Top Artists – Mike Bloomfield

Bloomfield-Kooper-Stills – Super Session (on 360)

More of the Music of Al Kooper

More of the Music of Stephen Stills

With solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from top to bottom, this 360 Label pressing will be very hard to beat
Engineered by Roy Halee, the man behind one of the best sounding rock records of all time (the self-titled Blood, Sweat and Tears album), the oh-so-analog sonics here are especially dynamic and spacious (particularly on side one)
Our most recent shootout was a tough one: we had six clean 360 pressings, but only two copies earned White Hot grades and one of them was too noisy to sell
Even worse, none of our Supers earned even two pluses on both sides, so those of you looking for anything better than what we’re offering here are going to be as disappointed as we are
When we talk about some records being hard to find with top quality sound and audiophile playing surfaces, this is the kind of record we have in mind!
For fans of BS&T’s first album (and everybody else), Super Session is a Must Own
“Season of the Witch” is quite good here on this original Stereo 360 pressing
4 1/2 stars: “This is one of those albums that seems to get better with age… This is a super session indeed.”
If you’re a fan of any or all of these guys, this vintage pressing of their 1968 classic belongs in your collection

Bloomfield-Kooper-Stills – Super Session on the 70s Red Label

More Stephen Stills

With superb Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides, we guarantee you’ve never heard Super Session sound this good
Engineered by Roy Halee, the man behind one of the best sounding rock records of all time (the self-titled Blood, Sweat and Tears album), the oh-so-analog sound here is especially dynamic and spacious
It’s true, the 360 label pressings win our shootouts, but that doesn’t mean the right later label pressings aren’t nearly as good, as is the case with this one
For fans of BS&T’s first album (and everybody else), Super Session is a Must Own
“Season of the Witch” is crazy good on this vintage Red Label pressing
4 1/2 stars: “This is one of those albums that seems to get better with age… This is a super session indeed.”

Here’s a copy that gets the midrange right. It’s nice and open, with lots of space around all of the instruments, tight punchy bass, and an extended top end. The energy level is right up there with some of the best we played.

“Man’s Temptation,” track 3 on side one, has got some seriously bright EQ happening (reminiscent of the first BS&T album), so if that song even sounds tolerable in the midrange you are doing better than expected.

Watch Out For

Bright, gritty, spitty, edgy, harsh, upper-midrangy vocals. The Red Labels tend to have more problems of this kind, but plenty of original 360 pressings are gritty and bright too.

Let’s face it, if the vocals are wrong, this album pretty much falls apart.

Most copies are far too bright and phony sounding to turn up loud; the distortion and grit are just too much at higher volumes. On the better copies, with more correct tonality and an overall freedom from distortion, you can turn the volume up and let Super Session rock.

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On Super Session, Tonally Correct Vocals Are Key

More Music Produced or Performed by Al Kooper

Most copies have bright, gritty, spitty, edgy, harsh, upper-midrangy vocals.

The Red Labels tend to have more problems of this kind, but plenty of original 360 pressings are gritty and bright too. Let’s face it, if the vocals are wrong, this album pretty much falls apart.

Most copies are far too bright and phony sounding to turn up loud. At higher volumes the distortion and grit are just too much.

On the better copies, the one with more correct tonality and an overall freedom from distortion, you can turn the volume up and let Super Session rock.

Man’s Temptation, track 3 on side one, has got some seriously bright EQ happening (reminiscent of the first BS&T album), so if that song even sounds tolerable in the midrange, you are doing better than expected.

We’re Big Fans

Super Session is an album we think we know well, one that checks off a number of boxes for us here at Better Records:

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This Is Why We Love Columbia in the 60s

More of the Music of Al Kooper

More of the Music of Michael Bloomfield

Please excuse the copying and pasting from previous listings. When records are this good, we tend to say the same things about them, because they are doing all the things we want them to do.

From time to time a record comes our way that sounds absolutely amazing, “Way better than it used to sound” amazing. Progress in audio is a feature, not a bug, of record collecting and music reproduction at the most advanced levels.

If it’s the kind of record that sounds like the best copy of The Live Adventures of Bloomfield and Kooper from our most recent shootout, we might even let our enthusiasm for its superb fidelity get the better of us. That’s the effect a record as good as the copy we played can have. You just can’t stop yourself from saying one great thing after another about it.

Our over-the-top notes, like those you see below, attempt to convey what it’s like to experience the superb sound we were hearing.

But where is the harm in that? These are notes that no one outside of the staff are ever expected to see. They are helpful to us in writing our commentary and pricing the specific copy we auditioned, but they are practically never quoted in the listings.

