1965

Mozart / Symphonies Nos. 40 & 41 on London

More of the Music of Mozart

  • This vintage London pressing of two of Mozart’s greatest symphonies boasts seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish
  • Giulini is masterful here, bringing both of these great works to life – both the performance and the sound are hard to fault
  • Both sides are remarkably transparent and energetic, with wonderful space and clarity
  • Full brass; full, rich, tonally correct strings; smooth higher up, never screechy — what’s not to like?

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The Rolling Stones – Out of Our Heads

More of the Music of The Rolling Stones

  • With INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from top to bottom, this is certainly as good a copy as we have ever heard – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • These British sides impressed us with their Tubey Magical, fairly natural sound
  • With top engineers like Dave Hassinger and Glyn Johns one would hope for better sonics, but this is pretty much as good as it gets as far as we know
  • 4 1/2 stars: “In 1965, the Stones finally proved themselves capable of writing classic rock singles that mined their R&B/blues roots, but updated them into a more guitar-based, thoroughly contemporary context. The first enduring Jagger-Richards classics are here…”
  • Out of Our Heads is an album with one set of very special stampers that consistently win shootout after shootout, for years now

Like the really good Decca version of Aftermath, this record has amazing transparency, rich bass and relatively little distortion compared to many of the other versions we’ve played.

Also, like Aftermath, some songs sound much better than others. That’s just the way old Stones record are. Part of this album was recorded in Hollywood and part of it was recorded in Chicago — that may explain some of the variation in the quality of the sound.

By the way, stick with true stereo on this album; the mono pressings — at least the ones we played — aren’t worth anybody’s time (scratch that: any audiophile’s time).

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Kenny Burrell with Gil Evans – Guitar Forms

More of the Music of Kenny Burrell

  • This original Stereo Verve pressings (the first copy to hit the site in three and a half years) boasts INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish
  • Gil Evans wrote the orchestral arrangements and Rudy captured them on lovely analog tape – what’s not to like?
  • We agree with the AllMusic reviewer: this album is every bit as the groundbreaking work Evans did with Miles, and for our money, makes for an even more enjoyable album length listen
  • 4 stars: “His landmark 1965 collaboration with Gil Evans, Guitar Forms rivals anything the arranger did with Miles Davis. Indeed, the track ‘Lotus Land’ has a bolero form reminiscent of Sketches of Spain. Burrell takes thoughtful, concise, and utterly musical solos, and even switches to acoustic classical guitar on [two tracks].”

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Frank Sinatra – September of My Years

More Frank Sinatra

  • This superb pressing boasts Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides
  • An especially Tubey Magical Male Vocal recording, but that sound can only found on the best properly cleaned pressings, like this one
  • Exceptionally spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – Frank is right in the room with you on this one
  • 5 stars: (“One of Frank Sinatra’s triumphs of the ’60s”) and Grammy Album of the Year for 1966
  • If you’re a fan of the man, widely considered the greatest vocalist of the second half of the 20th century, this title from 1965 is clearly one of his best, and one of his best sounding
  • The complete list of titles from 1965 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” but with less of an accent on morbidity and more on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. This album is on that list.

This vintage Reprise pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings cannot BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back.

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 a solid, palpable, real Frank Sinatra singing live in your listening room. The best copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.

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Sonny Rollins – The Standard Sonny Rollins

More Sonny Rollins

  • The Standard Rollins is back on the site for only the second time in over four years, here with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this original stereo pressing
  • Once again the brilliant engineering of Ray Hall for RCA conveys the vitality of live music for these sessions (which were undoubtedly recorded live)
  • Includes superstars like Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, and Bob Cranshaw, who’ve lent their talents to some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time
  • “Each standard is given a brief performance that basically gives us a solid dose of Rollins waxing rhapsodic, sometimes backed by just bass and drums, with guitar and piano added sparingly. It all adds up to a mighty package that contains small, but ample doses of undiluted Rollins.” – All About Jazz.com

This original stereo RCA pressing from 1965 has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely even BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, and the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound. (more…)

