Which Should You Buy -- Original LPs Or Modern Re-Pressings?

One of the great things about the vinyl revival is that lots of great old albums are being re-released. And often the albums are remastered from the original master tapes and pressed on great-quality vinyl, resulting in records that sound as good or better than the original releases. A perfect example is the Beatles mono box set that came out in 2014. All the Beatles LPs that were released in mono were remastered from the original Abbey Road tapes and issued on 180-gram vinyl with beautifully reproduced labels and jackets. Except for the few lucky souls who collected the original UK releases, or have the time and the money to track them down, this is the next best thing. 

There have been lots of other great-sounding re-releases in recent years, including the Bob Dylan Mono Box, Neil Young's Archive Series, the Bert Jansch Transatlantic remasters, the Analogue Productions' Beach Boys remasters, Rhino's Joni Mitchell re-pressings, and so on. 

In many cases, including most of those listed above, I already owned the original albums, but bought the reissues anyway. Sometimes I buy new releases because my original isn't in great shape, and sometimes I buy them just to hear the new remastering, especially if they get good reviews or are done by a top-notch re-issue label. In some cases, the newer versions are clearly superior, with quieter vinyl, punchier bass, more air, better balance, or textures and details that simply weren't there before. But not always. I have a number of newly remastered disks where the original is still better. Sometimes it's because the original version is the one that I've heard a hundred times and so it just sounds "right" to me. That's a subjective thing. But other times, the re-pressing objectively just isn't very good. 

As an example, BMG issued newly-remastered versions of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's albums in 2016. They were cut using 24/96 digital transfers made from the original tapes. They are pressed on heavy vinyl and have beautifully reproduced original jackets. I bought the new version of Pictures at an Exhibition to see how it compared to the original. I have three copies of the original, including first UK and US pressings. The original UK release was mastered by George Peckham (Porky), and the original US release was mastered by George Piros. To my ears, the UK release is the better of the two originals.

But both of them were better than the new BMG release, which I found to be a disappointment. To my ears, the sound is thick and compressed. The original releases have better balance, much greater dynamics, and more air and detail. So in this case, if you don't own a copy of Pictures (and if not, why not?), you are much better off picking up a nm used copy of the original UK (or even US) pressing. Originals are relatively easy to find, and cheaper than the $28 repressing. 

The problem, of course, is knowing whether the reissue sounds better and is worth the price. For major reissues, like the Beatles, there will be plenty of reviews and lots of opinions on the various online forums like Steve Hoffman. But for less well-known albums that I don't have, I often wrestle with the question of whether to buy the a reissue, or pick up a good used copy on Discogs or elsewhere.

For popular 60s and 70s titles that were pressed by the hundreds of thousands if not millions, a good used copy is generally cheaper than a repressing. But not always. An original pressing of Neil Young's seminal 1972 album, Harvest, can easily fetch $75 - $100 in top condition. Since I didn't own an original copy, (how the heck did that happen?), I was happy to buy the 2009 reissue when it came out. Chris Bellman did the remastering, and it sounds great. However, a few weeks ago I was rooting through boxes of albums at an antiques mall and found a beautiful 1978 Warner Brothers repressing of Harvest. The jacket is nm, and the vinyl looked unplayed. It was less than $10. Holy moly what a deal. Naturally I was anxious to hear how it sounded in comparison to the 2009 remaster. Turns out there is no comparison. The 2009 remaster is great, but the 1978 repressing is just better -- more dynamic range, better detail, more natural sounding.

That's admittedly a small sample, but I have been disappointed with a number of other remastered LPs as well. For now, unless the original is super rare or expensive, I'll be tracking down clean copies of the originals. 

However, things are generally different when it comes to classic jazz titles. The problem is that even popular jazz titles didn't sell all that many copies. And since many or the classic Bebop albums came out in the 50s and 60s, the supply of clean originals is dwindling fast. I still have luck finding the occasional gem on Verve or Prestige in the used bins, but even the thrift stores have figured out that original Blue Notes are worth their weight in gold.

So we're left with re-pressings and reissues. I was very happy when back in 2014 Blue Note began releasing new pressings of dozens of LPs from their back catalog in honor of the 75th anniversary of the label. The new albums look great -- 180-gram vinyl with beautiful reproductions of the original labels and jackets. Unfortunately, company president Don Was's goal was to make them available for $20. A notable goal that would put them in reach of almost all budding vinyl collectors. But to keep the price down, they had to make compromises, like cutting the new lacquers from digital masters, and apparently going with the low bidder for pressing the vinyl. I've picked up maybe 10 of the reissues. The sound on all of them is sort of meh, and at least five of them have bad surface noise. I exchanged several of them for different copies, and the replacements sound just as bad. They are simply bad pressings, often by United Record Pressing of Nashville, whose quality control seems a little lacking. So I won't be buying any more of the 75th anniversary re-pressings. The problem is that there are a lot of Blue Note titles that I would like to have, but I don't want to spend what it costs to get a good copy of an early pressing. 

For example, I didn't have a copy of the classic 1963 Blue Note release of Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue.

