Altantic (Collectables) CD sale on oldies.com

[Daniel A]

On oldies.com some of the Atlantic reissues from Collectables Jazz Classics are on sale; a bunch of them, many of which are twofers, are only $4 apiece.

http://www.oldies.com/browser/clearance.cf..._audio-cds.html

Not the easiest website to navigate, but if you select category "Jazz" on the left you're able to browse the jazz titles that are on sale. Good prices on a couple of Charles Lloyd, Jarrett, Mingus, Fathead albums etc.

Edited March 21, 2006 by Daniel A

[Guy Berger]

Wow, that's an incredible deal.

Guy

[Daniel A]

Just ordered the following:

Soundtrack / In The Soviet Union - Charles Lloyd $3.98

Oh Girl / Somethin' Sanctified - Young-Holt Unlimited / Slide Hampton $3.98

Journey Within / Charles Lloyd In Europe - Charles Lloyd Quartet $3.98

El Juicio / Life Between The Exit Signs - Keith Jarrett $3.98

Do The Bossa Nova / My Kinda Groove - Herbie Mann $3.98

Straight Ahead - David Newman $6.98

Soulero / Law's Cause - Eddie Higgins Trio / Hubert Laws $10.48

[Guy Berger]

Just ordered the following:

Soundtrack / In The Soviet Union - Charles Lloyd $3.98

Journey Within / Charles Lloyd In Europe - Charles Lloyd Quartet $3.98

El Juicio / Life Between The Exit Signs - Keith Jarrett $3.98

These are all very nice.

Guy

[WD45]

What does the shipping look like? I see it is free when you buy $50+.

If you are into gospel, some of those titles are only $1.98!

[Daniel A]

Shipping rates:

Domestic

International

Edited March 21, 2006 by Daniel A

[Claude]

I've stayed away from the Collectables label since I bought a number of Atlantic and RCA reissues at a previous sale some years ago. The sound quality of many Atalantic reissues was rather poor:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=6857

During that order, I also had some problems with the payment. First they charged too much on my credit card. After I emailed them, they reimbursed but again miscalculated the amount, to their favor. I don't suspect them doing it on purpose, because it was only about a few dollars. At the end everything was correct, but it took some emails to get it right.

Hopefully the CDs and the store have improved now.

Edited March 21, 2006 by Claude

[Daniel A]

Thanks for the link and the somewhat discouraging info, Claude. I pretty much knew what to expect in terms of sound-quality, but at this price I think I'll swallow that. It's not easy to find these albums (this) cheap in some other form, and I hope to just about get my money back if I'd like to trade some of these in somewhere.

I'll get back with information on the proceedings.

[JSngry]

Ordered once from them a few years ago and everything went smoothly.

Those prices are too good to not go back for seconds.

[AllenLowe]

good music, lots of digital distortion -

[Daniel A]

I recieved my order today (unfortunately, Swedish customs were thorough this time...). My credit card was charged with the right amount and the discs packed well enough.

I've still only listened to the Eddie Higgins/Hubert Laws and Keith Jarret discs - I was curious how they compared to the LPs; 'Law's Cause' and 'Life Between the Exit Signs' were the only ones I had previously. I must say that these are among the - if not the - worst sounding remasters I've ever heard. Most of the tracks are so heavily no-noised that it's almost a joke. Espescially the cymbals and brush work sound so heavily distorted that it's actually worse - yes, worse - than an average 64 kbps MP3 file. In contrast, one or two couple of tracks are thankfully not processed in this way at all. On the other hand they are hissier than any commercially released CD I've ever encountered - way hissier than the original LPs.

I can't comment on the other albums so far, but my advice to anyone with a turntable is: don't bother with these. An LP scratched into pieces will sound better.

[Guest akanalog]

yeah what the hell is wrong with these people.

some of the discs sound fine, but some sound terrible.

it's almost a disservice what they are doing-it sort of sates people appetites for these albums for collectables to put them out on the market, but they do it in such a crappy way. the sound can be really bad. do they even respect the music or know what they are putting out there?

i question their knowledge because of some of the weird and incongruous or just generally unhelpful combinations of albums they throw together sometimes (wayne henderson/sonny sharrock two-fer, for instance).

[Daniel A]

The concept behind the selections for the twofers only seems to be "any two albums that could be squeezed onto one CD". Ironically, when they for once matched two albums by the same artist - the two Jarretts mentioned above - one track had to be left out due to "time restrictions".

It's beyond me how they can run a business like this. Give me an afternoon, and I could make better-sounding transfers from my LPs instead of these.

(If anyone has made the mistake to invest in the Laws or Jarrett CDs and would want to hear these in better sound, PM me.)

[RDK]

Collectables has a lousy reputation, but i couldn't pass up some of the sale items. To be honest, they sound fine on my mini-stereo here at work, but that's not saying much. They have gotten a bit better, though, and their more recent releases are far better than their cheap comps from the mid-90s, some of which are actually in "fake stereo" (by choice, from the original mono masters!). Still, some fine music can be had cheaply, and not just jazz: don't overlook their Harlem Rock n' Blues series or some of their indie label comps (but be wary of questionable sound).

[jazzbo]

I've managed to get almost the entire Gotham series for about 3 dollars each over the last few years.

[Daniel A]

Update: Slide Hampton 'Somethin' Sanctified' sounds OK, and Dave 'Fathead' Newman 'Straight Ahead' sounds rather good.

A nice album, BTW:

Fathead, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Charlie Persip. Recorded in 1960.

[bertrand]

How's the sound on Miroslav Vitous's Infinite Search? How many tracks are missing? I believe more than 6 tunes have appeared somewhere.

I'm not crazy about the missing tunes, but it's tempting at $4.

Thanks,

Bertrand.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Good sale; I ordered 11, some of which I already have on LP but, at these prices...

New Sound Of Ernestine Anderson

I Like It Like That - Chris Kenner

Soul - Ray Bryant

Cold Turkey - Ray Bryant

I've Got A Woman - Jimmy McGriff

One of Mine - Jimmy McGriff

Topkapi - Jimmy McGriff

Man With A Happy Sound - Joe Carroll

Do The Bossa Nova / My Kinda Groove - Herbie Mann

Plug Me In / High Voltage - Eddie Harris

Live At Newport / Instant Death - Eddie Harris

Can I suggest that people take advantage of

Herman Foster - The Explosive Piano/Have you heard

These are two sensational albums at any price! And the sound's good.

MG

[AllenLowe]

the re-mastering was done by some butt-head engineer at Rhino, who were handling this for Collectables - what you heer are digital artificats from the use of digital hiss-reduction - it's particulrly bad on the Bob Brookmeyer, the Max Roach (with Hasaan) and the Dick Katz - disgustingly bad work -