Great recording labels

Johnny Vinyl · Jan 14, 2011

I've heard some people say this JATP was a fluff recording made by a couple of Swedish guys that had no business doing "American" jazz, which I personally found to be quite elitist. I think the recording is superb, and if the desire was to recreate a feeling of "I am there"...they succeeded beautifully.

LL21 · Jan 14, 2011

Totally agree. it is an incredibly lifelife recording.

flez007 · Jan 14, 2011

FrantzM said:
Hi

Shouldn't Reference Recording be part of this discussion?
And Water Lily Acoustics? Kavi Alexander (Often great Music, good to great recordings)
And DMP? Tom Jung (Great Music at times, good to excellent recordings)
And ECM which by the way produces great music and great recordings? More often than not .. Good to Excellent Music and decent to extraordinary recordings.
And EMI which has produced some wonderful classics? Som were on the famed HP naker's dozen
And Pathe Marconi ( french Label)
And Proprius?
And BIS
And Harmonia Mundi ( Music from good to spectacular , recording from decent to Extraordinary)
And Tuff Gong Studio, Which recorded many Bob Marley Albums which are sonically splendid?

There are many more I'll stop there

I refuse to be mired in the past looking at the Golden years of recording, yes they were excellent but there are other and in some caes better recordings .. Their music remains ins some instances definetive but there are now better recordings .. An example Regardless of the quality of music (decent to fair) one of the best recording of Live Jazz ..ever, IMHO is Jazz at the Pawnshop .. NO old recording, I have heard comes ...

I second the ECM quote above from FrantzM, a very complete coverage was part of last month Stereophilllle magazine interviewing the GM.

Harmonia Mundinand and Audioquest also have seen few light in these thread and worth consideration IMO.

MylesBAstor · Jan 14, 2011

lloydelee21 said:
i would also add Collegium Records and Linn Records.

Classical:
Mercury
Decca
RCA
EMI UK
Harmonia Mundi
Connoisseur Society
Lyrita
Argo
L'oiseau Lyre
Nonesuch
Erato (organ)
Proprius (organ and choral)

Jazz:
Riverside
Pablo
Prestige
Fantasy
Verve
Blue Note
Impulse
Columbia
AudioQuest

Rock/folk:
Vanguard
EMI/Harvest

microstrip · Jan 14, 2011

John72953 said:
Without trying to find it I want to say 1976.

Bingo.

My beautiful original double LP inner notes say it was recorded in Stockholm 14-15 december 1976. It also includes a very nice 30x40cm hand sketch of the premises with the performers and the public - it is why the vinyl has much better soundstage than the CD version !

The SACD soundstage should be also less good than the vinyl - the graphical quality of the 10x10 cm sketch is miserable compared with the LP album.

jadis · Jan 14, 2011

My 'nominees' are:

1. Sheffield Lab - Doug Sax works are great, until these days.
2. RR - Keith Johnson is right up there.
3. Decca - I try to get hold of 1st press Wide Bands of my favorite titles.
4. Mercury - FR stampers are beautiful sounding.
5. Command - a few titles, by Tony Mottola are nice. Nice works by George Piros and Robert Fine.
6. RCA Living Stereo
7. Proprius - the one that got me into 'foreign' music.
8. Opus 3 - continuing the Scandinavian connection.
9. M&K - Ken Kreisel has great works too.

LL21 · Jan 14, 2011

I also will add the MTV Unplugged albums. Eric Clapton, Corrs and Nirvana Unplugged are the 3full albums i own, and they are both excellent. i also have the Best of MTV Unplugged and there are numerous well recorded tunes there as well.

FrantzM · Jan 14, 2011

No Problem with t1976 .. What I was pointing at was that this superb recording is not from what is considered the Golden Eras, that is late 50 to 65 .. It was much later and just to put thing in perspective, I believe a Revox A 77 was used .. I am not sure there were any tube in the process either ...

I am also really surprised there has been NO mention of Lyrita ... In many ways superlative both in musical content and recordings ...
I would also add
Deutsche Gramophon .. Usually not stellar in term of recording but musically all encompassing and more and more atuned to the righ sound at least their recent outputs...
Hyperion
Opus 3
MA Records ... Worth more than a casual listening .. Eclectic catalog of little known music and artists .. Strictly acoustic settings, they don't use studios ... Deserves more attention .. Some are musical and sonic gems .. Just ordered a few .. in Hi-Rez and Hybrid SACD ...

Gregadd · Jan 14, 2011

Also I find that the big stars can command excellent recording techniques regardless of the label.

jadis · Jan 14, 2011

FrantzM said:
I am also really surprised there has been NO mention of Lyrita ... In many ways superlative both in musical content and recordings ...

Yes, cut from the famous Nimbus plant in UK. Nice recordings.

microstrip · Jan 14, 2011

FrantzM said:
No Problem with t1976 .. What I was pointing at was that this superb recording is not from what is considered the Golden Eras, that is late 50 to 65 .. It was much later and just to put thing in perspective, I believe a Revox A 77 was used .. I am not sure there were any tube in the process either ...
(...)
Deutsche Gramophon .. Usually not stellar in term of recording but musically all encompassing and more and more atuned to the righ sound at least their recent outputs...

