Listening to Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue

+1000 on the Music Matters 33-1/3rpm release...it's superb on all counts.

That's a good question, Bill. I don't have the Blue Note original pressing, but kind of wondered the same thing. OTOH, all of the Deep Groove originals that I own are certainly more noisy than the Music Matters re-issues. Why, because they are now all getting to be 50+ years old and have been played by their original owners on God knows what table and cartridge in the day. Not saying they don't sound fantastic, BUT if one is concerned about groove silence, the Music Matters have them beat hands down. I think that generally applies to ALL re-issue Jazz Lp's vs. original Jazz pressings. BTW, not so much with classical LP's, as they simply weren't played that much in the first place...certainly compared to the jazz stuff.

Musicpod, I had the same problem with an early release of this LP. Lots of surface noise! I replaced it with a later copy and no problems. Some of these reissues are not as pristine as they could be in regards to quality control, luckily they seem to be willing to easily address the problem.My advice would be to return it and get another copy.

I noticed that as well, although it doesn't bother me. I think one has to remember that if the musicians are on stage right and stage left only...and no one in the middle, then this would be a fairly accurate reproduction. I suspect that is what happened here--at least with these particular tracks.

Musicpod, I don't know why many artists were featured that way, but it is certainly not uncommon. I have several other older Blue Notes and jazz LP's that are recordings of artists on stage in the same positioning.

Myles, thanks for the info, very interesting and informative.
I guess one has to also remember that any company that is in the reissue business is probably a little restricted by the condition of the original master tape that they get to utilize. Therefore, if there is echo on the master tape and it is caused by print through, then I guess that's what you are going to hear on the reissue ( unless the engineer removes it and thereby takes the risk of impacting the overall presentation).