John Barleycorn is my favorite Traffic album. I always like Dave Mason (and collected his solo records back in the day), but I always thought Traffic was a better – and very different – band without him than with. But the Traffic albums with Mason are great too, just different.
I picked up a black "b" Van Gelder pressing for around £35ish, if affordable I always tend to go for Van Gelder mastering.
Likewise, I found the white 'b' van Gelder pressing with stamped Van Gelder and Stereo. If I ever find realistically priced 70's Blue Note reissues with a Van Gelder stamp I rarely hesitate to get them.
Agree and I thought Roots & Herbs was even less appealing. It’s like a wax museum version of Blakey and actually a little creepy looking
Mine is fine, a little noise but nothing out of the ordinary and as soon as the music starts you can't hear it anyway.
That cover is awful for sure. The worst in jazz may be Charles Mingus - The Clown. It is literally the only thing keeping me from owning that album. If they sold it in a plain white sleeve with Times New Roman font with the title on there, I would have probably grabbed it at this point. I know that sounds irrational, but I hate clowns with all of my heart and soul.
Not so much that I've encountered, but I do appreciate hearing a Van Gelder copy of Search For The New Land or Feelin The Spirit for something like $20 US - compared to $400 for an original, or something equivalent from a contemporary master cutting. Then again, I have been listening to this music long before boutique companies like MM and the like were a twinkle in Kevin Gray's mothers eyes. For me, back in the day when the reissues were early 80's Capital Blue Notes and Pathe Marconi's - or some Japan Kings if you were lucky enough to find them. Although I would guess some on the Forum actually got to purchase originals back in the day or close to it at bricks and mortar prices.
I love that cover…and it's a damn great album too. "Haitian Fight Song" alone makes it worth getting.
And I thought I was alone here. I don't actually hate them (maybe I do), but they scare the hell out of me, clown phobia I'm told. And what really gets me, is my wife is well aware of this and constantly calls me "Homie". But your post did get me in the mood for some Mingus, minus the clown. And on tap, the SC version of "At Antibes".
lol 2K for VG+ Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land: LP, Album, Mono For Sale | Discogs i had to look this up because i was thinking $400.00 for an original.. expensive, but it might be worth it
In my opinion the current leader in the competition for wonderful music in an ugly album cover goes to The Beach Boys “Feel Flows” reissues. The whole package is hideous. What were they thinking? And who are the “they” responsible for the paint-by-number graphic abomination of a cover? But alas, for the ardent fan it is a must buy.
I guess I got lucky getting an OG Mono on EBay for $78 two years ago. Prices have definitely appreciated across the board since then.
Thanks for reminding me…I love getting out some favorite records for HiFi upgrades (coming tomorrow), so I’ve pulled my copies for playing. Grabbing some classical too for that (Mahler, Bruckner, Bartok, …)
Yeah, I don't get it. I feel like the vast majority of people would much prefer to pay $10 - 15 less and get it in a standard mofi package with a hype sticker and number on the back. Maybe give the one steps a gold foil one step logo on the back or something. Big packages are a turnoff unless there are many LPs inside.
Your post made me laugh. Really, it's a true opinion (). When I think of box sets, I think of wonderfully curated sets, filled with analysis and session photos, deep dives into the music. I think of the Mosaic Records sets, the recent Resonance Nat King Cole set, or the recent John Lennon Plastic Ono Band set. Even the recent Impex reissue of Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue has a large booklet filled with essays and added notes. But the MoFi OneSteps? Essentially filled with a lot of added foam, like an unnecessary latté, a think reproduction of the cover art, and a piece of paper explaining the OneStep process, one which accompanies every set. Occasionally they'll throw in an extra photo, but there are no additional notes. The reproduction of the front and back cover art of Ah Um was mediocre at best. And they were having a tough time with packaging quality control. Did I miss anything? The music has largely been great. I can't prove that the OneStep process is the only thing that makes them sound so great, but I'm largely glad I own the ones I do, save for a couple.
Nobody is going to pay 2k. You can ask for whatever you want for something. A quick check of Popsike shows the highest a VG+ has ever fetched in eBay’s entire history was around $600 about a month ago.
Well, I caved and ordered the Tokyo reissue. I can at least listen to it and sell it on later, along with other . I was convinced by the announcement of it on Wayne Shorter’s offical FB feed. This seems like it might be something special, rather than some arbitrary here’s another Jazz Messengers release. We’ll see. I still think my Jazz Messengers collection is probably three times bigger than it needs to be.
At least with AP you get a very nice Staughton gatefold facsimile of the original. With One-Step you get crap sleeves for each record that look like someone painted test pressing jackets with black water color and pasted some lame artwork over it. The original jacket is a useless print on card stock.
I only discovered these recently and have got about 10 so far. Really enjoying the music and the recording quality. It is quite fortunate that they seem to have quite a few of the older ones in stock around me. I have been buying them first to avoid the wait for represeses. Just bought Sam Rivers Contours and Herbie Hancock My Point of View this week. However reading here about the latest releases has me wanting those as well. I am banking on them remaining available for a while locally as my budget doesn’t stretch to all I want right now. This thread is a bad influence on me.