  
It's a stone cold classic, and I need a copy. Popsike, which tracks auction prices for LPs, shows that an original Midnight Blue in nm condition sold for $565 in 2015. So that's not happening. There are a couple of 1985 French Blue Note DMM reprints on Discogs for $40-50. But the reputation of these reprints is not great. So, what to do? Luckily, Music Matters, a great audiophile re-issue label, put out a remastered edition of Midnight Blue in 2014. It is still available at a few places online. It retails for $40 (which is sort of the high end of what I'll pay for a new record). But the Music Matters reprints are superb, so I ordered a copy. It's not just good, it is mind-blowingly good. Sitting-right-there-in-the-studio good. The re-mastering was done by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, and it was pressed at Record Technology Inc. in Camarilla, CA. If the $565 original New York Blue Note sounds better, it would be a life-changing experience. I bought a few other Music Matters reprints while I was at it, and they all sound fantastic. 

Depending on the Blue Note (or Prestige or Contemporary, or Riverside, etc) title, it is often possible to find a good classic jazz repressing from the 70s or 80s. The Original Jazz Classics Remasters series - which now number in the hundreds -- sound excellent and are very good value, particularly the ones released before 1986-87, when they started cutting the lacquers from digital masters. 

So where does all this leave us? In my experience, the overall sound quality of mass-produced LPs from the 60s and 70s is amazingly good. And even nm copies are usually cheaper than modern re-pressings. On the other hand, if you are looking for a more collectible title, including an original Blue Note, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, or the like, you're better off with the re-pressing, particularly if it's done by one of the quality labels like Music Matters, Analogue Productions, or MFSL.  A lot of "public domain" reissues of classic jazz albums have hit the shelves in Europe in the last few years, pressed on 180-gram vinyl and with good-looking replica jackets.  Some commenters on online forums think the sound quality isn't great, but I'm withholding judgment until I get a chance to hear some.  I'll try to put together a comparison for a future post.


Enjoy the music!

"Produced By Creed Taylor"

On a recent trip to the west coast to visit family, I stopped at a record store in the small town of Anderson, California. Anderson is about ten miles south of Redding, and about two hours north of Sacramento, just off Interstate 5. While it doesn't look like much from the outside, Meteor Music is a terrific store with a nice selection of music in just about every genre, as well as posters, magazines and other music memorabilia. I ended up buying about 15 albums, all in very good shape and all fairly priced. The owners are good guys and really know their stuff. It's hard to imagine why you would, but if you ever find yourself in Northern California near Anderson, you should stop by.

One of the titles I bought at Meteor was a copy of Hubert Laws' 1970 release, Afro-Classic, on the CTI label. Great album. About two weeks later, back home from our trip, I stumbled on a copy of Laws' 1974 album, In The Beginning, also on the CTI label. Just a coincidence? Probably, but finding these two albums got me looking through my collection for other albums on the Creed Taylor Incorporated record label. In case you aren't familiar with CTI, their releases are very distinctive, featuring laminated gatefold jackets with striking photographs by artist Pete Turner.

Equally striking is the all-star team of people that worked at CTI, beginning with the founder, Creed Taylor.

Taylor was born in Virginia in 1929. He played trumpet in his high school band and went to Duke University where he played in various jazz ensembles. After college and a stint in the Marines (including 10 months in Korea), he moved to New York and convinced a fellow Duke alum to hire him at Bethlehem Records. With no real experience, Taylor produced an album for singer Chris Connor that became a hit. And as Wikipedia tells us: "Due in part to the album's success, Taylor went on to become head of artists and repertory (A&R) for Bethlehem Records during its two most significant years, recording such artists as Oscar Pettiford, Ruby Braff (Ruby Braff???), Carmen McRae, Charles Mingus, Herbie Mann, Charlie Shavers, and the J.J. Johnson-Kai Winding Quintet. In 1956, Taylor left Bethlehem for ABC-Paramount Records, where four years later he founded the subsidiary label Impulse!"

Taylor's great coup at Impulse! was signing John Coltrane to a recording contract. Coltrane went on to record some 20 albums for Impulse!, which all by itself was enough to make the label a huge force in jazz music. It was also the reason that Impulse! became know as "the house that Trane built." But that's a whole 'nother post.

Despite his success at Impulse!, Taylor was lured away in 1961 when MGM asked him to become the new head of Verve Records. (Verve founder Norman Granz sold the label to MGM in 1960.) At Verve, Taylor is credited with being the man who introduced bossa nova to the United States. Taylor produced the seminal sessions for Getz/Gilberto, which included the number one hit "The Girl From Ipanema." He followed that up with a string of bossa nova albums by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Getz, in addition to producing jazz sessions by Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, and Bill Evans.

Meanwhile, out in Los Angeles, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss were selling Tijuana Brass albums by the truck load on their A&M label. They wanted to extend their empire into jazz, and decided to start a jazz subsidiary. And who better to run the show than Creed Taylor? No one, apparently. With the lure of having his own imprint (and a five-year, $1 million contract), Taylor agreed to leave Verve and head up the new A&M/CTI jazz label. 

The first album that Taylor produced for the label was A Day In The Life by Wes Montgomery. If you can get past the disgusting photo of cigarette butts, you will see the first appearance of the CTI logo at bottom right (which bears some resemblance to the style of the impulse! logo). This first release also put in place the production and musical teams that Taylor would use for the bulk of his recordings for both A&M and later at his independent CTI label. And what a team!  Rudy Van Gelder as the recording/mastering engineer, Don Sebesky writing arrangements and conducting, and a house band that included such heavy hitters as Ron Carter on bass, Grady Tate on Drums, and Herbie Hancock on piano.

