[SACD-R][OF] Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach - Painted From Memory (Limited edition) - 1998/2017 (Pop, Baroque pop, Ballad, Easy Listening)

Bass – Greg Cohen
Cello – Ann Karam, Jodi Burnett, Larry Corbett, Bob Adcock, Suzie Katayama
Clarinet – Dan Higgins
Concertmaster [Violin] – Assa Drori
Contractor [The Music Team-contractor] – Patti Zimmitti
Coordinator [Studio Co-ordination] – Milo Lewis
Design – Averill Brophy Associates (Dublin)
Drums – Jim Keltner
Engineer [Assistant] – Alan Sanderson
Flute, Piccolo Flute – Steve Kujala
French Horn – Rick Todd
Guitar – Dean Parks, George Doering
Harp – Gayle Levant
Keyboards – Steve Nieve
Management [Represented By] – Danny Bennett (3)
Mastered By – Rob LoVerde
Other ["by Eleven" Mission Control] – Gill Taylor, Lew Difford, Robbie McLeod, Susan Coelho
Other [Co-ordination Consultant To Mr. Bacharach] – Claris Sayadian
Percussion – Bob Zimmitti, Dan Greco
Photography By [Front Cover And Booklet] – William Claxton
Photography By [Inlay Tray And Booklet] – Rankin (3)
Producer, Composed By, Arranged By, Conductor, Piano – Burt Bacharach
Producer, Composed By, Voice – Elvis Costello
Recorded By, Engineer, Mixed By – Kevin Killen
Trombone – Bill Reichenbach (2)
Tuba – John Van Houten
Viola – Andrew Picken, Carole Mukogawa, Harry Shirinian, John Scanlon, Keith Greene, Marilyn Baker, Rick Gerding, Roland Kato
Violin – Alan Grunfeld, Armen Garabedian, Berj Garabedian, Bette Byers, Brian Leonard, Bruce Dukov, Darius Campo, David Ewart, Gil Romero, Haim Shtrum, Horia Moroaica, Jackie Brand, Karen Jones (2), Lisa Johnson (2), Mari Tsumura, Mike Markman*, Murray Adler, Norman Hughes, Pat Johnson (2), Richard Altenbach, Tammy Hatwan
Vocals [Vocal Group] – Donna Taylor, Lisa Taylor, Sue-Ann Carwell

Painted from Memory is a collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach. It was released 29 September 1998 on Mercury Records, a division of Universal Music Group.
The collaboration commenced with “God Give Me Strength”, a commission for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart, directed by Allison Anders, starring Illeana Douglas, with lead vocals by Kristen Vigard. Apparently pleased with the result, the pair expanded the project to this full album, the first for Costello after an absence of two years, and for Bacharach after an absence of 21 years. Lyrics and music are co-credited to both Bacharach and Costello. In his 2015 autobiography, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink, Costello wrote, “To have written a song like “God Give Me Strength” and simply stopped would have been ridiculous, so about a year later we began a series of writing sessions […].”
A companion album, The Sweetest Punch, was made concurrently by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, released in 1999 on another Universal label, Decca Records. It consists of jazz arrangements of the Painted From Memory songs done by Frisell and his studio group. It features vocals by Costello on two songs, and by jazz singer Cassandra Wilson on two songs, one of which is a duet employing both.
Costello had long been a Bacharach fan, and had recorded several Bacharach songs, beginning with “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself,” released on a 1978 Stiff Records compilation Live Stiffs Live. Costello would also cover “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” for the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
“I Still Have That Other Girl” won a Grammy Award in 1998 for “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals” for Bacharach and Costello. Costello later wrote, “One day, while writing “I Still Have that Other Girl”, we reached an impasse as to how to get to the full chorus. I was looking out of the window for inspiration when Burt began to play something I’d never heard before. It sounded beautiful, sort of Viennese. We were running a digital recorder to catch our working sketches, but when the recording was played back it was mostly obscured by me yelling, “That’s it, you’ve got it, […] Fortunately my overexcited babble didn’t completely cover the invention, and we were able to decode the recording and complete the song”.

