Must Own Jazz Titles

Here are more than 100 well recorded jazz albums listed here which should be part of any audiophile’s jazz collection.

Red Garland Trio – Groovy

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano

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  • Boasting solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them, this vintage Prestige recording pressed on fairly quiet OJC vinyl was giving us the sound we were looking for on Red’s Jazz Masterpiece
  • The MONO sound is clear, spacious, relaxed, and full-bodied, with Tubey Magical richness and analog smoothness that only the better vintage pressings can offer (particularly on side one)
  • Another top jazz recording from Rudy Van Gelder – big, bold and lively (also particularly on side one), just the right sound for this music
  • 4 1/2 stars: “With bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor, Garland has all the support he needs to wing it in a variety of directions. Recorded in that most legendary year of jazz, 1957, Garland is coming into his own in a more confident way, buoyed by his association at the time with Miles Davis.”

What makes this vintage piano trio album in mono so special? Allow me to quote a review from a few years back for a pair of recordings that Red Garland made with Miles Davis back in the mid-50s: Workin’ And Steamin’.

To the Jazz Fans of the World, we here present one of the best sounding jazz recordings we have ever had the privilege to place on a turntable. I cannot ever recall hearing a better sounding Rudy Van Gelder recording, and I have a theory as to why this tape is as good as it is: it’s MONO. It also sounds like it’s recorded completely live in the studio, direct to one track you might say. As good a recording as Kind of Blue is, I think the best parts of this album are more immediate and more real than anything on KOB.

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Coltrane / Hartman – John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

More of the Music of John Coltrane

  • A vintage copy of this classic Jazz Vocal album with very good Hot Stamper sound from first note to last
  • We had been working on this title for at least five years and had been coming up short time and again, with bad sound and bad vinyl on most of what we’d been buying
  • Five years ago we cracked the code for the right stampers to look for, and we had hoped to do shootouts for this wonderful album on a more regular basis, but that turned out to be a pipe dream
  • They are ridiculously hard to come by, so ridiculously hard that we would be surprised if it doesn’t take another five years to get this shootout going
  • I defy anyone to name a Male Vocal record produced in the last forty years that can hold a candle to this one, sonically or musically
  • A wonderful collaboration between a horn player and a singer, perhaps the greatest of all time
  • 5 stars: “John Coltrane’s matchup with singer Johnny Hartman works extremely well. Hartman was in prime form on the six ballads, and his versions of ‘Lush Life’ and ‘My One and Only Love’ have never been topped. Classic, essential for all jazz collections”

This could very well be the greatest collaboration between a horn player and a singer in the history of music.

I honestly cannot think of another to rank with it. Ella and Louis has the same feel — two giants who work together so sympathetically it’s close to magic, producing definitive performances of enduring standards that have not been equaled in the fifty plus years since they were recorded. And, on the better copies, or should we say the better sides of the better copies, RVG’s sound is stunning. (His mastering, not so much.)

Hats off to Rudy Van Gelder! Here’s an album that justifies his reputation. (more…)

Bob and Ray / Throw a Stereo Spectacular

More Living Stereo Recordings

  • With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish, this TAS-approved Living Stereo pressing could not be beat
  • Originally produced as a sampler record for the Living Stereo line, it is an absolute Must Own for serious audiophiles looking to take their system to the next level
  • Our reference copy here at Better Records is so vital to our operation that it would not be for sale at any (well, almost any) price!
  • It has long been my personal favorite test disc, as well as one of our three best cartridge tweaking and turntable setup discs
  • 4 stars: “The gleefully cacophonous Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band takes the prize for providing the most unusual musical selection, but the overall program is extremely diverse [and] the comedy and music are enjoyable.”

Bob and Ray Throw A Stereo Spectacular just happens to be our favorite Test Disc, eclipsing all others in the areas of naturalness and difficulty of reproduction. Any tweak or new room treatment — we seem to do them almost weekly these days — has to pass one test and one test only: The Bob and Ray Test.

This record has the power to help you get to the next level in audio like no other.

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Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery – The Dynamic Duo

More of the Music of Jimmy Smith

More of the Music of Wes Montgomery

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, this is an wonderful sounding pressing of Jimmy and Wes’s 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…)

Miles Davis / Basic Miles – Here Is the Hot Stamper Sound of Kind of Blue

More of the Music of Miles Davis

  • Demo Disc Jazz sound for this wonderful collection, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Opening side two, the 9+ minutes of “On Green Dolphin Street” has some of the coolest jazz you will ever hear, on any record, at any price
  • If you want to know what the better copies of Kind of Blue sound like, this pressing will tell you, because it has that sound
  • And that means it is absolutely nothing like the MoFi 45 RPM 2 LP pressing that some audiophiles (and the reviewers who cater to them) seem to like so much
  • We’re talking Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley in their prime, 1958, with top 1958 sound to match
  • And that means it is absolutely NOTHING like the MoFi 45 RPM 2 LP set that some audiophiles (and the reviewers who cater to them) seem to like so much, why, we cannot begin to fathom

Want to know how good our Hot Stamper Kind of Blue pressings sound?