Brahms – Sonatas for Cello and Piano / Starker / Sebok

More of the music of Johannes Brahms

  • Starker and Sebok’s virtuoso performances, here with rich, dynamic, and tubey Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this original Plum Label Mercury pressing
  • Both of these sides are big, full-bodied, clean and clear, with a wonderfully present and solid piano, and plenty of 3D space around it
  • The cello is present and immediate, with sound that is remarkably textured, full and harmonically natural

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Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4 / Ansermet

More of the Music of Mendelssohn

  • This original London pressing of Ansermet and the Suisse Romande’s masterful performance of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 boasts STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from first note to last
  • 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
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this incredible copy in our notes: “sweet and breathy woodwinds”…”transparent”…”strings get huge and weighty”…”tubey brass”…”great size and energy”…”lots of detail and space”…”most lush and weighty strings” (side two)
  • A spectacular Demo Disc quality orchestral recording – big, clear, rich, dynamic, transparent and energetic
  • There is richness and texture to the strings that no record made in the last 30 years can capture, and if you don’t believe me, we offer this pressing as proof
  • 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.

This record has the same kind of amazing sound as the Chabrier disc on London from the same year, but it’s much more rare, perhaps because the cover does not help to sell the album. (The Chabrier cover is not much either, but in both cases the music and sound are sublime.)

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better Mendelssohn 4th.

We admit we foolishly did not expect much from a mid-60s London with a cover this plain.

It’s hard to get excited about an album with such a generic cover, but hearing the recording we were forced to confront our silly prejudices and recognize the greatness of James Lock‘s work for Decca in 1965.

It even beats the famous Solti on Blueback, which has a cover to die for. However, like many of the Londons and Deccas we’ve played over the years, the sound of that pressing is awful.

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Frank Sinatra – Sinatra ’65

More Frank Sinatra

  • Sinatra 65 returns to the site for the first time in three years, here with big, bold, Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from top to bottom
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “vox breathy and transparent”…”rich and detailed”…”big and tubey and spacious”…”great energy”…”rich and present”
  • This tri-color label Reprise pressing boasts clean, clear, full-bodied, lively and musical analog sound from first note to last
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl they’re making – the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this very special vintage pressing simply cannot be beat
  • 4 stars: “…Mr. S. surely swings as well as ever. Try him on ‘My Kind of Town’ – hear what lyric-reading is all about. Or ‘Anytime At All’ – for a lesson in bending notes to suit your exact mood. It’s perfectionist stuff. Vocal ‘feeling’ of the highest.” – Peter Jones, Record Mirror, October 23, 1965

Is the title a play on Capitol’s gazillion selling Beatles ’65? Only Frank really knows.

This original Green and Blue Reprise stereo pressing has the sound we look for — big, rich and tubey.

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Dvorak – Symphony No. 8 / Von Karajan

More Imported Pressings on Decca and London

  • Here is an early pressing (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site) with the big, rich and tubey Decca sound we were hoping for, earning excellent Double Plus (A++) grades from first note to last
  • These sides are doing just about everything right – they’re rich, clear, undistorted, open, spacious, and have depth and transparency to rival the best recordings you may have heard
  • Our recent major survey for the 8th symphony produced this outstanding London – no other recording had sound even close to this quality, and the performance by Karajan was as good as any we heard
  • The original Decca pressing we had was especially disappointing, especially considering that it was mastered by one of our favorite cutting engineers, Ted Burkett
  • 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.

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Frank Sinatra – My Kind of Broadway

More Frank Sinatra

  • Here is a superb copy of Sinatra’s 1965 release (one of only a handful to hit the site in three years) with two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • The superb Tubey Magical mid-60s Sinatra sound was recorded in various sessions from 1961 to 1965
  • Both sides of this original Reprise LP are richer, fuller and smoother than most other pressings we played in our most recent shootout
  • “When Sinatra delivers, as he does on the show-stopper ‘Luck Be a Lady,’ the results are pretty spectacular…” – All Music.

With the Count Basie Orchestra backing him on some tracks (“Ev’rybody Has The Right To Be Wrong” on side one and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” on side two just to mention a few we especially liked) the swinging Sinatra is heard in his prime and he sounds just great to us.

“Without a Song” has a killer big band arrangement and a stellar performance from Ol’ Blues Eyes himself.

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