My guess is that is intended to discourage speculators and flippers. But I bet that a significant percentage of the sales of this pressing will be to speculators and flippers.
I wouldn't hold my breath for 33rpm versions of these via AP. Requires all new mastering, plating; and who knows if they can still obtain the tapes or even the licensing. If I were a betting man, I'd bet for individual 45 rpm releases pressed from the same mastering before a full 33 rpm mastering would happen via AP. Based on Chad's comments in the video upthread about pressing capacity, I would say the earliest anyone will see either of those is 3+ years. With our central-bank menacing inflators, who knows what the price of each LP will be at that point? $75 is probably not out of question. SRX anyone? So, you'll save at best possible $150 on a full set of individual pressings (at perhaps 33 rpm) that will likely not sound as good as these 45 rpm pressings. These are the best you can get, and beat original pressings on a mid-tier system IMO. Disclaimer: I say that as someone who bought the QRP $600 pressing when the discount codes still applied. So, $540 IIRC.
I also greatly prefer the AP 45 rpm pressing of Sunday at The Village Vanguard over the MoFi and have said so years ago upthread, long before the MoFi debacle. Granted that title is supposedly AAA on MoFi but the mastering EQ choices on many of their titles, including this one to my ears, leave a lot to be desired. AP wins that contest hands down for me.
I’m glad to hear this. I own the Mofi One Step, but have been somewhat disappointed with it - particularly the EQ choices as you mentioned. As one of my favorite albums, I actually find myself pulling out an 80s OJC copy more often. Really looking forward to receiving the AP box.
that's correct, New Jazz Conceptions came out individually in 2010, after the Fantasy 100 series ended (2002-2008) The Bill Evans 2x45 in the box were a collection of individual titles from the Fantasy Series. Fantasy 45 Series
would’ve been such a cool series to be around for. Unfortunately when the series started, I was in middle school
I find it hard to process how fast the time goes, how much the vinyl market has changed. Back in the 2008-2015 period, there would regularly be 15-20% discounts on many holiday weekends, and this was at a time when most of the AP titles were in stock, ready to ship.
and today the US to Canada exchange rate is over $1.30 - and in that period it was basically at par. I bought so many records from Acoustic Sounds then, shipped to family in Florida, free shipping, no tax, no exchange, discounted 20%! That would cost me more than double to buy them today.
My first AP My first AS order was 8/12/19 and it was Miles Davis - Great Prestige gold cd box which was $225 with no tax and free ship. And then on 9/3/19 I got the SRV SACD box and Monk Tenor Sessions gold cd box , used a Labor Day code and again no shipping and tax at least I got some good deals at the tail end before pandemic made it go bonkers. Grabbed a bunch of those $15 sacds in 2020 too. wish I was into vinyl back at that time….sigh
they have to do them, sitting on a gold mine. With the Riverside anniversary next year I’d assume some Evans and Monk titles will be first up, don’t care if boxed or not.
One of my early orders from AS was in 2009 for the OJC of Yusef Lateef / Eastern Sounds / LP $ 11.99 When the Small Batch Craft was announced i forgot i owned this one.
Right there with you I got blasted on the One Step thread for comparing the 2 and favoring the AP by a wide margin 1) the AP is natural sounding, tonally balance, microdynamics especially Evans piano intensity and you feel the space of the club 2) the MoFI has less air, overly micro detail that doesn’t sound natural and Lafaro’s bass is way over exaggerated. Part of me kicks myself for not buying the ERC stereo The other half congratulates myself for the restraint As the Everybody DIgs Bill Evans AP is dramatically better than the ERC one which sound like it is covered in a wet blanket.
Is it just the EQing with which you're disappointed? I can understand that. I've said this before. Steve Hoffman focused on making Evans' piano sound full. But in the process he also ended up somewhat muddying up the bass. With the MoFi, even though it's tonally cooler, LaFaro's bass is much tauter, quicker, and pitch specific, making the melodic and rhythmic interplay between the three musicians much more apparent. The AP may sound fuller and warmer, but the MoFi brings out the music itself more. That's the trade-off to my ears.
I received my box yesterday afternoon. Checked all the records and on visual inspection they all appear flat and centered. This really is a nice boxset. Now, I need to run them all through a cleaning and then I'll be ready to sit down with them this weekend. Im hoping RTI gave these pressings the same care they did to the BT Tone Poets.
The structure of these music labels can be a bit confusing. As reissues have become a bigger part of the 3 major labels overall music sales, they have each created a "back catalog" division to manage all their catalog sublabels (separately from current artists) So all these non-current artist reissue programs are managed by the catalog division: Main Label - Back Catalog Sony - Legacy Warner - Rhino Universal Music Group - UMe (Universal Music Enterprises) Concord - Craft Since Concord is privately owned, they have a deal with Universal to distribute Craft into the market, making their titles widely accessible to all countries and resellers. (unlike for example, a smaller independent label like Analogue Productions, who do their own distribution, and aren't widely available except by retailers who import themselves) Craft has the rights to the collection of Jazz labels that were acquired by Fantasy over the years, and now includes: Contemporary Records Fania Records Fantasy Records Milestone Records Pablo Prestige Records Riverside Stax Records and others
which begs the question why Craft doesn't release more jazz titles with vinyl market being pretty good.