Rhino returns with the next installment of high-quality quadraphonic releases. Unavailable in quadraphonic audio for nearly 50 years, four iconic titles have been digitized from the original analog four-track Quad mixes – Donny Hathaway’s Extension Of A Man, Hot Tuna’s Burgers, Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly, and Seals & Croft’s Summer Breeze.
Quadraphonic sound, or 4.0 surround sound, utilizes four audio channels connected to four speakers positioned at the corners of a listening space. The multi-tracked audio is mixed dimensional, immersing the listener in an expansive soundscape.
The collection is available today as a Blu-ray disc with a quadraphonic and 192/24 stereo mix. Currently exclusive to Rhino.com and select Warner Music Group stores worldwide, each title retails for $24.98, with a bundle of all four available for $79.98. Order HERE.
Donny Hathaway’s final studio album, Extension of a Man, released in 1973, was a collaborative effort with renowned musicians Stanley Clarke (Return to Forever), Fred White, Al Kooper, Billy Preston, and many more. The album featured the transcendent track “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” which featured lyrics from Hathaway’s close friend and manager, Edward Howard.
Hot Tuna’s Burgers, released in February of 1972, marked the distinction between Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady’s work with Jefferson Airplane. The band’s debut studio album is filled with acoustic folk rock and electric acid rock gems like “Water Song” and “Highway Song” featuring David Crosby. “By this time, we had worked in the studio with Jefferson Airplane for more than half a decade, but this was Jack’s and my first chance to give studio substance to the music that had been growing acoustically in hotel rooms and onstage with Hot Tuna.” – Jorma Kaukonen
Roberta Flack’s 1973 Killing Me Softly was dedicated to jazz multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The double platinum album featured the popular title track, which won the Grammy® Award for Song of the Year in 1974, and a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.”
Seals & Croft’s 1972 commercial breakthrough, Summer Breeze, included chart-topping folk-rock hits “Hummingbird” and the title track, peaking at No. 20 and No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went on to place No. 7 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, their highest charting album since.
Rhino introduced the Quadio Series in June 2023, with Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, The J. Geils Band’s Nightmares…, and Jefferson Starship’s Red Octopus. This series follows the success of the sold-out Chicago and Doobie Brothers’ Quadio sets. Quadraphonic sound, also known as 4.0 surround sound, uses four audio channels connected to four speakers placed at the corners of a listening area. This type of audio provides an immersive listening experience by mixing multi-tracked audio in a dimensional way, creating an expansive soundscape for the listener. Rhino’s recordings are transferred from the original half-inch four-channel masters at a high resolution of 192/24 for a pristine sound.
