Top Artists – Jimmy Smith

Jimmy Smith – Got My Mojo Workin’

More Jimmy Smith

More Kenny Burrell

  • With Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it on both sides, this copy handily won our shootout
  • The best sides have the kind of analog richness, warmth and smoothness that we make listening to records so involving
  • Some pop tunes, some Ellington and more, all of which has a real funky feel to it, with Jimmy really getting into it and grunting along with the music
  • “This 1965 Verve release finds the B-3 innovator mixing it up with organ and guitar combo swingers and big band charts compliments of arranger Oliver Nelson.”

This copy was just plain bigger and richer and tubier, as well as more dynamic than the others we played! (more…)

Jimmy Smith – Open House

  • Open House makes its Hot Stamper debut here with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish  
  • An RVG live-in-the-studio recording from 1960 is hard to beat for you-are-there immediacy, and this pressing delivers that quality like no other copy you’ve heard – we guarantee it
  • We wish more records had this kind of sound – natural, full-bodied, and REAL in a way that no modern Heavy Vinyl pressing seems to be
  • 4 1/2 stars: “For this superlative outing, the innovative organist is teamed with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, altoist Jackie McLean, tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec, and his regular sidemen. The musicians all seem to be inspired by each other’s presence, making this a highly recommended set for straight-ahead jazz collectors”

(more…)

Jimmy Smith – Back at the Chicken Shack

More Kenny Burrell

More Albums on Blue Note

  • Back at the Chicken Shack makes its Hot Stamper debut here with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on this New York label mono pressing
  • Joining Jimmy Smith is one of our favorite bluesy sax players, Stanley Turrentine – just play Kenny Burrell’s Midnight Blue to hear him at this best, and Burrell is especially good here too
  • Credit must go to Rudy Van Gelder once again for the huge space this superbly well-recorded quartet occupies
  • 5 stars: “Recorded in 1960 with Kenny Burrell on guitar, Donald Bailey on drums, and Turrentine, the group reaches the peak of funky soul jazz that all other challengers of the genre would have to live up to.”

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “The immediacy of the music was an order of magnitude better than my version.”

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,  

About the only good thing I can say during the time of “COVID” is that I have been listening to a lot of music. Well today I ran my first shootout. I was listening to The Incredible Jimmy Smith, Back At The Chicken Shack.

First, I played the title track from side one on the LP I have had in my collection for about 5 years. I know every note and just love this record. Then, I played my Better Records copy, same track.

To anyone who does not understand what a hot stamper actually is, I feel sorry for you. Those folks are missing out.

First, the immediacy or the presence of the music on the disk I bought from you was an order of magnitude better than my library version. It was also just flat out louder.

Stanley Turrentine’s playing was alive in way I’ve never truly heard before. Jimmy Smith’s solo’s were absolutely stunning. As I said, I know every note and yet it was like a new listening experience.

I think about all the thousands of dollars people spend on gear but ultimately what’s the point if your source material is compromised ? I know I am preaching to the choir with you but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate what you’ve figured out and made available to people like me.

Thanks so much and take care.

Art

Jimmy Smith – Prayer Meetin’

More Albums on Blue Note

  • 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
  • Stanley 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…

(more…)

Jimmy Smith / Any Number Can Win – Reviewed in 2010

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 – Christmas Cookin’

Another Record We’ve Discovered with (Potentially) Excellent Sound…

and One We Will Probably Never Shootout Again

Some records never justified the time and money required to find Hot Stamper pressings of them in order to make it worth our while to do them again. This is one such album, and the link above will take you to many more.

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 – 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 old 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).

It’s super rich, full and Tubey Magical with real bottom end weight and a nicely extended top end. 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 did.

In the past we’ve complained about “Rudy Van Gelder’s somewhat over the top echo-drenched brass,” but on a Super Hot copy such as this there is not much to complain about 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, open and above all LIVELY.

(more…)