More Dave Brubeck
More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano
This original STEREO BLUE VINYL Fantasy pressing has Hot Stamper sound on both sides, with rich and musical Tubey Magical qualities appropriate to this early ’60s West Coast jazz. We’ve known about this album for close to twenty years, having played the surprisingly good sounding OJC pressing and recommended it back in the days when those kinds of records were still in print.
As you can imagine there’s not much going on at the frequency extremes, high or low; we have yet to hear a Fantasy pressing from the era that boasts full bandwidth sound, but the middle sure can be awfully nice!
Side Two
A to A++, very good sound with more top and bottom than most. There are condition problems of course; colored Fantasy vinyl is rarely quieter. Most of the time these kinds of records are so beat they are completely unplayable. This one is the exception; it can be played and enjoyed.
Side One
A+, rich and musical but a bit veiled with some all-too-common tube smear.
AMG Review
This is the third and final guest appearance by clarinetist Bill Smith in the place of Paul Desmond with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Like the earlier record dates, this 1961 session focuses exclusively on Smith’s compositions, resulting in a very different sound for the band than its normal mix of the leader’s songs and standards. Smith was a member of Brubeck’s adventurous octet of the late ’40s and, like the pianist, also studied with French composer Darius Milhaud. So the clarinetist is willing to take chances, utilizing a mute on his instrument in “Pan’s Pipes,” and having drummer Joe Morello use his timpani sticks on the piano strings in the swinging “The Unihorn.” Smith proves himself very much in Desmond’s league with his witty solos and equally amusing, pun-filled liner notes. While none of these songs became a regular part of Brubeck’s repertoire, even after Smith replaced tenorist Jerry Bergonzi as a member of the quartet in 1982, this is easily the best of the three albums that he made with Dave Brubeck during the late ’50s and early ’60s.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
The Unihorn
Bach an’All
Siren Song
Pan’s Pipes
By Jupiter
Side Two
Baggin’ the Dragon
Apollo’s Axe
The Sailor and the Mermaid
Nep-Tune
Pan Dance
This is an Older Jazz Review.
Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we developed in the early 2000s and have since turned into a fine art.
We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the Sonic Grades and Vinyl Playgrades are listed separately.)
We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.
Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.
As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.
The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.
Not just a good sounding record. A record that was played in a shootout and did well.
The result of our labor is the scores of jazz titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.
Further Reading