The Forward Look

℗© 1981 Reference Recordings, Box 77225X, San Francisco, CA USA 94107 All Rights Reserved Recorded by Prof. Keith Johnson December 31, 1957 Mastered at half speed by Jack Hunt, JVC Cuccing Center Pressing by Japan Victor Company, Tokyo https://referencerecordings.com Publishers: A2: Love & Smiles Music - BMI A3: Mills Music - BMI B1: Ecaroh Music - BMI A rare true UHQR pressing of Red Norvo’s The Forward Look, released by Reference Recordings in 1982. While not released until the early 1980s, Red Norvo’s The Forward Look was actually recorded in the late 1950s. (The cover says December 31, 1957, though others disagree.) The recording of Norvo’s vibraphone-based jazz combo was recorded by Keith Johnson on a homemade tape recorder. It’s a great recording that captures the intimate club setting well. The album’s release by the small audiophile label Reference Recordings involved multiple pressings and quite a bit of confusion among collectors, because many of the copies of this record that are labeled as UHQR are actually mislabeled regular pressings. Reference initially released the album as a standard 33 1/3 pressing, pressed by JVC in Japan on their proprietary “Supervinyl” compound. The label then had the album cut at 45 RPM and arranged for JVC to press it on 200 gram Supervinyl using their flat-profile UHQR process, which allows the needle to more accurately track the groove. This copy of The Forward Look is a true UHQR pressing of the album, cut at 45 RPM and pressed on 200 gram heavyweight JVC Supervinyl. It comes in a standard cover with a sticker that says “UHQR 45 RPM”.