Live At Bernie’s

Thousands of albums of all types have been mastered at Bernie Grundman’s studios in Hollywood. But pianist Bill Cunliffe’s Live At Bernie’s is the first to actually be recorded there. Bernie Grundman Mastering, long a shrine to sound engineering, was transformed for this occasion. The waiting room was converted into a studio. A nine foot Hamburg Steinway, signed by the magnificent Sergei Rachmaninoff interpreter Ruth Laredo among others, was brought in for Cunliffe to play. Because the set was recorded live to disc, at 45 rpm no less, Cunliffe’s trio recorded each 15 minute side consisting of two or three numbers straight through, without breaks between tunes. Most were done in single takes, according to Cunliffe. “It was very challenging,” he says. “There was no room for mistakes and, obviously, no editing. If we did make a mistake, we had to throw the lacquer away and start over.” (In addition to the analog recording made for vinyl, the date was recorded digitally with Sony’s Direct Stream Digital process (DSD) for both Super Audio (SACD) and regular CD release.)