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Ornette Coleman Quartet

My cheap Amazon CD box arrived within a week, from Germany!

SQ is excellent and I must admit I am enjoying the music more that I expected to. It puts me in a Mingus/Parker/Gillespie mood, may go into that area this afternoon.

To me the box is an excellent buy, even at its now higher price.
 
Seanm said:
Any recommendations regarding the various vinyl pressings? Don't really trust the cheap ones currently doing the rounds.
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If I were you, I'd look out for the 1980s pressings - orange & green label - mastered by George Peckham (usually marked as GP/AT in the deadwax). Reasonable price, more commonly found in the wild, very nice sound. Looks cheap with thin vinyl but don't be fooled.

I'm not a fan of recent reissues - audiophile or otherwise. (Note - the original mastertapes of a lot of Atlantic material were destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago).
 
hockman said:
If I were you, I'd look out for the 1980s pressings - orange & green label - mastered by George Peckham (usually marked as GP/AT in the deadwax). Reasonable price, more commonly found in the wild, very nice sound. Looks cheap with thin vinyl but don't be fooled.
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Interesting, I've never associated George 'Porky' Peckham with jazz, I didn't realise he cut it. I imagine they would be great. Are these the 80s reissues with the silver foil covers? I've certainly seen Free Jazz in that form.

It's hard to go too far wrong with Atlantic vinyl IMO. I'd argue anything up until the very latest 'Scorpio' range sound very decent be they American, Japanese, or EU pressings. Some Rhino pressings may be pretty good though. For Ornette I have but three on vinyl, a beautiful US mono original of Free Jazz with the heavy laminated die-cut cover, a US mono promo white label of On Tenor (has the cover too) and a 70s US cut of This Is Our Music. All sound great, though it has to be said Free Jazz makes a lot more sense in stereo - it is way too dense and layered to follow the component parts in mono! In fact it wasn't until I got the Beauty Is A Rare Thing box that I started to make sense of that one.
 
Original/early pressings are another option - and sometimes available quite reasonable. I picked up a nice 1961 UK London mono pressing of This Is Our Music for a fiver recently.
 
Interesting, I've never associated George 'Porky' Peckham with jazz, I didn't realise he cut it. I imagine they would be great. Are these the 80s reissues with the silver foil covers? I've certainly seen Free Jazz in that form.
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Tony, you caught me out here:(. I got a bit confused, I meant George Piros (not Peckham). Both were highly-regarded mastering engineers. Piros apparently also did the Mercury Living Presence LPs. His LedZeps are highly regarded among the Hoffman nutcases.

I have a few Coltranes, Mingus and Ornette albums with GP/AT in the wax. Many of my Ornette titles were earlier pressings so I can't be absolutely sure that Piros cut all the Ornette reissues in the 1980s but I would fully expect it to be the case. They have either the original coverwork or new 'pointillist' covers under the Atlantic Jazzlore series. Am not sure of those with the silver foil.

I can confirm that the Piros reissues sound very good indeed.
 
Ah, yes, that makes a lot more sense to me. I'm sure they are great. Another 80s jazz mastering tip to tuck away is a fair amount of the bog standard OJC Prestige, Riverside etc vinyl was mastered by Steve Hoffman and sounds very good indeed. As in fairness do the ones that weren't!
 
hockman said:
If I were you, I'd look out for the 1980s pressings - orange & green label - mastered by George Peckham (usually marked as GP/AT in the deadwax). Reasonable price, more commonly found in the wild, very nice sound. Looks cheap with thin vinyl but don't be fooled.

I'm not a fan of recent reissues - audiophile or otherwise. (Note - the original mastertapes of a lot of Atlantic material were destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago).
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I guess that what I have just bought - it hasn't arrived yet. I always thought 80s Atlantic labels were green and red. Is Green and Orange a minor colour variation?
 
mr.datsun said:
I guess that what I have just bought - it hasn't arrived yet. I always thought Atlantic labels were green and red. Is Green and Orange a different design or a minor colour variation?
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They did green and blue - my favourite record label:

ornette-coleman-free-jazz-original-1961-atlantic-stereo_1069777_zpsybrj4dqa.jpg


Although I have a later pressing to this - same cover though.

mat
 
herb said:
My cheap Amazon CD box arrived within a week, from Germany!

SQ is excellent and I must admit I am enjoying the music more that I expected to. It puts me in a Mingus/Parker/Gillespie mood, may go into that area this afternoon.

To me the box is an excellent buy, even at its now higher price.
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I can vouch for that - mine came in via Lyon but I think it orginated in Italy! Can't be many left...
 
mr.datsun said:
I guess that what I have just bought - it hasn't arrived yet. I always thought 80s Atlantic labels were green and red. Is Green and Orange a minor colour variation?
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IMO they almost always the orange and green i.e. the standard Atlantic label of the era. The blue and green label is earlier - 1960s-70s.
 
mr.datsun said:
That's the label I really like. But I had to buy a cheaper and easier to find 80s copy.
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Don't knock the early 80s issue. They tend to be very good. I also have the earlier issues and the 80s ones (Coltrane albums) and frankly I think the 80s ones are better.

There are very good sounding used vinyl records out there, usually overlooked by those who rather have 1st or early pressings or audiophool reissues.
 
Tony L said:
Free Jazz at 45rpm? How? It's just one track split across two 33rpm sides. In fact one could argue the CD improves it as it is no longer split and is just presented as the one complete piece. Chunking it across four 45rpm sides would be a disaster IMO!
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Mastered By Bernie Grundman
Ornette Coleman Free Jazz
Mastered from the original master tapes, ORG Music's analog edition has turned this classic into an audiophile spectacular. Due to the presentation of the recording in two distinct stereo channels, this album supremely benefits from the label's mastering efforts and decision to expand the music into wider grooves. Prepare for a mind-blowing experience.

1. Free Jazz (part one)
2. Free Jazz (part two)
3. Free Jazz (part three)
4. Free Jazz (part four)
 
A truly terrible idea! It was bad enough cutting it in two for the original release, but that was a necessity due to the technology of the day!
 
hockman said:
Don't knock the early 80s issue. They tend to be very good. I also have the earlier issues and the 80s ones (Coltrane albums) and frankly I think the 80s ones are better.
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Not knocking it, I was happy to find a decent one. Your Piros post has also raised my hopes that it will sound good. I also have nice later British copy of Tomorrow Is The Question! on Contemporary.
 
"I also have nice later British copy of Tomorrow Is The Question! on Contemporary"

- frequently overlooked or overshadowed by later titles. An excellent album IMO, with Shelly Manne adding some lovely textural playing ( - Lorraine on side 2). Maybe not quite the innovative rhythm section that would later tear the jazz world apart, but some great tunes and playing all round.

Beware some post 90s CD reissues of Tomorrow, as post production reverb appears to have been added to mask tape dropouts. Early 80s Contemporary vinyl sounds excellent and all analogue.
 
Graham H said:
"I also have nice later British copy of Tomorrow Is The Question! on Contemporary"

- frequently overlooked or overshadowed by later titles. An excellent album IMO, with Shelly Manne adding some lovely textural playing ( - Lorraine on side 2). Maybe not quite the innovative rhythm section that would later tear the jazz world apart, but some great tunes and playing all round.
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Tomorrow Is The Question!
It's got a nice sound and tunes and seems to lead into his classic era well, plus it's his first without the piano.

An Ornette-wise confession: To be honest, I can't stand Free Jazz, preferring his tune-based works.
 
I've so far been unable to acclimatise to Ornette. I have a copy of This is Our Music and have never made it further than the end of the first track.

Maybe indeed to try a little harder...
 
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