I bought Pete Erskine (OJC-610) sealed, it says Remastered 1991 - Phil De lancie (Fantasy Studios Berkeley, Distributed by Fantasy Inc., Tenth and Parker Berkeley CA. It had a card inside Fantasy Inc.. Thank you for etc. Sounds great to these ears! JG
Always thought my standard OJC Saxophone Collossus sounded pretty great. Checked the deadwax this morning. DCC stampers. That explains it! Pretty good for AU$18 delivered...
I had to chuckle when I read this, particularly the part about Gene Ammons' "Boss Tenor". I picked up a cheap OJC of this last year and thought it sounded very nice. Then about two months back, I found a blue label 60's pressing with "RVG" in the deadwax. I was excited. I played it and thought, "What the heck". I put the "regular" OJC LP on after and there was no comparison. The OJC sounded much better than that old RVG pressing. I sold it. As for the other points made in this post, it's sad when someone posts something like this after Steve has come into the thread to re-confirm that no matter what the sleeves say, these LPs were cut all analog. Didn't everyone see that?
OJC with Gold sticker Digital or Analogue mastering? I'm considering buying a OJC vinyl of "Bill Perkins Quintet - Quietly There", but it has a Gold Limited Edition OJC sticker on the front of the LP jacket. Was that series digital or analogue mastering?? I think that Limited Edition series started in 1987 or so. I have dozens of the standard OJC series without the Gold Label stick and those all sound analogue.
Funny that this should pop up the day after I grabbed an OJC Brilliant Corners. A great sounding record. Sure 45RPM out of print would've been nice to have, but damn did this OJC sound great. Listened to it after the recently arrived 45RPM Black Saint & Sinner Lady and the 33 1/3 200g Classic Records Lady in Satin. And I didn't feel like the quality of the recording and pressing was suffering at all by comparison (with the exception of a pop or so, which led to the bargain price I got on this LP).
I have one of the LPs from this series, "Guitar Groove" by Rene Thomas, and the sticker on the outer sleeve proudly proclaims that it was digitally mastered. (Still sounds great though.)
OJC-131. It's a winner. My copy has George Horn's initials on side one: Side 1: GH P OJC-161-A1 OJC-131-A1 Side 2: (FXAP) OJC-131-B-G1B G1 Another favorite is Everybody Digs Bill Evans, OJC-068. No markings in the deadwax to identify who cut it or where it was pressed. At one time I considered buying the AP 45rpm set, but the OJC sounds so good, I didn't see the need. No offense, Steve H.
I recently bought the OJC Tenor Madness that uses DCC stampers from a Marketplace seller on amazon.co.uk, so for those in the U.K. a thought it might be useful to give the link as there are a few listed: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0025KN474/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new The seller I used was all your music, who I've used several times without a problem, and a good price at £7.99 delivered.
After some searching for information about the NEW OJC pressings, I wanted to share my findings so far: So there seem to be two versions of OJC records floating around right now. The old ones from the '80s and the new ones (from around 2008 maybe). I have the following ones: OLD OJCs (originals from the '80s) Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall (135) Jackie McLean - 4, 5 and 6 (056) They both have GH (George Horn's initials) in the deadwax. The cover of the Monk is quite heavy and looks old-style (paste-over), the inside of the cardboard is brown and there is an original Fantasy transparent inner sleeve. The McLean cover is more flimsy, maybe it's a later pressing. Both LP labels have the old-school wide banding (à la deep-groove). According to Steve Hoffman, these are all-analog pressings and I have reasons to believe they are, they sound wonderful. Needledropping them shows a full spectrum, more on this later. NEW OJCs. I bought these this year, new & sealed: Thelonious Monk - Misterioso (206) Thelonious Monk - Plays Duke Ellington (024) John Coltrane - Soultrane (021) John Coltrane - Lush Life (131) ...and some others. The covers are flimsy, the cardboard is very thin and extremely white. You can tell these are new pressings. Some have barcodes, others don't, just like the originals. There is no sign of GH in the deadwax, in fact the inscriptions are very minimal, they mostly look like this: OJC-024-A1-RE4. The sound is unspectacular on the mono ones, the stereo ones are totally lifeless. I became suspicious and did a needledrop in 24bit/96kHz and in the spectral view you can see there is little information above 22kHz, a typical sign of these being mastered from CD. What got me even more suspicious in the first place was the deadwax info. I don't have the same record in both versions, but I have found no inscriptions whatsoever that would indicate that these are made from the same stampers as the old ones. The style of the inscriptions is different. Here is side A for OJC-135 (old version): GH P T [OJC 165 A1 scratched out] OJC-135-A1 D4[?] And side A for OJC-131 (new version): OJC-131 A1 RE5 12299.1(2)... It's all quite confusing and a disappointment after hearing so much praise about these pressings, which got me into buying them in the first place! I think I saw an old pressing of OJC-024 in a record shop the other day, will compare the deadwax inscriptions and come back with further conclusions.
