What vinyl are you spinning right now??

[sidewinder]

Clare Fischer 'Surging Ahead' (UK Fontana, mono)

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Ben Webster Meets Don Byas (BASF). Kinda sucky pressing. Is the Prestige version of this date any better? This pressing is all crackles & pops, even though it looks mint.

[kh1958]

Ben Webster Meets Don Byas (BASF). Kinda sucky pressing. Is the Prestige version of this date any better? This pressing is all crackles & pops, even though it looks mint.

The Prestige reissues of MPS LPs sound quite nice and can usually be had for $10 or so on ebay.

[kh1958]

The Rockin' Tenor Sax of Eddie Chamblee (Prestige, blue label)

The Three Sounds, Feelin' Good (Blue Note, NY USA)

[jeffcrom]

Slavic Soul Party - New York Underground Tapes (Barbes red vinyl)

Johnny Coles - The Warm Sound (Classic Records reissue from Epic)

and "Babe's Blues" from the Johnny Coles session, but not released until 1983, on Instrumentalists: Almost Forgotten (Columbia)

Then I switched to the mono cartridge for:

Jimmy Smith - Bucket (BN NY mono)

[vinyltim]

yeah baby, yeah!

http://www.timenjoysrecords.com/records/quincy-jones-big-band-bossa-nova

[brownie]

Ben Webster Meets Don Byas (BASF). Kinda sucky pressing. Is the Prestige version of this date any better? This pressing is all crackles & pops, even though it looks mint.

The Prestige reissues of MPS LPs sound quite nice and can usually be had for $10 or so on ebay.

My BASF copy looks like this...

...and plays very nicely!

Now spinning:

Artie Shaw 'The Jazz Years' 'Sounds of Swing)

[kh1958]

Dodo Marmarosa, Dodo's Back (Argo)

[sidewinder]

John Coltrane 'Sun Ship' (MCA Impulse)

[Clunky]

Johnny Hammond Smith - Black Coffee- (Riverside - stereo)

[clifford_thornton]

Paul Motian/J-F Jenny Clarke/Charles Brackeen - Le Voyage - (ECM)

[brownie]

Zoot Sims 'Goes to Jazzville' (Dawn, mono)

[JSngry]

(Doctor Jazz, round, with hole in middle of both sides)

For chronological completeness, yeah, sets like this have been superseded any number of times. But as a simple listening experience, this is pretty darn nifty.

[JSngry]

Nostalgia time...

Stuff was excellent fun back then. Excellent, serious fun.

[Clunky]

But as a simple listening experience, this is pretty darn nifty.

something that's too often ignored in the pursuit of completeness ( by producers and listeners alike)

[JSngry]

There's a lot to be said for taking advantage of those moments of clarity when they appear.

[JSngry]

The music (Continental-label stuff, I believe) is good enough (the Maxine Sullivan with strings stuff is more than a little useless for my wants, needs, and dining pleasure...otoh, there's a J.C. Heard session w/Budd Johnson & Jimmy Jones that tickles several fancies quite nicely), but the real treat is the liner notes by Dan Morgenstern, one of those long, fact-rich yet conversational ("When Mary Lou Williams appears in New York these days...", "I shouldn't have to tell you about Jimmy Crawford...") things that might take longer to carefully read in full than it does to do the same to the record. None of that that dull, Jack Webb "just the facts" yawn-inducing stuff that is so popular these days (yeah, I'm talking to you Bob Blumenthal).

Good stuff.

[jeffcrom]

Albert Mangelsdorff - Now, Jazz Ramwong (PJ stereo). Prompted by King Ubu's recent blindfold test. I've had this record for years, but didn't realize until today that the Pacific Jazz version actually consists of three tracks from the German CBS Now Jazz Ramwong and four tracks from Tension.

James Blood Ulmer - Are You Glad to Be in America (Artists House). Jazz is the teacher; funk is the preacher.

[jeffcrom]

I'm winding up a 10" LP on Angel - a collection of German jazz from 1954 - with one of the worst album titles ever: The Cats and Jammer Kids. It's got the Hans Koller Quintet with Albert Mangelsdorff (Jutta Hipp had already left), the Johannes Rediske Quartet, the Paul Kuhn Quartet, and the Fatty George Combo.

Another spin of this, inspired by Ubu's all-German blindfold test. A year later, I still can't find a picture of the cover online. The two tracks with Mangelsdorff are among his earliest issued recordings.

And the title still hurts....

[jeffcrom]

Herb Geller Plays (EmArcy). A fairly battered copy, but it still sounds pretty good with a mono cartridge.

[jeffcrom]

George Lewis at Home (Dan). One of those fantastic Japanese Dan LPs from the 1970's which featured previously unreleased American Music recordings. There are several tracks which still have not appeared in the AM CD reissue series, including a couple of takes of George's unaccompanied clarinet renditions of the spiritual "My Life Will Be Sweeter Some Day," an unaccompanied flute solo, and a great quartet version of "Closer Walk" with Jim Robinson on trombone.

Edited to say that it still amazes me that, 47 years later, I heard one of the musicians on these 1943/44 sessions on my first visit to New Orleans - the great bassist Chester Zardis. I had never heard of him, but was mightily impressed with his strong playing in 1990. I later found that he played with the legendary Buddy Petit by 1920; he died a few months after I heard him.

Edited May 1, 2012 by jeffcrom

[brownie]

Bobby Hutcherson 'Cirrus' (BN, blue label)

[jeffcrom]

Erroll Garner - Campus Concert (MGM mono). I don't feel the need to hear Erroll Garner very often, but when I'm in the mood, he sure sounds good. I woke up wanting to hear this album.

[clifford_thornton]

Albert Mangelsdorff - Now, Jazz Ramwong (PJ stereo). Prompted by King Ubu's recent blindfold test. I've had this record for years, but didn't realize until today that the Pacific Jazz version actually consists of three tracks from the German CBS Now Jazz Ramwong and four tracks from Tension.

And IIRC, some of Gunter Kronberg's solos were edited down or out on the PJ issue.

[JSngry]

Ah, the joys of Alamac!