DOL, Doxy, Vinyl Passion, Jazz Wax, PanAm, Vinyl Lovers -- Any Good?

[See Part 2 of my listening test here.]

If you collect jazz LPs from the 50s and 60s, you have surely noticed the flood of new reissues by labels like DOL, Doxy, Jazz Wax, Green Corner, Jazz Images, Jazz Time, and many more.  In the past ten years or so, these new EU labels have begun offering repressings of often hard-to-find classic jazz albums at bargain prices.  They offer hundreds of brand new LPs originally issued on Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Columbia, Verve, and many other labels, pressed on 180-gram vinyl with nicely reproduced jackets, all for around $15.

In a previous post I talked about a trip to Spain where I bought a few of these EU repressings.  My preliminary reaction was that they look great and sound pretty good, especially for the price.  But there has been so much debate about these releases in the various online music and vinyl discussion groups, I thought it might be useful to take a closer look.

The first thing to understand about all these new labels is that they were created to take advantage of EU copyright laws which (at the time) said that sound recordings entered the public domain 50 years after the end of the calendar year in which the recording was originally released.  Which is to say that a record released in June of 1950, for example, would become public domain on January 1, 2000.  The reason that all these jazz reissue labels began to pop up around 2010, is because the late 1950s were a golden era for jazz music.  Countless classic albums from Take Five to Kind Of Blue were released during this time.  European entrepreneurs quite legally seized the opportunity to release new pressings of these recordings without having to pay a licensing fee or getting permission from the rights holder.  Which meant that they could sell their albums for very low prices.  And as each new year rolled around and new LPs entered the public domain, they could offer more and more classic albums.  It looked like a gravy train that would never end.  

 
But alas, no.  After intense lobbying from the US recording industry, record labels, artists, and other rights holders (and because everyone realized with a shock that the first Beatles recordings were about to enter the public domain), in September of 2011 the EU parliament in Brussels voted to amend the law to increase copyright protection to 70 years.  But the decision was not retroactive and only applied to sound recordings originally released after January 1, 1963.  As a result, any sound recording originally released by the end of 1962 is in now in the public domain in Europe.  The Beatles' first hit single, "Love Me Do," which was released in October, 1962, is now in the public domain.  The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, released in March, 1963, was saved for the time being.

Despite the fact that these new public domain vinyl releases are completely legal, a number of online commentators have opposed them on moral grounds, comparing them to bootlegs because artists and their heirs will not benefit from sales.  However, it is worth noting that only a relatively small percentage of artists own the rights to their albums.  The vast majority of rights holders are record labels, licensees, or other corporations.  And as this article in the UK's Guardian newspaper from 2011 reveals, the EU decision to extend copyrights will actually harm some artists.  The reason is that a lot of artists who signed away their rights in one-sided contracts in the 50s and 60s (and never made a penny from album sales) could have repackaged their recordings and sold them themselves if the albums had become public domain.  Now, only the license holder continues to profit.  But I digress.


While these new public domain pressings are legal in Europe, I wasn't able to find an explanation for how they can be sold in the US, where sound recordings are protected by copyright for 95 years. Nevertheless, they are readily available at countless brick-and-mortar stores and online sellers in the US, including the likes of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Not being an international copyright lawyer, I can only speculate that there is some sort of legal loophole (first sale doctrine?) or a trade arrangement that allows them on the US market. Otherwise, I would have expected to see lawsuits and injunctions filed by the US rights holders, which does not seem to be the case.

In my search for EU labels that are repressing vinyl copies of public domain jazz recordings, I came up with a list of ten different labels. They are listed below.  Following the name of each label is the country of origin, and in parentheses are the year the label first began releasing vinyl albums and the number of albums they have released to date, as compiled by Discogs. I didn't include any labels where I couldn't find at least one public domain jazz reissue, which I define as an LP originally released before 1963 that does not list the copyright holder or other licensing information on the jacket or label. I also did not include labels that produce only compilations or best of collections.  Here you go:

Jazz Workshop

-DOL, Russia [2012, 1,074]

-Doxy, Russia (2008, 431) [said to be based in Italy, 
  but Russian owned]

-Green Corner, Spain (2014, 19)
-Jazz Images, Spain (2016, 139)

-Jazz Wax Records, Spain (2009, 91)

-Jazz Workshop, Spain (2009, 95)
-Pan Am Records, Spain (2011, 71)

-Vinyl Lovers, Spain (2012, 102)

-Wax Time Records, Spain (2010, 593)
-Vinyl Passion, Holland (2007, 279)

Elemental Music

I feel certain that this is not a complete list. But bear in mind that I did not consider labels that put out public domain reissues of rock, blues, R&B, or any other genre - just jazz.  I also did not include CD-only labels regardless of the genre.

I will mention one more label, Elemental Music, that occasionally appears (erroneously) in lists of public domain producers.  Based in Spain, Elemental Music's releases include licensing and copyright information on their jackets and labels. They have reissued nearly 50 classic Blue Note titles in Europe, as well a growing list of "new archival discoveries" -- live jazz recordings of (mostly) European radio and concert dates that they have unearthed. One of the co-founders of Elemental, the American producer Zev Feldman, was recently hired by Blue Note as a consulting producer to dig through the archives for unreleased materials from their vaults.

