1963

Peter, Paul & Mary – Moving

More Peter, Paul and Mary

More Folk Revival Music

  • An incredible sounding original WB Gold Label pressing with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades – this is as good as it gets!
  • The overall sound is clean, clear and present with plenty of the Tubey Magic than makes their recordings such a joy to listen to
  • The vocals (obviously the main draw here) are wonderfully breathy, natural and present 
  • Play me a CD that sounds like this and I will eat it
  • This is PP&M’s second studio album, featuring Puff The Magic Dragon and This Land Is Your Land

This early stereo pressing of Peter Paul & Mary’s 1963 follow-up to their smash debut destroyed most of the competition. The warmth and presence of the vocals on this copy are hard to fault.

Peter, Paul & Mary records live and die by the quality of their midrange reproduction. These are not big-budget, high-concept mulit-track recordings. They’re simple, innocent folk songs featuring exquisite vocal harmonies, backed by straightforward guitar accompaniment.

If the voices aren’t silky sweet and delicate, as well as full-bodied and present, let’s face it, you might as well put on another record.

Puff The Magic Dragon is unfortunately not one of the better sounding songs. Every last copy we played suffered from a touch of compressor distortion that adds a bit of grain to the vocals. We initially thought it was mild groove damage, but we heard the same thing on copy after copy we played.

Still, if the choice is between a little grain on a tubey magical Gold Label copy or no grain on an overly smooth reissue, we’d take this one every time. (more…)

Bach / Organ Music Volume 2 / Weinrich

More of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

  • Behold: The size and power of a huge organ captured on analog tape using an All Tube Recording Chain and released on Living Stereo in 1963
  • The organ is so effortlessly clear and relaxed you will soon forget you are actually sitting in your listening room, not on a church pew
  • For those of you who know your Living Stereo organ recordings from this era, it’s Volume 2 that has the better sound

(more…)

Stan Getz / Luiz Bonfa – Jazz Samba Encore!

More Stan Getz

More Antonio Carlos Jobim

More Bossa Nova

  • This superb collaboration debuts with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish and ’60s vinyl that’s about as quiet as any we can find
  • Smooth, full-bodied and Tubey Magical, the brilliant Ray Hall engineered this Demo Disc using an All Tube chain back in 1963, and it’s glorious to hear that sound reproduced on modern hi-rez equipment
  • 4 stars: ” Getz relies mostly upon native Brazilians for his backing. Thus, the soft-focused grooves are considerably more attuned to what was actually coming out of Brazil at the time… Two bona fide giants, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá (who gets co-billing), provide the guitars and all of the material, and Maria Toledo contributes an occasional throaty vocal.”

(more…)

Gerry Mulligan Quartet – Spring Is Sprung

More Gerry Mulligan

More Jazz Recordings featuring the Saxophone

  • With shootout-winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides, it just doesn’t get any better than this copy of Mulligan’s superb sounding and Hard To Find 1963 release on Philips
  • Quincy Jones directed, and Phil Ramone made sure the album would be exceptionally well-recorded, which it is!
  • Big, rich, and Tubey Magical, this pressing let us hear Mulligan’s quartet with the energy and clarity these classic jazz performances deserve
  • 4 Stars: “Mulligan and Brookmeyer always seem to stimulate one another’s playing to a high level, and this album is no exception. The group gets into a swinging groove right away with its updated treatment of a Count Basie favorite, “Jive at Five,” followed by Mulligan’s brisk yet intricate jazz waltz “Four for Three.””

(more…)

Canteloube / Songs Of The Auvergne Vol. 2 / De La Roche

This original Vanguard Black Label pressing (VSD-2132) has a side one that’s simply OUT OF THIS WORLD, A Triple Plus all the way.

Why such a high rating? Of all the copies we played, this side one was the perfect blend of Tubey Magical richness coupled with clarity and presence.