Over the next three years, Taylor produced and released 27 albums for A&M. Besides Wes Montgomery, other artists who appeared on the A&M/CTI imprint were Herbie Mann, Nat Adderley, George Benson, Paul Desmond, Quincy Jones, and Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson. All the albums were released on the familiar tan A&M label with the "trumpet" logo. Creed Taylor's CTI logo and his signature are on the right side. Despite Taylor's impeccable jazz pedigree and the unquestionable chops of musicians like Carter and Hancock, critical reaction to the A&M/CTI series was mixed. They were not considered "serious" bop albums. With Sebesky's lush orchestrations, the songs often sounded like elevator versions of the originals. Of course, as Herb Alpert had already shown with the Tijuana Brass, people really like pop-sounding jazz, so many of the albums were quite successful commercially.

In 1970, Taylor bought out A&M and took CTI independent. However, many of the artists and the musical approach that Taylor had used at A&M continued pretty much unchanged. The first five CTI titles were released on a green label, which was quickly switched out for a redesigned orange label with burgundy stripes that was used for most of the 70s. Notice also that the logo has subtly changed from the earlier A&M version.

After checking my collection, it turns out that I have 13 CTI releases, as well as four A&M/CTI releases. Overall, I have 48 albums that were produced by Creed Taylor, mostly on the Verve label. (No, I didn't go through all 4,500 albums to check. I use a computer cataloging program that allows me to search such things in my collection.) 

Coltrane notwithstanding, Taylor's approach to jazz, especially in the 70s, often produced something more akin to a jazz/pop fusion or jazz light. In an extended interview with Downbeat magazine's Ted Panken in 2005, Taylor says he was weaned on big band music, and was turned off by the extended improvised solos in classic bop.  He says that compared to other jazz producers, he was more focused on how to sell albums and get radio play. Although his first consideration, he says, was to be sure that his recording sessions found "a groove." Though his critics blame him for setting jazz on the road to ruin, i.e. "smooth jazz," Taylor says he never intended to create "background music for beautiful people." 

Taylor stopped producing albums in the mid 90s. Although I couldn't find a complete discography of his work, a search on Discogs comes up with 1,074 hits for "producer credit" for Creed Taylor. That includes singles and lots of reissued and duplicated titles, but it's still an amazing body of work.  As of this writing, Taylor, who will be 88 years old in May, is still alive. 

Regardless of where you stand on smooth jazz, the sessions that Taylor produced are generally well recorded and feature some of the greatest names in jazz history. While I don't find my CTI releases to be across-the-board great sounding, Van Gelder never made a really bad recording.  Plus, it's always a thrill to see Van Gelder stamped in the deadwax. Since I often find CTI releases and even Verve titles for less than $10, it's usually worth the risk to check them out. However, as always with used albums, the condition is key. Older mono pressings often play nicely and sound great, even when they look scratched up. Scratched stereo releases are never going to sound good.

Enjoy the music!

How Did I Miss These Guys?

While I collect and listen to just about every kind of music, more than half of the 4,500 albums in my collection are classic rock from the 60s and 70s. It's the music I grew up with, and the music that still resonates must strongly with me. I have at least one copy (and sometimes four or five) of every album made by the Beatles, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers, CSNY, Steely Dan, The Band, The Who, and so on. I also have an extensive collection of albums by great niche artists from the same era, like Tim Buckley, Ry Cooder, Bert Jansch, Judee Sill, Delaney and Bonnie, Roy Buchanan, Captain Beefheart, Nick Drake, Fotheringay, Arlo Guthrie, Tim Harden, Leo Kottke, Love, Tim Moore, Fred Neil, Laura Nyro, Shawn Phillips, Stan Rogers, Valdy, Paul Siebel, Bobby Whitlock, and Claudia Schmidt, just to name a few.

I mention all this because it's not all that often that I run across a terrific singer from the 60s or 70s that I've never heard of. And when I do, I always think, "How the heck did I miss this guy?" In the last few weeks I picked up about 50 $1 albums from a couple of different stores. When I'm looking through $1 albums, I'll grab just about anything that isn't beat to crap and looks halfway interesting. Included in this latest haul were a couple of jewels by two singers I don't think I've ever heard of. The first was the 1975 release The Eyes Of An Only Child by Tom Jans.

The copy I found is a promo copy with a DJ strip on the front that lists the tracks. The vinyl is NM, while the jacket is only VG. The cover photo was interesting enough that I would have bought it anyway, but what sold me was seeing in the credits on the back that the great Lowell George wrote one song and produced and played guitar on a couple of others. Among the session musicians on the album are Jeff Porcaro and Jim Keltner on drums, David Lindley and Jesse Ed Davis on guitar, and Bill Paine (of Little Feat) on piano, and Valerie Carter on backing vocals. Good grief, talk about an all-star band! These folks couldn't make a bad album if they tried. 

