1958-best

Cannonball Adderley / Somethin’ Else

More of the Music of Cannonball Adderley

  • A triumph for Rudy Van Gelder, a Top Blue Note title, and as much a showcase for Miles Davis as it is for Cannonball Adderley
  • The best sides of this album had as much energy, presence, dynamics and three-dimensional studio space as any jazz recording we have ever played
  • 5 stars: “Both horn players are at their peak of lyrical invention, crafting gorgeous, flowing blues lines.”
  • “…signs of Milesian influence are the calm, conversational delivery of the title track and the newfound lyricism in Adderley’s playing that followed from his nightly experience at the trumpeter’s side.”

The music here is simply amazing, but the good news for us audiophiles is that it’s also one of the Best Sounding Blue Note Albums we know of, if not The Best.

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Leroy Vinnegar Sextet – Leroy Walks! (OJC)

More Contemporary Label Jazz

  • Boasting two superb Double Plus (A++) sides, this Contemporary recording of Leroy Vinnegar’s debut album pressed on OJC vinyl is doing just about everything right
  • The Contemporary LP stereo sound here is completely natural in every respect – rich, warm and smooth
  • Roy DuNann and Howard Holzer engineered some of the best sounding records we have ever heard – here’s a textbook example of what the audiophiles at Contemporary were able to achieve in the studio
  • 4 stars: “…Vinnegar generously features his talented sidemen… A fine, straight-ahead session.”
  • Fans of exceptionally well-recorded West Coast jazz will find much to like on this recording from 1958.

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Delibes / Coppelia / Ansermet

More Music Conducted by Ernest Ansermet

  • Superb sound from the Master Ballet Conductor, with both sides of this early London pressing earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them
  • It’s also impossibly quiet at Mint Minus to Mint Minus Minus, a grade that practically none of our vintage classical titles – even the most well-cared-for ones – ever play at
  • Lovely string tone and texture, rich bass, a big hall, no smear, lovely transparency – the sound here is hard to fault (particularly on side one)
  • Recorded in Geneva’s exquisite Victoria Hall in 1957, this is a top performance from Ansermet and the Suisse Romande, the best we know of
  • A record like this lets you get lost in the world of its music, and what could be more important in a recording than that?
  • Enchanting music and sound combine on this copy to make one seriously good Demo Disc (also particularly on side one), if what you are trying to demonstrate is how relaxed and involved vintage analog can make you feel

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Sonny Rollins – Sonny Rollins & the Contemporary Leaders

More of the Music of Sonny Rollins

  • Hot Stamper sound brings Rollins’s second and last Contemporary release to life on this vintage pressing
  • Both of these sides are textbook examples of the kind of rich, smooth, effortlessly natural Contemporary jazz sound that Roy DuNann‘s All Tube Recording Chain was known for in 1958
  • If all you know are the Heavy Vinyl reissues of Sonny’s Contemporary catalog, we think it’s safe to say that you have never begun to hear these albums sound the way they should
  • This is a lot of money for a somewhat noisy copy, but the sound is so awesome and quiet pressings of the album so hard to come by that we hope someone will take a chance on it and get the thrill we did from hearing it sound right for once
  • “The last of the classic Sonny Rollins albums prior to his unexpected three-year retirement features the great tenor with pianist Hampton Hawes, guitarist Barney Kessell, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Shelly Manne… Great music.”

This Contemporary Label LP has THE BIG SOUND we love here at Better Records — rich and full-bodied with live-in-your-listening-room immediacy. The bass is deep, rock-solid, and note-like. There’s plenty of clarity and extension up top, bringing Shelly Manne’s fantastic work on the cymbals to life.

This is no Heavy Vinyl slogfest. Just listen to the leading edge transients on Sonny’s sax.

The guitar is warm, rich, and sweet, and just swimming in ambience.

Sonny is backed here by a heavy-hitting lineup of Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Leroy Vinnegar and Hampton Hawes — all favorite players of ours here at Better Records.

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Dick Schory – Music for Bang, Baaroom and Harp

Living Stereo Titles Available Now

  • Stunning Living Stereo sound through this original pressing, with both sides earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades, just shy of our Shootout Winner – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • It’s a real treat to hear such a crazy assortment of percussion instruments with this kind of amazingly clear, high-resolution sound!
  • This copy was just plain bigger, richer and clearer than practically all others in our recent shootout
  • It also helps that both of these sides are in correct polarity, a subject you can read about on the blog if you would like to know more
  • If you’re a fan of percussion extravaganzas, this Living Stereo from 1958 is about as good as it gets

The hottest stamper pressings of this album are Demo Discs for three important qualities we listen for in our record auditions. Each of the links below will take you to other recordings we have found to be potentially superior in these areas of reproduction.

  1. Size and space,
  2. Correct timbre and
  3. Tubey Magic.

Harry Pearson put this record on his TAS List of Super Discs, and rightfully so. It certainly can be a Super Disc, but only when you have the right pressing. This is one of the Demo Discs on the TAS List which truly deserves its status when, and only when, you have the right copy. (The typical copy is quite good, but it sure doesn’t sound like this.) Nothing else in our shootout could touch it. And it’s IN PHASE. Many copies are not.