Enough Already - How Do They Sound?

Online opinions are decidedly mixed about the sound quality of public domain reissues. Some posters dismiss all of them out of hand as junk sourced from MP3s.  Since the public domain labels are notoriously tight-lipped about their sources, I'm doubtful that anyone knows for sure. (The only on-the-record information about sourcing I could find is an interview with Jordi Pujol by noted jazz writer Marc Myers, which you can read here. Pujol, founder of Fresh Sounds Records, also several public domain labels, including Jazz Workshop.) And while it's probably a safe bet that EU reissue labels don't have access to the original master tapes, claiming that they use MP3s as a source begs the question of why a label that presumably wants to sell more records wouldn't bother to at least use an easily obtainable commercial CD or high-resolution digital file as its source.  


Regardless of the source, the proof is in the listening.  I obtained at least one LP from all ten of the reissue labels listed above. For each title, I have a fully licensed CD, digital download, or SACD with which to compare them. I did A/B comparisons of the two different copies with levels matched. I don't claim to have golden ears, and I wasn't trying to identify every minute difference. I just wanted to get a feel for the quality of the public domain releases and see how they measure up to licensed copies. And I wanted to see if there is any justification for the many online suggestions to avoid public domain releases because they sound "horrible." Of course this is a limited sample, and it may well be that the quality level of the releases is uneven. No doubt if you were to do similar comparisons using your system and your ears, your mileage would vary. But we have to start somewhere.

Each label is followed by the catalog number, the LP title, the original pressing info in parentheses, and my listening notes:

DOL DOL889H, Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims

(Blue Note BLP 1530, 1956)

I compared this DOL pressing with the 2008 RVG remastered Blue Note CD. The LP has a touch more warmth, but otherwise the two are nearly indistinguishable. The timbre, the detail, the bass are all so close that I couldn't tell them apart. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this was the CD used to cut the lacquer for the disk.

Doxy DOX869, John Jenkins With Kenny Burrell

(Blue Note BLP 1573, 1957)

I compared this Doxy release with the 1996 Blue Note/Capitol CD. First reaction: wow! What a great recording.  Both the LP and the CD sound great. The bass on the LP is more defined and punchier. The CD has a little more air around the high end. I could happily listen to either and have no clear preference.

Green Corner 200895, Oliver Nelson The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse AS-5, 1961)

This Green Corner release (with a different cover) is a two-fer, containing both the mono and stereo versions of this release. I compared the stereo disk to the HD Tracks 24-96 digital files. In both, George Barrow's baritone sax, Eric Dolphy's flute, and Freddie Hubbard's trumpet are just right there. A/B-ing the two, I got lost. If you twist my arm, the digital files have a little more detail.

Jazz Images 37053

Jazz Images 37053, Herbie Hancock Takin' Off

Vinyl Passion VP807823, Herbie Hancock Takin' Off

(Blue Note BLP 4109, 1962)

Vinyl Passion 807823

The Jazz Images series (left) have different covers than the originals, using images by the French photographer, Jean-Pierre Leloir, who documented jazz in France during the 1950s and 60s. I initially compared the disk to the 2007 RVG remastered Blue Note CD. This is the first A/B where I heard a fairly big difference. The LP has muddy bass and the high end is rolled off -- the cymbals almost disappear compared to the CD, which is clearly better. But wait! I also have a copy of the same disk on Vinyl Passion as part of a two-fer with Freddie Hubbard's Hub-Tones, so I threw it into the mix. After A/B/C-ing the three versions, the Vinyl Passion disk is the clear winner. More space around the players, more detail and better texture. Clearly there are differences between the public domain releases.

Jazz Wax Records JWR 4552, Today And Now Coleman Hawkins Quartet (Impulse! AS-34, 1962)

I compared the Jazz Wax disk to the stereo layer of  Analogue Productions 2011 SACD CIPJ 34 SA.  OK, this one is night and day. The SACD is phenomenal, with wonderful balance and a "you are in the room" presence.  Hawkins' tenor sounds like burnished gold smeared with honey. The Jazz Wax disk is flat and the top end is rolled off. 

Pan Am Records 9152234, Stan Getz And The Oscar Peterson Trio (Verve MG V-8251, 1957)

I compared this disk to the undated Verve CD 827 826-2. What a cooking session! Getz is on fire. Once again there is very little difference between the vinyl and the CD.  The vinyl is slightly fuller, while the CD has a bit more detail. Peterson's piano sounds more natural in the vinyl version. This one is very close with a slight nod to the vinyl.

Vinyl Lovers 6785472, Sonny Rollins Plus 4

(Prestige PRLP 7038, 1956)

I compared this to the stereo layer of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's 2002 SACD. The MFSL remastered files have an almost etched detail. The Vinyl Lover disk has more warmth, but lacks some of the air and space of the SACD. Tough call. The MFSL initially sounds better, but I think it might ultimately be fatiguing. Slight nod to the LP.

