1964

Liszt / Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Kondrashin / Richter

More of the Music of Franz Liszt

  • A vintage Philips import pressing of these Classical Masterpieces that boasts two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, pressed on vinyl that’s as quiet as we’ve ever found
  • The finest Liszt 1st and 2nd Piano Concertos we know of for their performances, and unquestionably for sonics (when the sonics are this good)
  • The best pressings of this title are more like live music than any classical recording you own (outside of one of our Hot Stamper pressings, of course; those can be every bit as good) or your money back
  • So big, rich and transparent we guarantee you have never heard a better piano concerto recording

*NOTE: Unlike Concerto No. 1, The Second Piano Concerto opens very quietly, so there will likely never be a vintage pressing of the album that will get that opening to play like a CD. Expect to hear some random ticks, a small price to pay to hear this wonderful performance on top quality analog.

Richter and Kondrashin deliver the finest Liszt 1st & 2nd Piano Concertos I know of, musically, sonically and in every other way. Richter’s performance here is alternately energetic and lyrical, precisely as the work demands. The recording itself is explosively dynamic. The brass is unbelievably full, rich and powerful. You won’t find a better recording of this music anywhere, and this pressing just cannot be beat.

Big and rich (always a problem with piano recordings: you want to hear the percussive qualities of the instrument, but few copies can pull it off without sounding thin). We love the BIG, FAT, Tubey Magical sound of this recording! The piano is solid and powerful — like a real piano.

Huge amounts of hall space, weight and energy, this is DEMO DISC QUALITY SOUND by any standard. (more…)

Mahler – Symphony No. 1 / Solti

More Classical and Orchestral Recordings

  • Boasting two huge, powerful and tubey Double Plus (A++) sides or BETTER, we guarantee you’ve never heard Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 sound remotely as good as it does on this vintage London pressing
  • The sonic are big and rich, lively and open, with an abundance of depth and huge climaxes that hold together
  • Everything that we listen for in a great classical recording can be heard on this copy – it’s immediate, dynamic, very low distortion, spacious, and alive
  • We had one original unboxed Decca, and what a disappointment it was after hearing so many great sounding London pressings
  • Mastered by Stan Goodall, it was not remotely competitive on either side with the work of Harry Fisher
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performances with the highest quality sound. This record is certainly deserving of a place on that list.

(more…)

Britten / Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra

More of the Music of Benjamin Britten

  • Superb sound throughout this unboxed UK Decca stereo pressing, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • It’s also exceptionally quiet at the high end of Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at, and it should be noted that early Decca pressings rarely can be found in this condition
  • This is our favorite recording of the work – those of you looking for a Young Person’s Guide can stop looking, this is the one
  • We’ve learned from shootouts past (and were reminded again during our most recent) that the London pressing can also be quite good, but none of them can hold a candle to these early Deccas
  • For those who have never heard the work, check out The Young Person’s Guide on YouTube – it is a tour de force of orchestral excitement, especially the percussion section

(more…)

Mozart – Sinfonia Concertante / Duo in G Major / Oistrakh

More of the Music of Mozart

  • These sublime works for violin and viola debut on the site with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades throughout this vintage London pressing
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “sweet and transparent and dynamic violin”…”lively and lush and tubey”…”very roomy and 3D”…”great texture”
  • These sides are doing everything right – they’re rich, clear, undistorted, open, spacious, and have depth and transparency to rival the best recordings you may have heard
  • The texture and harmonic overtones of the strings are perfection – as we listened we became completely immersed in the music on the record, transfixed by the remarkable virtuosity father and son bring to the piecesFor those of you who keep track of such things, we would like to point out that no Decca pressing did better than “good” in our shootout
  • The early London pressings are the only ones we played with the sonic goods befitting such an extraordinary recording, a reality that many audiophiles would do well to wrap their heads around

(more…)

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…”

(more…)

Oliver Nelson – More Blues and the Abstract Truth

More Oliver Nelson

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy that sounds remotely as good as this original Impulse pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in years)
  • The sound is everything that’s good about Rudy Van Gelder‘s recordings – it’s present, spacious, full-bodied, Tubey Magical, dynamic and, most importantly, alive in that way that modern pressings never are
  • It typically takes us at least many years to get a shootout for this album going (our last one was in 2019), and that’s with searching the web everyday, hoping that a clean copy with the right stampers will pop up for sale
  • 4 stars: “… there are some strong moments from such all-stars as trumpeter Thad Jones, altoist Phil Woods, baritonist Pepper Adams, pianist Roger Kellaway and guest tenor Ben Webster (who is on two songs).”