All Music Review
Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach first collaborated on “God Give Me Strength,” a sweeping ballad that functioned as the centerpiece in Allison Anders’ Grace of My Heart. It was a stunning song in the tradition of Bacharach’s classic ’60s work and it was successful enough that the composers decided to collaborate on a full album, Painted from Memory. Wisely, they chose to work within the stylistic parameters of Bacharach’s ’60s material, but Painted from Memory never sounds like a stylistic exercise. Instead, it’s a return to form for both artists. Bacharach hasn’t written such graceful, powerful melodies since his glory days, and Costello hasn’t crafted such a fully realized album since King of America. It’s a testament to both that even if the album is clearly in Bacharach’s territory, it feels like a genuine collaboration. Often, the music not only evokes the spirit of Dionne Warwick, it’s reminiscent of Elvis’ torching ballads for Trust. Costello keeps Bacharach from his schmaltzier tendencies, and Bacharach keeps Costello from overwriting. With its lush arrangements, sighing brass and strings, gentle pianos, and backing vocals, it’s clearly a classicist album, yet it sounds utterly timeless. Its melodies are immediate, its emotions subtle, its impact lasting — and, with that timeless sound, Painted from Memory illustrates that craft cannot only be its own reward, it can be genuinely moving.
Elusive:
An Unforgettable Exhibition of Stellar Melodies, Gorgeous Arrangements, and Fully Bared Emotion: Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach's Painted from Memory a Collaboration for the Ages
Mastered from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 2,000 Numbered Copies: Mobile Fidelity Hybrid SACD Features Incredible Detail, Lushness, Textures, and Presence
Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach's Painted from Memory endures as an extraordinary exhibition of prime music making, gorgeous arranging, and naked emotion. Having transpired after the pair teamed up on "God Give Me Strength" for a film soundtrack (and the closing track here), the album has since gone on to become one of the most respected – and admired – projects of each artist's considerable careers. Its expert employment of melody and harmony imparts a timelessness that stretches back to pop's golden age and icons such as Roy Orbison, Ray Charles, and Frank Sinatra. Further boosted by meticulous production, it has long called out for audiophile treatment. Mobile Fidelity's SACD reissue brings it all full circle.
Mastered from the original master tapes and strictly limited to 2,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD of Painted from Memory transforms the 1998 set into an essential component of any library. Always an effort that rewarded solitary listening, it now breathes with ravishing openness, reveals crystalline detail, unfolds against jet-back backgrounds, mesmerizes with a rainbow of textures, and constantly engages with its impossible smoothness. For the first time, the scope of the intricacies, nuances, and phrasings embedded in Bacharach's meticulous compositions can be experienced in full. The orbit of the bridges, refrains, and codas beguiles the senses. Ditto the poetic reach of Costello's singing and lyrics.
Indeed, the level of care and concern invested into every passage of Painted from Memory is immediately gleaned by the ravishing sonics afforded on this collectable edition. Reference-grade presence, tonality, and balance help capture the sweep of the strings, colorful blush of the horn accents, and weight of the piano. Steve Nieve's keyboards, Greg Cohen's bass, Dean Parks' guitar, and Jim Keltner's drums seemingly appear right in the room. Rather than smear together or jockey for position, each instrument enjoys its own place and simultaneously sounds part of the rich, lush, complex albeit completely interwoven tapestry. Graceful, elegant, and classicist-minded, Painted from Memory is a genuine masterpiece – and a true collaboration.
No wonder Costello dedicated a large portion of a chapter from his Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink memoir to his time with Bacharach. Among his insights, Costello explains how crafting the album forced him to be a better writer and singer – and a better listener, stating: "Writing those first songs with Burt Bacharach required me to listen to what the music was really saying to me. Sometimes it was speaking so quietly that I needed to listen very intently. I needed time for the meaning and feeling that I sensed in the music to be confirmed by my own words. The strange thing was that the title of a song often came to me in an instant, but then would begin the more excruciating task of negotiating Burt's spacious melodies and rhythmic subtleties."
The very aspects Costello discusses come to the forefront on remarkable torch pieces such as the intensely dramatic "This House Is Empty Now," melancholic "Thief," and Grammy-winning "I Still Have That Other Girl." In addition to Bacharach's suave, sophisticated, strikingly exquisite orchestrations, Costello's vocals carry the day. Straddling two octaves and sighing with pain, bittersweet romance, and wistful reflection, his baritone stretching to convey highs and lows with crooner-like poise, breadth, and fastidiousness. Thrilling, distinctive, and memorable, the performances are just like the entirety Painted from Memory itself – unforgettably great.