Top Artists – Joe Henderson

Lee Morgan / The Sidewinder

More of the Music of Lee Morgan

  • Incredible sound throughout this 60s Blue Note pressing, with a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one
  • It took us about two years to get this shootout going, but the best copies we played were so impressive that they made all the time and money it took to pull it off worth the effort – what a record!
  • These sides are rich and full, from the extended top end all the way down to the deepest bass — thanks RVG!
  • The trumpet on this album is amazing — tonally correct with wonderful leading edge transients
  • Both musically and sonically, this is Blue Note at its best
  • 5 stars: “Carried by its almost impossibly infectious eponymous opening track, The Sidewinder helped foreshadow the sounds of boogaloo and soul-jazz with its healthy R&B influence and Latin tinge. While the rest of the album retreats to a more conventional hard bop sound, Morgan’s compositions are forward-thinking and universally solid…”

When we dropped the needle on this one, we immediately stopped listening critically and just began enjoying the album. That’s the sign of an exceptional copy — the sound gets out of the way and the music becomes the point.

There’s life and presence on these sides the likes of which you almost never hear on any jazz record.

The lineup here is fantastic, with Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Billy Higgins on drums, Barry Harris on piano and Bob Cranshaw on bass. (more…)

The Originals Can Be Very Good, But the Right Reissues Never Fail to Beat Them

Hot Stamper Pressings of Blue Note Recordings Available Now

Warning: the record you see pictured is not the record we are discussing in this commentary.

For this mystery title our recent shootout involved two early New York Blue Note pressings.

We don’t need to tell you that those are the ones that take us years to find, and cost us a pretty penny (in audiophile playing condition) when we do find them.

One of them we’ve had on the shelf for years to use as a reference pressing. We knew it could be beaten, that it would never be able to win a shootout, but we also knew it had a lot of the qualities we were looking for on the album.

It sounds right, the way the best Blue Notes from this era usually do, regardless of what you may have read elsewhere.

Our Hot Stamper pressings are guaranteed to soundly beat (ahem) whichever versions of the album have been recommended by any of the self-described audiophile “experts” or your money back.

When those who produce Blue Note reissues and those who review them tell you Rudy did not know how to cut a record that sounds right on good equipment, you can easily prove to yourself how hard of hearing these people must be by simply buying one of our Hot Stamper pressings.

You can send it back — that’s up to you — but at least you will know how full of it these audiophile reviewers must be to write such nonsense. We love Rudy and make no bones about it.

Our notes for both early pressings are shown below.

Top copy:

This New York label pressing is very sweet and open. It lacks some warmth and depth in the midrange.

Lower copy:

This one is very tubey, big and bold, but it gets hot on the horns and needs space.

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Sidewinder on the Liberty Label Might Sound Dubby and Weird

Hot Stamper Pressings of Blue Note Recordings Available Now

The top copy from our most recent shootout went for $1500 and, in our opinion, was worth every penny of that amount, being one of the best sounding jazz records we have ever played

It probably took us ten years to get this latest shootout going, but the best copies we played were so impressive that they made all the time and money it took to pull it off worth the effort — what a record!

The copies that do not have VAN GELDER in the dead wax are very unlikely to be any good. The Liberty label pressing that we played in our shootout was minty and cost us a pretty penny, but the sound was No F***ing Good.

It’s yet another reason we don’t judge records by their labels.

Of course, as all our customers know, we judge records by one thing and one thing only: their sound.

Our shootout winner may have been a reissue, but it sure wasn’t one of those copies you can find on the Liberty label without VAN GELDER in the dead wax.

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Horace Silver – Song For My Father

More Horace Silver

More Blue Note Albums

  • This Van Gelder-mastered Blue Note reissue pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years) boasts solid grades from start to finish
  • Tubey Magic is the key to the sound of the better pressings, and we guarantee this one has the kind of Tubey Magic that no modern pressing of the last 40 years can offer the audiophile community
  • Energetic, clear and spacious, as well as relaxed and full-bodied (thanks, RVG!) – this pressing was a step up over most other copies we played
  • An incredibly tough album to find with the right sound and decent surfaces, but the music makes it worth all the time and trouble we spent finding this outstanding copy
  • 5 stars: “Horace Silver’s signature LP and the peak of a discography already studded with classics. Silver was always a master at balancing jumping rhythms with complex harmonies for a unique blend of earthiness and sophistication, and Song for My Father has perhaps the most sophisticated air of all his albums…”

The leading edge transients on the horns here are excellent, with the pinched quality you hear on some tracks kept to a minimum. The whole of the ensemble is transparently clear.

The drums on this record have a wonderful quality: they actually sound like hollowed out, three-dimensional objects that are being struck in order to make them resonate — which is kind of what they are — the opposite of the cardboard drums you hear on bad rock records. (We hear a lot of drums on old rock records that sound like somebody is slapping a corrugated shipping carton with a mallet. You lose a lot of points if you’re a record with that sound.)

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This Is Why We Love Rudy Van Gelder in the 60s

Hot Stamper Pressings of Rudy Van Gelder Recordings Available Now

The top copy from our most recent shootout went for $1500 and, in our opinion, was worth every penny of that amount, being one of the best sounding jazz records we have ever played

It probably took us ten years to get this shootout going, but the best copies we played were so impressive that they made all the time and money it took to pull it off worth the effort — what a record!

The notes on side one read: 

Track Two

  • Fingered plucky bass
  • Rich and spacious
  • Extending (high and low)
  • Horns are rich and breathy

Track One

  • Fat, rich bass and drums
  • So big and lively and no hardness

The notes on side two read: 

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Kenny Dorham – Una Mas

Hot Stamper Blue Note Albums Available Now

More recordings by Rudy Van Gelder

  • Side one was the best we heard in our shootout, earning a grade of nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++)
  • It’s clear yet rich- the horns are full-bodied and warm, and the top is fairly extended
  • Side two earned a Double Plus (A++) grade – by track two it’s full, smooth and natural
  • Both sides are exceptionally quiet, playing a true Mint Minus – for Blue Note that’s rare!

A fun and lively Blue Note, presented here with two especially hot sides and quiet vinyl!

After hearing a copy that blew us away a few years back, we went on the hunt for enough pressings to get this shootout off the ground. It wasn’t easy — run across many clean Kenny Dorham LPs recently? — but we finally pulled it off and this copy really impressed the hell out of us compared to the others we had on hand to play.

Dorham is backed by a killer lineup here — Joe Henderson, Herbire Hancock, Butch Warren and Anthony Williams. AMG calls the music “explorative yet swinging music” that “lives up to its potential”. I’d say it’s one of the better “lesser-known” Blue Note titles, a real sleeper in their catalog. (more…)

Pepper, Klemmer, et al. / Ballads By Four – Our Shootout Winner from 2011

More Art Pepper

More John Klemmer

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

and a Record We Will Probably Never Shootout Again

Super Hot Stamper sound on BOTH sides of this wonderful Galaxy original pressing. There are four extended ballads, two on each side, and each of them is played with real passion and skill by this group of veteran horn men and their respective rhythm sections. The recording itself is one of the best I’ve heard on Galaxy, the other top Galaxy title being Art Pepper Today. Joe Henderson is the leader not mentioned in our listing title, so with his addition we have four of the best saxophone ballad players, backed by a top rhythm section, all performing material that has stood the test of time. This is the kind of record the world needs more of!  (more…)