Miss Devrath is front and center, live in your living room, as natural a human voice as you will ever hear on record. Of the six sides of this music we are offering today, this was the only Triple Plus side. There is simply nothing to fault; side one on this copy sounds right in a way that no other side we played did. And some of the other sides were quite good; you wouldn’t think the sound was lacking in any way. But after playing this side one it’s clear what the best copies are really capable of — completely natural Demo Disc Sound.

I believe Volume One used to be on the TAS Superdisc List, and for a time the Classic Heavy Vinyl reissue may have been as well. I remember playing the Classic years ago and thinking the sound was not bad, not as awful as most of their stuff, but still far from what it should be.

How anyone can take Classic Records seriously is beyond me, yet HP has many of their records on his Super Disc list and he is certainly not alone in praising their remastered pressings. In our opinion you should be able to hear what’s wrong with their records from another room, a test we would happily submit to.

That dark, hard, smeary, transient- and texture-free sound one hears on all their records is pretty obvious to those of us who listen to vintage vinyl all day. (Vintage vinyl has its own share of problems, just not those.) How the vast majority of audiophile reviewers can be fooled by such second-rate fare is frankly beyond understanding. (more…)

Peggy Lee – Mink Jazz

More Peggy Lee

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums

  • Mink Jazz finally makes its Hot Stamper debut here with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides
  • The vocal naturalness and immediacy of this early pressing will put Peggy in the room with you – more than anything else, it lets her performance come to life
  • These sides are exceptionally spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied
  • “Peggy was, of course, in her element on the slow, seductive songs which were her trademark . . . The musicianship throughout the album is masterful, yet always secondary to Peggy’s lovely voice.”

John Krauss engineered this album, and brilliantly. You know him from many of Julie London‘s best recordings, albums such as Julie Is Her Name, Calendar Girl, Julie… At Home and Around Midnight.

This is some awfully good company if you ask me! (more…)

Freddie Hubbard / Hub-Tones

More Freddie Hubbard

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Trumpet

  • This vintage Blue Note pressing boasts Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Freddie’s trumpet sounds Right On The Money — it’s breathy and full-bodied with clearly audible leading edge transients
  • Credit must go to Rudy Van Gelder once again for the huge space this superbly well-recorded ensemble occupies
  • 4 1/2 stars: “John Coltrane’s modal music was starting to influence Hubbard’s conception and his own playing was pushing the modern mainstream ahead without really entering the avant-garde.”

(more…)

Ella Fitzgerald – Ella and Basie!

More Ella Fitzgerald

More Count Basie

  • With a shootout winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two and a Double Plus (A++) side one, this early stereo pressing is a knockout – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Ella is rich, Tubey Magical and breathy – this is the way she should sound, and that makes this copy a true Demo Disc
  • To get the vocals AND the brass to sound right on the same copy is the trick, and these two sides pulled it off
  • 4 1/2 Stars: “…this 1963 LP was the first time (other than a couple songs) that Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie recorded together. The match-up was so logical that it would be repeated many times over the next 20 years.”

Take it from an Ella fan, you can’t go wrong with this one. The sound is rich and full-bodied, in the proud tradition of a classic vintage jazz vocal album with big band backup. You could easily demonstrate your stereo with a record this good, but what you would really be demonstrating is music that the listener probably isn’t familiar with, and that’s the best reason to put on an old record.

The space is HUGE and the sound so rich. Prodigious amounts of Tubey Magic as well, which is key to the best sounding copies. The sound needs weight, warmth and tubes or you might as well be playing a CD. (more…)

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…)

Charlie Byrd – Mr. Guitar

More Charlie Byrd

More Jazz Guitar

  • Mr. Guitar makes its Hot Stamper debut here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on both sides
  • Big, rich and lively, this trio is having a blast and we think you will too
  • Features Keter Betts joining Byrd on bass and Bertell Knox’s “deft touch” on drums
  • 4 1/2 stars: “A delightful trio outing with an adroit and light feel… Byrd’s playing combines jazz swing with influences from both Spanish guitar and classical music on a session comprised of both Byrd originals and covers, usually of Gershwin and Ellington

(more…)