Just in time for Record Store Day — what could be better?
In the interest of streamlining the process of getting reviews like this up on the blog, we’ll try to stick mostly to the facts and let the description of the strengths and weaknesses of the pressings speak for themselves.
One quick note: the sonic qualities you see described below are the ones we heard with the mono switch on our EAR 324P phono stage activated.
Without the switch set to mono, the sound is even thicker and darker.
Yes, as bad as this pressing sounds, you can make it worse if you don’t switch your preamp or phono stage to mono. Hard to believe but it’s true!
The notes for side one can be seen below. For side one we started with the second track.
Side One
Track Two / Red Pepper Blues
- Boomy low end
- Sax is stuck [in the speakers]
- And lacking in breath and space
Track One / You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To
- Very flat piano and hard snare
- Compressed, almost pumping
- Thick and opaque
Our grade: No Good
Side Two
Track One / Jazz Me Blues
- Compressed and boomy
- Not as dark as side one
- But still very flat and boring
Our grade: Again, No Good
Here is what we had to say about our most recent White Hot Stamper shootout winning copy:
Amazing sound throughout this original Stereo Records pressing, with both sides earning STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades.
Many consider this to be the best record Art Pepper ever made, along with Art Pepper + Eleven, and it’s hard to argue with them when the music and the sound are this good.
The Contemporary sound here is completely natural in all respects – rich, warm, and smooth, in short, the sound we love.
Recorded in 1957 (the same year as Way Out West) by the legendary Roy DuNann, the sound of the best pressings is absolutely wonderful.
5 stars: “… this recording convinced [Pepper] that emotion was the paramount impulse of jazz performance… a diamond of recorded jazz history.”
It almost sounds like we’re talking about a different recording altogether.
Well, almost, but not quite.
We never play the mono pressings of the Contemporary titles that were recorded in stereo, so we really have no idea what they sound like.
Maybe they sound as bad as this new version!
Hard to imagine. Still, we can’t say they don’t.
But we can tell you that the new pressing is terrible in almost every way, and should be avoided by any audiophile looking for high quality sound.
And for those of you with deep enough pockets, any of the Hot Stamper pressings we offer are guaranteed to beat any other pressings hands down or your money back.
If your pockets are not that deep, stick to the real Contemporary pressings on any of the three differently colored labels they used, and of course stick to stereo.
Although the original OJC is not at all good (I used to sell it in the 90s for the ten bucks it retailed for, but I probably shouldn’t have), the current OJC can be decent if you find a good one and know how to clean it right.
Further Reading