Jazz Beat (Part 32)

MILES DAVIS / BAGS' GROVE / PRESTIGE / 1954 / ANALOGUE PRODUCTIONS SACD

Personnel: Miles Davis (t), Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver (p), Milt Jackson (v), Sonny Rollins (ts), Percy Heath (b), Kenny Clarke (d)











First of eleven Prestige Mono SACDs from APO I received today. Oh boy!

 

That is a beautiful cover, what a great photograph of Tommy.

 

Nice collection of Prestige SACDs Milan!

Have you compared them to other pressings? (DCC, VDJ...)

Thanks and enjoy

 

Hey Manuel,

thank you! Unfortunately I have nothing to compare those SACDs to, apart from "Sax Colossus" which I had as a RVG remaster, but I guess comparing these to a Kevin Gray mastering is pointless. Before that I had 4 SACDs from this Mono Prestige series and was especially impressed by the sound on Coltrane's debut and the Kenny Burrell "All Night Long" album. I find these to be very transparent, dynamic and not too rolled-off in the high-end, so these should have familiarities, sound-wise, with the VDJs, I assume. If I had any on them on VDJ or DCC I wouldn't have taken the plunge, but since didn't, I figured why not go all in?

 

Thanks, Milan.

I have some Analogue Productions Mono SACDs from this series and I'm happy with the sound, but I also own the DCC pressings of "Saxophone Colossus," "Traneing In," "Lush Life" and "Cookin' With the Miles Davis Quintet" and VDJ pressings of "Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quintet," "Relaxin' With the Miles Davis Quintet"and "Tenor Madness" and I'm not sure if I'll buy those again for the extra resolution, which I don't doubt the benefits of, of course
Some comparisons would help my credit card after the many Blue Notes Hi-rez downloads I bought at Acoustic Sounds taking advantage of the 10% off promo code "DOWNLOAD"

 

I'm new to Yusef and recently bought:



but, it squashes 8 albums on 4 cds. Which makes it a concentrated listen, because if I don't follow along, I don't know what song is from which album. Because of this, I've not given it the time it deserves. With the amount of rain forecasted for today, I think I'll remedy that.

 

SONNY ROLLINS / SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS / PRESTIGE / 1956 / ANALOGUE PRODUCTIONS SACD

Personnel: Sonny Rollins (ts), Tommy Flanagan (p), Doug Watkins (b), Max Roach (d)

 

Great albums. Contrary to Hans, Gentle Joseph is one of my favorite saxophonists, I love what he plays and his sound. Hope you enjoy listening to it today!

 

Real Gone Jazz is is a European public-domain label without access to original masters and the music was most likely taken from existing CDs. From what you posted I gather that this set is a hodgepodge.

 

I don't like PD labels, either. But if they offer the chance to get a nice overview about an artists discography and make me want to buy these albums individually (from a legit licensee), then I guess they've done more good than bad to the world of jazz. I must admit, though, I have never bought one of those PD compilations myself, a friend of mine gave them to me (Sonny Rollins and Hank Mobley). And as it turns out, both of them are two of the most represented artists in my collection.

 

DIW also released it with that very cover on CD. It is beautiful. And then Fantasy saw fit to muck it up by using the Prestige cover on the version released in its famed OJC series:



It's like a lazily-written pun. Blech

 

Mary Stallings – Remember Love (Half Note Records)
— With Geri Allen, Darryl Hall, Billy Hart, Frank Wess, Vincent Herring, Wallace Roney

 

Art Farmer Quartet featuring Jim Hall – To Sweden With Love (Atlantic Records – Warner Japan/EU)
— With Steve Swallow, Pete LaRoca

 

my last Prestige for now (I have the flu and really need to get some rest, but couldn't resist at first with all the new and wonderful music)

ART TAYLOR / TAYLOR'S WAILERS / PRESTIGE / 1957 / ANALOGUE PRODUCTIONS SACD

Personnel: Charlie Rouse, John Coltrane (ts), Jackie McLean (as), Donald Byrd (tp), Ray Bryant, Red Garland (p), Wendell Marshall, Paul Chambers (b), Arthur Taylor (d)









This one really stands out. Fantastic opener. The sound is very "fresh", open and full-bodied. Nice.

