Kind of Blue

When I wan t to shock people with how good old recordings sound, I almost always pull out jazz examples.  Almost any late 50's or 60's "six-eye" Columbia sounds great (my demonstration go to is Ellington's "Blues in Orbit" which is late 50's stereo and better than most current stereo recordings for quality; the subsequent reissues, even is SACD do not sound as good).  Another demonstration choice is Sonny Rollins' "Saxophone Colossus" (a GREAT recording for music and sound quality and it is on available in mono).  

Old, original release Blue Notes are way too expensive for me to own, but, I have heard them and I like them fore than the premium reissues, although those are still quite good and worth having).

Several years ago when I was playing saxophone tracks for a jazz gig, in the studio, the engineer put on a few Blue Note tracks. In the studio they were amazing and still my benchmark for how I would like my listening room to sounds like.

I'm into Japanese jazz artists and mainly into jazz-rock and fusion.

Masayoshi Takanaka

Casiopea

Masuro Imada

Carioca

So agree with recording quality of late 1950's ... Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section is sublime!!   

The one jazz artist I find myself going back to more than any other is Kenny Drew.  Especially his recordings on the Steeplechase label, which itself is a goldmine of brilliant jazz recordings.