Some OJC (and other Concord CDs) are being re-pressed as CD-Rs. List them here

Apparently some OJC CDs are being re-pressed as CD-Rs and are being distributed directly from Concord Music Group with no markings on the outside to indicate that they are not normal CDs. The discs have opaque printed faces.

Per a discussion in Jazz Beat:

Here is a thread to list titles that you have purchased as OJCs, or seen in person, that you have discovered are CD-Rs.

 

@Campbell Saddler, was the printed face of the disc you bought obviously made of paper? Did it have a matte texture? I have seen OJCs with a white face, but they had a smooth, lacquered texture (as if they were made out of laminated ink).

 

Thad Jones - The Fabulous Thad Jones

 

As was mentioned in the Jazz Beat thread, OJC CDs have matrix numbers on the inner ring that start with "OJCCD" and/or "DIDX". CD-Rs have generic numbers or no matrix numbers at all.

 

All of the titles I listed fit your second description: a smooth, matte, lacquered texture as if they were made out of laminated ink.

 

Is Concord pressing ANY slow catalog stuff as CDs anymore? Maybe they've gone entirely to on demand CDR manufacture for this stuff, and any silver/pressed CDs still in the pipeline are old stock?

 

The frustrating part about Concord's practice of pressing CD-Rs: some titles that I thought would be out of print and likely CD-R titles (like Mundell Lowe's Guitar Moods Of Mundell Lowe) were instead pressed as regular CDs with the DIDX matrix prefix (I assume from the DIDX and its appearance that it was produced at a DADC plant in the U.S.).

They even had the newer ID strips that say UMD (I am guessing Universal Music Distribution) at the top instead of the older, Fantasy-distributed strips that only have the catalog number, title, and barcode...

 

Ugh. Time to do some double-checking./

 

My Thad Jones has an entirely clear jewel case - no black spine or black base like other OJCs. Are all of the CDs-Rs like that?

 

All of the titles I received came in regular jewel cases...what initially aroused suspicion for me was seeing white ID strips on some CDs but not others...

 

Any reports on the appearance of the playing side?

 

Man, this is a hell of a thing. I hate when companies foist CD-Rs on you.

 

Yuck !

I'll stick to buying old 80s/early 90s original OJC pressings. I find them for less than $5 quite often (shipping included !) from eBay sellers.

All have been great !

 

I've received a couple and was pretty pissed. The artwork is also obviously created "on demand" as well and looks like the typical color printer hack job. I felt like I paid for a crappy counterfeit.

I'm not sure you can avoid CD-Rs by buying used, since that's how I got one of mine. Soon the CD-Rs will infest the whole supply chain.

 

We'd also be interested in when you purchased the discs that turned out to be CD-Rs. It might be helpful to establish a timeline for the roll-out.

 

The playing sides of these CD-Rs also match the appearance of blank CD-Rs: one can see a reflection fairly clearly on a regular CD, but a CD-R will have
a reflection accompanied by a rainbow-like effect, like these titles...

 

For now, I think buying used where you can inspect the CDs if you have doubts is the way to go...but...

Ron Stone's point about CD-Rs eventually infesting the supply pool is the looming issue: unless a third party seller will list details like a CD-R, it will become difficult to buy these titles online without firsthand inspections.

In this regard, I applaud dustygroove: they will state whether a used CD is a CD-R in their used listings.

 

All of my titles that turned out to be CD-Rs have been purchased either in 2014 or 2015.

 

It's a shame as it's just become a crap-shoot with no guarantee of what you're going to get.
I've been buying all my jazz from CD Japan.
Regular re-presses, the majority of the time at great prices, cool budget series, and you know the product is going to be manufactured extremely well.
And the majority of the time the sound is just fine for me.

 

I would still ask beforehand, just in case. I have bought 2 non-OJC Jazz CD-Rs from them: Benny Bailey - Big Brass (Candid) and Nate Morgan - Journey Into Nigritia (Nimbus). Perhaps they were simply not aware and hence did not list them as CD-Rs. Offered full refund immediately (always great service in my opinion). The Nate Morgan is currently showing there as "out of stock" but i still can't see any mention of CD-R. Fwiw, Benny Bailey is from early 2013 and Nate Morgan, late 2013.

The OJC CD-Rs i have were purchased in 2014/15.

Another one to add to the list, that i've seen (belongs to a friend) -
Cannonball Adderley - Inside Straight (Made in the EU #0025218675024). This one has a printed yellow & silver face. Bought earlier this year.

 

I would like to know the rationale for why certain titles have been pressed as CD-Rs. It doesn't seem to be an on-demand thing since they seem to be coming factory sealed and with pretty high-quality artwork and printing as these things go. Furthermore, most of the reports here are of pretty obscure titles.

I know that there were a lot of second-string titles that were unavailable for a few years and going for high prices (as opposed to most OJCs which go for cheap). Maybe they're burning off old aluminum stock and only replenishing it with CD-Rs as necessary? Maybe some OJCs had far larger print runs (taking longer to burn off) than others?

I did recently buy an OJC of the MJQ's Django which looks suspicious (it's still sealed). I will have to look at it when I get a chance to determine if it's legit. That one and a couple of Art Pepper CDs and a copy of Eric Dolphy's In Europe 3 that I bought in late 2014 are the ones I'm most suspicious of.

 

Criminal

 

Purchased late 2014 & 2015

The following titles are now being sold in old packaging but contain recently manufactured CD-Rs

Here's a few OJC titles I bought recently from Amazon UK that have no matrix number.

Something Borrowed Something Blue - Tommy Flanagan (OJC/Galaxy)
Lights Out! - Jackie McLean Quintet (OJC/Prestige)
The Poll Winners Ride Again! - Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne & Ray Brown (OJC/Contemporary)
Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By - Barney Kessel (OJC/Contemporary)

The following two titles have the same (generic) matrix number > T80-UG-5 (10312102)
Concepts In Blue - J. J. Johnson (OJC/Pablo)
Swingin' The '20s - Benny Carter Quartet (OJC/Contemporary)

This situation is completely unacceptable.

 

I have posted reviews on Amazon UK (as a verified buyer) warning the titles listed above are pirated/CD-R copies and not authentic imported CDs. Making matters even worse is the fact these CD-Rs are currently priced very highly, which would lead you to believe they really are authentic (and costly) import copies.

 

Exactly! Even though i purchased most of mine from a "bricks & mortar" chain store, they were/are more expensive than the originals were! Great that you posted those reviews .