musicians at the recording session for Sweet Caress. Courtesy of Jim Anderson.
Interestingly, Ambrosetti doesn’t play on the title track; Sara Caswell takes the lead on violin, and she just soars. I should note that if you’re looking for flashy playing, look elsewhere, though the music on Sweet Caress is far from easy to play. This music plays at the pace at which it wants to be heard, yet dazzles as much as Scofield’s fusion work with later-period Miles Davis, or Heifetz’s virtuosity, or the harmonic beauty of Bill Evans. (In fact, I think Evans would have loved this album.)
When Ambrosetti plays with a mute, it’s a very different sound than a muted trumpet – fuller, deeper, with less “quack,” if you will. It’s a more pleasing sound to my ears. At the beginning of “Old Friends,” the woodwinds are deep. I hear a bass clarinet in there, one of the coolest instruments invented by Man if you ask me, and its rich sonority, though in the background, is unmistakable. Throughout the album, Peter Erskine serves more as a percussive colorist than your typical “swinging” jazz drummer. Sometimes you might not realize he’s there unless you listen carefully, but the music wouldn’t be the same without his presence. The entire album has subtle dynamic shadings, but you can really hear the music “breathe” on “Colors of the Wind.”
Though it has a “style,” the timeless quality of Sweet Caress ultimately goes beyond genres to become transcendent. This is music making at its purest and finest, presented in magnificent sound.
Header image of Franco Ambrosetti courtesy of Henry Schulz.
