(Smooth Jazz, Soul-Jazz, Jazz-Funk) Walter Beasley - Walter Beasley - 1987, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Walter Beasley's self-titled 1987 debut for Polydor Records offered this new talent on the smooth jazz block as a triple threat: Beasley showed himself not only to be a talented saxophonist, but a fine songwriter and vocalist as well. Though he was deeply influenced by the late Grover Washington, Jr., Beasley took that inspiration far and wide. One need go no further than the album's opening cut, "I'm So Happy." Beasley's soulful vocals and alto saxophone are right up in front of a female backing chorus, a stylist drum loop, crisp synths, and a catchy guitar hook worthy of Eric Gale or Cornell Dupree (though it's played by Freddie Fox). Add to this some Chic-like handclaps and dreamy keyboards, and nursery rhyme refrains with saxophone swirling in the bridge, and you have a bona fide crossover hit. It's a hell of an introduction for Beasley as a modern soul vocalist and songwriter, and he wrote or co-wrote all but two of the album's nine cuts. Preston Glass and Kenny G wrote the following cut, "On the Edge," but Beasley's technical gift on the soprano sax is what's on display here. Kenny G may have written it, but his own chops don't hold a candle to the killer soul, in the pocket rhythmic sensibility, and overall arrangement with the loops and spiraling funky keyboards in this version. Other standouts on the set include the romantic gospel/soul ballad that is "Call Me," the funky "Back in Love Again," and the tough swagger and strut of "Nothin' But a Thang," that was a club favorite and a subsequent single. While it's true that Lionel Job's production sounds dated in the 21st century, most everything that came out of the smooth jazz genre from that period does: the packed compression on the keyboards and drum programming are a dead giveaway to the era, as are the stacked vocals. That said, this is one of the shining lights of the entire period, and it's easy to see why this music became a juggernaut commercially. Beasley stands out as a giant of the genre because he set his own watermark so high. The emotion on this set is clear, and the grooves are timeless. This is a very impressive debut by a player who arrived on the scene fully developed.

REM DATE 1987
REM DISCID 720A4709
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4"
PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
TITLE "Walter Beasley"
FILE "01 - I'm So Happy.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "I'm So Happy"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "On The Edge"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 00 04:39:60
FILE "02 - On The Edge.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "03 - Call Me.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "Call Me"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "Jump On It"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 00 05:13:24
FILE "04 - Jump On It.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "Back In Love Again"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 00 03:57:15
FILE "05 - Back In Love Again.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "Tenderness"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 00 05:12:56
FILE "06 - Tenderness.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    TITLE "Nothin' But A Thang"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 00 04:18:52
FILE "07 - Nothin' But A Thang.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 08 AUDIO
    TITLE "Where"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 00 05:01:68
FILE "08 - Where.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 09 AUDIO
    TITLE "I'm So Happy (12' Remix)"
    PERFORMER "Walter Beasley"
    INDEX 00 05:09:72
FILE "09 - I'm So Happy (12' Remix).wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 18. March 2010, 15:59
Walter Beasley / Walter Beasley
Used drive  : HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22NP20   Adapter: 0  ID: 0
Read mode               : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache      : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction                      : 102
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
Used interface                              : Installed external ASPI interface
Gap handling                                : Appended to previous track
Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 320 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : No
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s
TOC of the extracted CD
     Track |   Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector
    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  |  0:00.00 |  4:41.40 |         0    |    21114
        2  |  4:41.40 |  5:06.15 |     21115    |    44079
        3  |  9:47.55 |  5:15.05 |     44080    |    67709
        4  | 15:02.60 |  3:58.69 |     67710    |    85628
        5  | 19:01.54 |  5:14.35 |     85629    |   109213
        6  | 24:16.14 |  4:20.33 |    109214    |   128746
        7  | 28:36.47 |  5:05.10 |    128747    |   151631
        8  | 33:41.57 |  5:11.53 |    151632    |   175009
        9  | 38:53.35 |  4:58.07 |    175010    |   197366
Track  1
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     Copy CRC 34BF090B
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [AA9D0BE9]
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Track  2
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     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [F737C904]
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Track  3
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     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [F48A726D]
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Track  4
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     Test CRC 9A7AFDD3
     Copy CRC 9A7AFDD3
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [A92DDD52]
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Track  5
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     Copy CRC 22AEBE68
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [7316BB44]
     Copy OK
Track  6
     Filename D:\music\Musicgate's rips\Walter Beasley - Walter Beasley (1987)\06 - Tenderness.wav
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     Copy CRC FA23A86E
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [712673E9]
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Track  7
     Filename D:\music\Musicgate's rips\Walter Beasley - Walter Beasley (1987)\07 - Nothin' But A Thang.wav
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     Copy CRC 733DA6FC
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [87308DF0]
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Track  8
     Filename D:\music\Musicgate's rips\Walter Beasley - Walter Beasley (1987)\08 - Where.wav
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     Copy CRC E4C980B5
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [AB8A5731]
     Copy OK
Track  9
     Filename D:\music\Musicgate's rips\Walter Beasley - Walter Beasley (1987)\09 - I'm So Happy (12' Remix).wav
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     Copy CRC E364904A
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [5FFA7A29]
     Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report