- An incredible sounding copy with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout
- “The intensity which launched Groove’s cover of “Misty” into such a huge hit is thoroughly in evidence throughout this smoking set and Holmes is firmly in his element during this poppy, but cooking session. A welcome addition to a great organist’s too-thin catalog.” – All About Jazz
Genre – Jazz – Organ
Jimmy Smith – Prayer Meetin’
- The wonderful Prayer Meetin’ makes its Hot Stamper debut here with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from first note to last
- Rich, smooth and Tubey Magical, this pressing was simply more ALIVE and musically involving than the others we played
- Turrentine is one of our favorite bluesy sax players – just play Kenny Burrell’s Midnight Blue to hear him at this best, and he is especially good here too
- Credit must go to Rudy Van Gelder once again for the huge space this superbly well-recorded quartet occupies
- 4 1/2 stars: “Prayer Meetin’ is a delight from start to finish. Forming a perfect closure to Smith’s trio of albums with Turrentine… The blues roots are obvious here, and the Smith-penned title track might even be called jazz-gospel…
Walter Wanderley – Rain Forest – Our Shootout Winner from 2015
A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.
Spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience. White Hot on side one where the big hit Summer Samba can be found. A huge seller in its day, both the sound and the music are crazy fun. A Classic 1966 Rudy Van Gelder All Tube Analog recording with Demo Disc sound.
This White Hot Stamper copy of Rain Forest has a lot in common with the other Jazzy Bachelor Pad / Exotica titles we’ve listed over the years, albums by the likes of Esquivel, Dick Schory, Edmundo Ros, Martin Denny and others.
It’s all about the Tubey Magical Stereoscopic presentation, complete with syncopated percussive arrangements. This copy is super spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience. Talk about Tubey Magic, this is vintage analog at its best, so rich and relaxed you’ll wonder how it ever came to be that anyone seriously contemplated trying to “improve” it. If you like the sound of luxurious organ, accompanied by flutes, guitars and percussion, you will have a hard time finding a more magical recording of any of them.
If you’re an audiophile, both the sound and the music are crazy fun. If you want to demonstrate just how good 1966 Rudy Van Gelder All Tube Analog sound can be, this is the record that will do it! (more…)
Jimmy Smith – Any Number Can Win – Reviewed in 2010
A distinguished member of the Better Records Jazz Hall of Fame.
This is one of Rudy Van Gelder’s TRIUMPHS and one of the best Jimmy Smith album I’ve ever heard. All of side one and the last cut of side two sound STUNNING! This is dynamic, big speaker sound.
Lots of old Verve’s weren’t mastered right, but this one was. It’s as good as it gets — it’s right up there with Bashin’.
RVG did not record this entire album. Some songs are recorded by other engineers and don’t have the dynamic slam that his do but the best tracks are amazing. (more…)
Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery – The Dynamic Duo
More Jimmy Smith
More Wes Montgomery
More The Dynamic Duo
- KILLER Triple Plus (A+++) grades or very close to it on both sides, this is a wonderful vintage stereo pressing of a classic jazz collaboration from 1966
- Big, rich and lively, thanks to Oliver Nelson’s arrangements (and RVG’s engineering), this big group of top players is having a blast and we think you will too
- 5 stars: “The romping, aggressive big band charts [represent] Oliver Nelson at his best… The results are incendiary — a near-ideal meeting of yin and yang… They are an amazing pair, complementing each other, driving each other, using their bop and blues taproots to fuse together a sound.”
The sound of this Verve stereo pressing is tonally correct and natural. The timbre of each and every instrument is right and it doesn’t take a pair of golden ears to hear it. So high-resolution too. If you love ’60s jazz you cannot go wrong here. (more…)
Jimmy Smith – Christmas Cookin’ (2008)
A distinguished member of the Better Records Jazz Hall of Fame.
This HOT STAMPER copy of the swingingest Christmas record ever made has SWINGING SOUND to match. It’s relaxed and musical, with lovely 3D openness.
