Sam's legacy is his wonderful voice and interpetation of a song; his exra-ordinary ability to enfuse a pop song with heart, soul and spirit. Not to mention his gospel roots.

This collection is very similar to his previous collection A Man and his Music but I feel it is worthy follow-up and rebranding of the Sam Cooke Legacy. A new genration of listeners will discover Sam Cooke and marvel at his wonderful heart rending A Change is Gonna Come and spiritual Touch the Hem of His Garment.

Sam's voice made standards like Summertime sound different and at times a completely different song. All great singers have this ability to interpret a song and find the diffintive expression. Sam was no exception. I am extremely biased on behalf of Sam Cooke becasue he is the benchmark by which all modern day male vocalist will be and have been judged.

The Spirit of Sam Cooke lives on through this wonderful collection.

Simply inspiring.


THIS SACD REALLY ROCKS   July 27, 2003
 16 out of 23 found this review helpful

This review is for the SACD layer of this hybrid disc, I have not spent much time listening to the CD layer. I have never really been exposed to Sam Cooke from a high fidelity point of view, my only previous experience with Sam Cooke was on the radio, so this disc was a real revalation to me. The only reason that I bought this disc is because I recently bought a surround sound SACD system, so I wanted to purchase a few dozen SACDs to go with the system. This disc happened to be among the group of SACDs that I bought to try out my system. Let me tell you, this disc soon became my favorite SACD to play over and over. The DSD transfer of the original music from the original two track masters was performed by Teri Landi and Rick Essig at The Master Cutting Room, and the DSD mastering was performed by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. The technical attention to detail, as well as the flawless DSD transfer, results in one beautiful sounding disc. Listen to this disc on a decent SACD system, and you would swear that you were right there in the studio with Sam, listening to him jam. And the track listing is phenomenal, traceing Sam's career from the gospel days through the pop days, his voice shines through in every track in such a clean and clear way. If you have an SACD high fidelity system, buy this disc. You will not be disappointed. It must be remembered that this is a stereo only hybrid disc, it has two stereo only layers that can be played on any existing CD player or SACD player, there is no multi-channel mix on this disc.


A Perfect Single-Disc Portrait of Soul Music   January 27, 2004
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

James Brown may be the Godfather of Soul, but Sam Cooke created the genre--and no one has done it better since. His first charting single, "You Send Me," sold two million copies and was a No. 1 pop hit for three weeks in 1957. Cooke would go on to place 29 singles in the Top 40 (including three after his untimely death in 1964), and 22 of them are included on this collection.

For fans who have been lamenting the deletion of the 1986 collection THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC, this new anthology is welcome news indeed. Not only does PORTRAIT OF A LEGEND duplicate all but five of that earlier collection's tracks (including the poignant "A Change Is Gonna Come"), the disc is playable as a regular CD and as a Super Audio Compact Disc. [I don't have an SACD player, but the sound quality on my regualr CD player is nothing short of stunning!]

Fans who were hoping for a generous sampling of Cooke's work with the Soul Stirrers will be disappointed. [And the title which includes the dates 1951-1964 would certainly lead you to expect as much.] However, the only Soul Stirrer's track is the gorgeous "Jesus Gave Me Water," recorded during his first sessions with the group just two months after joining in 1951. {Every other track was recorded between 1956-1964.]

Another plus to this new collection is the informative 32-page booklet. Author Peter Guralnick (who is working on a biography of Cooke) includes an essay and insightful track-by-track commentary on each song. Recording session information is included for every track including dates, producer, and musicians used.

The album closes with an uncredited 32-second interview. The interviewer asks Cooke to hum eight bars to show the listeners what soul sounds like. After he's done, the interviewer states,
"Sam Cooke's yours; he'll never grow old." He's right. ESSENTIAL


Best Cooke collection so far   March 2, 2004
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

The treatment of the music of the definitive soul singer, Sam Cooke, during the CD-era, at least so far, has fallen far short of his contributions. Complicating the situation is the split ownership of his catalog. The now out-of-print "Man And His Music" was a decent compilation of Cooke's charted hits but was deservedly criticized for some poor mastering and resultant less-than-optimal sound quality. RCA/BMG released a much better sounding "best-of" a few years ago but by then the later Cooke tracks controlled by ABKCO were not made available for that piece, leaving it as a frustratingly unfinished career retrospective. This collection is from ABKCO and therefore contains those later recordings but fortunately and ironically, contains the earlier stuff, being licensed from RCA. With all this ownership infighting overcome, we finally get a truly high-quality, well-executed overview of the music of Sam Cooke. From a sampling of his seminal early sides with the Soul Stirrers up through his pop and smooth soul golden age on the charts in the mid 60's, this piece represents a "must-have" for any serious or casual CD collection. The generous 30 tracks in the best sound yet with many in stereo, the exceptions being tracks 1-3,5-7,9,10,15,30, is accompanied by an informative liner notes booklet with info on each of the included tracks. As a collector, due to their inane refusal to license anything they control to other willing CD producers, this reviewer bristles whenever seeing the ABKCO name, but credit must be given where credit is due. And here, Cooke's material gets the treatment it deserves. An absolute must.


WARNING - won't play in your Mac/iTunes   November 5, 2003
 13 out of 27 found this review helpful

When inserted into a Macintosh computer, the computer thinks this hybrid SACD/CD is a blank DVD, and so you can't transfer it to iTunes. Big disappointment!