More Shelly Manne
More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano
- Amazing sound throughout this Japanese import pressing, with both sides earning KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
- The transients are uncannily lifelike – listen for the powerful kinetic energy produced when Shelly whacks the hell out of his cymbals
- My favorite Piano Trio Jazz Album of All Time; every one of the tracks is brilliantly arranged and performed
- 4 stars: “One of Joe Sample’s finest sessions as a leader” – with Shelly Manne and Ray Brown, we would say it’s clearly his finest session, as a leader or simply as the piano player in a killer trio
- Some of the other records we’ve discovered with Top Jazz Piano Sound can be found here
- More Amazing Sounding Piano Recordings, of every kind of music, can be found here
If you want to hear the full six tunes recorded by The Three at that famous Hollywood session (which ran all day and long into the night, 4 AM to be exact), our 33 RPM pressings are your best bet.
If you want absolutely amazing, mind-blowing, you-are-there sound, a Hot Stamper 45 is the only way to go.
The music is so good that I personally would not want to live without the complete album. The Three is, in fact, my favorite Piano Trio Jazz Album of All Time; every one of those six tracks is brilliantly arranged and performed (if you have the right takes of course; more about that later).
This album checks off a number of important boxes for us here at Better Records:
- It’s a jazz Demo Disc, especially when played on big speakers at loud levels
- It’s the best sounding Joe Sample album we know of
- It’s a masterpiece as well as a member of our core jazz collection
- It’s a personal favorite, and a record we’ve been obsessed with for close to 30 years