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Leroy Anderson – Music of Leroy Anderson, Vol. 2 / Fennell

More Mercury Label Recordings

  • Music of Leroy Anderson, Vol. 2 debuts on the site with solid Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides of this original Plum Label Mercury stereo pressing
  • It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • This spectacular recording is big, clear, rich, dynamic, transparent and energetic – here is the Mercury sound we love
  • Mercury recordings often struggled in the area of string reproduction, but here the rich, textured sheen sounds glorious – tonally correct and, above all, natural

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John Coltrane – Coltrane (aka Soultrane and Traneing In)

More of the Music of John Coltrane

  • This wonderful compilation double album (only the second copy to hit the site in close to three years) boasts incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) MONO sound on all FOUR sides, just shy of our Shootout Winner – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • These two discs comprise two complete albums, John Coltrane with The Red Garland Trio (aka Traneing In), and Soultrane, both released in 1958
  • Yes, there was a time when two top Coltrane titles boasting the highest quality mastering available could be had at a bargain price, and, if you know anything about records, you know that that time has long since passed
  • Tubier, more transparent, more dynamic, with plenty of that “jumpin’ out of the speakers” quality that only The Real Thing (an old record) ever has – thanks RVG!
  • 4 stars: “The absence of any unessential instrumentalists encourages a decidedly concerted focus from Coltrane, who plays with equal measures of confidence and freedom.”
  • 1958 just happens to be one of the truly great years for analog recordings, as evidenced by this amazing group of albums, all recorded or released that year.

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Schubert – The Trout Quintet / Curzon / Vienna Octet

More of the Music of Franz Schubert

  • Boasting two seriously good Double Plus (A++) sides, this vintage Ace of Diamonds pressing is doing just about everything right
  • It’s simply bigger, more transparent, less distorted, more three-dimensional and more REAL than most of what we played – this is music you cannot help but be drawn into
  • The 1958 master tape has been transferred brilliantly using “modern” cutting equipment (from 1968, not the low-rez junk they’re forced to make do with these days), giving you, the listener, sound and surfaces that are hard to fault
  • When you hear how good this record sounds, you may have a hard time believing that it’s a budget reissue from 1968, but that’s precisely what it is.
  • Some budget reissues are so good, they can actually win shootouts

The cello does not have that “fat” sound some audiophiles seem to like – Decca knew more about recording chamber music in 1958 than practically all the audiophile labels that would come along later, the ones that managed to make a mess of the very idea of audiophile quality sound (you know who I mean)

The piano and the strings have that Golden Age Tubey Magical sound we love. It’s been years since I’ve had the opportunity to play this record; most copies are just too beat up to bother with, so I was glad to find a number in minty condition.

Now what I hear in this recording is sound that is absolutely free from any top end boost, much the way live music is. There’s plenty of tape hiss and air; the highs aren’t rolled off, they’re just not boosted the way they often are in a recording.

A few years back I had a chance to see a piano trio perform locally; they even played a piece by Schubert. The one thing I noticed immediately during their live performance was how smooth and natural the top end was. I was no more than ten feet from the performers in a fairly reverberant room, and yet the sound I heard was the opposite of what passes in some circles for Hi-Fidelity.

This is the opposite of those echo-drenched recordings that some audiophiles seem to like, with microphones placed twenty feet away from the performers so that they are awash in “ambience.” If you know anything about us, you know that this is not our sound.

I have never heard live music sound like that and that should settle the question. It does in my mind anyway. The Chesky label (just to choose one awful audiophile label to pick on) is a joke and always will be. How anyone buys into that phony sound is beyond me, but any audio show will prove to you that there is no shortage of audiophiles who love the Chesky “sound,” and probably never will be.

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Ted Heath – Hits I Missed

More Large Group Jazz Recordings

  • Hits I Missed appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish
  • Both of these sides are huge, rich, weighty and dynamic like few records you have ever heard – it sets the Gold Standard for Tubey Magical Big Band sound
  • This pressing is bigger, bolder and richer, as well as more clean, clear and open than most other copies we played in our recent shootout

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Ravel / Debussy – Ma Mère L’Oye (Mother Goose Suite) / Nocturnes / Ansermet

More of the Music of Ravel / More of the Music of Debussy

  • Here is an original London pressing (CS 6023) of Ansermet and the Suisse Romande’s lively performance of these wonderful works with a spacious, textured and Tubey Magical Shootout Winning Triple (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one
  • It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • This spectacular Demo Disc recording is big, clear, dynamic, transparent and energetic – here you will find some of the best orchestral Hot Stamper sound we offer
  • The sonics here have the power to transport you completely, with solid imaging and a real sense of space, qualities that allow us to forget we are in our listening rooms and not in the concert hall
  • There are some bad marks (as is sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings) on the first movement of Debussy’s Nocturnes – “Nuages,” but once you hear just how incredible sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and just be swept away by the music

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