Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sam Cooke: Classic Late Night Soul , Best-Ever Sound, March 13, 2006
As the late, great critic Robert Palmer wrote in the liner notes to the 1995 edition of "Night Beat," this beautiful album is something of an anomaly in Sam Cooke's career, which evolved from the Soul Stirrers' classic gospel through a series of mostly terrific hit singles (see "The Man and His Music") and a pair of very different live albums (get the "Harlem Square Club" set) and his own record label (which issued sides by Bobby Womack and the Valentinos, Johnnie Taylor, and many others, collected on the excellent "SAR Records Story"). Until shortly before his death in December 1964 the market for Cooke's music would have been almost exclusively a singles market, but by then the artist had become aware of Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, and as "Night Beat" reveals would certainly have adapted to the emerging emphasis on the album as artistic statement.
"Night Beat" was recorded over several sessions in February 1963, with a small group including guitarists Rene Hall, Barney Kessell, and Clif White, the legendary West Coast drummer Hal Blaine, organist Billy Preston and pianist Ray Johnson.
The material combines original adaptations of r & b and blues classics as well as new material by Cooke and longtime partner/mentor J.W. Alexander. Cooke's musical and vocal conception is utterly fresh and original, so this is never quite a blues set nor a soul album in any conventional sense. What it remains more than forty years after Cooke's death is compelling and hauntingly intimate. "Night Beat" has a timeless aspect, even more than some of the artist's finest pop single productions, and more than hints at the emotional depth that would dazzle and resonate so convincingly on "A Change Is Gonna Come" (from his 1964 album "Ain't That Good News"). "Night Beat" is to my ears Cooke's most consistent studio work.
Others have complained about this marvelous 2005 master. In fact, the tape hiss is evident simply because it IS such a fine transfer (by Bob Ludwig, who also did a superlative job on the Rolling Stones' Abkco and Virgin remasters). To remove it, as was done on the 'cleaner' 1995 edition, would also remove and distort subtle musical and vocal information. I wholeheartedly recommend the 2005 edition, a great improvement over the earlier CD. You will be in the room with Sam and his fine band. (And, as a bonus all of the artwork from the original front cover has been restored as well.)
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Sam Cooke = ESSENTIAL music, April 16, 2008
... I would prefer to shut up and just have you listen to this (but then you wouldn't have a review, so here we go).
There never was and probably never will be another singer like Sam Cooke. His terrific voice, his unsurpassed ability to bring feelings across, even in those pre-video days, pre surround and what not days, just through old radios and vinyl, is pure genius.
This album has "just" 12 songs, a few musicians and then of course The Voice, Sam Cooke. As the title suggests, mostly slow tunes, somewhere between blues and gospel, with a piano (or organ) as main support. Sam never needed more. A very personal recording, as if sung just for you.
Sam Cooke knew exactly what he wanted and as far as I can judge he was his own best critic.
Barney Kessel on guitar, Ray Johnson piano, Billy Preston organ, Clifford Hill bass, Hal Blaine drums.
This blew Ray Charles away - you need better advice? Get it!!!
(one small note on the different editions: as long as you buy one that has 12 songs and Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen as a first and Shake Rattle And Roll as the last you're on the safe side. I have both the 01 and the 05 edition. One has a little more tape hiss and the other one a slightly less prominent instrumentation. Personally I prefer the 05 one mastered by Bob Ludwig)
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest Soul LP?!, December 5, 2005
When Norman gave me this CD to check out, he said that the perosn who gave it to him (An archivist/Photographer named Casey) Said 'This may just be the greatest Soul LP...'
Big words, and, as you can imagine, with so many contenders for the title, I decided to let the music do the talking. ANd what a rap she lays down! Sam, as the other reveiwers rightly state, is commercially known for many a soppy 'Boy meets girl' chart track, but just a look at the titles on this tells you something special lies herein. He worked with the Soul Stirrers Quartet, then crossed over to secular music, tired of the endless Gospel Highway. he knew exactly where he wanted to be, and no amount of cursing from church folk was gonna hold him back. Much the same treatment came to Ray Charles when he first fused Saturday night and Sunday morn.
It's like walking into a smokey joint downtown, the bluesy house band kicks in... but its Sam who's waltzing the mike onstage!
His voice, a perfect juxtaposition of rough and smooth.
'Nobody knows the trouble I've seen' was adopted as a standard in Jazz, and he goes right into the roots of RnB with Joe Turner's Shake, Rattle and Roll in inimitable style... and the other tunes just smoldour and groove away, no filler.
I keep playing it over and over, and in turn I love it and his voice more and more. There's a reason this cats so revered in the scene, this and the Harlem square Club live Disc are the reasons why.
Of course, this is not the 'greatest' Soul Lp. There's no such thing, only a collective and seamless whole that just evolves and mutates. It's is ONE of the greatest, though!
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~ Sam Cooke
~ Sam Cooke
~ Sam Cooke
~ Sam Cooke
by Sam Cooke 