And clearly they didn't. This is a terrific album, Jans' second, recorded at L.A.'s Sunset Sound Studios. I'd classify it as folk/rock or California rock. It has amazing lyrics, great tunes, and incredible playing. Back to the cover photo: It was taken by noted photographer Ethan Russell who also shot the covers for the Beatles' Let It Be and The Who's Quadrophenia, among many others.

According to Discogs, Eyes Of An Only Child has not been reissued on vinyl, and was only issued on CD in Japan. My copy is on a white Columbia promo label with the CBS "eyes" around the rim in black. It was mastered by Artisan Sounds in Hollywood and pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA plant. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for other albums by Jans.

Behind Door Number 2

The other great find in my $1 album haul is the 1969 release California Bloodlines by singer/songwriter John Stewart. Once again, the style is folk/rock, shading toward country/rock. 

If the name John Stewart rings a bell (it didn't with me), it may be because from 1961-67 he was a member of the second iteration of the Kingston Trio. When the Trio disbanded in 1967, Stewart pursued a career as a singer/songwriter. He hit pay dirt almost immediately with his song "Daydream Believer," which The Monkees took to number one on the charts in December of 1967. (No, I did not remember that.) In 1968, while working on Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign, Stewart met and married folk singer Buffy Ford. They put out one album as a duet before Stewart turned to recording as a solo artist. California Bloodlines was his first solo album. 

The album was produced by the legendary Nick Venet, a credit that once again was enough to convince to invest a dollar. Venet was the 21-year-old A&R wunderkind at Capital Records who signed and later produced The Beach Boys, among many other great artists. For California Bloodlines, Venet took Stewart to Nashville to record with some of the city's hottest pickers. In fact, many of the Nashville cats who play on California Bloodlines also show up on Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album. In his review of California Bloodlines, music critic Thom Jurek writes that "The songs are romantic visions of people and places that come out of a present which is already in the past and a past inhabited by ghosts. His portraits of spirits are made nearly flesh in his songs, which are ambitious lyrically if not musically." 

Yeah, whatever. This is a great, great album. My copy is a genuine NM/NM. It looks like it was never played. It's on the Capitol rainbow label (like the early Beatles albums) and was pressed at Capitol's Los Angeles plant. Once again, I'll be looking for more John Stewart albums in the future.

My advice is to keep your eyes peeled when you're looking through the $1 bins -- and enjoy the music!

Leo Meiersdorff - Jazz Painter

A few years ago I picked up a collaboration by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis called Consummation. The album was recorded in January and May of 1970 at A&R Studios in New York. Scott Yanow in his AllMusic review calls it the best of the Jones/Lewis collaborations: "The all-star cast (which includes flugelhornist Jones, drummer Lewis, trumpeter Marvin Stamm, trombonist Jimmy Knepper, tenor great Billy Harper, the reeds of Jerome Richardson, Jerry Dodgion and Eddie Daniels, keyboardist Roland Hanna, and bassist Richard Davis, among others) is well served by Thad Jones' inventive and swinging arrangements. A classic." The album was released on Blue Note, catalog number BST 84346. My copy is a clean VG+.

And while the music is fine -- straight ahead, ensemble jazz with nice orchestrations -- what really attracted me to the album was the cover. I love the wonderful watercolor painting of Thad and Mel. It seems to capture the essence of jazz in its bright colors and angular lines. The art on the gatefold jacket actually wraps around, and the back side (at left) includes more of the band. The credits on the inside of the jacket indicate that the illustrations are by "Meiersdorff." I was curious about the artist and jumped on the Interwebs to find out more.  

Leo Meiersdorff was born in Germany in 1934. After the war, his family moved to Berlin, where he finished high school. Although his family objected, Leo decided to pursue a career in art. He financed his studies by working on fishing trawlers in the North Sea and as a merchant seaman. In the 1950s, back in Berlin, Meiersdorff began to follow the many American jazz bands that were playing in Europe. At some point, he entered a contest to design the cover for a jazz album being recorded in Berlin by the famed American record producer Norman Granz. Meiersdorff won the contest, and the rest is history. 

Well, not quite. In the late 50s and early 60s, Meiersdorff traveled to the U.S. where he met fellow artists and became more immersed in the jazz scene in New York and L.A. In 1966, Meiersdorff moved permanently to New York to seek his fortune as an artist. While experimenting with expressionistic canvases and large mixed-media works, Meiersdorff hung out at jazz clubs and began to make friends with some of the musicians. He began sketching the artists and painting pictures of jazz groups. The musicians liked his work, and his reputation spread. Soon, Meiersdorff was making a name for himself as a "jazz" painter, designing backdrops for TV programs and album covers for various labels.

Over the last couple of years, I have found two more albums with covers by Meiersdorff, both on the Chiaroscuro label.

Chiaroscuro Records was founded by producer Hank O'Neal and former jazz musician Edwin Ashcraft III. In a fascinating bit of musical history, O'Neal and Ashcraft met in the 1950s when they both worked at the CIA. Ashcraft, who had been a fairly well-known jazz musician in the 20s and 30s, was by now the Director of the Office of Operations and was heavily involved in the CIA's investigations of UFOs! At the time they first met, O'Neal was apparently a junior recruit. Years later, in 1964, the two would team up to begin the Chiarosucro record company, a budget outfit with the aim of recording older jazz musicians who had fallen off the radar in the era of hard bop.

