As a fan and collector of jazz on vinyl for decades, I’m always overjoyed to discover new things, especially ultra rare titles I’ve missed. Fortunately, the outstanding reissue series driven by Universal Music and Concord Music — which own and manage arguably the most important catalogs in jazz history — are rescuing many iconic titles from obscurity.
Following are brief reviews of four jazz rarities by three of the greatest trumpeters in jazz history — Donald Byrd, Miles Davis and Clark Terry — which have been recently reissued. These are all highly sought after collector’s pieces, original pressings commanding hundreds to thousands of dollars dependent upon condition.
These reissues have been crafted to an extremely high standard and share some common production threads despite emanating from two different labels. Original analog tapes were used for creating new pressing lacquers by Kevin Gray of Cohearant Audio. The dead quiet, perfectly centered 180-gram vinyl LPs were all pressed at RTI, one of the most respected vinyl manufacturers today. Suggested retail prices are about $38.99, all available at Amazon (links in the album titles below).
Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd issued these albums in 1956 and 1957 on Transition Records, a short lived label founded by soon-to-be superstar producer Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, etc.). These albums have been generally super elusive to find. For example, there are only two complete originals of Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill being sold at this moment on Discogs (a premier online collectors marketplace), each asking for more than $3000 for their respective copies. So, $38.99 for a well produced reissue is a steal!
Delivering very enjoyable, accessible and straight ahead mid-50s hard bop leaning jazz styles, melody and rhythm swing hand in hand on both of these albums, making them easily some of my favorite reissues of recent vintage. I’ve played both albums many times already.
These remasters sound great! The owner of my favourite record shop in San Francisco — Tunnel Records — says these are arguably better than the originals which could sound relatively thin. The level of love and care that went into these releases is palpable. They even took the deep dive to re-create the mega-rare booklets which came with the originals as well as replica cover designs.
Releases like this will only going to go up in value, so my advice is to grab them while you can!
Where to buy:
- Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill – $38.98 at Amazon
- Byrd’s Eye View –
$39.98$28.83 at Amazon
Miles Davis
Davis’ first album to introduce saxophone legend-to-be John Coltrane to the mainstream jazz universe, the rest of the band on this November 1955 includes icons like Philly Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass and Red Garland on piano.
The music itself is a very nice, easily digestible and enjoyable swinging set of great jazz tunes played by masters of the times. Four standards are covered including a sweet interpretation of Duke Ellington’s impossibly hooky-catchy 1941 composition “Just Squeeze Me.” Originals like “Miles Theme” gives Coltrane an early launch pad for his fast forming distinctive solo sound.
This is another super rare LP so getting a high quality reproduction for under $40 as part of Craft Recordings’ excellent Original Jazz Classics series is a wise choice.
Where to buy: Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet – $39.98 at Amazon
Clark Terry With Thelonious Monk
Clark Terry’s 1958 Riverside Records session with Thelonious Monk is genuinely Terry’s showcase. Monk plays very sympathetically to the music and supports the featured artist (so don’t expect this to sound like a Monk album). Terry’s normally rich and round flavorful tone is even tastier here as he is playing a Flugelhorn! A showcase for a number of Terry’s originals, I think the band finds its balance on the second tune “One Foot In The Gutter” in which Monk’s distinctive soloing finds footing within this somewhat straight ahead session.
This pressing certainly sounds richer than a nice Japanese reissue I own. Again, finding an original 1958 US pressing of In Orbit can be a costly undertaking so for the price, this new Craft Recordings “Original Jazz Classics” series reissue is a wise option.
Where to buy: In Orbit – $39.98 at Amazon
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. In addition to writing for eCoustics.com, he reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