Wax Time Records 771816, The Duke Pearson Quintet, Hush! (Jazz Line 3302, 1962)

I have a CD of this somewhere, but couldn't find it. However I did find MP3 files that I had ripped to my computer at 320 kpbs many years ago. This is the only disk among the public domain releases that I bought that is really disappointing. It sounds flat with weak bass and a rolled off high end. In fact, after comparing it to my ripped files (which sound very good), I wish they had sourced it from MP3s!

Jazz Workshop JW-081, Gigi Gryce And The Jazz Lab Quintet (Riverside RLP 1110)

I compared this to OJC CD-1774-2, which was remastered in 1991 by Phil De Lancie at Fantasy. The CD is cleaner with more energy in the mids and high end. However, the LP has better bass definition and better overall balance. Switching back and forth, the difference between the two versions is easy to hear. It's really the difference between a more digital sound and a more analog sound. They are both excellent but I'll take the analog LP every time.

General Notes

All of the ten public domain LPs are pressed on 180-gram vinyl. All are flat and extremely quiet. None of the records is off-center or has a warp. There are a few ticks across the 18 sides, but nothing out of the ordinary, and all of them are as quiet as the average audiophile US pressing. Except for the Pan Am release, which comes in a plain white paper dust sleeve, all the albums have white, poly-lined dust sleeves. All of the jackets are printed on medium to heavy stock. Seven of the ten labels reproduce the original jackets. All of the jacket images are clear and sharp, and the type is clear and legible on all of the releases. Eight of the ten disks were pressed at gzvinyl in the Czech Republic. The Jazz Workshop disk was pressed at MPO in France, and The Vinyl Passion disk was pressed at Record Industry in Holland. Six of the ten (Green Corner, Jazz Wax, Pan Am, Vinyl Lovers, Wax Time and Vinyl Passion) say they were made using Direct Metal Mastering (DMM). 

Conclusions

This is a limited comparison with a lot of different sources. I'm not sure that I was always comparing apples to apples. But my experience with these public domain releases is overall pretty positive. One was not so hot, three were meh, and six were excellent. I wouldn't describe any of them as terrible, although the Jazz Wax reissue of Duke Pearson's Hush! is not going into heavy rotation.

Are public domain reissues worth buying? Well, I paid an average of $15 each for the public domain titles (and two of them were two-fers). As long as you know what you are buying and realize it's a little bit of a crap shoot, then they can be a very good value. With a lot of searching and some luck, you might find a US or Japanese reissue of some of these titles for $15. But not in mint condition. 

You can probably buy a licensed CD of any of these titles for less than $15. But then you won't get the same tactile experience of playing vinyl and enjoying the album art while reading the liner notes.  

My advice? Don't overthink it. These are very nicely packaged, affordable pressings, including many classic jazz albums that are almost impossible to find at a reasonable price. Buy one and see what you think. If you like it, buy more. If you don't, don't.

Enjoy the music!

A Little Love For The Humble LP Dust Sleeve

Capitol 78 corporate sleeves

Let's talk about dust sleeves.  You know, the inner sleeve that protects the record from dust and scratches and goes inside the record jacket.  Unlike long-playing albums, 78s didn't come in a cardboard jacket.  They were simply sold in a brown paper cover, often printed with the label's or the record dealer's logo. When 45 rpm singles were introduced in 1949, they were also sold in plain paper sleeves, often with the label's logo, and later in more collectible picture sleeves that featured images of the artist or a photo to evoke the mood of the music.

My 1959 NM original mono copy of Time Out
in its original glassine dust sleeve

Early paper record sleeves weren't quite the same as the inner dust sleeve which comes inside the cardboard jacket with 12" LPs.  Some of the albums I have from the 50s originally came with an inner sleeve made of glassine, a slightly yellowish paper with some of the properties of plastic.  At right is a photo of my original NM/VG+ 1959 mono copy of Dave Brubeck's Time Out with the original glassine dust sleeve.  Even though it's made from paper, the glassine manufacturing process results in a slick paper that is opaque and water resistant.  If you ever collected stamps you probably used little glassine envelopes to save and protect the stamps.  And in lots of old books, glassine pages were inserted to protect images or "plates" from damage.  While glassine is still around and in use, I don't actually store any of my LPs in the original glassine sleeves.

In the modern LP era, the vast majority of dust sleeves are made from paper or some type of polypropylene.  In the 50s and 60s, some labels used thin, clingy, half-round plastic sleeves.  I have a number of Columbia (and other) issues with those.  A lot of Japanese issues also used these half-round plastic sleeves.  They are notoriously hard to get in and out of the jacket.  You end up putting the bottom in first, leaving the open part of the sleeve at the opening of the jacket, which kind of defeats the purpose of using a dust sleeve to keep dirt and dust off the LP.  [You do store all your albums with the opening of the dust sleeve at the top of the jacket, right?  Right?]

The dust sleeve at left is from a 1950s Capitol release.  Since most people were used to dealing with 78s, Capitol felt the need to explain what "This Protective Envelope" is for, noting that it "keeps your record dust-free and helps guard the grooves against scratches and abrasion."  They also helpfully provide tips for how to insert the sleeve back in the jacket.

