Description
Offered for sale is a scarce Mobile Fidelity half speed mastered pressing of the 1958 LP Basie Plays Hefti by Count Basie and his orchestra.
About this copy: This copy of Basie Plays Hefti is a half speed mastered audiophile pressing, issued by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs in the early 1980s.
The cover is VG++, with traces of wear at the edges and corners. There’s a discolored area on the front cover where a price sticker was removed. No posterboard stiffener.
The record is M- and aside from a spindle mark or two on the label, looks unplayed.
A nice copy of a terrific record.
Background: Basie Plays Hefti has long been one of our favorite Mobile Fidelity LPs, as it has a big, fat soundstage. It’s a terrific recording, and the material, all written by Neil Hefti, is first-rate, as well.
Tracks are:
“Has Anyone Here Seen Basie” – 2:42
“Cute” – 3:10
“Pensive Miss” – 3:48
“Sloo Foot” – 3:08
“It’s Awf’ly Nice to Be With You” – 3:31
“Scoot” – 2:28
“A Little Tempo, Please” – 2:36
“Late Date” – 3:17
“Count Down” – 2:45
“Bag’a Bones” – 2:42
“Pony Tail” – 3:59
You can listen to the first track, “Has Anyone Here Seen Basie?” here:
Every title ever issued by Mobile Fidelity is collectible in its own right; their pressings from 1978 through 1989 were pressed in Japan by JVC on their proprietary Super Vinyl, an exceptionally resilient, dead-quiet vinyl compound, with later issues pressed in the U.S. by RTI on 200 gram vinyl.
These records were mastered at half speed; both the tape and the cutting lathe were run at half the normal speed, allowing the cutting head to cut a more accurate groove in the acetate. The finished product featured dead-quiet vinyl, with improved dynamics, better imaging, and tighter bass. By their very nature, all of Mobile Fidelity’s titles were limited-edition pressings, and Basie Plays Hefti was limited to an unknown number of copies.