The top cover is a 1972 release by an all-star lineup including Eddie Condon on guitar, Wild Bill Davison on cornet, and Gene Krupa on drums. It's a one-off jam session put on for students at the New School in New York City. Hank O'Neal is the producer.

The second album is a 1970 release by cornetist Bobby Hackett. It was recorded during a two-month residence at the Roosevelt Grill in New York in April and May of 1970. Once again, the producer is Hank O'Neal.

Anyway, back to Meiersdorff. In 1970, he moved to New Orleans and opened his own gallery. Once there, his style became brighter and much more commercial (see the example below). After all, he was trying to catch the eye of the tourists who wanted to take home a nice souvenir of the Big Easy. As a chronicler of the food and music scene in New Orleans, he was a huge success. Before he died in 1994, Meiersdorff had become enormously popular and had sold thousands and thousands of prints of his work.

About a year ago I got the idea that it would be nice to own an original Meiersdorff painting. While his New Orleans work is colorful and fun, I prefer his paintings from the 60s in New York, when he was immersed in the jazz scene there, sketching musicians. I did some research online, and soon found a number of his paintings for sale at galleries, Ebay, and on an official website that markets some of his work. Meiersdorff originals are not cheap, and much of what is available is from his New Orleans period. However, after some months of searching, I found a New York painting available at an online auction site. I made a successful offer, and am now the proud owner of this 1967 original watercolor by Leo Meiersdorff (below). It would be fun to know if the musicians are based on any particular artists. But a trademark of his New York style is that the musicians' faces are never clearly visible. I like to think that he sketched my painting while sitting in a smoky club listening to a hot jam session. 

Enjoy the music (and the art)!

50 Year Old Sealed Copy Of Stan Getz's "Sweet Rain" LP

Sweet Rain

Stan Getz

1967, mono

Verve V-8693

Wow, it doesn't get any better than this. A couple of days ago, while going through some LPs at an antiques store not too far from my home, I came across a sealed copy of the 1967 Verve release Sweet Rain by tenor sax great Stan Getz. Think about that. This record has been sitting somewhere for 50 years, perfectly preserved in its original shrink wrap. The price was a steal at $30 (a sealed copy sold for $239 on Ebay in 2013), so I brought it home. I know that some people like to leave the open shrink wrap on their records, but since I store all my albums in poly outer sleeves, I always remove the shrink. Plus it's a gatefold album, and there would be no way to read the liner notes and other info inside if I didn't remove the plastic. But before I did, I took a picture of the price sticker that was still on the back, which shows that the album had been marked down from its original release price of $4.79, to $1.98. Talk about a steal!

Wikipedia tells us that Getz was born in Philadelphia on February 2, 1927 (which makes it the 90th anniversary of his birth in just a couple of weeks). He was the grandson of Ukrainian immigrants who came to America in 1913. His parents moved the family to New York City to find work during the depression. While still a young boy, Getz showed great promise musically, and when he was 13, his father bought him a saxophone. He practiced eight hours a day, and showed such promise that he was accepted into the All City High School Orchestra.

In 1943, at the age of 16, Getz joined Jack Teagarden's band, and because of his youth, he became Teagarden's ward. Getz also played with Nat King Cole and Lionel Hampton. After playing for Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman, Getz was a soloist with Woody Herman's band  from 1947-1948. He gained wide attention as part of the band's saxophone section, which was collectively known as the "four brothers." One of the other "brothers" was Zoot Sims. Owing to his reputation with Herman's band, Getz was able to launch his solo career, and by 1950, he was leading his own recording sessions.  

Getz spent most of the second half of the 50s in Europe, honing his chops playing and recording with countless jazz greats, including Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith and Oscar Peterson. 

Back in the U.S. in 1961, Getz teamed up with Charlie Byrd and became a central figure in introducing Brazilian bossa nova music to the American audience. He recorded Jazz Samba in 1962, which won a Grammy for Best Jazz Performance and sold more than one million copies. He quickly followed up that album with Big Band Bossa Nova, and then Jazz Samba Encore! In 1963, Getz recorded the seminal album Getz/Gilberto with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto and Gilberto's wife, singer Astrud Gilberto. The hit single from that album, "The Girl From Ipanema," won a Grammy and became one of the most popular Latin jazz tracks of all time. Two live albums, Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2 and Getz Au Go Go came out in 1964. Unfortunately, during this time Getz and Astrud Gilberto began having an affair, which put an end to his collaboration with Joao.

By the mid 60s, bossa nova was losing steam, so Getz moved back toward more traditional jazz. Which set the stage for his 1967 recording, Sweet Rain. In his review on AllMusic, Steve Huey says that Sweet Rain is "one of Getz's all-time greatest albums. Sweet Rain was his first major artistic coup after he closed the book on his bossa nova period. The album features an adventurous young group that pushed him to new heights in his solo statements." The all-star band was made up of pianist Chick Corea, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Grady Tate. Huey goes on to say that "Getz plays with a searching, aching passion throughout the date. . . The quartet's level of musicianship remains high on every selection, and the marvelously consistent atmosphere the album evokes places it among Getz's very best. A surefire classic." 