The Live Adventures of Bloomfield and Kooper is an example of one of those recordings that comes along from time to time in order to show us sound that we’d almost forgotten was possible.

Oh yes, with the rare properly-cleaned, properly-mastered, properly-pressed vintage vinyl LP, played back on top quality equipment in a heavily treated, dedicated soundroom, we can assure you it is very possible indeed. Allow us to make the case with the Shootout Winning original pressing you see below.

The notes for side one read:

Big, Tubey and jumping out
Breathy vocals
Deep, sustained bass

Side two:

Spacious
Glowing and rich drums are weighty and 3-D
No congestion
Extending high and low
Silky and present vocals

Side three:

Weighty and rich
No hardness
Extending high and low

Side four:

Rich and ? and space
More dynamic and 3-D
All around good weight

You know what’s unusual about these notes?

They’re the kind of notes we have never written for any Heavy Vinyl reissue, even for the one that won our shootout not long ago.

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The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Keep On Moving

More Butterfield Blues Band

More Electric Blues

A KILLER sounding copy with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish
Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful album, a vintage Elektra stereo pressing is the only way to go
“People who liked Butter long ago usually don’t like what he’s become. I’ve only dug him over the past two years and I think he just gets better and better. This record, vocally oriented and produced by Jerry Ragavoy, is his best yet, hard-driving and very tight. ” – Robert Christgau (A)

I would have never guessed this band’s records could sound so good! We’ve been trying to find good sound for the Butterfield Blues Band for years, and we lucked into a very hot Red Label Elektra pressing here. There’s serious weight down low, nice extension up top, tons of Tubey Magic and surprising transparency to be found. Good luck finding better sound for this kind of bluesy rock and roll!

My favorite thing about the sound here is how three-dimensional it is. You get real depth to the soundfield and lots of separation between the various parts. With so many musicians doing their thing, it’s essential to be able to make sense of what each guy is going. It really added to my appreciation of the music.

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Super Session – A Jack Hunt Mastered MoFi Winner

Hot Stamper Pressings of Music Produced or Performed by Al Kooper Available Now

Sonic Grade: B

Super Session is one of the best-sounding MoFi pressings. The midrange sounds wonderful — silky sweet and transparent. Not having been cut by Stan Ricker, the top end doesn’t have that SR/2 boost. Overall it’s a very nice sounding record, and the music just can’t be beat.

In fact, it was actually mastered by Jack Hunt, a man we know to be responsible for some of the thickest, dullest, deadest MoFi recuts found in their shameful catalog.

But he did a pretty good job on this one, and for that he deserves some credit.

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Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper – The Live Adventures Of…

More Al Kooper

The Live Adventures Of… is finally back on the site after a twenty-six month hiatus, here with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on all FOUR sides of these early 360 Stereo pressings
This copy is doing everything right – it’s clean, clear, spacious and present with a big bottom end, just the right sound for this raw, live blues rock music
Great material to be found here, including covers of well-known tracks by Paul Simon, The Band, and Traffic
Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
4 stars: “One of the seminal live albums of the late 60s… The idea of musical spontaneity both in live performance and in the recording studio had reached a certain apex in 1968… But it was the union of Bloomfield and Kooper that can truly claim an origination of the phenomenon, and this album takes it to another level entirely.”

Outstanding sound for this double LP of superb live blues-rock! We rarely have a copy of this title on the site, so if you’re a fan of Super Session, you should jump on this one right away.

Some of the tracks here (recorded on the second night) feature none other than Carlos Santana. (more…)

The Electric Flag / A Long Time Comin’

The first White Hot copy to ever hit the site and it has KILLER Triple Plus (A+++) sound on both sides. The all-star lineup here features Michael Bloomfield, Buddy Miles, Richie Havens and many more. It’s raunchy and bluesy, somewhat reminiscent of Super Session, but without Al Kooper. (more…)

Peter, Paul & Mary – Album

More Peter, Paul and Mary

The first copy of this classic from 1966 to hit the site in many years – arguably a better album than Album 1700!
Both sides of this original Warner Brothers Gold Label pressing earned Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
These sides are full of ’60s analog Tubey Magic – rich and warm with real immediacy and transparency
Features top musicians and PPM versions of folk classics like And When I Die and Kisses Sweeter Than Wine

Finding great copies of this album is no easy task. Many of the copies we played were just too noisy, and most of the quiet ones just did not impress us sonically. After listening to so much mediocrity we were shocked and gratified that this very copy managed to show us a world of sound we did not expect to hear. (more…)