Thanks guys, for all the help... First wave of Amazon purchases came in. I'm enjoying Sinatra's Only the Lonely in a gold MoFi edition, the Sonny Stitt, some Gene Ammons, Bird with Strings, and Jimmy Smith's the Cat. Beautiful!
Great and well-recorded jazz on CD
I'm looking for recommendations for great CDs that are also great recordings. Let's keep it to jazz recorded between 1950 and 1980. Some CDs I've been listening to recently that fit the bill as posed in this post include Sarah Vaughan's first LP with Clifford Brown (Verve), or Bags Meets Wes (Riverside).
I listen to just about anything, including free jazz and fusion. Not looking for suggestions of awesome records per se, or for suggestions of audophile-quality recent jazz.
I listen to music for all sorts of reasons, and some of the albums I like are horribly recorded. I do appreciate a nice Sun Ra album for example that has bedroom-quality recording (hear the telephone ring just before the cut ends!) But that's not what I'm asking about here. On the other hand, I don't mind old recordings where you can really hear the hiss and the bacon frying---those can still be beautiful recordings with a sense of space, depth, etc.
Any ideas? Thanks.
I listen to just about anything, including free jazz and fusion. Not looking for suggestions of awesome records per se, or for suggestions of audophile-quality recent jazz.
I listen to music for all sorts of reasons, and some of the albums I like are horribly recorded. I do appreciate a nice Sun Ra album for example that has bedroom-quality recording (hear the telephone ring just before the cut ends!) But that's not what I'm asking about here. On the other hand, I don't mind old recordings where you can really hear the hiss and the bacon frying---those can still be beautiful recordings with a sense of space, depth, etc.
Any ideas? Thanks.
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Please check out this thread which has great music selection. I had created this thread back in 2003 with very similar reasons that you created this thread. I keep going back to this thread and find gems every now and then. http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?gmusi&1070546159&openmine&Quadophile&4&5&st0 |
Ella Fitzgerald - Porgy and Bess (stunning sonics even on plain CD. As for Cool Struttin I own the Japanese pressing on vinyl and it has stunning sonics. I believe this album has been released a few times and I think a JVC XRCD version is also available. If I were you I would pick the XRCD version, as I have never been disappointed with any XRCD issues. I would not be surprised if the plain aluminium CD is also very good sounding. I remember this album fetched US$ 497 on Ebay for the original vinyl issue from 1952 and that was a record high price for any vinyl. This was good five years ago if I remember it correctly. I hope this helps :) |
Not sure why you would limit it to the 50-80's so I'm going to break your rule Charles Lloyd "Canto" Carla Bley "The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu" Dave Holland Big Band "What Goes Around" Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong "Ella and Louis" Ginger Baker "Coward Of The County" Lynne Arriale "with words unspoken" Viktor Krauss "far from enough" Talking Horns "For St. Caecilien" . |
Great, thanks for these. Keep them coming. I have some of them, and I'm looking into the others. It's helpful to list which release you're listening to. With Cool Struttin', for instance, is the Rudy Van Gelder remaster any good? I know some people like those and others hate them. Always a crapshoot. I got a Japanese import of Herbie Hancock's Sextant (mind blowing) in 1992, and then later picked up the remastered version (2000?) and was disappointed. Not that the earlier CD was any great shakes, but I hate to hear a 'remastered' CD and realize that it's basically been fed through compression software. |
Check out "The Poll Winners" and their second effort "The Poll Winners ride again". The trio is Ray Brown on bass, Shelley Manne on drums and Bernie Kessell on guitar. Each won two or more Polls in 1956 and 1957 at there respective instruments, thus their name! I also love a hidden gem by Hampton Hawes, Bernie Kessel, Shelley Manne and Red Mitchell. The album is called "Four" and like above is a very well done CD. The musicians are pictured on the cover swinging golf clubs. I think you'll like them. My favorite CD purchase this year by a mile is Rodrigo y Gabriela "Live in Japan". This isn't jazz but Nuevo flamenco, classical guitar that is so well recorded you will love it. It grows on you and the guitar work amazing. One F bomb at the beginning of track 13, just in case the kids are listening. |
