counccarls

Don’t Skip the OJC of Carl’s Blues

UPDATE 2025

The OJC pressings we played recently had much better sound than we described back in 2019 when our original highly-critical review was posted.

We told our customers to skip the OJC, but that turned out to bad advice as the right OJC pressings can be awesome sounding.

Seems we were dead wrong about this pressing. Live and learn is our motto, for this very reason.

And we don’t mind admitting to past mistakes, as that is a clear sign of progress.

Both sides of this vintage Contemporary recording pressed on exceptionally quiet OJC vinyl boast solid Double Plus (A++) grades
This pressing has the studio space, presence, driving energy, and Midrange Magic that’s almost always missing from whatever 180g reissue (at 33 or 45, don’t fall for that BS) has been made from the 65 year old tapes
Out of the five pressings we could find in audiophile playing condition, only two had Super Hot or better sides, and no copy earned a White Hot grade for side two
Which simply means that finding good sound on this title is tough — for those of you who like to do your own shootouts, we wish you good luck, you’re going to need it
4 stars: “Although the Curtis Counce Quintet was not a commercial success, their four Contemporary albums were all timeless in their own way, undated examples of high-quality hard bop from the late 50s. Excellent music that still sounds fresh four [now six] decades later.”