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Verve Acoustic Sounds Series Reissues

I think the audience for Spiritual Jazz has indeed really expanded in recent years, partly due to some DJs, partly due to Shabatka, Kamasi etc, and partly due to an inquisitive and eclectically minded internet music digging generation. But I fear it's not quite the same for Free Jazz. That is obviously an artificial distinction, but I think it runs true in the case of current audience appetites.

So I think there is a big audience for Alice and Pharoah, but less so for the avant-garde intensity we are hungering for. And Chad Kassem's ruthless trade instincts will probably reflect that. Kad Chassem, on the other hand, in that other dimension ... he's just released a series of every Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton LP ever released. Then he's moving on to the Schlippenbach trio.
 
Tomorrow is formally declared Alice Coltrane day. I forgot to preorder this one so I’ll get no discount, though for this album I’ll pay that price. Especially given just how crazy good Pharoah Sander’s Karma was.
 
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I ordered the Alice yesterday evening just before making the post above. Bizarrely it was showing a delivery date of Tuesday! WTF?! Anyway, I’ve cancelled it, reordered, and it should land by 7pm tonight!
 
Tony L said:
WTF?!
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In recent months, I've had similar delays with Amazon pre-orders arriving days after the release date. I reported it to customer service as clearly they have made some sort of change for the worse since pre-orders used to arrive bang on the release date. My complaint made no difference and the new policy appears to remain in place. As a result, Amazon no longer get my pre-orders. Juno is the beneficiary.
 
I have Prime, plus I do like gambling on Amazon’s preorder price guarantee fruit machine, so they tend to get my orders. Juno is often good for the stuff Amazon haven’t got and won’t ever get, as are Rough Trade, Bleep and Norman. One area I find Juno very good for is some US stuff, e.g. International Anthem label where the Bandcamp shipping is horrific. Juno often have the same limited edition for a lot cheaper delivered.

For the normal stuff Amazon is cheaper and faster IME, and the returns process is the best of any shop by far. As someone truly obsessive about grading I love that you don’t need to return the first copy until a replacement turns up as it means you can build the best out of two. So often with other shops I’ve returned a scratched record only to receive another with a corner ding or whatever.
 
Amazon says my copy that I ordered on 18th March is arriving tomorrow. I do like to support smaller independents. I have Prime so take the free delivery into account when pre-ordering and then I also usually get a small refund over that price, but mainly it is the easy returns policy and system that makes me prefer them for some pressings. I usuall don’t have many returns, but have had a few problems with AS Verve QRP’s.
 
poco a poco said:
I usuall don’t have many returns, but have had a few problems with AS Verve QRP’s.
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What issues have you had? Mine have all been really good so far. My only issue with this series is I wish Chad would focus more on stuff like Sanders, Alice, Shepp etc rather than yet another version of Getz Gilberto or whatever. There are so many gems in the Impulse catalogue that seldom see the light of day and the late-60s and ‘70s spiritual and soul-jazz stuff is so ‘in’ at present there is unquestionably a market for it.
 
Mainly due to the centre hole not being pressed out properly. Not a problem in itself unless off centre as I can carefully ‘ream’ it larger, but twice the loose swarth has migrated onto the recording surface and audibly scratched it. Probably due to movement when sleeving it or in transport. On these two the centre hole was so poor I don’t know how it could be missed when sleeving?

I certainly agree about Chad’s conservative choices and that some more adventurous stuff would still sell well.
 
My only problems with the AS stuff has been split seams. I think. Might have had a stitching issue with one - would need to check back on this thread, I’ll definitely have moaned about it.

I’ll resist the Alice as the ‘90s reissue I have is very good. Unless someone with that version (@Elephantears?) gets the AS and reports that it’s much better.
 
Seanm said:
I’ll resist the Alice as the ‘90s reissue I have is very good. Unless someone with that version (@Elephantears?) gets the AS and reports that it’s much better.
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Damnit Sean, you knew I wouldn't be able to resist. Highly inconvenient considering my extreme skintness, but it's an all time favourite, so needs must. I'll report back over the weekend.
 
Mine has just arrived earlier they expected and the pressing visually looks fine in all aspects this time. Hopefully the sound quality will be fine. I’ll give it a spin as soon as I can find time. While finish of the cover is good the photos are clearly scans and inside ones are quite poor showing grid pattern. Most of these AS Verve’s are not up to the Tone Poets in this respect.
 
poco a poco said:
While finish of the cover is good the photos are clearly scans and inside ones are quite poor showing grid pattern. Most of these AS Verve’s are not up to the Tone Poets in this respect.
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I guess that is fair as the Blue Notes were never gatefolds and the inner spreads have been created recently from superb quality photo negatives. The Impulse are whatever has survived from 50-60 years ago. The inner gatefolds of original US Impulse vinyl is pretty basic when it comes to photo quality. They are beautiful covers, but there is not much depth or contrast to any black and white images.
 
In the interests of authenticity I'd like to see these audiophile reissues recreate sleeves as many of them actually were made in the 1950s and 60s.

The sleeve should be folded in the wrong place so the spine label is on the rear of the sleeve. The rear sleeve should be pasted on at a jaunty angle, or even better upside down. The artists name should be spelt wrong somewhere on the sleeve and corrected with a sticker stuck over it.
 
paulfromcamden said:
The sleeve should be folded in the wrong place so the spine label is on the rear of the sleeve. The rear sleeve should be pasted on at a jaunty angle, or even better upside down. The artists name should be spelt wrong somewhere on the sleeve and corrected with a sticker stuck over it.
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The other thing with Impulse is ‘stereo’ should be printed at the top edge of the sleeve, ‘mono’ at the bottom, the way the printed sheet is applied to the board dictating which shows and also altering the whole image crop. This Earl Hines (Discogs) is a really obvious example of what I mean as the cover is mainly typesetting. The difference between stereo and mono covers couldn’t be more obvious!
 
paulfromcamden said:
In the interests of authenticity I'd like to see these audiophile reissues recreate sleeves as many of them actually were made in the 1950s and 60s.

The sleeve should be folded in the wrong place so the spine label is on the rear of the sleeve. The rear sleeve should be pasted on at a jaunty angle, or even better upside down. The artists name should be spelt wrong somewhere on the sleeve and corrected with a sticker stuck over it.
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To be fair, they did cock up the original ASS re-issue of A Love Supreme. :)

The label of side 2 erroneously states the title of Part IV is "Resolution" instead of "Psalm".

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