Top Producer-Engineer – Tom Dowd

Sonny Stitt – Stitt Plays Bird

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone

With two INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, this original Blue and Green Atlantic Stereo pressing (the first copy to hit the site in over two and a half years) is as good as it gets
Here are just a few of our notes for this amazing copy: “tubey, sweet sax,” “nice bass, rich and deep,” “3D and dynamic,” “spacious natural and silky.”
No reissue in our shootout could touch it, although it’s tough to find these early pressings with surfaces as quiet as we would like
Tom Dowd engineered, which is why the best copies of the album sound so damn good – Dowd recorded many of the best Coltrane albums in the early 60s, so if you like the sound of those, and who doesn’t?, you will no doubt find much to like here
4 1/2 stars: “Sonny Stitt forged his own approach to playing bebop out of the sound and style of Charlie Parker, so this tribute album was a very logical project… Stitt, who mastered bebop and could play hot licks in his sleep, is in top form… making this an essential item for straight-ahead jazz fans…”

John Coltrane – Coltrane Jazz

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of John Coltrane

Both sides of this copy have excellent sound for Coltrane’s brilliant sixth studio album, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
This pressing captures the classic Coltrane sound that Tom Dowd and Phil Iehle achieved in the studio in 1961, with plenty of the Tubey Magic that makes a vintage jazz album like this one such a special listening experience
It’s the rare pressing that isn’t mediocre if not outright awful – it took us a long time to find the right stampers for this one
It’s trial and error, no more, no less, a process that worked for plenty of other hard-to-find-good-sound-for Coltrane albums too
4 1/2 stars: “The first album to hit the shelves after Giant Steps… While not the groundbreaker that Giant Steps was, Coltrane Jazz was a good consolidation of his gains as he prepared to launch into his peak years of the 1960s.”
This is a Must Own album from 1961 that belongs in any jazz-loving audiophile’s collection

For us audiophiles both the sound and the music here are wonderful. If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1961 All Tube Analog sound can be, 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.

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Charles Mingus – Blues & Roots

More Charles Mingus

Blues & Roots returns to the site for the first time in years on this vintage Green and Blue Atlantic pressing with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
Exceptional space and immediacy, rich and smooth and oh-so-Tubey-Magical – this is exactly the right sound for this bluesy collection
A barrage of “churchy, blues, singing, earthy” music that returns Mingus to his soulful roots
5 stars: “Blues and Roots, isn’t quite as wildly eclectic as usual, but it ranks as arguably Mingus’ most joyously swinging outing… perhaps the most soulful in Mingus’ discography.

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Cream / Disraeli Gears – Live and Learn

More of the Music of Cream

More of the Music of Eric Clapton

A classic case of Live and Learn

Our shootout quite a while ago for Cream’s classic second album provided proof positive that We Was Wrong when we said:

No reissue we’ve ever played sounded especially good and none likely ever will.

Ah, but some do! We would love to tell you exactly what to look for so that you can go find one yourself, but that’s bad for business as I’m sure you will agree.

We also have to admit to being wrong about this:

If you’re expecting Sunshine of Your Love to rock on record like you remember it rockin’ on the radio back in the day, forget it. When you heard that song your brain added the bass and dynamics that are missing from the record. Either that or you did it through the loudness control on your old receiver. There’s maybe five db of dynamic range on that song and there can never be more than that.

We discovered that there are copies with dynamic vocals on that track.

The vocals are practically the only thing that do get loud, and they only get loud on some of the copies we played.

Likewise, on some copies the drums have much more body and punch than than they do on most.

So, when it comes to bass and dynamics, yes, some copies have some, maybe even more than you remember.

Heavy compression created the sound you heard on the radio, added to the compression that is already baked into the mix and whatever amount was added in mastering.

We Admit It

Yes, as is clear from the above, we was wrong. It’s not the first time and it sure won’t be the last. We happily admit to our mistakes because we know that all this audio stuff and especially the search for Hot Stampers is a matter of trial and error. We do the trials; that’s how we avoid the kinds of errors most audiophiles and audiophile record dealers make when it comes to finding the best sounding records. Of course, being human we can’t help but make our share of mistakes. The difference is that we learn from them. We report the facts to the best of our ability every time out. Every record gets a chance to show us what it’s made of, regardless of where it was made, who made it or why they made it. (Like anybody cares.)

