Sam Cooke - Night Beat [Green Holland Import]

Night Beat is Sam Cooke with the lights turned low, and this limited edition presses his 1963 blues masterpiece on 180-gram green vinyl as a Dutch import.

By the early sixties Cooke was a pop star with a string of polished hits, yet he never lost the gospel fire he had carried over from the Soul Stirrers. Night Beat was his chance to step away from the strings and the chart formula, cutting a set of blues and spirituals over three late-night sessions at RCA's Hollywood studios with producers Hugo & Luigi.

The band is small and the mood is intimate. A teenage Billy Preston adds church-soaked organ, Barney Kessel's guitar curls around the melodies, and Hal Blaine keeps the pulse barely above a whisper. "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" opens the record with aching restraint, while "Little Red Rooster" struts on Preston's wry organ lines. "Trouble Blues" sinks into slow-burning heartbreak, and "Shake, Rattle and Roll" closes things with a sly grin.

Cooke's phrasing is the star throughout, unhurried and conversational, every note placed with total confidence.

It remains the record that shows what he could do when nobody was asking for a hit, and a quiet-hours favorite for anyone who loves soul at its most stripped back.