This Contemporary LP has WONDERFUL SOUND AND MUSIC! It’s rich and full a very extended, very natural top end. The cymbals on this record sound AMAZING! Roy DuNann sure knew how to record this kind of jazz. Just listen to the leading edge transients of the trumpet or the punchiness of the drums. There’s no trace of phony EQ or bad mastering whatsoever. (more…)
UPDATE 2025
The shootout described here was carried out in 2019. The domestic pressings do not do as well now as they did then. Our best domestic pressing earned a grade of 1.5+ on both sides, which would put it in our section for good, not great sounding LPs. It’s possible a domestic pressing could earn a grade of 2+ in the next shootout, but my feeling is that it would not be very likely.
The best early imports are a huge step-up in sound quality and they have won and will win all the shootouts we do in the future.
Note that it was six years between shootouts for this title. They are hard to find in audiophile playing condition and only getting harder, and dramatically more expensive when you do find them.
After doing the shootout for John Barleycorn recently, a record we love in spite of its problematic sound, this album was truly a breath of fresh air. I can honestly and enthusiastically say that the sound we heard on the best pressings was OUT OF THIS WORLD. This album is a permanent member of our Rock And Jazz Top 100, that’s how good it is.
Who knew? We had no idea this recording could sound so incredibly spacious and open. The distortion level is so close to zero that we don’t even want to assign a positive number to it. Let’s just say it’s below the threshold of hearing; does that work for you?
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Billy Joel Available Now
Since the opening track of this record is one of the keys to knowing whether it’s mastered and pressed properly, once you get past the sibilance hurdle on track one, the next step is to find out how the challenges presented by the rest of the tracks are handled.
If you are interested in digging deeper, our listening in depth commentaries have extensive track by track breakdowns for some of the better-known albums we’ve done shootouts for.
Side One
Miami 2017
This is usually the brightest cut on the first side, commonly found with some sibilance problems. On the high-res copies the sibilance is lessened, and the sound of the sibilance itself is much less transistory and spitty, with more of a silky quality, which is simply another way of saying it’s less distorted.
Of course one wouldn’t want the sibilance to be lessened by having a dull top end, but few of these pressings are dull. Most of them suffer from a brightness problem. The best copies keep the sibilance under control and balance the upper mids with extended highs. Without extension on the highs the sound will tend to be aggressive.
This RCA Living Stereo LP has AMAZING SOUND. It’s everything a Living Stereo record should be — warm and rich with lots of depth and silky highs.
The lower strings on this record are hands down some of the best I’ve ever heard. They’re wonderfully rich and textured.
Out of all the Decca-recorded RCAs I’ve had the pleasure (or misfortune as the case may be!) of listening to, this is definitely one of the top dogs.
If this record were quiet it would easily fetch $300; unfortunately that ain’t the case. The only reason we’re offering this copy for sale is because the sound — and the music — are OUT OF THIS WORLD!
More of the Music of Duke Ellington
More Large Group Jazz Recordings
As I recall, this was one of the better sounding Classic titles from their Verve series, and the music is excellent.
Finding a clean original is no mean feat, as I’m sure you can imagine.
Further Reading
Below you will find our reviews of the more than 200 Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve played over the years. Feel free to pick your poison.
And finally,
A Confession
Even as recently as the early 2000s, we were still impressed with many of the better Heavy Vinyl pressings. If we’d never made the progress we’ve worked so hard to make over the course of the last twenty or more years, perhaps we would find more merit in the Heavy Vinyl reissues so many audiophiles seem impressed by.
We’ll never know of course; that’s a bell that can be unrung. We did the work, we can’t undo it, and the system that resulted from it is merciless in revealing the truth — that these newer pressings are second-rate at best and much more often than not third-rate and even worse.
Some audiophile records sound so bad, I was pissed off enough to create a special list for them.
Setting higher standards — no, being able to set higher standards — in our minds is a clear mark of progress. Judging by the hundreds of letters we’ve received, especially the ones comparing our records to their Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed Mastered counterparts, we know that our customers see things the same way.
Hot Stamper Pressings of Jazz Guitar Recordings Available Now
Midnight Blue is back on the site for the first time in years, six of them to be exact, and here you will find Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades on both sides of this vintage 60s pressing.
One of our All Time Favorite Blue Note albums for music and sound – is there a better bluesy jazz guitar album?
5 stars on AMG – if there were a Top 100 Jazz List on our site, Midnight Blue would be right up at the top of it.
It’s taken us at least five years to get this shootout going, and none of the top copies we managed to get hold of did not have condition issues of some kind — good luck finding one of these on your own, you are going to need it.
Jazz Improv Magazine puts the album among its Top Five recommended recordings for Burrell, indicating that “[i]f you need to know ‘the Blue Note sound,’ here it is.”
Midnight Blue is our favorite Kenny Burrell album of all time, at least in part because it’s one of the All Time Best Sounding Blue Notes.
If you already own a copy of Midnight Blue and you don’t consider it one of the best sounding jazz guitar records in your collection, then you surely don’t have a copy that sounds the way this one does! In other words, you don’t know what you’re missing. (And if you own the Classic Records release, or any other Heavy Vinyl pressing from the modern era, then you really don’t know what you are missing.) (more…)
What to Listen For (WTLF)
Smoother and sweeter sound with less of the grit and congestion that plagues the average copy. (more…)
Unlike some of the American big band leaders who were well past their prime by the advent of the LP era, Heath is able to play with all the energy and verve required for this music. He really does swing in high stereo. (more…)
Ramsey Lewis meets Earth Wind and Fire.
This Original CBS pressing has much better sound than the reissues I’ve heard. This is a bright recording and it’s supposed to sound that way, just like EWF’s recordings. The music is full of energy and lots of fun. This isn’t real jazz; it’s pop jazz. It’s produced by Maurice White and it even has Phillip Bailey on vocals.
You can’t get much more Earth, Wind and Firey than that! (more…)