Count Basie

[NorthStar]

-- ...So is the CD!

 

[hvbias]

Deepak, I have the Blanton in a couple of versions including a 45 test pressing. It is very good musically- the bass and piano sound very good, although to me, the bass is so closely miked it almost sounds unreal. The 88 Basie Street record is really amazing, with all the instruments, but everything is very open, not congested, you can follow any instrument clearly.
All:
What other AP 45s of big band (or smaller group jazz band) are worth buying?

Bill, I agree the bass is mic'd very close on "This One's For Blanton". But I think it suits Ray Brown's round tone.

AP have put out 100 titles that Fantasy own, 50 from Blue Note, 25 from Impulse! and 25 from Verve all on 45 rpm. Music Matters also have a 45 rpm Blue Note series.

Unfortunately many of my "must own" 45 rpm reissues are now out of print.

This is my "must own" list, just from the Fantasy titles since we are discussing Basie/Pablo. Big band is low on my list of jazz preferences, so my list is edited accordingly. The list would also be much longer if the other labels were included.

Sonny Rollins - Way Out West
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
Duke Ellington - This One's For Blanton
Chet Baker - Chet
Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane - same album name
Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music
Art Tatum/Ben Webster - The Tatum Group Masterpieces
Eric Dolphy - Outward Bound
Sonny Rollins - Tenor Madness

In hind site the list probably looks a bit narrow minded. For example I have left off every Coltrane album even though he is my favorite artist, simply because IMO his Impulse! output trumps anything he did on Prestige.

AcousticSounds have a neatly compiled list of most of their 45 rpm reissues here: http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=page&PID=462&store=AcousticSounds

 

[Bill Hart]

Bill, I agree the bass is mic'd very close on "This One's For Blanton". But I think it suits Ray Brown's round tone.

AP have put out 100 titles that Fantasy own, 50 from Blue Note, 25 from Impulse! and 25 from Verve all on 45 rpm. Music Matters also have a 45 rpm Blue Note series.

Unfortunately many of my "must own" 45 rpm reissues are now out of print.

This is my "must own" list, just from the Fantasy titles since we are discussing Basie/Pablo. Big band is low on my list of jazz preferences, so my list is edited accordingly. The list would also be much longer if the other labels were included.

Sonny Rollins - Way Out West
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
Duke Ellington - This One's For Blanton
Chet Baker - Chet
Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane - same album name
Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music
Art Tatum/Ben Webster - The Tatum Group Masterpieces
Eric Dolphy - Outward Bound
Sonny Rollins - Tenor Madness

In hind site the list probably looks a bit narrow minded. For example I have left off every Coltrane album even though he is my favorite artist, simply because IMO his Impulse! output trumps anything he did on Prestige.

AcousticSounds have a neatly compiled list of most of their 45 rpm reissues here: http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=page&PID=462&store=AcousticSounds

Deepak, thank you. I ordered a Music Matters title a few days ago. And have some of the Fantasy stuff that was reissued way back when as well as a non-45 of Way Out West and a number of other Sonny Rollins titles that are not fancy reissues. The one Coltrane on Impulse that is a fancy audiophile pressing in my collection is actually not very good sounding- I'll have to double check what it is- the original tape was probably pretty horrible. That Basie record is just so spectacular, not only musically, but sonically, that I would love to find others that are comparable in sound quality.

 

[garylkoh]

Would you guys mind recommending some of your favorite Pablo albums as far as performances go? It's one of the labels I'm least familiar with. I just picked up Duke's Big 4 and Dizzy's Big 4, both Analogue Productions 45 rpm LPs for a song. Looking forward to hearing them.

One of my favourite Live performances is Oscar Peterson Trio "Nigerian Marketplace". The original first pressing on red vinyl is still quite readily available in good NM. Tremendous energy and exceptional pairing of Peterson and Pedersen.

 

[LL21]

One of my favourite Live performances is Oscar Peterson Trio "Nigerian Marketplace". The original first pressing on red vinyl is still quite readily available in good NM. Tremendous energy and exceptional pairing of Peterson and Pedersen.

Funny...i own approximately 20 Oscar Peterson albums...and i elected to pass on Nigerian Marketplace! YMMV! i really enjoy Oscar Peterson!! maybe i should revisit Nigerian Marketplace...

 

[garylkoh]

Funny...i own approximately 20 Oscar Peterson albums...and i elected to pass on Nigerian Marketplace! YMMV! i really enjoy Oscar Peterson!! maybe i should revisit Nigerian Marketplace...

Lloyde - run away from the CD. It's probably the worst Oscar Peterson CD I own. It might have something to do with being recorded in 48kHz and using sample rate converters from the early 80's to translate to 44.1kHz.

 

[puroagave]

Lloyde - run away from the CD. It's probably the worst Oscar Peterson CD I own. It might have something to do with being recorded in 48kHz and using sample rate converters from the early 80's to translate to 44.1kHz.

the spars code is on my cd says DDD. imo, the sonics rank at the bottom rung of pablos. is the vinyl that much better?

 

[garylkoh]

the spars code is on my cd says DDD. imo, the sonics rank at the bottom rung of pablos. is the vinyl that much better?

Somebody on this board cottoned me on to the vinyl - and now I have 3 copies (just in case I scratch one of them). I bought the CD just in case I wanted to demo the digital. It was so bad I couldn't even listen to end of the first track. I played the beginnings of each track just to be sure, and gave the CD away to Goodwill.

The vinyl is so good, I play it all the time just to enjoy the music, even though I demo it all the time too. I'm still not tired of it after listening to it twice this afternoon while doing some auditioning.

