Jazz Reissues (Individual and short runs)

[kjb]

Thanks for the link @mikechadwick

I'm desperately trying to be a bit more selective / frugal with record buying but put an order in for Jordan's Glass BeadGames and Tolliver's Paper Man.

 

[Tony L]

Got my fairly substantial Pure Pleasure/Strata East order. They’d split it into two mailers and one turned up Sat, one today. Not the best mailers, the kind that make me cringe as they lack good corner protection when loaded with several albums, but everything got here fine without the slightest corner ding (the RM posties here are great, mostly women, and really careful with deliveries).

Anyway really happy with these; great music, great recordings and nice pressings. Maybe not the flattest records I’ve ever seen, but nothing that justifies getting the flattener out, and (after a clean) quiet too. Covers are typical Speakers Corner/Pure Pleasure, so around ‘80s UK quality wise, not nice heavy tip-on or anything, but a great and affordable way of getting hold of some very rare and very good obscure ‘70s jazz. Filled a nice gap in the collection! A bargain at the asking price, which appears to be about half the Discogs median!

PS Side 2 of the Sanders is very long at 28:50, so sonically the weakest of the ones I bought, but it is what it is and is wonderful in that joyful uplifting Pharoah Sanders way!

 

[hockman]

I like Pure Pleasure. Unlike a lot of other reissue companies, at least they often put out more obscure or rare records which are otherwise impossible to find or terribly expensive. And they do it at a fair price. Thing to note is sometimes the sonics are not great; it would depend on whether they are able to obtain a good source or not.

 

[Seanm]

I like Pure Pleasure. Unlike a lot of other reissue companies, at least they often put out more obscure or rare records which are otherwise impossible to find or terribly expensive. And they do it at a fair price. Thing to note is sometimes the sonics are not great; it would depend on whether they are able to obtain a good source or not.

Don’t know about the fair price: it was paying around £35 for quite a poor sounding and cheaply packaged Pure Pleasure record that finally broke my reissue habit. Great though that they put out more obscure titles, as you say.

 

[Tony L]

Don’t know about the fair price: it was paying around £35 for quite a poor sounding and cheaply packaged Pure Pleasure record that finally broke my reissue habit. Great though that they put out more obscure titles, as you say.

I’m certainly happy with this bunch. There is a little stitching/infill or something on track 1 side 2 of World Of The Children (documented on Discogs too), but that’s it to my ears out of 14 sides of new vinyl. That’s a good hit-rate. These are albums that Chad wouldn’t go near if he lives to be 450 years old, he’d still be finding easy classics or guaranteed sellers. That they’ve actually put Strata East, Tribe etc stuff back in print has to be applauded/supported. These are absurdly rare and expensive records if one is hunting originals. Just impossible to find. The mastering is good too. Good and punchy on all but the longest sides and to my ears not as warm and stereotypically ‘valve’ as I remember Speakers Corner (I really didn’t like their Impulse stuff, but I know the original US RVG cuts there, I’ve no reference point for Strata). I’d buy these again after seeing/hearing them. Half tempted to go back for some more!

 

[hockman]

I suppose we all have our preferences and prejudices.

I am generally happy with Pure Pleasure and their pricing.

I like Speakers Corner reissues in general. Another company that sometimes put out hard to find titles rather than the same tired titles.

And I absolutely detest Analogue Productions and anything that Chad Kassem does.

 

[Tony L]

And I absolutely detest Analogue Productions and anything that Chad Kassem does.

When Chad gets the titles right he does a very good job IMO. I have directly compared the Speakers Corner copies of A Love Supreme and Getz Gilberto against the Analogue Productions 33rpm copies and the latter are both far ahead and far closer in sound to original US pressings to my ears. In comparison the Speakers Corner sound over-warm and gentle/smooth. I’d still take RVG-stamped US originals over any audiophile cut, but the Analogue Productions are very good IMO.

My criticism is the overly conservative title choices, and the very high price, though the fact he released a simply phenomenal copy of Pharoah Sanders Karma and a very good Journey In Satchidananda redresses that balance a little. The Karma really is amazing, I know it is expensive, but it is really worth the asking price (Amazon link). I just hope he does a few more of this type of thing.

 

[wezzywest]

I suppose we all have our preferences and prejudices.

I am generally happy with Pure Pleasure and their pricing.

I like Speakers Corner reissues in general. Another company that sometimes put out hard to find titles rather than the same tired titles.

And I absolutely detest Analogue Productions and anything that Chad Kassem does.

Quite a sweeping statement about Chad. The records he puts out are great quality, without having to pay stupid prices for half decent originals.

 

[kjb]

Quite a sweeping statement about Chad. The records he puts out are great quality, without having to pay stupid prices for half decent originals.

Agree - but heavily weighted to MOR / dinner jazz when the catalogue he has access to has a much wider range of jazz available to him, a lot of which is very deserving of the Acoustic Sounds treatment, maybe even more so than, say, another Ben Webster or Stan Getz record.

