Tom Dowd, Producer-Engineer

Cream – Wheels Of Fire

More of the Music of Cream

  • Cream rocks on these vintage UK import pressings with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on sides one and two, and solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on sides three and four
  • 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 (particularly on side three)
  • Everything you’d want sonically from a live Cream recording is present on this copy – big-time presence, an abundance of life, tonal correctness, and loads of Tubey Magic (also particularly on side three)
  • Those of you looking for a White Hot copy with Triple Plus (A+++) sound on both the studio disc and the live disc will be disappointed to learn (as we were) that no such copy came out of our most recent shootout, making this one of the best copies we can offer this time around
  • 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…)

Charles Mingus – Oh Yeah

More of the Music of Charles Mingus

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, this vintage Stereo Atlantic Blue and Green Label pressing of Mingus’s brilliant Oh Yeah was doing just about everything right
  • Tubey Magical, lively and clear, with three-dimensionality that will fill your listening room from wall to wall
  • Phil Iehle and Tom Dowd made up the engineering team for these sessions, which explains why the better copies of the album sound so damn good
  • A raucous (and rockin’) deviation from traditional jazz, this compilation incorporates R&B and soul influences – Mingus even lends his rich vocal stylings to a few songs
  • Forget the later label pressings – we stopped buying them years ago
  • 5 stars: “Oh Yeah is probably the most offbeat Mingus album ever, and that’s what makes it so vital.”
  • It’s hard to imagine that any list of the Best Jazz Albums of 1962 would not have this record on it

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Charles Mingus – Tonight at Noon

More of the Music of Charles Mingus

  • Tonight at Noon appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout this vintage Atlantic Stereo pressing
  • This copy is overflowing with the kind of rich, spacious, Tubey Magical sound that can only be found on vintage vinyl
  • Phil Iehle and Tom Dowd made up the engineering team for these sessions from 1957 and 1961, which explains why the better copies of the album sound so damn good
  • 4 stars: “…the tunes here are actually studio outtakes from the recordings for The Clown and Oh Yeah. Despite the fact that this is an assembled album, it holds plenty of magic nonetheless.”

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Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard

More of the Music of Eric Clapton

  • With two STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides or close to them, this vintage UK import could not be beat – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Big and full-bodied with exceptionally breathy vocals, strong rhythmic energy and virtually none of the smear that plagues so many copies
  • If you’re a Clapton fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this return to form released in 1974 is clearly a must own, a title it shares with two of his other top albums: Unplugged and Just One Night
  • As good as the best domestic pressings can be, these British LPs simply capture a good deal more of the Midrange Magic of the master tape than they do
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the pop concessions on the album don’t detract from the rootsy origins of the material, whether it’s Johnny Otis’ ‘Willie and the Hand Jive,’ the traditional blues ‘Motherless Children,’ Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff,’ or Clapton’s emotional original ‘Let It Grow.'”
  • If you’re a Clapton fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this return to form released in 1974 is clearly a Must Own, a title it shares with two of his other top albums: Unplugged and Just One Night.
  • His debut album is a longtime personal favorite, but I’m not quite sure it would make the cut for our core rock collection

Tom Dowd recorded this album at Criteria in Miami, the same studio in which Layla was recorded. I’d say the sound here is substantially better than what you typically get on that album, keeping in mind the sonic variations from track to track on Layla, which can be fairly dramatic.

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Aretha Franklin – Aretha Now

More of the Music of Aretha Franklin

  • A killer sounding pressing of this early Atlantic label LP with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides
  • Here is the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings barely begin to reproduce – folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… this still caught Aretha Franklin at the peak of her early form. ‘Think,’ ‘I Say a Little Prayer,’ ‘See Saw,’ and ‘I Can’t See Myself Leaving You’ were all big hits.”