(more…)

The Beach Boys – The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album

More of The Beach Boys

  • With two STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides or close to them, this early Capitol pressing could not be beat
  • This copy gets the midrange right, and since that is where The Beach Boys’ voices are, that puts it ahead of everything else we heard
  • What’s shocking to those of us who have played The Beach Boys records by the bucketful is how rich and open the best pressings of this album are
  • You will have an awfully hard time finding another Beach Boys album that sounds as good as this one, and you may just find that it simply can’t be done
  • 4 stars: “This mix of favorites and originals makes this a balanced holiday album that should please both Beach Boys admirers and those unfamiliar with the group
  • This is our pick for The Beach Boys’ best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best recording by an artist or group can be found here on the blog.

Having done this for so long, we understand and appreciate that rich, full, solid, Tubey Magical sound is key to the presentation of this primarily vocal music. We rate these qualities higher than others we might be listening for (e.g., bass definition, soundstage, depth, etc.). The music is not so much about the details in the recording, but rather in trying to recreate solid, palpable, and real Beach Boys singing live in your listening room. The best copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.

(more…)

Bob Florence / Here And Now – So Tough to Find in Stereo, We Finally Just Gave Up

More of Our Favorite Recordings By Bones Howe

Recordings Engineered by Bones Howe Available Now


A Five Star Album in the All Music Guide. This lively big band LP has excellent sound. We loved the music too.

Wish we could find some. It apparently sold very poorly, so poorly that there simply aren’t any copies around.

At 32, Florence already largely had his writing style together. He utilized top L.A. studio players for this set including such soloists as altoist Bud Shank, the tenors of Bill Perkins and Bob Hardaway, and trombonist Herbie Harper, but it is the tricky charts on the four originals and four standards (including “The Song Is You” and “Straight No Chaser”) that make this an LP worth searching for.” – AMG

This is an older jazz review.

(more…)

Charles Mingus – Mingus Plays Piano

More Charles Mingus

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, this vintage Impulse reissue pressing is doing just about everything right
  • Once again Rudy Van Gelder delivers the sound that audiophiles and jazz fans alike thrill to
  • These sides are lively, dynamic and full-bodied, and there’s real weight to the piano, a key quality we look for on all the piano recordings we play
  • 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: “This album is unique in Mingus’ enormous catalog. As the title indicates, the famous bassist takes to the ivories solo to give life to his dazzling improvisational art. At first it seems odd to hear Mingus without one of his trademark interactive and exploratory ensembles. But the sensibility that he brings to this collection of piano pieces bears all the signs of the composer’s genius.”

(more…)

Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto / Getz-Gilberto

More Bossa Nova

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone

  • A vintage Stereo Verve pressing of this Brazilian-flavored cool jazz classic with a KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to an excellent Double Plus (A++) side one
  • An impossibly difficult album to find in audiophile playing condition – we sunk a lot of time and dough into finding this copy, and it ain’t all that quiet, but it’s about as quiet as we can find them on vintage vinyl
  • If you want to hear this music right, the only way we know to do that is to get hold of as many copies as you can, clean them and play them and hope for the best, our business model in a nutshell
  • These sides have wonderful transparency and lovely presence – Astrud’s vocals sound breathy and Getz’s sax is full bodied, with fast transients
  • You may be surprised to learn that the right reissues of this album consistently win the shootouts, something we’ve know for many years
  • Not that it does us much good, as they are so hard to find that our last shootout was, I kid you not, 2012
  • 5 stars: “This music has nearly universal appeal; it’s one of those rare jazz records about which the purist elite and the buying public are in total agreement. Beyond essential.”
  • You may be surprised to learn that the right reissues of this album consistently win the shootouts, something we’ve know for many years
  • Not that it does us much good, as they are so hard to find that our last shootout was, I kid you not, 2012
  • If I were to compile a list of The Best Non-Classical Albums from 1964, this album would obviously have to be on it

We have been trying to find great sound (on reasonable surfaces) for this album for years — I kid you not — which is why this is one of only a very small handful of Hot Stamper versions to hit the site in, oh, about ten years.

We have fired up this shootout multiple times since 2012 and been left empty-handed each and every time until the last go-around. We have sunk an insane amount of dough into trying to get a few killer copies because we love the music so much, but we just haven’t had much to show for it. If you love this Brazilian-flavored cool jazz as much as we do, you might want to snap this one up because who knows when or if we’ll find another one.

(more…)