MoFi dust sleeve

Overall the most common sleeves are plain paper, with or without a hole to show the label.  While many are just plain white, record labels quickly began to take advantage of the real estate available on the sleeve to advertise their other albums and promote their brand.  Later, certainly by the 60s, the record companies began to create custom inner sleeves with art, photos, credits, liner notes, song lyrics, and the like.  I suspect it tells you something about the label's level of support for the band or performer if they go all out for a glossy custom dust sleeve. And of course custom sleeves are great for the listener, as they provide even more space for art, notes, photos and information about the recording session and the artist. 

There are any number of available after-market

Sleeve City 2 Mil poly sleeve

sleeves to replace lost of damaged sleeves or just to provide better protection for your LPs.  One of the best known is the MoFi (Mobile Fidelity) style sleeves (above), which are made by numerous manufacturers.  While they resemble rice paper - with a smooth, soft feel - they are made from polyethylene.  Essentially a big plastic pouch, the back has a sealed white paper stiffener to support the sleeve and make it easier to insert into the jacket. The MoFi style sleeves are very nice, but somewhat expensive, so I mostly use them for rare and valuable records, not the bulk of my collection.  For normal LPs, I use a type of high-density polypropylene sleeve.  In fact, the first thing I do when I buy a new or used record is wash it on my VPI record cleaning machine and put it in a new poly sleeve.  (I save the original sleeve in the jacket as well.)  I use a 2 mil thick sleeve made by Sleeve City.  I find 2 mil to be the ideal weight -- the sleeves are thick enough to be easy to insert into the jacket, but not so stiff that they can scuff the record surface.  They have a smooth feel and anti-static properties, so the LPs don't cling to the plastic or develop a static charge.  They are also a good value, particularly if you buy them in bulk.

While I don't use them to store my records, I really enjoy looking at the original corporate and promo dust sleeves.  They are often a miniature time capsule from an earlier era, with insight not just about the music of the day, but fashion and hair styles, marketing techniques, the latest hi-fi equipment, social issues, and even the cost of living.  As an example, notice that the RCA sleeve at left offers to send you a copy of their complete catalog if you send them a quarter.  And below is an ad introducing "The Exciting New Way to Enjoy the Music You Want," called, at the time, "RCA Stereo 8 Cartridge Tape," better know as the 8-track tape. 

Dust sleeves can also provide valuable clues for dating a particular pressing or release of an LP.  If your LP is an undated repressing, you can sometimes narrow things down by checking the release date of the albums advertised on the dust sleeve.  If you think you might have a first pressing, be sure that the dust sleeve doesn't advertise any albums that were released after the original pressing date.  If so, then you probably don't have a first pressing.  In addition, some albums have a custom insert - maybe a lyric sleeve or poster -- that was not included with later pressings.  However, keep in mind that if you are buying used albums, you can't discount the possibility that the previous owner put the disk in the wrong sleeve.  On a recent online order I received, about half the LPs were in corporate sleeves that didn't match the label.

Because so many used LPs come with the 
wrong dust sleeve, I have dozens and dozens of extras.  I save them, and from time to time am able to match up an album with the original sleeve, even for releases that are 30 or 40 years old.  

While I always prefer to have the original inner sleeve, it's not a big factor to me when I'm shopping for used vinyl.  When shopping online, you generally won't know anyway, since dealers rarely mention the sleeve in the item description unless it's unusual or damaged.  The exception would be for custom dust sleeves, posters, or other inserts -- like the cutouts from Sgt. Peppers.  And even then, if the vinyl is in prime condition, I figure sooner or later I'll find a cheap copy with a trashed LP but a jacket and inserts in good condition. 

Dust sleeves are just one more reason why I find collecting LPs such an interesting hobby.  Enjoy the music!

Definitive Versions Of Judee Sill's Forgotten Masterpieces

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard a song by Judee Sill.  It was a Saturday morning, early in 1974.  I was a sophomore in high school and had driven to the next town over from mine (where there was a music store) to buy a guitar.  I ended up getting a Fender F-65 acoustic.  Forty-four years years later, I still have it.

With my new guitar resting in its case in the backseat of my VW bug, I headed home.  As always back then, my car radio was tuned to WFDD, the campus radio station of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.  These days it's hard to imagine that people listened to the radio to discover new music.  But FM radio was an important musical lifeline for me and my friends at the time.  And WFDD was by far the hippest station in the area, playing a great selection of our favorite rock 'n' roll, as well as lots of strange and interesting stuff by new and obscure artists.

As I headed home, I heard a terrific new (to me) song coming over the airwaves.  I was so taken with it, I pulled over and stopped the car so I could be sure to hear the DJ when he announced the name of the singer.  The song turned out to be "Soldier Of The Heart" off Judee Sill's 1973's album, Heart Food.  A couple of weeks later, when I was in Winston-Salem, I went to a record store to see if they had the LP.  They did not, but they did have Judee's first album, the 1971 self-titled Judee Sill.  I bought it, and asked them to order a copy of Heart Food for me.  In this age of Spotify and Amazon, it's hard to imagine that I actually had to have the record store order the album for me and wait a couple of weeks for them to get it.

Sadly, once I had those two albums, I had the entire recorded musical output of Judee Sill during her lifetime.  But for my money, you'd be hard pressed to find two albums by any other singer/songwriter that can match the poetry and depth of Judee's two LPs.  (Inevitably, there have been a number of posthumous releases of studio outtakes and live recordings that, while interesting, really don't add much to her legacy.)

