Thelonious Monk, The Unique Thelonious Monk, 1956 on Riverside

Monk recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, with Oscar Pettiford on bass and Art Blakey on drums, produced by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer – originally Riverside RLP 12-209 with a different cover.

My copy, via Academy Records in NYC, is the 1983 reissue in the Original Jazz Classics series, issued by Fantasy which acquired the Riverside catalog in 1972. These are wonderful reissues across Riverside, Prestige, Contemporary and other labels – and well worth picking up whenever you see them in good condition.

#1950s #1956 #ArtBlakey #BillGrauer #Fantasy #jazz #OriginalJazzClassics #OrrinKeepnews #OscarPettiford #Reissue #Riverside #RudyVanGelder #TheloniousMonk #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

Went record store shopping today at Purple Narhwal Music & Manga.

Found some old Japanese vinyl, 3 Cameo albums, some K-Pop CDs, and more

Billie Holiday, Songs for Distingué Lovers, 1958 on Verve

Great set of recordings, with liner notes by Norman Granz. No real detail on the sessions on the record itself, but apparently recorded during sessions in January 1957 in Hollywood – the same sessions that yielded All or Nothing at All and Body and Soul.

Wonderful versions of “Stars Fell on Alabama” and “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” in particular.

Granz writes on the liner notes:

. . . quite possibly the best liner notes ever written about Miss Holiday singing songs would be simply to say to the listener ‘this is a fact: Miss Holiday has happened to some songs’ and to the discriminating listener that ought to suffice.

My copy is a 2024 Barnes & Noble exclusive pressing on yellow vinyl, pressed at GZ Media. May be from a digital source (no credit for mastering – though it is a licensed recording, not a grey market one) but sounds great.

#1950s #1958 #barnesNoble #BillieHoliday #jazz #NormanGranz #Verve #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

Neil Young, Neil Young, 1969 on Reprise

Young’s debut solo album. It can be tricky to keep all the chronology straight here, as someone who came to Young much later in his career – but this is following his departure from Buffalo Springfield and before the first Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (with Crazy Horse) was the followup.

Great songs here: The Loner, The Old Laughing Lady, and I’ve Loved Her So Long. The tracks produced by Jack Nitzsche and Ry Cooder, the rest David Biggs. It sometimes gets credited as having been released in 1968 (wikipedia for example) but I believe it actually came out in January of 1969. (See this Village Voice ad citing Jan 22nd, 1969).

My copy is a 1970 US Pressing, with Neil’s name in black on the cover (first pressings left the name off) and “Stereo” at the bottom of the labels. In my collection via Crossroads Records in Portland OR.

#1960s #1969 #ClassicRock #CrossroadsRecords #DavidBiggs #JackNitzsche #NeilYoung #PortlandOR #Reprise #RyCooder #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Ella & Louis: Complete Studio Small Group Recordings, 2015 on Waxtime

Waxtime is sometimes a controversial label. Based on some differences between US and EU copyright law, they’re releasing classic jazz recordings without explicit access o the source material. This means they might be working from a CD, or even a needle-drop on a good vinyl copy- but the source material is more or less unofficial.

That said, I’m a huge fan of the work Ella and Louis did together. There are two primary releases: 1956’s Ella and Louis, which I have a 1956 pressing of, and 1957’s Ella and Louis Again, which I don’t currently have (but am on the hunt for). The latter is a 2xLP release, which includes some tracks that feature one or the other but not both.

This Waxtime release puts together then first Ella and Louis LP plus the tracks from Ella and Louis Again which feature both of them. (As they put it: “This edition includes all of their duets from these sessions while discarding the songs on which either Ella or Louis sit out”).

Note Ella and Louis are backed here by basically the Oscar Peterson Trio: Peterson, Herb Ellis, and Ray Brown, plus Buddy Rich (sides A&B) or Louie Bellson (sides C&D) on drums. These original sessions were all done in Hollywood and produced by Norman Granz.

For my money this is a great edition, despite unclear / unstated source material. (Direct-metal-mastering straight from a CD?). It’s well pressed, with a low noise floor, and the mastering makes the material sound lively and present. Now maybe on high end audiophile equipment one would notice more difference, but these are studio recordings from the 50s and they sound great. I’ll keep looking for an original (or an audiophile reissue) of Ella and Louis Again but in the meanwhile happy to have these on vinyl.

#1950s #1956 #1957 #2010s #2015 #BuddyRich #EllaFitzgerald #HerbEllis #jazz #LouieBellson #LouisArmstrong #NormanGranz #OscarPeterson #RayBrown #Reissue #Verve #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds #Waxtime

The Waterboys, Out of All This Blue, 2017 on BMG

Mike Scott, the creative force behind The Waterboys, has continued to make interesting music and evolve their sound – here incorporating more contemporary pop sounds. It’s a double album, with a third record of “blue variations.” Some of the tracks have lots of instrumentation (strings, brass, overdubs) and some seem to be recorded on the fly with just guitar or piano and drum machine with Scott singing solo.

Among guests, there some fiddle via Steve Wickham (who played the violin on “Sunday Bloody Sunday”), brass and string arrangements by Trey Pollard, and bass from Patterson Hood’s dad David Hood.

It’s a big sprawling three record collection but I love it. Still so much talent!

My copy is the 3xLP Deluxe edition, via Crossroads Records in Portland OR.

#2010s #2017 #BMG #CrossroadsRecords #DavidHood #MikeScott #PortlandOR #SteveWickham #TheWaterboys #TreyPollard #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds