The first jazz CD's

[Jim R]

I was just listening to an old CD from the 80's, and I suddenly became curious- EXCLUDING all of the jazz that had previously been out on LP over the years, what were some of the first jazz CD's ever issued? In other words, contemporary jazz recorded at the time (mid-80's?). Also, what labels were the first to issue this music on CD, and what year would that have been?

I didn't get a CD player until 1990 (I had so many LP's, I thought for awhile that I would never go the CD route ), so I have little memory of the beginnings...

[Chuck Nessa]

First cd I heard (early '83) was a Philips disc by Art Blakey.

[Claude]

This does not answer you question exactly, because it includes albums previously available on LP, but when the compact disc was launched in Europe in March 1983, these CONTEMPORARY jazz titles were available:

- Terry Herman Trio - Blue Aranjuez (Denon)

- Art Blakey - Night in Tunesia (Philips)

- De Lucia/McLaughlin/Di Meola - Friday Night in San Francisco

- Dutch Swing College Band - Digital Dixie (Philips)

- Billy Harper - Soran Bushi, B.H. (Denon)

- Archie Shepp & Dollar Brand - Duet (Denon)

- Kazumi Watanabe - Lonesome Cat (Denon)

- Miles Davis - Man with a horn

- Weather Report - Night passage

Jazz REISSUES in the first CD batch (all from Verve/Polydor):

- Jimmy Smith - The Cat

- Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald - Porgy & Bass

- Stan Getz - Getz/Gilberto

- Stan Getz - Jazz Samba

- Wes Montgomery - Movin' Wes

- Oscar Peterson - We Get requests

I got the list from the german Audio magazine 3/1983 issue. In the US and Japan, different titles may have been released.

As to the the first jazz album that was SIMULANEOUSLY released on CD and LP, this must have been much later.

Edited November 15, 2003 by Claude

[JSngry]

I seem to remember stuff by Flim & The BBs, Warren Bernhardt, & Bob Mintzer, all on the same label (which I can't remember), as being amongst the first "CD only" jazz releases, at least that I noticed.

[JSngry]

Ok, the label was DMP, and their first releases are listed in AMG as having been in 1982.

[Claude]

I remember the first DMP CDs being released in 1985 or 1986.

[Dan Gould]

Happened to grab this one in the batch I dragged to the office this week: Moment to Moment, by The Jazztet, recorded May 30 and 31, 1983, for Soulnote.

[couw]

My Friday Night in SF CD has 1982 on it after the circled p and c.

[Dan Gould]

Just found another Farmer/Soulnote CD that must be one of the earliest:

Manhattan, with Keny Drew and Sahib Shihab. Copyright on the tray card says 1982, recording date says Novemer 29 and 30, 1981. Wonder if that recording was digital or just mastered to digital in 1982.

[Claude]

JSngry seems to be right. DMP claims on it´s company history page that:

1983 - Flim & The BB's - Tricycle, (CD-443) is the first jazz compact available to consumers.

In Europe, DMP discs were available much later, when audiophile CD became popular, after people noticed that not every CD sounded like state of the art

[John L]

I bought a CD player in the late 1980s. At that time, I remember that Caravan was the only Art Blakey title that I could find.

I believe that the first jazz disk I ever bought was the "Best of Blue Mitchell" on Riverside. Then I bought the Cannonball and Cleanhead Vinson disk that was recently reissued on CD for the second time. After that, I picked up a John Coltrane on Impulse disk that was just entitled "From the Original Master Tapes." It included several rare takes from the Village Vanguard that hadn't been released in the US before, and didn't appear as such until the complete VV set.

Kind of Blue and Love Supreme started to go through multiple incarnations from the very beginning.

At that time, MCA launched a "Peacock Spiritual Series" that looked poised to release most of the Peacock gospel catalogue. But that series bit the dust right away and has never been revived. One of the real gems was the Gospelaires "Bones in the Valley" and "Can I Get a Witness" on one disk. They also put out some great Dixie Hummingbirds, Sunset Travlers, Swan Silvertones, and Julius Cheeks. If only they had continued...

[Free For All]

My first CD was "Sketches of Spain". I was addicted after that.

One thing that got me started on CDs in the eighties was finding a huge number of Blue Note cutout CDs being sold for 3 or 4 bucks each at Camelot- a typical lame mall-type chain which I never bothered checking out much, until of course I heard about the Blue Note sale. I must've picked up 20-30 CDs, and then I was hooked. They were actual cutouts, with a big cut in the the jewel case. I've since replaced most of them w/RVGs and given the old copies to students, etc. This was when I was living in Austin- was this just a local phenomenon or did anyone else get in on this?

[Guest ariceffron]

- Jimmy Smith - The Cat

- Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald - Porgy & Bass

- Stan Getz - Getz/Gilberto

- Stan Getz - Jazz Samba

- Wes Montgomery - Movin' Wes

- Oscar Peterson - We Get requests

in the early 80s this is what jazz cds were out there. the list is pretty crappy if you ask me. 2 bossa nova albums? In 1983?

[P.D.]

- Jimmy Smith - The Cat

- Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald - Porgy & Bass

- Stan Getz - Getz/Gilberto

- Stan Getz - Jazz Samba

- Wes Montgomery - Movin' Wes

- Oscar Peterson - We Get requests

in the early 80s this is what jazz cds were out there. the list is pretty crappy if you ask me. 2 bossa nova albums? In 1983?

I remember when Jazz CDs first came out, I think the titles were a lot crappier than that. They seemed to be on "specialist" labels, perhaps Jim is correct with DMP ... maybe Denon were in there, but the regular labels seemed to be late entering the game.

Most of the early CD's , my memory, tells me were comp type albums, or recordings by lesser artists.

I had a large LP collection and was determined not to change to CD.There didn't seem to be too much issued that was of interest.

Was in the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago one day and they were playing Jelly Roll Morton's Burnin' the Iceberg over the speakers.

Burnin was the first Morton I ever bought. On a 78 when it was reissued that way in Britain, back in the 50's. I knew it backwards.

I had never heard it so clear, blew me away.

It was from a comp ( I hate comps) by Robert Parker... I know his digital manipulations are not popular with the audiophiles now, but the clarity he brought to those old recordings back then was sufficient to make me run out and buy a CD player, even though it seemed at the time that CD issues were still way behind what was being issued on LP. I was converted.

I have the same feeling about converting to SACD.. oops that'll set Greg off

[Spontooneous]

A reply to Free For All Paul's question...

The Blue Note cutout CDs were sold at the Camelot Music stores in Kansas City too. Like you, I must have bought at least two dozen. Still have many of them, too. I remember the thrill of hearing "Soul Station" and "The Big Beat" for the first time. And you never forget your first "In 'n Out." (The Joe Henderson date, I mean.)

P.S., Free For All and his trombone had a really great camera position when the Plaza lighting ceremony was locally telecast on Thanksgiving night.

[GA Russell]

I held out till Dec., '88, to get a CD player.

I noticed at that time that Telarc was proudly displaying the fact that their's were digitally recorded. The others were ADD, but Telarcs were all DDD.

[Free For All]

P.S., Free For All and his trombone had a really great camera position when the Plaza lighting ceremony was locally telecast on Thanksgiving night.

That was my first experience as a participant with the whole plaza lighting thing. It was cold so pitch was all over the place all night (I just love outdoor gigs in the winter), and the sound was really loud with lots of noise mixed in. I taped the broadcast at home and when I checked out the sound there were NO trombones present anywhere in the mix. Just saxes and trumpets. And the singers! Oy!

Oh well, glad to have a gig!