I played Judee's two albums hundreds of times over the coming years.  Luckily, even as teenager I took care of my vinyl, and my 35+ year old original copies currently rate at VG+/VG (Judee Sill) and NM/VG (Heart Food).  Still, as two of my all-time favorite albums, more than once over the years I worried that if something happened to them, I might never find replacements.  From the 1980's on, I kept my eye out for backup copies in the used record bins, but never saw a single one, which isn't surprising considering how few records she sold.  In an interview in Rolling Stone in 1972, Judee says that her first album sold about 40,000 copies, (which was actually pretty respectable for a first album).  But her second album flopped, and her record label, Asylum, dropped her. Not long after, years Judee's life spiraled out of control.  With a long history of drug addiction and abuse, she died of an overdose in 1979 at the age of 35.

For the next three decades, Judee was mostly forgotten and her albums were never reissued.  Finally, in 2003, Rhino released the first CD versions of both albums.  Each included about 10 bonus tracks of demos and live recordings.  I quickly ordered them.  Even though I hardly ever listen to CDs (then or now), I figured that at least I would have a reference copy in case something happened to my LPs. Then in 2004, I was excited to see that the re-issue label 4 Men With Beards had released the first new vinyl versions in more than 30 years.  I quickly ordered those as well.  The albums are nicely pressed on 180-gram vinyl by the reliable Rainbo Records.  The replica jackets are on heavy stock with beautifully reproduced artwork.  But, to my ears, the sound is terrible -- flat, compressed, and rolled off on top.  Not nearly as good as the original pressings.  Sigh.

But, proving that all good things come to those who wait, last year, Intervention Records announced that they were issuing remastered, deluxe versions of Judee's albums.  Once again, I quickly ordered copies.  Turns out they weren't kidding about the "deluxe" part.  Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio remastered the albums from the original analog master tapes, creating new, double-disk, 45 rpm versions of the albums.  The jackets are beautifully reproduced on thick stock.  Naturally, I was anxious to hear how these reissues stack up to the originals.  The original issues were released on the Asylum label and were both mastered at Atlantic Studios.  And in the case of Heart Food, my copy was mastered at Atlantic Studios by the legendary George Piros.  (AT/GP in the runout.)  My copy of Judee Sill was pressed by PRC Recording in Richmond, IN. My copy of Heart Food was pressed by Monarch Records, in Los Angeles.  Both of them sound really, really good -- open and airy with solid bass and terrific imaging and balance.

It's not faint praise to say that Gray's new 45-rpm versions sound amazingly like the originals.  They have the same clarity, spaciousness, and balance.  The pressings, by RTI, are perfect.  In fact, having done some A B comparisons, I can't reliably tell the two versions apart.  Maybe, just maybe, the new versions have a bit more clarity and pace - which could well be the benefit of the 45 rpm speed.  And even though my original copies are very quiet, the new versions are so dead silent that the music seems just a tad more focused.  Bottom line, if something happened to my original albums, I finally have back-up copies that I could happily live with for the next 35 years.

Enjoy the music!

Is It Possible To Have Too Many Records?

In the past few months we've been doing a lot of traveling -- visiting New York, Nashville, Spain, Portugal, northern California, southern Oregon, with a number of local trips mixed in.  As you might expect, everywhere we've gone I've spent time visiting used record stores and antique malls in search of LPs.  In addition, I've bought a number of new releases online and have stumbled across some great deals on Discogs and Ebay that were too good to pass up.  The result is that I've added more than a hundred albums to my collection in a very short time.

This is not the actual pile of records I bought. Warning: having this many records is hazardous to your health and will likely void your lease. Side effects may include vertigo and disorientation.

While getting a bunch of new records is clearly not a problem in and of itself, as I stare at the ever-growing pile of vinyl that I need to clean, catalog, and listen to, I've started to wonder if buying records is getting in the way of my enjoyment of music.  I generally spend four or five hours a day listening to records.  Sometimes I know just what I want to hear, and other times I'll browse the shelves and see what catches my eye - an old favorite or a hidden gem that I've forgotten about.  For me, that's a big part of the attraction of listening to music on LPs.  I get to reread the liner notes, enjoy the labels and cover art, and am reminded of where and when I bought the particular album.

But here is the problem: When I buy records, I have a regular process of cleaning, cataloging, and listening to the new titles.  And when it comes to jazz albums, I also like to spend some time learning more about the sessions, the musicians, maybe comparing different pressings, and reading reviews of the music.  Naturally, all of that takes some time.

The actual pile of new and used records waiting to be processed.

So with a never-ending stack of newly-purchased LPs, I find that I'm not spending much time listening to records already in my collection.  Whenever I put on Sgt. Peppers, Kind of Blue, or anything already in the collection, I feel a little guilty that I'm not cleaning and listening to my new finds instead.

The obvious solution is to quit buying so many records.  (Though I have to admit that those words in that order don't even make sense to me.)  I won't live long enough to listen to all the records I already have, so what's the point of buying more?  The answer, of course, is that no matter what you collect -- LPs, stamps, coins, comic books, baseball cards, wine, or whatever -- the fun isn't just in having a big honking pile of whatever it is you like to collect.  It's enjoying and appreciating what you have, while adding new and interesting items.  And like most collectors, I love the thrill of the chase -- hunting down obscure releases online, stumbling on an original Blue Note at a yard sale, or maybe discovering a new artist that I've never heard of at the local antiques mall.


