Jump to content

1987 Japanese/German Impulse! titles


Late

Recommended Posts

This post is meant simply as a resource for those who collect Impulse! titles initially reissued in 1987 by the German and Japanese markets. The sound on some of these titles is excellent; quiet, and usually with little, if any, compression. I think both German and Japanese editions use the same remastering. Below is a list of titles. Numbers in parentheses are the German catalog numbers while the 32XD prefixes refer to the Japanese titles (55XD for double disc sets). Feel free to post corrections and/or additions, and to post your thoughts on this reissue series in general. (I've attached the list in a Word doc as well.)

John Coltrane: Ballads                                                (254 607-2)                32XD-570
John Coltrane: Crescent                                             (254 608-2)                 32XD-571
John Coltrane: Coltrane                                              (254 609-2)                 32XD-572

John Coltrane: Transition                                            (254 611-2)                 32XD-575
John Coltrane: With Johnny Hartman                         (254 617-2)                 32XD-576
John Coltrane: Ascension (Edition II)                          (254 618-2)                 32XD-577
John Coltrane: Quartet Plays                                      (254 619-2)                 32XD-578
John Coltrane: Meditations                                         (254 621-2)                 32XD-581

John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard               (254 627-2)                 32XD-582

John Coltrane: Impressions                                         (254 628-2)                32XD-583

John Coltrane: Ascension (Edition I)                            (254 745-2)                32XD-584
John Coltrane: Selflessness                                         (254 629-2)                32XD-585
John Coltrane: Sun Ship                                              (254 630-2)                 32XD-586
John Coltrane: Duke Ellington & John Coltrane           (254 636-2)                 32XD-587

John Coltrane: Live At Birdland                                   (254 637-2)                  32XD-588
John Coltrane: Africa Brass                                         (254 638-2)                  32XD-589
John Coltrane: Om                                                       (254 640-2)                  32XD-592

John Coltrane: A Love Supreme                                   (254 557-2)                 32XD-595

John Coltrane: Kulu Sé Mama                                     (254 645-2)                  32XD-596
John Coltrane: Expression                                           (254 646-2)                  32XD-597
John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard Again       (254 647-2)                 32XD-598

John Coltrane: Africa Brass Vol. 2                                (254 648-2)                  32XD-599

John Coltrane: Mastery of Vol. III "Jupiter Variation”   (254 649-2)                   32XD-600

John Coltrane: Live In Japan Vol. 1                              (254 610-2)                  55XD-573~574
John Coltrane: Live In Japan Vol. 2                              (254 620-2)                  55XD-579~580

John Coltrane: The Other Village Vanguard Tapes       (254 639-2)                 55XD-590~591
John Coltrane: Mastery of Vol. I "Feelin' Good"             (254 641-2)                55XD-593~594
John Coltrane: Mastery of Vol. IV "Trane's Modes"       (254 650-2)                55XD-601~602

 

Keith Jarrett: Death and the Flower                             (254 612-2)                 32XD-603
Keith Jarrett: Treasure Island                                      (254 623-2)                 32XD-604
Keith Jarrett: Byablue                                                  (254 632-2)                 32XD-605
Keith Jarrett: Mysteries                                                (254 642-2)                 32XD-606
Sonny Rollins: On Impulse!                                          (254 613-2)                 32XD-607

Sonny Rollins: Alfie                                                      (254 651-2)                 32XD-608
McCoy Tyner: Nights of Ballads & Blues                      (254 614-2)                 32XD-609
McCoy Tyner: Reaching Fourth                                    (254 652-2)                 32XD-610
The Gil Evans Orchestra: Out of the Cool                     (254 615-2)                 32XD-611
The Gil Evans Orchestra: Into the Hot                          (254 626-2)                 32XD-612
Johnny Hartman: I Just Dropped By to Say Hello        (254 616-2)                 32XD-613
Count Basie: Count Basie and the Kansas City 7         (254 622-2)                 32XD-614
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers                                (254 624-2)                 32XD-615
Elvin Jones and Richard Davis: Heavy Sounds             (254 625-2)                 32XD-616
Oliver Nelson: Blues and the Abstract Truth                (254 631-2)                   32XD-617
Oliver Nelson: More Blues and the 
Abstract Truth       (254 643-2)                   32XD-618
Charlie Haden: Liberation Music Orchestra                  (254 633-2)                  32XD-619
J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding: The Great Kai & J.J.          (254 634-2)                32XD-620

Albert Ayler: In Greenwich Village                                (254 635-2)                   32XD-621
Charlie Mingus: The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady    (254 562-2)                  32XD-622

Archie Shepp: Four For Trane                                      (254 644-2)                  32XD-623
Quincy Jones and His Orchestra: The Quintessence     (254 560-2)                32XD-624
 

 

1987 32XD Impulse! titles.docx

Edited by Late
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's what discogs lists for the 1991 MVCI titles.

4 hours ago, David Ayers said:

... these days sometimes go for lesser amounts because of their age. 

True. I've seen that too.

I admit it feels something like a "creative anachronism society" to start a thread on a series of discs that are now 33 years old. What if a person bought the lot way back in 1987 and was then done with it? There'd be less of a need for eBay, less of a collecting bug, and money could go toward ... cognac, or some other accompanying endeavor.

