Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Bill Evans Available Now
During our most recent shootout for Waltz for Debby we took the opportunity to play the early OJC from the 80s.
We judged the OJC pressings with the stampers you see below to have good, not great sound.
I remember playing the Analogue Productions version from 1992, mastered by Doug Sax, and being shocked at how murky and dark it sounded.
A local fellow who had received my 1990s catalog, the one in which I say the OJCs just kill the new Heavy Vinyl pressings, came over and I sold him some OJCs. He promptly went home, played them and called me to tell me just how awful his AP vinyl was and how great his OJCs sounded. I’m sure I said something along the lines of “I know!” He and I became fast friends after that.
I never reviewed the Waltz for Debby on AP, but I wrote reviews for three others: Way Out West, Chet, and Jazz Giant.
One of the OJC pressings suffered these problems:
- They’re opaque but not too opaque
- They’re small and a bit dull
The other one was:
- Small and veiled
- A bit opaque
Keep in mind that the person judging these records did not know what pressing was playing. Bottom line: you could do worse, but you sure could do a whole lot better.
Here is what we had to say about a recent Hot Stamper pressing:
- Waltz for Debby makes its Hot Stamper debut on this reissue pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too.
- Exceptionally spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied.
- This is not an original (those are terrible sounding), not a later reissue (also bad), and not the original OJC (which is decent on the best copies that have been cleaned – no better than passable otherwise).
- No, this is a modern pressing that — finally! — has the sound we have been trying to find for the album for more than twenty years.
- Normally this is information we might not choose to share, as anyone can buy a modern OJC, but the fact that so many different OJC versions exist — I counted six different pressings with the catalog number OJC-210 — means you probably would spend a lot more money finding a good sounding OJC pressing than the price we are charging.
- However, if you do find a great sounding OJC, be sure to drop us a line and let us know that stamper numbers — we would be curious to know if anyone was actually able to succeed with such an effort.
- If you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful session from 1961, recorded live at the Village Vanguard in New York, our Hot Stamper pressings will let you do that.
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