Recently at one of my local haunts, I found a 1973 album on the Atlantic label called In April Came The Dawning Of The Red Suns by a group named Ramatam.  They put out two albums, the self-titled Ramatam in 1972, and In April in 1973.  I have never heard of them in my life and am pretty certain that I've never, ever seen one of their albums before.  How is that possible?  Well, it turns out to be a very interesting album (despite the inclusion of a straight-up cover of Stars and Stripes Forever.)  Plus, it has a great, oh so 1970s cover.  How could I not buy it?

Back to our story.  Despite grousing about having too many records (talk about your first world problems), I picked up a bunch of really interesting LPs during our travels this summer.  While we were in Portugal and Spain, I hit eight or ten used record stores, on the lookout for European artists that I like, as well as some Brazilian albums that are either very hard to find or amazingly expensive in the U.S.

Louie Louie, in Lisbon

In general, my record shopping experience in Portugal was not great.  In Lisbon I found an indoor shopping center that had three different used record dealers.  Unfortunately, in each one the selection was limited and expensive, and the building was so hot and stuffy that after about a half hour I gave up and went looking for a cold drink.  I had better luck at a shop called Louie Louie, which is downtown near Rossio Square, where I found a couple of LPs by the great Brazilian artist, Jorge Ben.  

Madrid, on the other hand, is overrun with excellent used record stores, including a half dozen that were within easy walking distance of where we were staying near the Palacio Real.  Among the ones that I particularly liked were Bajoelvolcan, La Metralletta (despite their regrettable "machine gun" name, with matching logo), as well as Discos Babel and Discos Bangla Desh.  The last two are side-by-side on a street behind Opera Square.

Discos Bangla Desh on the left, and Babel Discos on the right

I could easily have spent another two or three days going through all the record stores in Madrid, although I would have needed another suitcase to get all the albums home.  As it was, I found some great copies of Italian pop records, Spanish re-pressings of Brazilian disks by Vinicious and Odette Lara, Astrud Gilberto, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, an interesting early 1970s Colombian pop album by a sister act named Elia and Elizabeth, a couple of tango albums by Astor Piazzolla, the Argentinian master of the bandoneon, some UK and Spanish pressings of 70s rock albums, and even a NM copy of the U.S.-pressed Original Jazz Classic release of "Portrait of Wes" (Montgomery).

Finally, at a Madrid branch of the FNAC store (a French-based home electronics chain), they were practically giving away brand new re-pressings of classic jazz LPs from the 50s and 60s.  There are a slew of EU companies putting out these reprints, including Wax Time, Pan Am, DOL, Doxy, and Barcelona's own Jazz Wax label.  No doubt you've run across some of these if you've spent any time looking at jazz LPs in the last few years.  There is some discussion about the quality of these pressings, as well as questions about whether the companies are taking unfair advantage of lax European copyright laws to re-press albums that are still under copyright in the U.S.  Even if the later is true, as far as I know these records are perfectly legal to buy and own and are widely sold in the U.S. on Amazon and elsewhere.  As I wrote in my post about Rhino/Scorpio Blue Note re-pressings, as long as you know what you're buying (albums that are likely cut from digital files), it's hard to argue with brand new classic jazz albums that cost $10-12.

La Metralletta in Madrid

And while I've seen complaints about the quality of these reissues online, I will say that all of the EU jazz reprints that I have are extremely well done.  They are all pressed on 180-gram vinyl, have nicely-printed jackets on heavy stock (although usually not the original artwork), and seem to be pressed primarily at gzvinyl in the Czech Republic.  Even if they aren't the last word in fidelity, they sound pretty good to me, and there is something to be said for knowing that you are getting a brand new, flat, quiet, well-pressed album.  I have dozens of records pressed by gzvinyl, and every one of them is perfect.  I haven't been nearly as lucky with recent U.S. pressings.  (Speaking of which, I received my copy of the new remaster of Tom Wait's Blue Valentine in the mail today.  It was pressed by Independent Record Pressing in Bordentown, NJ, a relatively new plant that opened in 2015.  As I was cleaning the record, I saw that it had a bad scratch on the first track.  When I put it on the turntable, it skipped three or four times in the first 20 seconds.  Really??  It seems that about one third of all the new U.S. pressings I buy has some defect right out of the jacket -- unless they come from RTI, QRP, or a couple of the other high-end pressing plants.  Is quality control really that hard?  The Czechs seem to be able to do it.  What's their secret?  I don't know, maybe they just hire somebody to look at the albums before they get put in the sleeves and pull the ones with the big gauges in the vinyl?  You can read my previous post if you want more of this rant.)

In my trips to New York and Nashville, I was mostly disappointed with the shops that I visited.  I bought a few things, but overall -- and not surprisingly -- it seems that shops in big U.S. cities are more expensive and more picked over.  Since there is less competition, I tend to find more interesting records (and at much better prices) in record shops and antique stores in smaller cities and towns.