I couldn't have said it better myself, so I didn't even try. And to top it off, the sound of the Verve LP is stunning. But what would you expect from an album produced by the great Creed Taylor and mastered by Rudy Van Gelder? The session was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. on March 30, 1967. The engineer was the legendary Val Valentin. The labels have the classic Verve black and silver design which I call the "thumbtack" logo for obvious reasons. 

As you may recall if you read my earlier post about the Verve release of Anita O'Day, Verve Records was founded by Norman Granz in 1956. He sold the label to MGM Records in December of 1960, which is why the rim text at the bottom of the labels above reads: "MGM Records-A Division of Metro-Goldwin-Mayer, Inc. - Made in U.S.A." The vinyl is absolutely flawless, not a tick on either side. And the mono sound is fabulous. 

The inside left panel has credits and recording information.

The matrix info for the album is:

Side 1: V-8693 MG-944 32 VAN GELDER 1-8693
Side 2: V-8693 MG-945 15 VAN GELDER "S" (MGM stamp)

This is truly one of those holy grail finds that every record collector dreams of and that makes collecting so rewarding. Sure, I could have bought the CD online. But how can you compare a digital file to the experience of opening a 50-year-old record, seeing the inner sleeve with ads for contemporary LPs, reading the liner notes and credits, and then enjoying the amazing sound of vinyl. 

Enjoy the music! 

Joni Mitchell Retrospective - Part II

Next up on my look at the Joni Mitchell albums in my collection is her fourth album, and arguably her masterpiece, Blue, which was released in June, 1971. 

Blue, 1971

Blue is one of the most raw and revealing albums ever made, as Joni pours out her sorrow over lost love in the album's 10 songs. You can read the backstory on the internet, but the short version is that after breaking up with Graham Nash, Joni began a brief affair with James Taylor. After they broke up, Joni went to Europe to get away from it all. She fetched up on the Spanish island of Formentera, which in the 60s had become a hippy hangout. (There is an ongoing debate about whether Bob Dylan lived there for a time in a lighthouse (or maybe a windmill), occasionally showing up to play guitar in local bars.) Anyhoo, alone on the island with her guitar and a broken heart, Joni wrote most of the soul-baring songs that make up Blue. 

Blue, 1971 original pressing

Blue, 2009 remaster

Although it is clearly a brilliant album, every time I listen to it I feel like I'm eavesdropping on a painful conversation or reading a private entry in a diary. The music and lyrics are incredible, but it also makes me cringe a little. And the only song on the album that isn't about lost love is "Little Green," which Joni wrote several years earlier and is about the pain of giving up her daughter for adoption when she was a 21-year-old unwed mother in Canada. Oddly, "Little Green" has somehow become a modern Christmas classic, even though it is anything but uplifting. But I digress.


I own two copies of Blue. The first is an original 1971 release, which is still in VG++ condition, which is remarkable considering the state of my equipment back then. I suspect that my not playing it all that often is what saved it. My copy has the initials BG on the deadwax, indicating that the lacquer was cut by the great Bernie Grundman. Needless to say, the sound is fabulous. 

My second copy of Blue is the 2009 Rhino Vinyl remaster. Like the Rhino remaster of Ladies of the Canyon, they did a wonderful job. It is pressed on dead flat 180-gram vinyl with a heavyweight replica jacket and blue dust sleeve. The Rhino reissue was remastered by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman, two more audio legends, so once again the sound is fantastic. 

Here are the matrix numbers on the two releases:

-Original 1971 release:

Side 1: MS-2038 31218 (RE-2) - 2 BG A5 P
Side 2: MS-2038 31219 (RE-2) BG C P

Mastered by Bernie Grundman
Pressed by Columbia Records, Pittman, NJ

-2009 Rhino Vinyl remaster:

Side 1: MS-2038-A KPG&SH@ATM 14569.1(3)
Side 2: RHI-1-74842B KPG&SH@ATM 14569.2(3)

Remastered by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech Mastering
Pressed by Record Technology Incorporated, Camarillo, CA

Blue is the last of Joni's naval-gazing, confessional albums. And even though there is still plenty of soul searching on For The Roses, she also begins to turn her attention more to social and political issues. The shift is evident on the opening song on the album, "Banquet," which looks at the alienation of young people and the problem of poverty and income inequality. She poignantly writes: "Some get the gravy, and some get the gristle, some get the marrow bone, and some get nothing, though there's plenty to spare."

For the Roses, 1972

For The Roses, which was released in October, 1972, also marks a shift from the lean sound of Joni's solo guitar, dulcimer, or piano, toward fuller arrangements with more bass, drums, and supporting musicians. I still get a little thrill when I hear the tom-tom intro to the break in "Blonde In The Bleachers," and Joni sings: "You can't hold the hand of a rock 'n' roll man, very long, or count on your plans with a rock 'n' roll man, very long . . . "  Wow, Joni Mitchell rocking out!

For The Roses also marked one more change in Joni's career: She left Reprise and signed with Asylum Records, a label founded by her friend David Geffen in 1971. [Just an aside, "Free Man In Paris" from Court And Spark is about the workaholic Geffen and refers to a trip the two of them made to Paris along with Robbie Robertson and his wife. A Platonic trip presumably, since Geffen is gay.] 

