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Jazz Reissues (Individual and short runs)

Some of the later Alice Coltrane albums sound quite poor on CD, I’ve got both of the double albums on one CD issues, this one and this one, and whilst I can’t remember which albums of the four the two CDs cover more than one has obvious distortion/clipping at times, especially on the piano IIRC. They are official Impulse releases and I suspect just showing the original recordings as what they are (bad mic positions or whatever). I really don’t think it is a CD mastering thing. I’d certainly be cautious about spending audiophile LOLprice for a couple of them.
 
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Tony L said:
Some of the later Alice Coltrane albums sound quite poor on CD, I’ve got both of the double albums on one CD issues, this one and this one, and whilst I can’t remember which albums of the four the two CDs cover more than one has obvious distortion/clipping at times, especially on the piano IIRC. They are official Impulse releases and I suspect just showing the original recordings as what they are (bad mic positions or whatever). I really don’t think it is a CD mastering thing. I’d certainly be cautious about spending audiophile LOLprice for a couple of them.
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I have the originals (or near enough) of Universal Consciousness and Lord of Lords, and the Impulse twofer. The CD is definitely remastered and sounds very different to the originals. On Universal Consciousness, much worse. The original is very dense and recorded in such a way as to leave murky patches but overall it makes sense, and has real presence, with excellent texture and imaging where it counts. It's my favourite Alice record. The CD is pretty pointless IMO: the strings are screechy, the harp blunt, the whole thing very flat and forced, with a false clarity that seems at odds with the organicism of the music - sort of like what happened to Bitches Brew but much much worse. Horrible. Lord of Lords I haven't properly compared - must go back to that.

The original of World Galaxy is also excellent and much better than the digital I've heard (on Spotify): like the others of this era it's very dense but a good system can pull out the different textures and voices and make sense of it. The digital is just smeared blocks of sound, really. All the versions of Huntingdon Ashram Monastery I've heard - CD, Spotify, a recent vinyl reissue - have been bad: there the problem really is the recording, pretty sure.

The good news is that the Superior Viaduct reissue of Universal Consciousness is excellent and reasonably priced: I don't own it but I think I've heard it back to back with the original and it didn't give much away. Anyway, this and World Galaxy are well worth getting good vinyl copies of, Ashram Monastery no, not sure about Lord of Lords.
 
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kjb said:
I'm still waiting for the Sun Ra "pre order". When I chased my order up I was told that "Your order is being shipped out from the US due currently having no fulfillment partner in the UK. "

This seems odd when you can get a copy in most UK record stores with a half decent jazz selection.
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I got home from work yesterday to find this has finally been delivered. Released 30/9/11 arrived 11/11/22.

I know the issue is down to problems for their UK distributors but I'd be wary or pre ordering directly from Craft - especially as they do seem to get things to stores ( online and on the High Street)

I had a first play last night - this was with the wait and will be filed under avant grade easy listening.
 
kjb said:
I got home from work yesterday to find this has finally been delivered. Released 30/9/11 arrived 11/11/22.

I know the issue is down to problems for their UK distributors but I'd be wary or pre ordering directly from Craft - especially as they do seem to get things to stores ( online and on the High Street)

I had a first play last night - this was with the wait and will be filed under avant grade easy listening.
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Craft/ Concord are distributed in the UK by Universal so there’s no need to order direct from the US. When they are referring to “no fulfilment partner in the UK” they mean there is no D2C (Direct to Consumer) partner over here. The only exception I believe is the “Small Batch” releases which have to be ordered direct from Craft in the US.
 
mikechadwick said:
Craft/ Concord are distributed in the UK by Universal so there’s no need to order direct from the US. When they are referring to “no fulfilment partner in the UK” they mean there is no D2C (Direct to Consumer) partner over here. The only exception I believe is the “Small Batch” releases which have to be ordered direct from Craft in the US.
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Indeed - lesson learnt on that one - a bit like avoiding pre ordering from Blue Note
 
On 'Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus' - it contains the best song title ever 'All the Things You Could Be by Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother' and for that alone its a stone-cold classic. Agree 'Fables...' is the best and most politically brave version recorded and put out on record. Also 'What Love?' if you listen carefully, famously contains a musical 'conversation' complete with expletives between Dolphy and Mingus...
'Eric?'
'What?'
'You dirty mother f***er'
 
Marchbanks said:
Impressive that it was delivered tomorrow, but an eleven year wait is a bit much!
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Sun Ra records c.f. London busses:

In a rather strange twist, another copy arrived today, on the 11th. I now have two copies having waited six weeks for the one that I ordered to turn up.

If anyone wants a sealed copy for £20 + postage (I'll re-use the very study box it came in), send me a pm.
 
The Charly Direct store is listing a couple of Archie Shepp Actuel titles.

- Limited edition 180-gram marbled vinyl LP
- Official 1969 BYG album facsimile edition
- Mastered from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins
- Lacquers cut by Cicely Balston at AIR STUDIOS
- Deluxe 7mm spined gatefold sleeve with matte laminate finish
- Insert with exclusive liner notes by Kevin Le Gendre
- White paper polylined inner sleeve
- All sealed in a 50-micron polypropylene bag

https://charlydirect.com/collection...ce.lte=&filter.p.m.custom.artist=Archie+Shepp
 
Well this is crazy

Yussef Dayes - The Yussef Dayes Experience Live at Joshua Tree (Presented by Soulection). Yussef Dayes. (ochre.store)

I got an e mail notification of this at 18.05, £50 for a one sided 12" in apricot. I checked the website at 18.40 and it's sold out. I wasn't particularly interested in getting a copy, just curious and fancied a quick listen, but was amazed these got snapped up that quickly at that price.

So for £50 -

• Limited Edition - 500 copies
• 12” 180g one sided colour vinyl
• Die Cut 12” inner bag
• 4-page full size booklet, on uncoated paper
• Limited Edition hand-numbered postcard
• Spined gatefold sleeve

Did anyone here go for one?
 
Both Shepp titles are good. Nick Robbins' remastering is decent but he usually worked on funk, soul and african reissues that I am more familiar with. The 'limited edition 180-gram marbled vinyl LP' fills me with dread though. Shepp is not your common popular artist that you have to do this gimmicky thing to appeal.

BYG recordings and vinyl are usually not great. They were known to be a somewhat dodgy enterprise. But some of the music is good. I particularly like the Shepp and the Moncur (wow!). Many of the other titles are a bit too way out there for me but others may beg to differ.
 
I'm only familiar with some of the better known Actuel titles - Shepp, AAOC, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Grachan Moncur, Sunny Murray etc - so it would be great if Charly do decent reissues of a few more in the series. I'm curious about the Alan Silva albums.

Yes, I've also heard that they were a bit of an iffy label when it came to things like paying people...
 
@kjb his album last year Welcome To The Hills was limited to 500 copies too. £200 now. Marginally less bonkers than his previous 12" that shipped with a custom tracksuit!! (also now £200...)

I'm guessing a lot of the Joshua Tree 12"s will have been bought to flip.


edit: Bandcamp seems to have limited orange copies and the regular black edition
https://yussefdayes.bandcamp.com/al...e-live-at-joshua-tree-presented-by-soulection
 
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Decca Records has a 20% Off Black Friday deal till Monday on new and jazz reissues including British Jazz explosion, some Verve AS and Verve By Request Vinyl. I would be a bit wary of the back issues where it does not say ‘in stock’ like the Ella and Louis Again at £44 pre discount.
https://shop.decca.com/
 
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