Above is a small selection of the haul from our Spain and Portugal trip. 

Enjoy the music!

Tips For Buying Used Records And General Grousing About New Vinyl

I buy lots of vinyl from used record stores, thrift shops, and antiques stores.  In theory that's great, because I have a chance to check the condition of the cover and examine the vinyl to see if there are scratches or other issues.  But sometimes even that isn't good enough.

Some months ago I went to a record fair in a town near me with about 25 dealers offering used vinyl.  Over the course of an hour or so of browsing, I found a number of interesting titles at several different tables.  In each case, I checked the vinyl carefully before buying, and ended up with ten albums that looked pretty clean.  Unfortunately, the hall where the fair was held was dim, making it hard to really see the vinyl.  When I got the LPs home, I discovered to my horror that nearly all of them had scratches and scuffs that I had missed.  Still, I was hopeful that after a good cleaning they might sound OK.

Long story short, four of the albums are so noisy that I will never play them.  A couple that looked pretty iffy actually ended up playing fine because they are mono.  The rest were fine.  Since the albums had not been graded by the dealers, I had no one to blame but myself (and the dim lighting).  Luckily I didn't pay all that much for any of the titles.  But it serves as a cautionary tale: Even someone like me, who has been collecting LPs for more than 40 years, can have trouble judging the condition of a record just by looking at the vinyl.

Which, of course, is the problem when buying albums online, where nearly all the used albums for sale are visually graded.  And the fact is, even an experienced dealer can't reliably grade records just by looking at them.  I don't fault the dealer; he's hustling to add titles to his online site.  He can't possibly listen to all of them to assign a true "play" grade.  Instead, he grabs a stack of albums, spends 10-15 seconds looking at the condition of the vinyl under a strong light, and then makes a decision.  If it's nice and shiny and there are no obvious scratches, it's NM.  If it's shiny but has a couple of light hairline scratches or scuffs, it's VG+. If it has some more serious scratches but still looks pretty decent, it's VG.  If it's worse than than, I hope he throws it away.

On the other hand, I have dozens if not hundreds of LPs that look as shiny and new as the day they were pressed, but sound awful.  They may look great, but have ticks, pops, or other surface noise that detracts from the listening experience.  Sometimes it's a bad pressing, sometimes it's groove wear from a cheap turntable, sometimes there is a barely noticeable warp, or the LP is pressed off-center.  An album with any of these problems, no matter how shiny and new, is not NM.  But if I only looked at those records and didn't listen to them, I'd probably agree that they appear NM.

So how do you protect yourself when buying at a used record store or record fair?  Your best defense is to find the strongest light source available and really take some time to check for scratches or other possible defects.  (The flashlight function on your cell phone works pretty well - just ignore the strange looks from other browsers.)  Of course, it's easy to miss a small scratch or scuff, particularly in a dark store or when you're digging in the boxes under the regular bins.  So always check the amount of wear around the spindle hole as well.  It can be a good indicator of how often the record was played and how it was handled.  If you find small scratches on the vinyl surface, lightly feel them with your fingertips.  It's almost always true that if you can't feel the scratch, you probably won't be able to hear it.  With mono disks, even if you can feel the scratch it still might play well.  I have mono albums that look terrible but still play VG+ or better.  

Sometimes used record stores will have a record player or two attached to headphones so that customers can check the condition of the vinyl.  But, really, unless I'm looking at an album that costs upwards of $25 or so, I'm not going to take the time to listen to it in the store.  And just checking a few short sections at random isn't much use.  For that reason, I don't buy copies of popular albums that you can find for $10 or less just about anywhere, unless they look immaculate.  The exception being the stuff in the $1 bins.  For those, as long as the jacket is in reasonable shape, I usually don't even look at the vinyl.  For a buck, I'll take my chances.  Our local PTA thrift store gets all the ones that I don't keep and can resell them for a dollar.  It's the circle of life.

How about ordering online?  Obviously you can't inspect the vinyl.  So my simple rule is to assume that the LP will be one grade below the listed grade.  If it's listed as NM, it'll probably have a few ticks or other light noise that makes it an actual VG+.  I'm OK with that.  What I don't want is an album that is graded VG+ because it looks pretty nice, but in reality has 20 seconds of ticks from a minor scratch or some crackle or other groove noise that would have earned it a VG if the dealer had actually listened to it.  If the NM albums I order turn out to be genuine NMs, then I'm ahead of the game.  But if they're really VG+ with a couple of ticks or some other very minor surface noise, I'm still a happy buyer.

The other reason I seldom order albums unless they are graded NM, is that we can argue all day long about how much noise is allowed for a record to be graded VG+.  But if a record is advertised and sold as NM, then there is not much room for discussion: A record sold as NM should play with virtually no surface noise.

If I receive an album graded NM that has significant surface noise, I let the dealer know and politely propose what I think is a fair partial or full refund. To date, having bought hundreds of albums online, I've found that dealers are almost always willing to make it right.  