I hat the chance today to compare an old OJC pressing from 1982 with its new counterpart. The record in question is Thelonious Monk - Plays Duke Ellington (OJC-024), one of the earliest releases in the series. The pressing I bought today is indeed the old OJC from '82, with stiff cardboard and paste-over back cover. It also included the original obi. The new one is the flimsy thin cardboard style. See my earlier post for more details on the packaging difference. These are definitely not pressed using the same metalwork. A quick glance at the runout area confirms this. (The runout area is also wider on the new pressing.) The handwritten deadwax inscriptions on the old pressing are: GH OJC 024 A GH OJC 024 B On the new pressing, the handwriting of the catalogue number in the deadwax looks similar, but it's not the same. OJC-024 A1 RE4 17219.1(2)... OJC-024 B1 RE4 17219.2(2)... The last string of numbers shows that this was pressed at RTI, those are their inscriptions. I did a quick needledrop of both versions and this is how they look like on the first track. On top is the spectral view of the OLD pressing, on bottom is the NEW pressing. It's hard to judge from an old 1955 Van Gelder recording that has little information over 20k, but I think the hard line at 22 kHz on the new pressing could be an indication that this was made from a 44kHz master. On the old pressing you can see there is a smoother progression towards 20k, but still information around 25k (probably noise from Van Gelder's equipment). Anyway, these are just needledrops, so take them with a grain of salt. Still, if these were newly cut in addition to being repressed, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't use the analog masters for these $10 reissues and went and used a CD master instead. I just wish they had just used their old, great, metalwork. That is why I am so dissappointed with these reissues. This borders on deceit, because they are being advertised as OJCs (and the jackets copy the old 1982 copyrights), while at the same time a minimal amount of information is given by whoever pressed these. *One more note here, because there is a lot of misinformation in the internet about these. Some believe they are being pressed by Scorpio, which at first sight makes sense. But I believe that to be incorrect. First, the covers are flimsy indeed, but Scorpio's own pressings feel and look slightly different (e.g. blurry text on the back, not the case here). The deadwax inscription à la S-1234567, which can be found in some new OJCs, is not a sign of it being a Scorpio but rather denotes that the vinyl in question was pressed at Rainbo.
Here is the dead wax from the older OJC Soultrane (thicker cover and paste over rear) Side 1: -P OJC 021 A RE 1 X Side 2: GH 1 OJC 021 RE 1- X GH is very faint
And here it is from the new one. OJC-021 A4 7119.1 (A) OJC-021 B2 7119.2 The dead wax on side 1 is extremely narrow. The spectral view of a needledrop looks fairly similar to what I've posted before, with that drop in information above 22kHz. I've also compared the sound to the DCC CD and the DCC sounds more lifelike.
Anyone have any issues with the OJC reissue of Monk's Misterioso? (OJC-206, RLP-1133) The overall recording is mind-blowing, but it has a number of odd squelch/distortions in just the left channel on the first side. This is my second copy and it's actually worse on this one than the first one I took back yesterday.
This is interesting. I have a few of the new ones and a few of the older ones and always assumed they used the old metal parts for the new ones. When I heard these they all sounded good to my ears and not like what I think of as a cd master cut to vinyl. I will need to listen again but all these had life and character if memory serves me well. I did notice that one of the new ones (purchased 2012) was indeed a Rainbo pressing and some of the other ones (purchased 08-11) appear to be RTI pressings but I'm not certain on the latter.
From the newer pressings, the mono ones I have sounds a bit brighter than the old ones. Some stereo ones are bright as well (in the case of 'Way Out West' even ear-piercingly so), some okay but unexciting (Misterioso) and one is downright awful (Incredible Jazz Guitar, much worse than the OJC CD).
Thanks Crispi, I had posted in another forum and heard back nothing and was beginning to wonder if I had somehow stumbled onto the only two bad pressings. Cheers, –R
So does this mean be weary of the OJCs listed online these days at Acoustic Sounds, Soundstage Direct, etc.? Seems like the AS reviews for most are good on their site. Also, I've heard good things about the QRP pressing of Chet Baker/Chet. I'm just trying to get my facts straight. You have to be an educated buyer with vinyl these days. That was the lesson I learned on day 1 of vinyl purchasing just a few years ago.
Regarding "Incredible Jazz Guitar", let me be more specific*. The new OJC vinyl has narrow stereo and sounds murky like hell. The original OJC CD was nothing to write home about, either, I think due to the fact the recording wasn't very good to begin with, but in comparison to this new pressing, it has some life and seems true to the tapes. *I hate it when people don't take the time to elaborate, when they say something on the internet.
crispi do you have the DCC stamper OJC Saxophone Colossus? I'm wondering if this was recut, but not using Steve's mastering. I have one with RTI matrix numbers cross hatched/scribbled out and replaced with newer standard OJC catalog number. It sounds flat, lifeless and closed in when compared to the 45 rpm AP reissue.
I just listend to 3 OJC titles, one older and 2 newer. They all sounded good to me. Eric Dolphy (Older) - OJC-133 - Has GH in the deadwax Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus - OJC-291 - Has scratched out info and OJC 291 A/B in the deadwax. Bill Evans Trio - Waltz for Debbie - 210 a1/b1 re4 Of course non of these will sound like their 45 rpm counterparts taken from 1st generation tapes but they still have life and sound analog to these ears.
I don't have it, but from what I've seen until now, none of the newer ones use older stampers. I guess they just forgot about those or lost them. Let's not forget that Fantasy is no longer owned by the same people.