 

Dexter Gordon - Dexter Calling

 

Was pulling selections from the "Ts" for listening last night and this morning:


An OJC Limited Edition CD reissue. J.R. Monterose on tenor, Hod O'Brien piano, Teddy Kotick bass, and Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums. One of my favorite jazz guitar albums, period. Recorded in 1960.


Originally issued on LP as I DIG THE DUKE, I DIG THE COUNT and recorded in 1960 and 1961, this is one of the classic Torme affairs in my book, with arrangements and all-large ensemble conducted by the great Johnny Mandel. And I mean "all-star," a who's-who of West Coast players of the period - Jack Sheldon trumpet, Frank Rosolino trombone, Stu Williamson valve trombone, Joe Maini on alto sax, Teddy Edwards and Bill Perkins on tenor sax, Jimmy Rowles piano, Al Hendrickson guitar, Joe Mondragon bass, and Shelly Manne (for the Ellington tracks) or Mel Lewis (Basie tracks) on drums. Epitomizes the phrase "swings like mad." CD is one of the Dennis Drake-mastered 1980s Verve discs, nice sounding.


Recorded in New York in January, 1960, and released on the Time label - so, it captures him at the end of his stint with Max Roach's group, and just before his run of great leader sessions for Blue Note (LOOK OUT!, the first, came about 6 months after this album). The lineup is stellar - Turrentine, Sonny Clark or Tommy Flanagan piano, George Duvivier bass, and Roach on drums. To my ears Stan could do no wrong in this period, and this one is no exception, highly enjoyable. Interesting to hear and compare several tunes that he also later recorded for Blue Note releases: "Sheri" (later titled "Little Sheri") which appeared on both LOOK OUT! and JOYRIDE and "My Girl Is Just Enough Woman For Me" and "Stolen Sweets," both later done for COMIN' YOUR WAY. He also does "Time After Time" here, which he later recorded for Impulse! with Shirley Scott (on the album LET IT GO). Nice recorded sound too. I have the original US CD on Bainbridge from the 1980s and it sounds great - as I find all of the original 1980s TIME CD reissues did. They've been re-re-issued umpteen times since on CD and LP in Japan, the US, and elsewhere (Steve Hoffman did a stellar SACD remastering of brother Tommy Turrentine's TIME leader date for the Audio Fidelity label, but unfortunately not one of Stanley's).

Huh, as I look at these I realize they were all recorded during a very narrow span of time - 1960-61 - interesting, didn't do that on purpose - but then again, the early 1960s may be my favorite period for jazz, so I guess not too surprising.

 

June Christy – The Uncollected June Christy, Vol. II (Hindsight Records) — collection of radio transcriptions from 1957

 

I know, I read about it before I bought it, but the price was too good to pass up for an intro to Yusef. The only problem is that I have to question whether or not it's actually the correct, or even a, Yusef album I'm listening to.

It has made me blow the dust off of my manual and figure out how to program my CD player and by all accounts, I should be listening to:



but Allmusic actually says it should be The Dreamer and the tracks are out of order. This is going to be challenging indeed.

 

I'm a big fan of Turrentine as well. He was one of the first jazz artists to really capture my attention and draw me into this music. I have that Time lp as well as a reissue of his brother Tommy's lp on the same label. It is really good as well and it was To my's only date as a leader afaik.

NP L.A.4 - Pavane Pour Une Infante DeFunte (EastWind) direct-to-disc recording.

 

Chick Corea The Ultimate Adventure

 

Paul Desmond - Bossa Antigua (RCA) black nipper label, stereo.

 

Gerry Mulligan / Stan Getz – Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi (Verve Records / Polygram)
— With Lou Levy, Ray Brown, Stan Levey; two bonus tracks

 

Sonny Criss - Saturday Morning (Xanadu)
W/Barry Harris, Leroy Vinegar and Lenny McBrowne from 1975.