I've seen the Dinah Lee one around, any idea what the sound is like? As the current CD's are abysmal and it might be cheaper for me to get that instead of forking out for the original LP's. The first Viking LP sounds great (released on HMV in aussie). I'd love to find the Johnny Devlin one, does it focus on his NZ or Australian Material?
The Dinah Lee is 20 tracks pressed onto one LP so there's hardly any bass but the track listing is pretty much definitive and when it came out it was the only way to pick up those tracks in any form. The Devlin is all NZ Prestige tracks but it's taken from a pirate album that some fans put out so the quality's not that great (the fans that pirated it did a second edition from mint copies of the singles but Music World made there's from the scratchy first edition)
My Wes Montgomery Complete Live In Paris 1965 from Definitive Spain/Fresh Sounds is a fantastic sounding release. I am glad they released this as no one else has....the thought of missing out on this release is just unbearable
A previous poster asked what sources these PD labels use. I also wonder. Do they simply take cd sources and create a master from that?
Either CD or vinyl sources but sometimes, PD companies end up finding alternate takes, etc. that the majors haven't issued at all and end up issuing those.
Doxy (not to be confused with Sonny Rollins' own label of the same name) and Jazz Track probably need to be red-flagged here.
Yep, many of the recordings are still under copyright in the United States and those CDs are unauthorized.
Thanks for that. I seem to remember the early jazz PD cds, often from Italy, had vinyl crackles. Most recent ones sound like they're sourced from cd's though. Guess they are legal in Europe, but it's still nicer to own the issues on the original labels, who put care into the mastering and artwork etc.
I have seen those but technically I think they must be illegal over here. The whole point of PD is the recording has been released over 50 years ago - if it was never released it doesn't qualify for PD. I expect that these are illegal but the labels can't be bothered to take them to court, as it would cost too much. Along these lines are also all these labels releasing material from the 70's and 80's (like radio sessions) which are obviously not PD yet.
I believe that it's perfectly legal to issue unreleased tracks as long as they are old enough, the clock starts ticking as soon as they are recorded, nothing to do with whether they were released. If I correctly recall the new European legislation it mentions recording dates rather than release dates, something which varies across borders. I've got the only copy of an unreleased recording, on acetate, which I'm contemplating issuing as it's in the public domain, borrowing an idea from Numero it would make a nice replica release for RSD.
Those were mostly live recordings. Somehow the laws in Italy awarded anyone the right to copy and distribute live recordings, so they just transferred them from vinyl.
Thanks, that's interesting. I've also got Italian cds from the early 90s of Miles Davis, Coltrane and Charlie Parker and some other jazz artists that feature studio cuts. On the infamous Giants of Jazz label. Maybe those were actually plain illegal though.
So the verdict for Essential Jazz Classics twofer of Miles Davis Sketches of Spain/Quiet Nights CD is stay away?
They put out reissues of Judas Priest's Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings Of Destiny. Their Sad Wings is a bit compressed, but their Rocka Rolla sounds great.
I have a three disc set of music from Sun Records released on Hallmark. It's an excellent compilation.