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Derek and the Dominos – Layla

More of the Music of Eric Clapton

  • A Layla like you’ve never heard, with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on all FOUR sides of these vintage Polydor pressings
  • Many of our favorite Clapton songs are here: “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Tell The Truth,” “Little Wing,” “Layla” and “Have You Ever Loved A Woman?”
  • One of the most difficult albums to find great sound for, but the music makes it worth all the time and trouble we spent finding this amazing copy
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more richness, fullness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than most others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you own whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently on the market, made from who-knows-what tapes, or an original Atco pressing, or an original British import, or… you get the idea
  • 5 stars: “What really makes Layla such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion.”

Sound this good simply means that you will more than likely hear these songs sound better than you ever imagined they could. We guarantee it.

Look at all these classics:

“I Looked Away”
“Bell Bottom Blues”
“Keep On Growing”
“Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out”
“Tell The Truth”
“Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?”
“Have You Ever Loved A Woman”

We rarely get around to this shootout because clean copies with potential for good sound are very hard to come by. After not having spent much quality time with the album for many years, we were pleasantly surprised at just how much fun we were having and at how well the music holds up 55 years after its recording.

On the better copies the sound is amazingly lively and rockin’ and, more importantly, completely engrossing. On this copy you’ll find yourself swept up in tracks like “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Tell The Truth,” “Little Wing,” “Layla” and at least a good half dozen more.

If you could only have one Clapton album, wouldn’t it have to be this one?

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Milt Jackson – Bags & Flutes

More Recordings Engineered by Tom Dowd 

  • This 70s Atlantic reissue pressing boasts seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from top to bottom
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days (as well as the early mono pressings) – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful album from 1959, a vintage pressing like this one is the only way to go (particularly on this side one)
  • “Jackson is partnered alternately with Frank Wess and Bobby Jaspar — two of the leading pioneers that helped bring the flute into the mainstream of jazz. For these performances, the rhythm section blends and balances superbly, creating supple, meaty, hard bopping grooves for Jackson’s limitless capacity for invention and for the stellar, swinging performances of Jaspar and Wess.” -The Jazz Record Review (more…)

Lee Konitz With Warne Marsh in 1955

More Titles that Sound Better in Mono

  • Outstanding MONO sound throughout this reissue copy of Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh (the first to hit the site in years), with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them
  • This side one is remarkably spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • If you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful session from 1955 – originally recorded by Tom Dowd and expertly remastered by George Piros – this pressing will let you do that
  • Our most recent shootout was a tough one – our top copy had too many issues to make it to the site, as did our only second-tier copy with Super Hot stampers on both sides
  • Those of you looking for top quality sound may have to wait for a while, especially if it takes us as long to get our next shootout going as it did this last one
  • 4 stars: “Altoist Lee Konitz and tenor-saxophonist Warne Marsh always made for a perfect team. Even by the mid-50s when they were not as influenced by Lennie Tristano as previously (particularly Konitz), their long melodic lines and unusual tones caused them to stand out from the crowd. This set is worth searching for, as are all of the Konitz-Marsh collaborations.”
  • This is one of those records that we’ve “discovered” with audiophile quality sound — until we came along, who knew the album could sound this good? The originals are godawful.

The 1955 mono sound by Tom Dowd is Demo Disc quality. The horns are breathy and clear, yet full and rich as can be. There may be a good reason that this pressing sounds as good as it does: it was remastered by one of the greatest mastering engineers of all time, George Piros.

Tom Dowd is the original recording engineer, and this one album should be all the proof you need that when it comes to jazz in mono, the guy is hard to beat. Rock in stereo, there his record is quite a bit more spotty (see, or better yet, listen to Cream, The Young Rascals, Delaney and Bonnie and too many others to list).

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John Coltrane – Coltrane Jazz

More of the Music of John Coltrane

  • Both sides of this copy have excellent sound for Coltrane’s brilliant sixth studio album
  • 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 has 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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Sonny Stitt – Stitt Plays Bird

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone

 

  • With two excellent Double Plus (A++) sides, this original Blue and Green Atlantic Stereo pressing (one of the few copies to hit the site in recent years) will be very hard to beat
  • 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…”

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