 

[Bill Hart]

My favorite genre of music is the big band jazz orchestra - it's got it all, the swing, explosive dynamics, massed brass, double bass. When it's fronted by an exponent like Count Basie, it is difficult for me not to stand up and groove.

Count Basie passed away in 1984, and one of his most popular albums among audiophiles (rightly) is 88 Basie Street recorded the year before he died. This won the Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band. Recorded at Ocean Way studios and engineered by the masterful Allen Sides, the sound quality is great as is the musical performance. There is a very contemporary feel to the album as Cleaveland Eaton plays all electric bass on this album.

However, I think that of Count Basie's final 3 albums, the better one (the one I prefer) is Me and You. Recorded just 3 months earlier than 88 Basie Street, Me and You is more explosively dynamic, has better bass, and a more swinging groove. Arranged by Ernie Wilkins, engineered by Dennis Sands, and recorded at Group IV Studios, it is over-shadowed by the award winning 88 Basie Street. IMHO, it is the better album both for music and sound.

View attachment 6984

For both 88 Basie Street and Me and You, the CDs both remastered by Joe Tarantino in 1987 are good, but the original Pablo vinyl are SPECTACULAR! You need a really good cartridge to do justice to Side 1 Track 2 on Me and You.

OK, so who outbid me a little while ago for a nice vinyl copy of this on ebay? #!@$!

 

[puroagave]

OK, so who outbid me a little while ago for a nice vinyl copy of this on ebay? #!@$!

patience grasshopper many more will pop up. i dont own the LP but its not particularly rare and fetches ~$10. fwiw, the red book cd is just fine too. ill be record hunting saturday, if i come accross a copy its yours.

 

[Bill Hart]

patience grasshopper many more will pop up. i dont own the LP but its not particularly rare and fetches ~$10. fwiw, the red book cd is just fine too. ill be record hunting saturday, if i come accross a copy its yours.

I'm way more patient than I used to be, which means not much. Thank you Rob. I need to learn how to use a sniping program. I was preoccupied with something else, and bing! I lost.

 

[jazdoc]

Gary,

Since you like Basie and big band you should definitely check out this one:

Argo recordings are notoriously inconsistent, but this one is amazing for performance and sound quality.

 

[garylkoh]

Thanks, Mark. Will watch for a good copy. The one on eBay right now doesn't look like it's in good condition.

Are there any particular pressings to watch out for?

 

[jazdoc]

I have a gold label stereo pressing which sounds terrific.

Also look for "Thinking Man's Trombone" on Argo. I have the Silver mono pressing and it is also exceptional...

 

[Bill Hart]

A few favorites:

Count Basie "Farmer's Market Barbecue"
Ray Bryant "Montreaux '77"
Benny Carter "Wonderland"
Buddy DeFranco "Mr. Lucky"
Duke Ellington "This One's For Blanton"
Oscar Peterson "And The Trumpet Kings"
Oscar Peterson & Freddie Hubbard "Face to Face"
Oscar Peterson + Harry Edison + Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson

My niece was kind enough to buy me a 45 rpm copy of Farmer's Market. We're going to have a listening session later today. I am still smitten with the 45 of 88 Basie St. I also found a number of other Basie records on Pablo- not the Acoustic Sounds remasters, but the standard issue original Pablos that were sitting on my shelves. I look forward to listening to all of them eventually....

 

[A.wayne]

So you are finding the 45rpm re-issues worth it ... ?

 

[Bill Hart]

So you are finding the 45rpm re-issues worth it ... ?

As I mentioned a little earlier in this thread, that 88 Basie St. is just killer, sonically. Dead quiet, huge dynamics, wonderful in every respect. I haven't done a direct comparison of an original Pablo to these reissues but would have a hard time believing the original is as good. As to other 45s, my copy of 'This One's for Blanton' is definitely better on 45 than on the 33 I have which is DMM copy. On other 45 reissues, the copy of HooDoo Man Blues is terrific, if only for the 'Wee Hours' cut, which sounds amazing; i had purchased a standard 33, but it was so poorly pressed as to be unplayable. I'd have to give some thought to other 45 reissues I've bought- I'm not always a fan of reissues, if you look at my comments about Between the Lines, you'll see that I thought the standard issue Columbia pressing from the 70's was far better than the Boxstar release (not a 45). Ditto, re a Claudia Meyers blues record, standard issue sounds more lifelike than japanese audiophile pressing. So, I guess, without having listened to them all or compared, it's probably on a case by case basis. I have the 45 rpm set of the RCA Ballet records, it is a sonic masterpiece, although the music is a little trite.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i love my 45 rpm of 88 Basie Street (i also have a test pressing of the 45). don't have the original Pablo to compare for that one. but i'd be skeptical it's as good.

i do have a very good 15ips 1/4" master dub of 88 Basie Street which is only slightly better than the 45 played on the NVS-Telos......so hard to imagine the original Pablo being quite that good.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

So you are finding the 45rpm re-issues worth it ... ?

i have likely 98-99% of all the 45rpm re-issues (over 1000). they are the most dead solid locks of any Lps you can buy. the worst of them are very good.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Speaking of Pablo...I have the Jazz at the Santa Monica Civic'72 3LP Boxset ...I should play it some time!

Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz, Roy Eldridge, Eddie Lockjaw' Davis, Ray Brown, Harry Edison, Al Grey, Tommy Flanagan, Ed Thigpin and Keeter Betts. I also have a copy of Joe Pass - Virtuoso.