I don't know if the MVCI series has a German equivalent. On a personal note — way back in 1994 — I remember seeing a large number of Japanese and German Impulse! titles filling the racks at the Piccadilly Tower Records. The underground stop, if I'm not mistaken, had an elevator that took you up right into the store.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of my impulse! titles are MVCI CDs, some are 32XD releases and German equivalents. When a title I wanted wasn't available in those series, I got a later reissue. Many years ago I compared some of the 1987 and 1991 discs to post-1991 reissues of the same titles and always preferred the former.

Edited by J.A.W.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Late said:

I don't know if the MVCI series has a German equivalent. On a personal note — way back in 1994 — I remember seeing a large number of Japanese and German Impulse! titles filling the racks at the Piccadilly Tower Records. The underground stop, if I'm not mistaken, had an elevator that took you up right into the store.

It did indeed ! And then you had to walk across those transparent floor tiles and get vertigo to get to the jazz..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, sidewinder said:

It did indeed ! And then you had to walk across those transparent floor tiles and get vertigo to get to the jazz..

I'd totally forgotten about the transparent floor tiles. (In fact, I may never have noticed them to begin with.) I do remember the jazz section, however. It competed easily in its offerings with the Tower on Sunset in Los Angeles.

Is the only Tower still standing in Tokyo? That should probably be another thread — the various Tower Records that board members here used to frequent. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Late said:

I'd totally forgotten about the transparent floor tiles. (In fact, I may never have noticed them to begin with.) I do remember the jazz section, however. It competed easily in its offerings with the Tower on Sunset in Los Angeles.

Is the only Tower still standing in Tokyo? That should probably be another thread — the various Tower Records that board members here used to frequent. 

I went to the Piccadilly store many times and I don't recall that floor either. Maybe I managed to avoid it? I'm not a huge fan of heights so the vertigo would have hit me pretty good. :)

Sadly, I never got to Tokyo during my travel days. I went through Japanese airports and they often had a little Tower store in them, but that was as close as I got.

I didn't buy many of those 32XD CDs back in the day. If my memory isn't failing me, the "32" was shortened from 32,000 as in 32,000 Yen - the list price. That was a lot of US dollars back then. And yes, 55XD meant 55,000 Yen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The vertigo floor was one level up and unfortunately you had to traverse it to get to the jazz. Irrational I know but I never liked it !

I checked out the Tower in Tokyo on my visit there - not up to Disk Union standard but not bad. It occupies several floors in a prominent high rise, I recall.

Edited by sidewinder
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/24/2020 at 4:38 AM, bresna said:

I didn't buy many of those 32XD CDs back in the day. If my memory isn't failing me, the "32" was shortened from 32,000 as in 32,000 Yen - the list price. That was a lot of US dollars back then. And yes, 55XD meant 55,000 Yen.

Wow, that's crazy! That's about $30 and $50 per CD.

I'm glad many Japanese reissues are only 1,000 Yen these days.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 24-2-2020 at 1:38 PM, bresna said:

I didn't buy many of those 32XD CDs back in the day. If my memory isn't failing me, the "32" was shortened from 32,000 as in 32,000 Yen - the list price. That was a lot of US dollars back then. And yes, 55XD meant 55,000 Yen.

 

5 hours ago, David said:

Wow, that's crazy! That's about $30 and $50 per CD.

I'm glad many Japanese reissues are only 1,000 Yen these days.  

 

I regularly imported CDs from Japan for my own collection and "32XD" meant that the list price was 3200 yen, not 32,000; likewise, 55XD meant 5500 yen, not 55,000 - a not insignificant difference :)

Edited by J.A.W.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Bluesnik said:

Most of the Impulses I have are mid-nineties digipacks with a very good sound reissued by MC. They are a reissue series I still consider to this day to be top-notch.

I got a lot of those 1990s digipaks that were mastered by Erick Labson, but didn't really like them; they're not bad, but compared with the 32XD and MVCI CDs the highs are too pronounced to my ears.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/29/2020 at 6:46 AM, J.A.W. said:

 

 

I regularly imported CDs from Japan for my own collection and "32XD" meant that the list price was 3200 yen, not 32,000; likewise, 55XD meant 5500 yen, not 55,000 - a not insignificant difference :)

Thanks for that correction Hans. Even with my decimal slip, 3200 Yen was a lot of US dollars back in 1991. With the international shipping costs, they were even more. I think the local Tower Records sold them for around $33.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Since this topic was started I collected quite a few of these (German editions), and they do sound excellent indeed. Was just listening to "Crescent" the other day - the drums sound is gorgeous. Thanks Late and others for bringing this up. 

Does anybody know by chance if the 1988 US edition of "Into the Hot", catalog number MCAD-39104 ( https://www.discogs.com/The-Gil-Evans-Orchestra-Into-The-Hot/release/2256736 ) uses the same mastering as 1987 German and Japanese releases? I assume yes.     

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/10/2021 at 4:25 AM, Д.Д. said:

Does anybody know by chance if the 1988 US edition of "Into the Hot," catalog number MCAD-39104, uses the same mastering as 1987 German and Japanese releases? I assume yes.     

I have that particular (U.S.) Evans disc, but haven't heard its German or Japanese counterparts. However, I think your assumption is probably on the mark judging by the sound of the U.S. disc. The same is true (I think) for the first U.S. edition of East Broadway Rundown. There was a short period of time (late 80's) where U.S. editions (in jewel cases) used the original cover art and  Impulse! logo, and sounded very close to their Japanese counterpart. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...