Verve

Jimmy Smith / Any Number Can Win

More of the Music of Jimmy Smith

  • Any Number Can Win is back on the site for the first time in years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this early Verve pressing
  • With richness, clarity, space and timbral accuracy, this is guaranteed to be one of the best sounding big band jazz records you’ve heard in a while
  • Another top jazz recording from Rudy Van Gelder (among others) – big, bold and lively, just the right sound for this music

This is one of Rudy Van Gelder’s triumphs and one of the best Jimmy Smith albums we’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 Verves 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…)

Bill Evans with Jeremy Steig – What’s New

More of the Music of Bill Evans

  • The Hot Stamper debut of What’s New, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout this early Stereo Verve pressing
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • Exceptionally spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – this pressing was a big step up over all other copies we played
  • The brilliant Ray Hall engineered – anyone hearing this copy will understand exactly why we love to find his fabulous 60s recordings here at Better Records
  • 4 stars: “With the exception of Evans’ ‘Time Out for Chris’ and the ‘Spartacus Love Theme,’ the songs performed on this date would fit securely in the Miles Davis repertoire of the late 50s. Steig is in particularly fine form on the program which includes tunes such as ‘Straight No Chaser,’ ‘Autumn Leaves,’ and ‘So What.'”

(more…)

Cruising With Ruben & The Jets – A Desert Island Disc for Yours Truly

More of the Music of Frank Zappa

  • This early Blue Label Verve LP boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from first note to last
  • Both sides here are exceptionally clean, clear and present with a big bottom end, an abundance of energy and lots of space around all of the players
  • The new CD – with its modernized sound and wrong-headed re-recorded rhythm tracks – is a bad joke next to the best early pressings
  • “To the unexperienced, songs like ‘Cheap Thrills,’ ‘Deseri,’ and ‘Jelly Roll Gum Drop’ can sound like an average doo wop song. A closer look reveals unusual chord sequences, Stravinsky quotes, and hilariously moronic lyrics — all that wrapped in four-way harmony vocals and linear piano triplets.

Is the thought bubble on the cover the real story behind the album?

Is this the Mothers of Invention recording under a different name in a last ditch attempt to get their cruddy music on the radio?

Amazing sound for this record of greasy love songs and cretin simplicity to offer to audiophiles and music lovers alike from all corners of the world. We absolutely LOVE this album here at Better Records, or at least that portion of Better Records that remembers it from high school still loves it (which would narrow it down to a subset of just me I guess, but who’s counting?).

Anyway, it’s a classic of twisted doo-wop that belongs in your collection, and a real Desert Island Disc for yours truly. At least we think you should give it a chance anyway; hearing it sound this good might just make a believer out of you.

(more…)

Wes Montgomery – Bumpin’

More of the Music of Wes Montgomery

  • Superb sound throughout, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • This vintage Verve stereo pressing is transparent, uncolored and undistorted, as well as tonally correct from top to bottom
  • With Don Sebesky‘s lively arrangements and a big group of musicians to play them, a good time is guaranteed for all
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Not only is his brilliant command of the six-string present here, so is the vivid color tones of notes and blue notes played between. Backed up by a hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizing orchestra conducted and arranged by Don Sebesky, the music almost lifts the listener off his feet into a dreamy, water-like landscape.”

(more…)

Astrud Gilberto – I Haven’t Got Anything Better To Do

More Bossa Nova

  • Astrud’s 1969 release appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it from first note to last
  • It’s rich, warm and natural with wonderful transparency, loads of ambience and – this is key – plenty of Tubey Magic (particularly on side one)
  • There are some bad marks (as is sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs) on “If (The Biggest Little Word)” but once you hear just how superb sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 stars: “Mistakenly considered a minor entry in the Gilberto canon, I Haven’t Got Anything Better to Do is instead a minor masterpiece.”

(more…)

Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto – Getz-Gilberto #2

More Bossa Nova

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) live jazz sound throughout, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Getz – Gilberto #2 you’ve heard
  • This vintage stereo pressing is one of only a handful to make it to the site in over three years – boy, are these hard to find in this kind of clean condition with good quality sonics
  • The music is so good that most of the early Van Gelder-mastered pressings were played to death
  • Fortunately a few survived the record players of their day – here is one of that will put any other pressing of the album you’ve heard to shame
  • Rich, tubey and musical, the sound is wonderful for these live performances of the two very different groups – one side features Getz, the other side Gilberto
  • 4 stars: “Getz/Gilberto #2 holds its own with an appealing selection of fine jazz and Bossa Nova cuts.”

The Odds Are Stacked

This is an All-Time Jazz Classic and it’s a cryin’ shame that we can’t find more copies. Most are in mono, upwards of 80% of them, and we simply do not care for the sound of this music in mono. If you want to experience a live recording properly, you need space, ambiance, and imaging, three things mono does not do well.

And nine out of ten copies we see are simply not in the condition most audiophiles would find acceptable. Multiply 20% (the stereo copies) by 10% (the decent copies) and you’re left with a pool of 2% — one out of fifty — to pick from in order to acquire enough copies with which to do a shootout. Ouch.