I have broken my rule about only ordering NM vinyl on occasion.  I once found an online dealer with a terrific selection of vintage jazz at very reasonable prices, nearly all graded VG+.  I found about 25 titles that I wanted, and then sent an email to the dealer with the list.  I told him that I only wanted the disks if they were really, really, really VG+, including my definition of the grade.  He agreed to pull the order and then recheck the disks.  In the end he found that three or four were iffy, so we deleted those from the order.  All the rest were at least VG+.  If you're ordering enough to make it worth the dealer's while, it's a good strategy.  And you can be sure I'll be ordering from that dealer again.

United Record Pressing, Nashville

Finally, a word about brand new albums that sound terrible.  I mean, a brand new album should sound great, right?  Apparently not.  I buy dozens of new albums every year.  For mainstream new releases or reprints made in the US, I find that about a third of the albums have issues, usually random ticks and pops that no amount of cleaning will get rid of, but also a number with groove noise, warps, or off-center spindle holes.  (In my experience, current European pressings are much better than their US counterparts overall.  When I have a choice, I often order the EU version of an album from Amazon UK or a dealer in Europe.)  Look, I understand that making records is a complicated process.  I'm frankly amazed that you can squeeze a microscopic groove into a chunk of molten plastic and then use a diamond-tipped stylus to play back phenomenal-sounding music.  And I also understand that the vinyl industry just about ceased to exist in the 90s.  The great pressing plants run by Columbia, Capitol, Allied, Presswell, RCA, Specialty Records, and the like, are all gone.  New plants are springing up, but they are being staffed by a whole new generation of operators.  The guys with 30 or 40 years experience making records are long gone.

Maybe because of the increasing demand for vinyl, I think things are slowly getting a better.  A few years ago I swore off buying any album pressed by United Record Pressing in Nashville after getting three or four really noisy Blue Note reissues that were pressed there.  However, I've recently gotten a couple of albums made by United that sound pretty good, so maybe they're finally addressing their QC issues.  And there are other US plants, like QRP and RTI, that are making high-quality records.  However, at least for the moment, I have to say that the overall level of quality for new vinyl releases is nowhere near the level of albums made in the 50s, 60s, or 70s.  I have thousands of albums from those decades, and only a handful have the kinds of problems that are common with modern releases.

On the other hand, I have had good luck with US audiophile labels.  Albums by Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity, Impex, Classic Records, Music Matters -- just to name a few -- generally sound superb.  But not always.  I was delighted to see that MoFi had released a remastered version of Ry Cooder's classic album "Paradise And Lunch."  It's one of my all time favorite records with great songs and inspired performances.  I have two copies of the original Warner Brothers pressing from 1974 that are a touch above VG+.  But I was anxious to hear what Kurt Wonderlich at Mobile Fidelity could do with the original tapes and ordered the new version.

First the good news: The sound is extraordinary.  The original albums sound very good, but this is a whole new level of texture and detail. The only problem is that my copy has a skip between tracks A2 and A3.  (Yes, it's actually between the tracks, so it doesn't affect the music, but I still have to get up and move the stylus.) I have dozens of MoFi recordings (most, like this one, pressed by Record Technology Incorporated in Camarillo, CA), and have hardly ever heard so much as a random tick on any of their disks.  I cleaned the new album twice.  I used my digital usb microscope to inspect the groove and see what the heck was going on.  I couldn't see anything that would cause a skip.  I tried it on my backup turntable -- it still skipped.  Grrr.  Now I have to go the trouble of getting a return authorization, sending it back, and waiting a week or two for a replacement.  And of course, if it turns out to be a pressing defect, there is no guarantee that the replacement won't have the exact same skip. 

Another new album I bought recently, a repressing of Astrud Gilberto's Now, had the worst warp I've even encountered.  The needle goes up and down like the skiers' knees in the mogul competition in the winter Olympics.  Once again, I had to go to the trouble of requesting a return authorization.  In this case, the dealer said that if I'd send him a short video clip to show the warp, he wouldn't ask me to send the disk back, which I thought was a great idea.  He was suitably impressed by the video and immediately agreed to send a new copy.  I had a similar experience with a Discogs dealer who sold me three LPs advertised as NM, that turned out to be more like G+. He was incredulous that he had could have been so badly mistaken about the disks, so I offered to send him brief audio clips from each album. After he heard them, he blamed one of his staff for the mis-grading, but agreed to refund the price without making me send them back. Below is actual footage of my needle in the record groove.

The bottom line is, unless you are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for a first edition Blue Note online (when you want to be absolutely sure that the album has been meticulously evaluated and correctly graded), you should assume that the condition of any record you buy will be one grade below whatever is listed.  That way, as long as the price is reasonable, you're still going to be pretty happy with the listening experience.  It's also fairer to the dealers, who I think on the whole try to be accurate in their grading.  I recently read a rant of a review by a buyer who was incensed that an album labeled "very good" wasn't very good at all.  Well, duh.  The dealer's response was measured:  He suggested that the buyer spend some time reading the guidelines for record grades.  Just like the grades for stamps, coins, and other collectibles, very good isn't very good at all.

If you're buying used LPs from a store or at a record fair, do your best to carefully inspect the vinyl in a good, strong light.  But also just accept the fact that sometimes even a record that looks great will still have some issues.  You can always upgrade when you find a better copy later.  It's part of the fun of looking for LPs and the joy of listening to records in the first place.

Enjoy the music!