If we used to like it and now we don’t, that’s what you will read in our commentary. Our obligation is to only one person: you, the listener. (Even better: you, the customer. Buy something already!)

On every shootout we do now, if the notes are more than six months old we toss them out. They mean nothing. Things have changed, radically, and that’s the way it should be. With each passing year you should be hearing more of everything in your favorite LPs. That’s the thrill of this hobby — those silly old records just keep getting better! (I wish someone could figure out how to make digital get better. They’ve had twenty five years and it still leaves me cold. You too I’m guessing.)

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Cream – Wheels Of Fire

More Cream

Cream rocks on these vintage UK import pressings with excellent Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on all FOUR sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
These sides have close to the best condition grade we give out, Mint Minus – there may not be another record on the site with vinyl that quiet!
The power and energy of these live sides is off the charts — punchy, open, and spacious with bass and whomp you have never experienced for this music, guaranteed
Everything you’d want sonically from a live Cream recording is present on this copy – big-time presence, tons of life, tonal correctness, and loads of Tubey Magic
4 stars: “…[Eric] Clapton is at a peak here, whether he’s tearing off solos on a 17-minute “Spoonful” or goosing “White Room” toward the heights of madness. But it’s the architect of “White Room,” bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter…. [I]n many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream’s very best work,
If you’re a fan of Clapton and the band, this RSO UK import from 1968 belongs in your collection.

It’s exceptionally difficult to find even decent sounding copies of this album. We’ve played SCORES of original domestic copies, original imports, and all kinds of reissues over the years, and it’s very rare to find a copy that sounds this good on all four sides. (more…)

The Young Rascals – Self-Titled

More of The Young Rascals

More Rock and Pop

The Young Rascals’ self-titled debut LP hits the site for the first time ever with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from start to finish
We chanced upon an amazing sounding stereo original about ten years ago, and only ten years later (!) we finally have enough clean copies to do a proper shootout
This shootout-winning bad boy was a long time coming, but we hope the lucky buyer will agree with us that it was worth the wait
We often say that the average copy of Album X is no great shakes — here’s a title where almost no copies sound any good and the average pressing is awful
Big, rich, energetic, with tons of Analog Tubey Magic, this Blue and Green Atlantic Stereo pressing has exactly the right sound for this music
4 1/2 stars: “The Young Rascals is that rare example of a genuinely great album that got heard and played, and sold and sold. [It] couples a raw garage band sound with compelling white soul more successfully than just about any record since the Beatles’ Please Please Me.”

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John Coltrane – Coltrane’s Sound

More John Coltrane

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone

This early pressing boasts two excellent Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
An authentic Green and Blue Atlantic stereo pressing, the only version of the album that has the potential for Hot Stamper sound, which explains why this is one of the few copies to have hit the site since 2011
If this price seems high, keep in mind that the top copy from our most recent shootout went for $1000, and the vinyl was about as quiet
Our last shootout was in 2018, would should tell you when to expect us to find another copy of this quality: 2028!
“This is one of the most highly underrated entries in Coltrane’s voluminous catalog. Although the same overwhelming attention bestowed upon My Favorite Things was not given to Coltrane’s Sound upon its initial release, both were actually recorded during the same three-day period in the fall of 1960… these recordings remain among Trane’s finest.”
Coltrane’s Sound, recorded in 1960 but not released until four years later, is a Must Own Jazz Album from 1964

This is yet another superb Tom Dowd recording of Coltrane in his prime, with support from the brilliant McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones.

Forget the later Red and Green Atlantic pressings. Every one we’ve ever played was flat, dry, and thin. They sound like the cheap reissues that Atlantic churned out in the ’70s. Don’t get me wrong; there are some good sounding records on the Red and Green label, but you really have to know what you are doing — or be really lucky — to find them.

We’ve played them by the score, and found relatively few winners among a slough of losers. If you want to take your chances on some, knock yourself out, more power to you, but expect to come up with nothing to show for your time and money almost every time. That’s been our experience anyway.

And be very thankful if you happen to run into one of these early Atlantic stereo pressings, especially if it plays as quietly as this one does. Few Classic Coltrane albums survived the jazz lovers of the day and their awful turntables.

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