Those are so pretty long odds, and they go a long way toward explaining why this is the first Hot Stamper pressing of this title to hit the site in years.

If you love this Brazilian-flavored cool jazz as much as we do, you might want to snap this one up. Who knows when we’ll find another one?

(more…)

Jimmy Smith / Bashin’ – The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith

More of the Music of Jimmy Smith

  • This Big Band Jazz classic led by Jimmy Smith returns to the site for only the second time in four years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish
  • If you own only one Jimmy Smith album, make it this one – with Oliver Nelson‘s arrangements ferociously blasting away, at good loud levels the first side here has the power to swing like you will not believe
  • 5 stars: “On the first half of the program, Smith was for the first time joined by a big band. Oliver Nelson provided the arrangements, trumpeter Joe Newman and altoist Phil Woods have a solo apiece, and “Walk on the Wild Side” became Smith’s biggest hit up to that point.”
  • It’s hard to imagine that any list of the Best Jazz Albums of 1962 would not have this record on it

This is tube mastering at its finest. Not many vintage tube-mastered records manage to balance all the sonic elements as correctly as this copy does.

(more…)

Oscar Peterson Trio – West Side Story

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano

  • A West Side Story like you’ve never heard, with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout this early Stereo Verve pressing
  • Rich, solid bass; you-are-there immediacy; energy and drive; instruments that are positively jumping out of the speakers – add it all up and you can see that this copy had the sound we were looking for
  • Which wouldn’t mean much if the music wasn’t swingin,’ but it is – every track shows just how good this trio was in 1962
  • Credit engineer Bob Simpson, the man behind the legendary Belafonte at Carnegie Hall live recording from a couple of years before
  • An absolute Must Own – for sound and music, this is our pick for The Best Oscar Peterson Album of All Time
  • It’s hard to imagine that any list of the Best Jazz Albums of 1962 would not have this record on it

(more…)

There’s a Very Good Chance We Were Wrong about Mulligan Meets Getz

More of the Music of Stan Getz /More of the Music of Gerry Mulligan

This is an album that we were probably wrong about in 2021 when the following Hot Stamper two-pak pressing went up for sale on the site. (The pressings we liked at the time are long gone by now.) Here is what we wrote back then:

Mulligan and Getz’s 1957 collaboration arrives on the site with this superb 2-pack offering Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides – just shy of our Shootout Winner

Full, rich, and spacious with tons of Tubey Magic and, better yet, not the least bit dry, hard or transistory

Practically impossible to find in stereo with audiophile playing surfaces – it took two different pressings to get two good sides, and they are very good indeed

The reissues we discovered in 2025 trounced the originals (in both stereo and mono) as well as the early reissues (on the Verve T Label) we played in our shootout, as you can see from the stamper sheet notes below:

Our mistaken judgment is simply the result of ignorance. In 2021 we simply had no idea just how good this recording could sound on vintage vinyl. We hadn’t done our homework properly, and because of that we came up with the wrong answer.

We only discovered the right pressings, with the right stampers, pressed in the right era, and mastered by the right guy, sometime in 2024 or so. We bought a bunch of those and in 2025 did the shootout with all kinds of copies, just to keep everybody honest.

That was the year much better sounding reissue copies that look like the one you see on the left came along. As we noted in the listing:

  • Leave it to Better Records to figure out a complicated title with a long history such as this one – originals, reissues, monos, stereos, we had to play them all to find a copy that sounds as good as this one does.
  • Full, rich, and spacious with an abundance of Tubey Magic and, better yet, not the least bit dry, hard or transistory.

Some quick notes:

Bowtie Label Stereo

(more…)

Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Swings Brightly With Nelson

More of the Music of Ella Fitzgerald

  • A vintage Stereo Verve pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in almost two and a half years) with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish, and pressed on vinyl that’s about as quiet as we can ever hope to find it
  • Remarkably lovely All Tube sound from 1961, with a huge, rich orchestra conducted by the legendary Nelson Riddle
  • Fitzgerald’s performance on this album won her the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, her 7th Grammy
  • “The singer has rarely sounded better than during this period. Fitzgerald sticks mostly to familiar standards and is particularly memorable on ‘Don’t Be That Way,’ ‘What Am I Here For,’ ‘I’m Gonna Go Fishin,’ ‘ and ‘I Won’t Dance.'”

Take it from an Ella fan, you can’t go wrong with this one, assuming you can put up with some light crackle underneath the music. The record itself looks exceptionally clean and well-cared for, but it clearly does not play as quietly as we would have hoped.

The sound is rich and full-bodied in the best tradition of a classic vintage jazz vocal album. You could easily demonstrate your stereo with a record this good! The space is HUGE and the sound so rich.

Prodigious amounts of Tubey Magic as well, which is key to the best sounding copies. The sound needs weight, warmth and tubes or you might as well be playing a CD. (more…)