How do I identify which Fantasy "Original Jazz Classics (OJC) LPs are digital?*

Hmmm...

...will have to investigate the ones I have...

Bottom line is: How do they sound?

 

Sorry, but I haven't read anything yet that might help buyers distinguish between Fantasy and Scorpio pressed issues. I've got dozens that I bought new in 1992 [they still have price stickers w/ dates]--some have cardboard jackets with slicks pasted on, others have thin, white jackets with front/back covers printed directly. And to futher complicate matters, some of the white jackets have bar codes, some do not.

 

Scorpio IS making some "OJCs". Or, should I say, they're remaking a lot of the Prestige catalog I've never SEEN in the OJC line - ever.

I have about 4-6 of them. They sound great. Pretty much as nice as the Blue Note reissues they've done. I have "Jackie's Pal" (7068) and a few others.

And when I say "Scorpio", it's Rainbo-cut LPs with Canadian-made glossy covers. Check vinyl.com.

Ron, as far as you're talking, OJC's HAVE gone though changes in manufacturing but they're all basically from the same masters, cut the same way, in many cases, same metal parts used. Yes, I have OJCs with glossy covers, some tip-on cardboard, some with and without OBI's and UPCs. And I'm talking US LP reissues only.

 

I may be wide of the mark here, but I think the concern many members have re the Scorpio pressings stems from past experience with Scorpio product. If, as has been suggested by Steve and Sckott, the original metal parts will continue to be used for the Scorpio pressings, there may be no cause for alarm.

 

Sckott,
Rainbo?

I didn't know about the whole Scorpio/OJC connection, but I'll bet I have a couple...yeah those real glossy printed covers...no bar code...

I'll be doing my listening in a little while as I'm working from home today...

 

The dog in my lot is Dorham's 'Blue Spring.' Only LP I own that really is close to unplayable. Must have just been a bad batch of wax.

 

Scorpio seems to be distributing some OJC LPs. That doesn't mean they're repressing them. Fantasy was selling OJC LPs via their website as recently as last summer. They still had over 250 titles in stock. To believe that this old stock just disappeared and that the new copies out there now were pressed in the last year is just ridiculous. Besides, the OJC stock is dwindling at places like Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds. If Scorpio were repressing these things, we'd be seeing more of them, not fewer.

Sckott is right that Scorpio has pressed some titles from the Fantasy catalog, but these were never available in the OJC line, leastwise not on LP. Some more examples are The Music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Jerome Richardson--Midnight Oil, and Walt Dickerson--To My Queen.

Fantasy started adding barcodes sometime in the late eighties. Any OJC up to the late-200s will not have a barcode. The ones after that will. Simple as that.

 

Another thing I just noticed vis-à-vis Scorpio and OJC pressings. The shrinkwrap seal on the Scorpios is vertical, whereas on the OJCs (and I mean brand-new ones bought in the last few months) it's horizontal. Scorpio isn't pressing new OJCs.

 

So if I find sealed OJC LP's today in a shop..are they worth buying???

 

I guess I was trying to understand if I found one from this series sealed....are they generally good sounding....the current release versions.... I can decide if it is a title I want. ie, Moonbeams was one I saw....I can get that for $10....

 

I had a Art Pepper plus Eleven, on the back of the jacket on the right bottom corner it said "Digitally Remastered by , I can't think of his name Phil something

 

No Steve, I sold it after I found a yellow Contempary copy (excuse my spelling). I think it did have reverb, I didn't like the sound of it

 

The copy I have is stereo, it does have reverb. It not real bad, its mostly in the cymbals. I don't hear it on Arts' solos. This pressing sounds incredible.

 

Looks like may of these OJC titles were done by Analouge Productions... Thinks I'll grab the AP's where I can...

 

To revive a dormant thread, was at Amoeba SF today, and they had several original OJC's (long obi with $5.99 on it) selling for between $5-$10. Some were sealed, some not. I grabbed John Coltrane "Coltrane", Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn "Great Times" and Abbey Lincoln w/ the Riverside Jazz Stars(Sonny Rollins, Kenny Dorham, Wynton Kelly & Paul Chambers). There were some other good ones that I left that I have copies of, so for those of you in the area might be worth getting down there.

 

I originally started this thread, and on a related note I got a call from Chad at Acoustic Sounds today. Since I am about to place an order, I used their email form to ask if their current in-stock OJC LPs were existing Fantasy pressings that he bought as part of the Concord sell-off as I had read on the forum here, or if they were newly pressed (i.e., Scorpio).

He told me - as Steve has mentioned - that there is one set of stampers and Concord now has them. He said they are still pressing some vinyl titles, but that if 10 go out of stock, only 5 of those titles may be re-pressed. He was unaware of Scorpio or anyone else re-pressing these, but reiterated again that there is one set of stampers for them.

Since he's a large player in the vinyl niche, I'll assume these statements have some accuracy to them. Maybe that takes some urgency away from grabbing the more popular titles right away. Just wanted to stir the pot a bit!

 

Old old thread but still interesting Here it is said that OJC used analogue tapes 99% of the times for the US pressings made between 87 and somewhere into the 90s.

But what about US made OJC from say 82-86 and after the 90s?
And what about OJC made in other countries say Germany for the same period?