More Stan Getz

More Charlie Byrd

• An outstanding copy of Jazz Samba (only the second to hit the site in over four years) with Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last – fairly (and unusually) quiet vinyl too
• Remarkably spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – this pressing was a solid step up over most of the other pressings we played in our recent shootout
• No other copy outside of our Shootout Winner earned a better grade than 2+ on either side, and some of the originals were godawful (watch for the “wrong” stampers coming to the blog soon)
• Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear how excellent sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting stitches and just be swept away by the music
• If you can find a quiet copy of this album with top quality sound more than once every five years, congratulations, because we sure can’t
• 5 stars: “[Jazz Samba] was the true beginning of the Bossa Nova craze, and introduced several standards of the genre… But above all, Jazz Samba stands on its own artistic merit as a shimmering, graceful collection that’s as subtly advanced – in harmony and rhythm – as it is beautiful.

It’s not easy to find good sounding, quiet Stan Getz records, so if you’re a fan I think you’ll be blown away by the sonics and the surfaces on this vintage pressing.

It’s vintage all right, but probably not the vintage pressing you think it is, a little secret we learned about the album a number of years ago, information we have been able to capitalize on quite successfully, this being but the latest clean, wonderful sounding copy to make it to the site.

And of course, it handily beats the DCC pressing. How could it not?

As for the music, it’s top-notch. All Music Guide gave it a Five Star rating and we agree wholeheartedly.

Tubey Magic Is Key

Need a refresher course in Tubey Magic after playing too many modern recordings or remasterings? These Verve LPs are overflowing with it. Rich, smooth, sweet, full of ambiance, dead-on correct tonality — everything that we listen for in a great record is here.

This record is the very definition of Tubey Magic. No recordings will ever be made that sound like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. There is of course a CD of this album, quite a few I would guess, but those of us with a good turntable could care less.

This stereo pressing has the kind of Midrange Magic that modern records cannot begin to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it ain’t coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage All Tube Analog recordings are known for — this sound.

If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.

What The Best Sides Of Jazz Samba Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear

• The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
• The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1962
• Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
• Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
• Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space

No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.

Copies with rich lower mids and nice extension up top did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we’ve heard them all.

Top end extension is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural air and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.

Tube smear is common to most vintage pressings. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich.

What We’re Listening For On Jazz Samba

• Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
• The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
• Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
• Tight, full-bodied bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
• Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
• Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.

Side One

Desafinado
Samba Dees Days
O Pato (The Duck)
Samba Triste

Side Two

One Note Samba
É Luxo Só
Bahia 
Desafinado

AMG Five Star Rave Review

Partly because of its Brazilian collaborators and partly because of “The Girl From Ipanema,” Getz/Gilberto is nearly always acknowledged as the Stan Getz bossa nova LP. But Jazz Samba is just as crucial and groundbreaking; after all, it came first, and in fact was the first full-fledged bossa nova album ever recorded by American jazz musicians… Above all, Jazz Samba stands on its own artistic merit as a shimmering, graceful collection that’s as subtly advanced — in harmony and rhythm — as it is beautiful. Getz and his co-billed partner, guitarist Charlie Byrd — who was actually responsible for bringing bossa nova records to the U.S. and introducing Getz to the style — have the perfect touch for bossa nova’s delicate, airy texture.