Listening to Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue

Question on Music Matters release: How does it compare sound wise with the original release? I mean the original blue label record.

I have not yet purchased Midnight Blue, partly because I have a copy of the original. Frankly of the Music Matters re-issues I have purchased some have more noise than the originals in my collection. All of my originals were purchased new and have been played sparingly on good equipment over the years. But this raises a question about the whole vinyl re-issue business. What exactly are we getting for what I view as a lot of dollars? Last week I compared track for track The Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Time Further Out" album. Redbook CD vs. Music Matters reissue. I picked this one for several reasons, a major one being that the Music Matters vinyl copy is one of the best sounding recordings in my collection. I took the time to level match and tried two cartridges: Ortofon 2M Black, and an Audio Technica AT150ANV. The AT sounded more similar to the CD so I went with it for most of the listening. The two formats sounded quite similar overall, astonishingly good in fact. I am not sure that there was enough difference for me to discern one from the other in a double blind test, but overall my impression was that the vinyl was a bit richer, maybe a bit more bass, the CD was quieter and perhaps had a bit more air especially on the softer passages when Paul Desmond was soloing.

Myles,

I think your point is well taken that in the early days of stereo recording there was a steep learning curve and a whole lot of ping pong nonsense from one channel to the other and a void in the center. On the other hand, maybe this problem was more pronounced at some studios than others. On the 1959 recording, Kind of Blue (Columbia), we hear Miles Davis in the middle, John Coltrane in the left channel, and Cannonball Adderley in the right channel. The piano, bass and drums spread across the back stage from left to right. Several Brubeck records (Columbia) from that era have similar spacing with Desmond generally front and center. MJQ (Atlantic) generally had natural spacing too with Jackson front right, and Lewis front left most of the time. You have me thinking of re-listening to a lot of records now, as though I needed an excuse ;-). Thanks!

Ah that makes sense. I suppose all of the Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaborations were 3 track as well? I can hear Miles turning his back on the set, just like he did live, which had the effect of making him sound like he was behind the other musicians. That level of detail always impressed me about the Columbia recordings. I need to listen to some Norman Granz recordings from that era too, as his recording technique always impressed me. This is a great discussion, thanks again.