 

[Seanm]

Don’t know about the fair price: it was paying around £35 for quite a poor sounding and cheaply packaged Pure Pleasure record that finally broke my reissue habit. Great though that they put out more obscure titles, as you say.

Well I was surprised by the nice packaging and SQ of this batch of Pure Pleasure and checking the above purchase I find it was a Now Again effort. Sorry Pure Pleasure! Very nice, these, tempted to go back for more.

 

[kjb]

Well I was surprised by the nice packaging and SQ of this batch of Pure Pleasure and checking the above purchase I find it was a Now Again effort. Sorry Pure Pleasure! Very nice, these, tempted to go back for more.

My packaging and quality were pretty good as well. A double packed parcel with bubble wrap and lots of protection for corners. I'll be using them again.

 

[mikechadwick]

Well I was surprised by the nice packaging and SQ of this batch of Pure Pleasure and checking the above purchase I find it was a Now Again effort. Sorry Pure Pleasure! Very nice, these, tempted to go back for more.

I've found that Now Again reissues are generally to be avoided - poor mastering & pressings

 

[hockman]

I agree that Now Again reissues often aren't great. It's a shame though because Egon (of Now Again) has interesting taste and puts out reissues of rare and otherwise pricey titles. Egon comes from the collector-DJ side of the vinyl world; he's not an audiophile.

I really can't understand it. For the Tribe titles, the hype sticker state that they were 'lacquered directly from the original master tapes in an all analog transfer' by Bernie Grundmann. And upon checking the dead wax, sure enough one finds 'BG' etched. We know that Grundmann puts out pretty fine vinyl masters. Yet they don't sound that good.

I am pretty sure Now Again uses GZ for their pressings. Maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[gavreid]

I am pretty sure Now Again uses GZ for their pressings. Maybe that has something to do with it.

GZ is a lottery with the odds stacked against you.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Interesting. You'd have thought that if Bernie cut the lacquer there wouldn't be too much for GZ to get wrong in terms of sound quality. I wonder what makes the difference.

 

[gavreid]

Interesting. You'd have thought that if Bernie cut the lacquer there wouldn't be too much for GZ to get wrong in terms of sound quality. I wonder what makes the difference.

I reckon they must mix sand into the vinyl over there

 

[hockman]

GZ makes some of the worst POS pressings. I would avoid buying any GZ pressings if I knew beforehand.

The Tribe reissues are not horrible but I had higher expectations because of Bernie and the claim of direct all analog cut from the original tapes.

A curious thing is that in the deadwax, there are two sets of etchings - BG's handwritten etchings and laser cut etchings presumably by GZ themselves (I believe this is a dead giveaway that it's a GZ). Now, why would there be two sets? Did GZ do something to the lacquer? Or did Now Again have multiple lacquers go out to different pressing plants (e.g. US vs Europe)? Is their vinyl formulation of inferior quality resulting in poor sound?

Sometimes I hate myself for obsessing over such details. Life would be so much better if I just listened and enjoyed the music.

 

[paulfromcamden]

I'm not a tremendous Stan Getz fan but this review of newly released material made me smile.

Scene: a London hospital bed occupied by Ronnie Scott, legendary club owner poleaxed by a rogue spinal disc. When a concerned visitor asks the cause of Scott’s problem. Scott replies through gritted teeth: “bending over backwards to please Stan Getz”.

Nobody would have called Stan Getz an easy-going guy (on learning that Getz had undergone heart surgery, fellow saxophonist and former colleague Zoot Sims asked “did they put one in?”).

Stan Getz – ‘Unissued Session Copenhagen 1977’

Stan Getz – Unissued Session Copenhagen 1977(Steeplechase SCCD 31960. CD Review by Len Weinreich) Scene: a London hospital bed occupied by Ronnie Scott, legendary club owner poleaxed by a rog…

londonjazznews.com

 

[hermit]

A word of warning. There are reports on the Steve Hoffman forum of severe dropouts on one track of the new Craft OJC reissue of Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane.

As a result, I picked up a Prestige mono twofer entitled Kenny Burrell/John Coltrane which consists of the above mentioned LP:

and also The Cats:

Earlier reissues of the Burrell Coltrane LP do not suffer from dropouts. For some reason these 1970s Prestige twofers are priced very cheaply and represent seriously good value imo.

 

[kjb]

The latest OJCs have been announced

ANNOUNCING FIVE NEW TITLES IN THE ORIGINAL JAZZ CLASSICS SERIES

Craft Recordings announces the final batch of 2024 reissues for its Original Jazz Classics series, beloved by collectors and critics alike. The latest reissues include Clark Terry Quartet & Thelonious Monk’s In Orbit, Mal Waldron’s The Quest, Thelonious Monk Septet’s Monk’s Music, Blue...

craftrecordings.com

For me there's:
One essential : Mal Waldron's The Quest
One serious temptation: Monk's Music

I guess, with current pricing increases, they'll be close to £50 each so I'm going to be very selective.