I have three copies of For the Roses. Two are original 1972 releases, one of which I bought when it came out, and one that I picked up at a used record store about ten years ago, which is to say 35 years after I bought my first copy. Both are in VG++ condition. And the really weird thing is that both of them have the exact same matrix information. What are the odds? The third copy I have is a 1976 repressing, which I grade at VG+. The white Asylum label was only used for about a year, so it makes it easy to to date the release. The blue sky label was used from 1973 - 1984. 

1972 original pressing

1976 repressing

Here is the deadwax information:

-1972 original pressing #1:

Side 1: ST-AS-722647A  11T  PR
Side 2: ST-AS-722648A PR

Pressed by Presswell Records, Ancora, NJ

-1972 original pressing #2:

Side 1: ST-AS-722647A 11T  PR
Side 2: ST-AS-722648A PR

Pressed by Presswell Records, Ancora, NJ

-1976 repressing:

Side 1: SD 5057-A 0-1
Side 2: SD 5057-B 0-1

There is no indication in the matrix of who pressed the record, but from the size of the pressing rings on the label, I'm almost certain it was Specialty Records Company, Olyphant, PA


Which brings us to Joni's most commercially successful album, Court And Spark, which peaked at #2 on the Billboard chart. It's easily Joni's most upbeat album. And even if it's not all sunshine, there is at least a nice balance of hopefulness and angst. After five albums of introspection, unrequited love and melancholy, Court And Spark had a hopeful spirit and a welcome touch of whimsy.

Court And Spark, 1974

It's also a more mature, sophisticated album, both musically and lyrically. Engineer Henry Lewy recruited some of L.A.'s best session musicians to play on the disk, including Tom Scott's L.A. Express, The Jazz Crusaders, as well as old friends like Robbie Robertson, David Crosby and Graham Nash. There is even a cameo appearance by Cheech and Chong, for goodness sakes. 

I have two copies of Court And Spark. The first is an original 1974 copy, bought when it came out.  I played the heck out of it for years, so it's not in great shape, probably a VG at best. Interestingly, the labels on the first pressings all say 1973, though the official release date was January, 1974.  My second copy is the 2009 Rhino Vinyl remaster. And once again its a terrific reissue, with mastering by Chris Bellman. It is a beautiful sounding disk with warmth and amazing detail.

1974 Original pressing

2009 Rhino Vinyl reissue

-1974 original pressing:

Side 1: 7E 1001 A2  B  2
Side 2: 7E 1001 B  SX  0-1 S-M 1-2  A

Pressed by Columbia Records, Santa Maria, CA.

-2009 Rhino Vinyl reissue:

Side 1: R1-1001-A 18364.1(3) CB
Side 2: R1-1001-B 18364.2(3) CB

Remastered by Chris Bellman
Pressed by Record Technology Incorporated, Carmarillo, CA


Enjoy the music!

Joni Mitchell Retrospective - Part I

A young Roberta Joan Anderson

I've been a big fan of Joni Mitchell for just about as long as I can remember. The first album of hers that I bought was Ladies of the Canyon, which came out in 1970 when I was 13. My brother, who was two years older, had bought Clouds when it came out in 1969, so I was already familiar with her music. For a long time, Ladies of the Canyon remained my favorite Joni album. 

The reason I mention this is because we had a snowstorm a few days ago. And although it was only a few inches, it was enough to strand us indoors for a couple of days since we live on a very steep hill that never gets plowed. So I thought it would be a great time to take a look and listen to all the Joni Mitchell albums in my collection, which turns out to be exactly 30.

Song To A Seagull, 1968

Joni's debut album is titled Song To A Seagull, released in March, 1968. The album is usually just called Joni Mitchell since some of the seagulls spelling out Song To A Seagull in Joni's psychedelic cover painting were cut off in early pressings and are kind of hard to make out in any case. (In addition, Song To A Seagull is not printed on the spine or on the labels.) The album was released on Reprise Records, which was founded by Frank Sinatra in 1959 in order to give himself more artistic freedom. (Since he promptly sold the label to Warner Brothers in 1960, it must not have been as much fun as it sounded.) My copy of Song To A Seagull is a second pressing from 1970. The first pressing is on a two-toned orange/tan label which Reprise used from 1968-1970. In addition to the different colors, it is also distinguishable from their other label variations because it has the Warner Seven Arts logo (W7) in a small box beside the round Reprise Records logo at the top.

1968 first pressing

2nd pressing, 1970

In 1969, Warner Seven Arts was bought by the Kinney National Company, and the label was changed in 1970 to reflect that the parent company was now called Warner Brothers Records. The new label, used from 1970 to 1974, was changed to all orange (it looks more pumpkin-colored to me) and the W7 logo was dropped. The Reprise ":r" logo, which had been a tan circle, became an orange square without the word "reprise."  My copy is evidently an early reissue since it has the same matrix numbers as the original pressing:

Side 1: T 0 30753 RS6293A-1B  AB 13
Side 2: T 1 30754 RS6293B-1L  A

Pressed by Columbia Records at their Terre Haute, IN plant.

While my copy looks very clean, it has a number of ticks and some groove noise, no doubt caused by the cheap record player my brother and I used to listen to our albums. I would grade it a solid VG/VG. However, even if it were in better shape, this is just not a great-sounding album. Producer David Crosby had the bright idea of having Joni sing into an open grand piano, resulting in a rich, resonate sound, but also causing some high-level sympathetic string vibration that had to be filtered out later, along with most of the top end. (Which may be why the album has never been remastered.) That said, Stephen Still's bass on "Night In The City" is deep and punchy and the songs are terrific. I'll be looking for a cleaner copy at some point.