Mostly gone is the dull, smeary blare of RVG’s horns, replaced by real leading edge transients and air going through brass, while mostly avoiding the grit and grain that all too often passes for detail. Good extension on both ends helps a lot. Harmonics up top keep the sound open and airy, and plenty of bottom end lets the solid rhythm section come through the mix like gangbusters. (more…)
Jimmy Smith – Bashin’ Is a Masterpiece
A distinguished member of the Better Records Jazz Hall of Fame.
Bashin’ is back after a two and a half year hiatus, and it’s back with a vengence — both sides here are Super Hot, with some of the best sound we have ever heard for the album. In the past we’ve complained about “Rudy Van Gelder’s somewhat over the top echo-drenched brass”, but on a copy such as this there is nothing to complain about!
All that reverb on the brass sounds RIGHT. If you have a top quality front end (and the system that goes with it), this recording will be amazingly spacious, three-dimensional, transparent, dynamic, and open.
With a bit more weight and whomp down low this copy would have been competitive with the best we played. Everything above two hundred cycles is here!
Copies of this album are sometimes so SOUR or dull (or both) that they go right in the trade pile. Add to that the difficulty of finding copies that are scratch-free and not too noisy and you have one tough shootout. Inner Groove Distortion caused by the non-anti-skate-equipped turntables of the day is a chronic problem with vintage jazz records, and this title is typically no exception — except in this case! The record has no IGD and plays mostly Mint Minus, as quiet an original as we have ever heard. (more…)
Jimmy Smith – Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf
More Jimmy Smith
More Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf
- Excellent Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides and one of the better copies from our most recent shootout
- If you dig Oliver’s Nelson’s swingin’ BIG BRASS as much as we do you are in for a treat with this stereo pressing
- The best sides have the kind of analog richness, warmth, and smoothness that make listening to records so involving
- Slaughter On Tenth Avenue is the monster track leading off here, and it swings the way Walk on the Wild Side does – like crazy, man!
This is some of the BEST SOUND we have ever heard for any RVG recording of Jimmy Smith with arrangements by Oliver Nelson (Claus Ogerman also took on some of the arranging duties; his work with Antonio Carlos Jobim is superb in all respects). (more…)
Ray Charles – Genius + Soul = Jazz
More Ray Charles
More Genius + Soul = Jazz
- With stunning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on both sides and Count Basie backing up The Genius himself, this copy is As Good As It Gets!
- Most of this album is Ray stretching out with “some pretty mean and lean, cut-to-the-heart-of-the-matter B-3 Hammond organ licks.”
- Big and rich, clear and Tubey Magical, the 1962 sound of this vintage stereo pressing is just right; quiet vinyl too!
- Allmusic notes: “…one of those instrumentals, a cover of the Clovers’ “One Mint Julep,” would give Charles one of his most unpredictable (and best) early-’60s hits.”.
This album has long been a personal favorite of mine. It features Ray on the organ playing with every bit as much soul as he sings with, and who sings with more soul than Ray Charles?
Both sides here are open and transparent with HUGE amounts of room-filling bass. (more…)
Jimmy Smith – Hobo Flats
More Jimmy Smith
More Hobo Flats
- Incredible Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from the first note to the last
- Both sides are wonderfully big, rich and LIVELY, with boatloads of Tubey Magic and the kind of three-dimendional space that’s a hallmark of Bob Simpson’s engineering
- “Smith bubbles and bounces through all of it at the B-3 while Nelson proceeds to fill every available corner with huge, sweeping orchestral washes and crescendos. The clear highlight, though, is the lead and title track, “Hobo Flats,” which moves at a languid but wonderfully funky pace and establishes a groove as wide as the Mississippi River.”
Both sides of this very special early stereo pressing are huge, rich, tubey and clear. As soon as the band got going we knew that this was absolutely the right sound for this music. There was practically nothing that could beat it, in any area of reproduction.
In the past we’ve complained about “echo-drenched brass” on some of these Oliver Nelson / Jimmy Smith collaborations, but on a killer copy such as this there is nothing to complain about. If you have a top quality front end (and the kind of system that goes with it), this recording will be amazingly spacious, three-dimensional, transparent, dynamic, and open. (more…)