Hyperion
Opus 3

As far as I remember, the main microphone was a condenser microphone, the famous Neumann U47 that uses a EF86 pentode tube - the same type that it is used in the input of the custom Repro amplifier of the Nagra T of Dan Dan Schmalle of the Tapeproject. Small world!

Nice to know you like the recordings of Hyperion - they are excellent, with plenty of life. Most of their recordings of polyphonic coral music have outstanding technical quality (and performance, surely).

MylesBAstor · Jan 14, 2011

FrantzM said:
No Problem with t1976 .. What I was pointing at was that this superb recording is not from what is considered the Golden Eras, that is late 50 to 65 .. It was much later and just to put thing in perspective, I believe a Revox A 77 was used .. I am not sure there were any tube in the process either ...

I am also really surprised there has been NO mention of Lyrita ... In many ways superlative both in musical content and recordings ...
I would also add
Deutsche Gramophon .. Usually not stellar in term of recording but musically all encompassing and more and more atuned to the righ sound at least their recent outputs...
Hyperion
Opus 3
MA Records ... Worth more than a casual listening .. Eclectic catalog of little known music and artists .. Strictly acoustic settings, they don't use studios ... Deserves more attention .. Some are musical and sonic gems .. Just ordered a few .. in Hi-Rez and Hybrid SACD ...

My oversight on the Lyrita. Knew needed to look at record shelves. One though has to like British composers. Having all the albums have to say that there's only a few that really listen too

MylesBAstor · Jan 14, 2011

jadis said:
Yes, cut from the famous Nimbus plant in UK. Nice recordings.

Actually the best sounding Lyritas pressings were cut for them by Decca and will have the Decca matrix number. The later pressings were done by Nimbus and aren't up to the sound of the earlier Deccas.

(Sorta like the Holland/Phillips Decca pressings.)

jadis · Jan 14, 2011

MylesBAstor said:
Actually the best sounding Lyritas pressings were cut for them by Decca and will have the Decca matrix number. The later pressings were done by Nimbus and aren't up to the sound of the earlier Deccas. (Sorta like the Holland/Phillips Decca pressings.)

I haven't heard those Lyritas pressed by Decca. Must be rarer than those cut by Nimbus. I should look out for them, but it wouldn't be easy these days.

FrantzM · Jan 14, 2011

Hi

I don't know what microphones were used on JATP, perhaps Bruce B. could help us on this piece of trivia. ... I also read somewhere that a High Speed Revox A 77 was used ... Have to look at some liner notes as the consensus seems to be a Nagra Portable ..
The point remains that present day recordings can be good and sometimes consistently. I can name from the top of my head two Artists whose records are routinely well recorded : Lyle Lovett and Pat Metheny ... And of course there are the bad recordings .. which are the norm ...

I didn't dig in the esoterica of whose pressing it was with the Lps , they sounded spectacular in most instances, the Lyrita CDs are also excellent . Wasn't Ken Wilkinson of Decca Fame, the Engineer for Lyrita?

RBFC · Jan 15, 2011

Malcolm Arnold's Scottish, Cornish, and Irish Dances was a spectacular LP on Lyrita.

Lee

MylesBAstor · Jan 15, 2011

FrantzM said:
Hi

I don't know what microphones were used on JATP, perhaps Bruce B. could help us on this piece of trivia. ... I also read somewhere that a High Speed Revox A 77 was used ... Have to look at some liner notes as the consensus seems to be a Nagra Portable ..

I seem to remember the Revox being listed on the record jacket. Opus 3 also used I think a modded A77.

The point remains that present day recordings can be good and sometimes consistently. I can name from the top of my head two Artists whose records are routinely well recorded : Lyle Lovett and Pat Metheny ... And of course there are the bad recordings .. which are the norm ...

I didn't dig in the esoterica of whose pressing it was with the Lps , they sounded spectacular in most instances, the Lyrita CDs are also excellent . Wasn't Ken Wilkinson of Decca Fame, the Engineer for Lyrita?

Wilkie did some Lyritas.

LL21 · Jan 15, 2011

On JATP - just checked CD liner notes for recording equipment...it's not listed. i bought mine CD s/hand so maybe i'm missing something...but what i've got does not list recording equipment.

DaveyF · Jan 15, 2011

Maybe missing the most obvious...

Rudy Van Gelder on the Blue Note label..

microstrip · Jan 15, 2011

lloydelee21 said:
On JATP - just checked CD liner notes for recording equipment...it's not listed. i bought mine CD s/hand so maybe i'm missing something...but what i've got does not list recording equipment.

Full list from the FIM SACD JATP :

Neumann U47's , KM56 's and M49 cardioids
NAGRA IV x2 (2 track 15 ips 1/4" Nagra curve)

Curious that we read in many sites that it was a Revox A77 ...

Now the nice extra - Paul Stubblebine (of Paul Stubblebine Mastering and Tapeproject ) did the re-mastering for the SACD FIM version.

BTW, Steve, do you still remember your listening session of 1" tapes at Paul Stubblebine Mastering?

Great recording labels

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