Listen to this very record.

If you play the tracks that were recorded in 1958, the year before Kind of Blue, you will hear practically the same lineup of musicians.

That means Stella By Starlight and Little Melonae on side one, and Green Dolphin Street and Fran-Dance (Put Your Little Foot Right Out) on side two. 

The nine-minute plus Green Dolphin Street that opens side two is nothing short of amazing, some of the coolest jazz you will ever hear. With Fran Dance on the same side, that gives you about 17 minutes of great-sounding jazz by Miles’ classic Kind of Blue lineup.

Side one has the same cats playing for more than 12 minutes. By my calculation, that’s close to another album’s worth of material from the group. The rest of the material on this compilation is best seen as gravy; maybe not essential, but never less than interesting. (more…)

Paul Quinichette – On The Sunny Side, a Wonderful Pressing from the 80s

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone

  • Both sides of this long out-of-print OJC title boast lively, big and clear Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) MONO sound or close to it from first note to last
  • With three saxophones and a trombone, this is a fresh combination that really brings out the best in all the players during this Prestige jam session, a format for which they are justly famous
  • I raved about this album when it was in print many years ago – it’s solidly swinging jazz that belongs in your collection
  • 4 stars: “Waldron’s three originals (highlighted by ‘Cool-Lypso’) allow plenty of room for swinging, and Quinichette (who also performs ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’) sounds comfortable interacting with the younger musicians. An enjoyable and underrated release.”

As I wrote years ago, back in the days when we regularly sent out catalog mailings:

When we discover a record like this, a record with no reputation either in the jazz world or the audiophile world, we try to bring it to people’s attention, usually with some success. Some of my customers called me up to tell me what a great record this is.

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Donald Byrd – A New Perspective

More of the Music of Donald Byrd

  • A wonderful stereo pressing of one of our All Time Favorite Blue Note albums, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides
  • “Cristo Redentor,” one of the most amazing pieces of music ever recorded, sounds outstanding on this side two
  • The gospel vocals are exceptionally well recorded (thanks, RVG!) – with the transparency of this copy, you can easily pick out and follow each singer
  • To hear the real RVG magic, play “Beast of Burden” on side one – that’s some real audiophile Demo Disc sound
  • 5 stars: “One of the most successful uses of a gospel choir in a jazz context. This is a memorable effort that is innovative in its own way, a milestone in Donald Byrd’s career.”

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Red Garland Trio – Bright And Breezy

More of the Music of Red Garland

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this Stereo Jazzland recording pressed on OJC vinyl will be very hard to beat
  • The sound is clear, spacious, relaxed, and full-bodied, with Tubey Magical richness and analog smoothness that only the better copies can offer (particularly on side two)
  • The typical copies are thin, lean, and lifeless, but we managed to unearth some that really get it right, and here is an excellent one (also particularly on side two)
  • “During 1961-1962… pianist Red Garland recorded four LPs for the Jazzland label. [T]his trio set with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Charlie Persip… is very much up to par. An enjoyable straight-ahead session.” (more…)

Thelonious Monk – The Riverside Trios

More of the Music of Thelonious Monk

  • This Milestone 2-LP set boasts solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on all FOUR sides
  • We know of no better way to hear these legendary MONO recordings – these are by far some of the better sounding pressings of both these albums we’ve yet to play
  • The 1979 transfers of tape to disc by David Turner are superb in all respects – this is remastering done right
  • Can anybody working today make a record that sounds as good as this one? We can think of only two, and one of them we only know by his work, not by his name, as there is no trace of it in the credits for the great sounding Bill Evans title he remastered!
  • 4 1/2 stars: “When Thelonious Monk first signed with Riverside Records in 1955, producer Orrin Keepnews thought that it would be a good idea for the unrecognized giant to record an album of Duke Ellington compositions and follow it up with a set of standards so as to discount his eccentric and forbidding image. The results were quite satisfying, trio performances that made Monk’s playing seem more accessible to the regular jazz audience without watering down his style.”

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Benny Carter – Jazz Giant

More of the Music of Benny Carter

  • Both sides of this vintage Contemporary pressing earned STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sonic grades or close to them
  • If you still think that Analogue Productions is remastering records properly, you have definitely never heard a real Contemporary that sounds as good as this one does
  • The music of this Jazz Giant comes alive on this copy, with space, size, clarity and richness that few other pressings can match
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings, but once you hear just how incredible sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Benny Carter had already been a major jazz musician for nearly 30 years when he recorded this particularly strong septet session for Contemporary … This timeless music is beyond the simple categories of ‘swing’ or ‘bop’ and should just be called ‘classic.'”

If you like the sound of Contemporary Records, you won’t find a better example than this. Midrange magic doesn’t get anymore magical.

It’s been several years since our last shootout, but we hope the lucky buyer of this copy realizes it was more than worth it. To find a copy of Jazz Giant that sounds as good as this one is a very special event indeed.

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