Top Artists – Gene Ammons

Gene Ammons ‎– The Happy Blues on OJC

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Some OJC Pressings Sound Good, Some Don’t

This One Doesn’t

Typical bad OJC sound – thin and modern, lacking in the Tubey Magic that makes vintage pressings so musically involving.

We play them so you don’t have to, a public service from your record loving friends at Better Records. (more…)

Gene Ammons – Angel Eyes

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  • This original Prestige stereo LP has Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from beginning to end – fairly quiet vinyl for an original pressing
  • Both sides here are doing justice to Rudy Van Gelder’s live-in-the-studio sound – they were bigger, richer, more Tubey Magical, with more space, more energy, more everything that makes a vintage analog pressing the thrill we know it can be
  • For half the album “Ammons is heard in 1962 with pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Wendell Marshall, and drummer Ed Thigpen playing with great warmth on the ballads “You Go to My Head” and “It’s the Talk of the Town.” The latter set was one of Ammons’ final ones before serving a long prison sentence (drug-related), yet his interpretations are full of optimism. Recommended.”

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Gene Ammons – Blue Gene – Soulful Jazz at Its Best

More Saxophone Jazz

More Recordings by Rudy Van Gelder

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  • This wonderful Prestige jazz classic boasts outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too 
  • One of the best sounding Ammons records we know of – it’s huge, rich and Tubey Magical, with a solid bottom end and energy to beat them all
  • Clean and clear and open are nice qualities to have, but rich and full are harder to come by on this record – this pressing has it all
  • “Some ballad performances in his oeuvre are a testament to an exceptional sense of intonation and melodic symmetry, powerful lyrical expressiveness, and mastery both of the blues and the bebop vernacular that can now be described as, in its own way, ‘classical.'”

For us audiophiles both the sound and the music here are wonderful. If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good a 1958 All Tube Analog Prestige recording by Rudy Van Gelder can sound, this killer copy will do the trick.

This pressing is super spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience. Talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny. This is vintage analog at its best, so full-bodied and relaxed you’ll wonder how it ever came to be that anyone seriously contemplated trying to improve it. (more…)

Gene Ammons / Sonny Stitt – Prime Cuts

 

  • This copy of Ammons and Stitt’s 1972 soulful mainstream bop collaboration boasts outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on all four sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Remarkable Tubey Magical richness, as well as the kind of immediacy and transparency that most copies failed to match
  • We’ve known this was a great sounding record for a very long time, and now we have the copy to prove it
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt always made for a perfect team… The two tenors (with Stitt doubling on alto) are heard at their most combative during these consistently exciting performances”

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Gene Ammons – Goodbye – Reviewed in 2010

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A distinguished member of the Better Records Jazz Hall of Fame

If you want to know why Gene Ammons is considered one of the greats, skip the jam that starts out side one and go right to the ballad Alone Again (Naturally). Nobody played with more emotion than Gene Ammons. 

More recordings engineered by Rudy Van Gelder

The Gene Ammons Story: Gentle Jug

More Gene Ammons

More The Gene Ammons Story: Gentle Jug

  • Superb Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish for this Moodsville Classic – on fairly quiet vinyl too! 
  • These two killer Rudy Van Gelder recordings capture the truly wonderful sound of Ammons’ smooth, rich, breathy, bluesy sax
  • We love the reverb RVG placed on the drums here – it’s sounds just right for a classic jazz album from the ’60s 
  • “…the tradition of the tenor ballad was fully defined by Gene Ammons and Ben Webster… this [album] is the source of a tradition. One of the absolute necessities to any jazz collection.”

This Prestige Two-Fer Double LP features WONDERFUL sound and music. Those of you who have been customers for more than ten years may remember an OJC label called Moodsville. Moodsville was a subsidiary of Prestige designed to emphasize ballads and other relaxed melodic material, mostly derived from the great American songwriters. (more…)