Sonny Clark 'Cool Struttin' compared.
I have just compared the latest Jazz 33 I have of Sonny Clark's 'Cool Struttin' with another contempary re-issue the Blue Note 75. Unfortunately I don't have a really good early version.
I had thought my Blue Note 75 was an Optimal pressing, but rechecking it is from GZ Vinyl which is a Czech plant.
Sleeve: the Jazz 33 has a warmer slightly yellow tone to the photograph and front text. The 75 is just B & W and close inspection shows sings of the 'screen'. Type face on rear is slightly more bold on them Jazz 33. My guess is Jazz 33 has gone back to the original art work and 75 has been scanned from an early sleeve?
Pressings: Both pressing are flat and quiet including the 'dead wax'. Perhaps the Jazz 33 has even blacker silences? Both nominally 180g. Jazz 33 = 194g. 75 = 200g. On the label the Jazz 33 is the the earlier, 'release' 2012 from 1958, but leased to DeAgostini in 2017. The 75 say 2014 'release'. The 75 is Mastered by Bernie Grundman and the Jazz 33 by Ron McMaster (from a digital transfer). The 75's are supposed to be digital transfers as well, but the sleeve does not indicate this.
Sound: I had expected there not to be much in it as I have enjoyed playing the 75 that I have had for sometime, but frankly the Jazz 33 is much better. One has to be careful to match the levels as the Jazz 33 is cut at a higher level, I would estimate about 3db higher. It is though quite difficult to match the levels by ear as the Jazz 33 has greater dynamics.
Note that this is a mono recording and I was playing them with stereo cartridges (I tried two, Fritz Geyger 70 & 0.5,spherical tip shapes). Some people do not believe that you get any 'depth' from a mono record, but to my ears good recordings do have it. The Jazz 33 is slightly more forward, a little more in your room (but still carrying the studio ambiance with it), than the 75, but my perception is the depth is much greater. 'Philly' Joe Jones drums seem much further back behind my front wall and also much more 'solid' than on the 75. The real gains are on Clark's piano and Chambers bass. The Jazz 33 is more extended at both ends with much more detail. You hear more of Clark's left hand on the piano and Chamber's bowed bass on the track Cool Stuttin sounds much more detailed and 'woody'. Overall the 75 seems 'rolled off' at both ends. An attempt to make the digital sound more analog?
Well to my ears this Jazz 33 does not sound 'digital', although I think I can pickup that signature on a few others in the series. It just sounds more like I expect it did in the studio.? I hear much more of the studio ambiance (the thing that is supposed to go AWOL first with digital) including differences in the 'pools' of ambiance around the instruments (I think Van Gelder used to record the drums in a different room / space)?
Well I was quite happy with the 75, but the the better always forces out the good as they say. Now if only I could afford a Blue Note Lexington Ave original pressing of this to compare further!