Clouds, 1969

Joni's second album is Clouds, released on Reprise Records in May, 1969. Like her first album, original pressings of Clouds are on the two-toned Reprise Records / Warner Seven Arts label. I have three copies of Clouds. One is an original 1969 pressing on the Warner Seven Arts label, one is a 1970 repressing on the solid pumpkin-colored label, and the third is a 1976 repressing. The 1976 label is identical to the 1970 label except it for the rim text at bottom. The 1970 label reads: Reprise Records, a Division of Warner Brothers Records, Inc., Made in U.S.A. The new label reads: Reprise Records, a division of Warner Brothers Records, Inc., 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, Calif. 91505, a Warner Communications Company, "W" logo, Made in U.S.A." The new "W" logo is commonly referred to as the sausage logo. This new rim text was first used in 1974 after a reorganization of Warner Brothers. The only other small change was the addition of an "R" in a circle beside the logo at the top to indicate that the orange Reprise ":r" logo was a registered trademark. 

Clouds, 1976 repressing

Post-1974 Reprise Records label with sausage logo.

My original 1969 copy is graded VG, while the repressings are both VG++. The original pressing has more surface noise, but the sound on all of them is great, with no significant differences in sound quality that I can hear. After the screw up with the sound on her first album, Joni produced Clouds herself with an assist from the great sound engineer Henry Lewy, who would go on to work on Joni's next 12 albums. Clouds has a wonderful natural tone and sounds excellent.

Here are the matrix numbers for my three copies:

-1969 original pressing:

Side 1: 30885 1S I
Side 2: 30886 1S I

Pressed by RCA Records, Indianapolis, IN

-1970 repressing:

Side 1: 30885 RS 6341 A RE1-1L (S) C17 1Ƨ
Side 2: 30885 RS 6341 B RE-1 1-C (S) F T1

Side 1 stamper was made for Columbia Records' Santa Maria, CA pressing plant, while the side 2 stamper was made for Columbia's plant in Terre Haute, IN. For some reason, one of the stampers was sent to the other plant.

-1976 repressing:

Side 1: RS-6341 30885 RE1 A2 P
Side 2: RS-6341 30886 C P

Pressed by Columbia Records, Pittman, NJ

Ladies of the Canyon, 1970

As I mentioned at the top, Joni's third album, Ladies of the Canyon has long been my favorite of her albums. (Although lately I've been leaning a little more toward The Hissing Of Summer Lawn.) But I have a confession to make. The first song on Ladies of the Canyon is "Morning Morgantown," which is rose-colored memory of the brief time that Joni spent studying in the city that houses the University of West Virginia back in 1966 or 67. From that song, I somehow got the idea that the "Canyon" in the title referred to the mountains of West Virginia, and that the whole album was a kind of reverie to Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia. I was an East Coast kid, so how was I to know that the West Hollywood suburb of Laurel Canyon had become the center of the musical universe in the late 60s? It was only many years later that I had a big "DUH" moment and realized the title referred to Laurel Canyon where Joni lived at the time with her boyfriend Graham Nash (inspiring Nash's song "Our House"), while hanging out and making music with neighbors Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Mama Cass, Peter Tork, Frank Zappa, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Jim Morrison, Roger McGuinn, and many others. I feel a little sheepish every time I play the record.

I have two copies of Ladies Of The Canyon. The first is my 1970 original pressing on the pumpkin-colored Reprise label. The album also appeared on the two-toned Reprise / Warner Seven Arts label, but since it came out the year that Reprise changed their labels, it was available on both labels from the start. The matrixes are the same.

1970 original pressing

2009 Rhino Vinyl remastering

My second copy is the 2009 remastering by Chris Bellman which was issued by Rhino Vinyl. It was beautifully pressed by Record Technologies Incorporated in Camarillo, CA on 180-gram vinyl. My original 1970 pressing is VG++ (almost NM) and sounds excellent. But the 2009 remastering is a whole other level of amazing -- hyper-real, but not in a clinical way, in a "Holy crap, Joni is sitting right there" kind of way. The timbre of every plucked guitar string, the texture of Milt Holland's brushed drums, every subtle expression in Joni's voice comes through. It's a stunner. Listening to this new version recently got me thinking that Ladies Of The Canyon might still be my favorite Joni album after all. It's certainly my favorite jacket, with a wonderful self-portrait line drawing combined with a watercolor (or colored marker?) drawing of the Canyon. On the back are a row of colorful geese. Rhino's re-issue comes in a heavyweight replica gatefold jacket. The vinyl has the 1970 pumpkin-colored Reprise label.

-1970 original pressing:

Side 1: RS-6376 30992 C3 P
Side 2: RS-6376 30993 B3 P

Pressed by Columbia Records, Pittman, NJ

-2009 Rhino Vinyl remastering:

Side 1: R1-6376-A CB 18397.1(3)
Side 2: R1-6376-B CB 18397.2(3)

Remastered by Chris Bellman
Pressed by Record Technology Incorporated, Camarillo, CA

More to come.

Enjoy the music!