I will look over your whole list. Thanks for that.
As for the remasters, sadly, I find that many "remastered" versions of recordings are worse than the originals. Sometimes it sounds like they remastering for earbuds and highly compressed MP3 playback maybe?
Here are some I enjoy:
Bill Evans:
Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Waltz for Debbie
These performances are way better than the Pawnshop recording and have a good small club feel. One of the first recordings where jazz piano was captured properly, not a nasally boxy sound.
Winton Marsalis:
Live at the Village Vanguard, very good recording, you will think you are there, listening requires bourbon.
Portraits by Ellington, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, I like this one for the unique sounds and interesting rhythms, lots of fun.
There are some blue ray’s and DVD’s with good recordings too.
Side note, I didn’t like when blues went to CD. There is something lost from the experience of the blues without the crackle and pop of a record in the background.
Bill Evans:
Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Waltz for Debbie
These performances are way better than the Pawnshop recording and have a good small club feel. One of the first recordings where jazz piano was captured properly, not a nasally boxy sound.
Winton Marsalis:
Live at the Village Vanguard, very good recording, you will think you are there, listening requires bourbon.
Portraits by Ellington, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, I like this one for the unique sounds and interesting rhythms, lots of fun.
There are some blue ray’s and DVD’s with good recordings too.
Side note, I didn’t like when blues went to CD. There is something lost from the experience of the blues without the crackle and pop of a record in the background.
There are multiple remasters of each. Which ones do you recommend?
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Well, I dunno? I think mine are SACD. I got them on sale cheap and was astounded by the sound and the performance. I converted the CD layer to FLAC and listen to these all the time. I’ll pop in the SACD for serious listening every now and then. Well recorded piano is a great way to test an audio system.
The quality is good for recordings done way back from 1961 to 1967, & were 32-bit remastered in 1997.
The main stuff was recorded live at The Bohemian Caverns or The Lighthouse Club in 1964/65.....One of the tracks "High Heel Sneakers" was recorded as mono...
Sadly many recordings were "jazzed" up when reissued on CD and as you are discovering some were downright poor to start with. If you search the likes of Qobuz you may find modern digital transfers that have been more faithfully copied. You can listen to short clips of each track before you purchase. I download from Qobuz then burn the files to CD as I find it gives far better quality than streaming.
I like the re release of Duke Ellington Live at Newport. The original always sounded fake to me and it actually was! The new release used the lost for years Voice of America broadcast recording and the band microphone recording. I wouldn’t say its a great recording in any way, but it is a historical performance and an interesting technological feat to match up the delay from microphone placement, and tape recording and playback speed.
Also, for the medal heads who like machine gun bass drums, it all started with Sam Woodyard and Duke Ellington.
“On the 1999 reissue, the Voice of America live recording and live Columbia tapes were painstakingly pieced together using digital technology to create a stereophonic recording of the best-known Ellington performance of the past 50 years, this time with Gonsalves' solo clearly heard, though the beginning of the audience cheering and noise at around the seventh or eighth chorus of the solo can still be heard as well.”
Also, for the medal heads who like machine gun bass drums, it all started with Sam Woodyard and Duke Ellington.
“On the 1999 reissue, the Voice of America live recording and live Columbia tapes were painstakingly pieced together using digital technology to create a stereophonic recording of the best-known Ellington performance of the past 50 years, this time with Gonsalves' solo clearly heard, though the beginning of the audience cheering and noise at around the seventh or eighth chorus of the solo can still be heard as well.”
I have a bunch of old Pablo records on vinyl that sound very nice, many live gigs. Pablo is no more but many reissues are available on CD. No idea if they sound as good as the vinyl. And they are pricey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Records
If that is what you are looking for I suggest you visit https://smokesessionsrecords.com. You can buy CDs or high resolution downloads recorded at Smoke (https://smokejazz.com).
Some recordings are made during the show with a live audience, most recorded at the same venue without audience. The opportunity to own well recorded CDs and been able to listen to the musicians at the same place where they were recorded is something unique, and the only reason I still travel regularly to NYC.
Excellent. I'll seek those out.
I'll look into it. Thanks.
Thanks for the tip. I'll browse to see if there is anything I like there.
BTW folks, I don't do streaming or vinyl. I'm CD-only at this point.
They are SACD. Is there any sonic downside to buying the SACD version since I don't have SACD equipment? There is one Sunday at the Village on Fee-Pay for a ridiculous price that I will not pay, but you never know when one may come along at a reasonable price.
I am not familiar with that album. Of his solo work the ones with the best recording quality are: Havana Moon, Blues for Salvador and Oneness: Silver Dreams Golden Reality.
Of his band's recordings, the first three are outstanding in both the music and the recording quality: Santana, Abraxas and Santana III.
Of his band's recordings, the first three are outstanding in both the music and the recording quality: Santana, Abraxas and Santana III.
There is a CD layer, so you don’t need a SACD player, on the other hand you end up paying for a SACD. I saw a 20 bit mastered version on Amazon, also saw vinyl. The SACD layer provides just a bit more resolution and clarity, and better dynamics. If you have a newer CD player you can get close to SACD performance, it depends on your playback system. Anyway, yes you can play these SACD’s on a CD player.
This is getting good reviews: Santana - IV - Live at the House of Blues Las Vegas [Blu-ray]
I have a copy of a Mexican dvd that’s a good performance, Sacred Fire. It’s a bit compressed which snuffs the percussion a bit, and it’s in Spanish. Great show though.
I also have Supernatural on dvd audio which is a very good recording, and it will play on a standard dvd player in surround or stereo. Kinda fun to have percussion all around the room, but I usually play the stereo track.
I should have asked if you have dvd. B. B. King Blues Master is a great dvd. It has BB playing in several different settings and actually giving blues guitar lessons. It’s fun. Deep Blues is another good dvd tracing some rural blues by RL Burnside, Jr Kimborough, … Sound is good on these but not audiophile, the club video on Deep Blues is great! It will get you moving. If anyone is into the blues Deep Blues is a must have dvd.
A format isn't necessarily a synonim for sound quality, the original recording/mastering is. If one is not equipped with golden ears - in the good sence...hearing at its prime and well trained - the wast majority of people can't tell a difference between a CD (16/44.1...no need for anything beyond that) and the same recording in mp3 format (320 kbps or VBR-0 for example).
Nor is dynamic range.
Comparing songs of different releases/formats/whatnot ain't that easy...matched volumes are of essence, for starters.
Here's what one of your interest "sounds" like:
Nor is dynamic range.
Comparing songs of different releases/formats/whatnot ain't that easy...matched volumes are of essence, for starters.
Here's what one of your interest "sounds" like:
It is.
I used to be able to hear 22kHz tones, and I can still hear 20kHz tones. If anyone here hasn't ever heard 20-22kHz, I can tell you that is among the most maddening sounds imaginable. It truly is harsh and unbearable for any length of time even though you can barely perceive it.
I do, but I haven't ever relied on it for audio. A DVD would have to have a true 2-channel stereo audio option to feed it through my DAC. Otherwise, it would go through a not-ideal all-in-one surround sound receiver since I don't spend time or money on movies any more. That phase of my life is over.