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Judging from my (mostly) German-pressing black-and-white-cover Black Lion LPs (predating the CD-only reissues, of course), DA Music (Deutsche Austrophon) already was on board when Alan Bates produced reissues for Black Lion. Including those from George Wein's Stroyville label of the 50s. So later on (in the CD era) DA Music above all had a "corporate identity" of their own (i.e. those black-and-white covers) that additional takeovers apparently had to fit in with. Personally, apart from those ill-fitting 70s/80s photographs combined with music from the 50s (or even before), I don't see these covers are that horrible. Yes, they are fairly nondescript but there have been lots worse in the reissue field, including on reissues by the majors/corporates. And which smaller reissue label would have kept the original artwork throughout anyway if they had sourced their music from multiple different original labels? Disregarding exceptions to the rule such as Fresh Sound, can you imagine one and the same reissue label (such as Black Lion here) reissuing on the one hand (for example) Storyville material inside the original cover artwork with their classic Burt Goldblatt photographs and on the on the other those "brain-sectioned" semi-naive artist head drawings on the Fontana covers (such as in the case of the Ted Curson LP above)? And whatever other labels' original artwork in between ... Not likely to happen - understandably so IMO. Years and decades after the original releases they wanted their records to be seen as "Black Lions" in the shops, not a mess of various replica repros of long-defunct original labels. For better or worse for the collectors ... 

Miles Davis “Bitches Brew” Sony Blu-Spec CD2 disc 1 Been some time since I listened to the remix. Great music in any form–I think I have ten different versions of this release, three on LP, two on SACD, five on cd. I rotate them in listening.  

Exposure matters, too. Today’s friction-free music distribution means you can binge fifty versions of “Body and Soul” in one afternoon; that repetition wires the progression into muscle memory even if you’ve never cracked a theory book. Add a naturally attentive ear and you get someone like Ms. TTK, who hears the changes first and the melody second. So yes, the ability exists on a spectrum, but it’s more common than you might think among jazz devotees who’ve spent years marinating in the standards canon—trained or not.