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Vinyl Heaven

Vinyl Heaven

As soon as I was old enough to drive I would make regular treks from my parents’ house on the Peninsula to what for many years was one of the country’s great record stores, Tower Records at Columbus and Bay Streets in San Francisco. For a teenage kid with wide musical interests this was like a visit to the proverbial candy store—on steroids. I vividly recall each of the different rooms for the classical, jazz, and rock LPs, the seemingly endless import bins, which always seemed cooler somehow, than domestics, and the difficulty in deciding what I couldn’t afford to spend my busboy’s tips on at any given visit.

Today’s few remaining brick and mortar record stores—even the best of them, such as Amoeba that’s today’s go-to place in this town—can’t compare. The best vintage stuff either never sees the shelves or is very pricey, but they do have a fine selection of new vinyl, CDs, and DVDs. Oh, yes, and like the old Tower stores the walls are plastered with posters.

On the other hand, spend some time perusing the online, or print catalogs, from the likes of Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc, and Music Direct and it’s arguable that the well-heeled audiophile has never had it better. The number and quality of today’s reissues— especially in the red-hot two-45rpm-LP category—make it clear that the decisions facing most music buyers today are just as overwhelming as those once faced by that teenage music lover who once found few things as exciting as a trip to Tower Records.

To give you a glimpse of the musical treasures to come today as well as over the next many months we surveyed the major players in the audiophile record business. Here, in alphabetical order, are their planned releases. And for those who prefer silver discs, we’ve also included SACDs.

Vinyl Heaven

Analogue Productions
Chad Kassem and his team in Salina, Kansas, are among the busiest in the audiophile reissue biz—and have been for roughly 30 years. At about the same time you’re reading this issue AP will be releasing a string of impressive titles on LP and SACD.

From the Verve catalog look for 45rpm pressings of The Soul Of Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges’ Blues A-Plenty, and Oscar Peterson’s West Side Story. And on SACD one of the great Ella Fitzgerald records, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, and Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster’s Hawkins Encounters Webster.

Also on tap is a batch of great Prestige mono LPs, including Miles Davis’ Bags’ Groove, Coltrane’s Soultrane and Lush Life, and Sonny Rollins’ Rollins Plays For Byrd, as well as these titles on SACD: Miles’ Relaxin’, the George Wallington Quintet’s Jazz For The Carriage Trade, and Woodlore by the Phil Woods Quartet.

 


Among the profusion of great RCA Living Stereo recordings you can expect to see (and hear) on LP, and a bit later also on SACD, are Rhapsody In Blue, The Reiner Sound, Scheherazade, The Pines Of Rome, Pictures At An Exhibition, Iberia, Lt. Kije, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Festival, Gaîté Parisienne, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Spain, Alexander Nevsky—and many more. If the LPs are your pleasure, be sure to check out Jon Valin’s detailed preview of the earliest of AP’s remastered vinyl issues in Issue 235. If digital is your preference, look for Art Lintgen’s survey (in TAS this Spring) of some of AP’s primo RCA reissues on SACD.


On the pop side AP will release Peter, Paul and Mary’s Album 1700 and Live In Concert (LP and SACD), Ted Nugent’s self-titled recording (LP and SACD), and a Stevie Ray Vaughan Box Set on 33 and 45rpm LPs as well as SACD.

Vinyl Heaven

IMPEX
Abey Fonn, Robert Pincus, and the eclectic minds at IMPEX do a fine job mixing well-known titles with those that are somewhat less recognized. IMPEX has just released Earth Wind and Fire’s 1975 hit, That’s The Way of the World, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messenger’s Hard Bop (review next issue), and Miles Davis’ ESP. Come Spring of 2014 IMPEX will be releasing another early Blakey title, 1957’s Drum Suite, and what should be an exciting special edition two-LP set of Thelonious Monk’s Straight No Chaser that will include some never-before-released tracks.

Vinyl Heaven

Mobile Fidelity
The venerable Mobile Fidelity has been on a remarkable roll these past few years, and based on its planned release schedule for the next six months MoFi shows no sign of slowing down. Josh Bizar, MoFi’s Director of Sales and Marketing, sent me this list of mouth-watering titles:

The Band: The Last Waltz (SACD)
Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty (45rpm and SACD)
Bob Dylan: The Times They Are a Changin’, Highway 61 Revisited, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline (LP and SACD)
Dylan and The Band: Before the Flood (LP and SACD)
The Allman Brothers: Live at Fillmore East, Brothers and Sisters (LP and SACD)
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Miles in the Sky, Nefertiti, Sorcerer, Bitches Brew, and My Funny Valentine (LP and SACD)
Santana: Abraxas (45rpm and SACD)
Chicago: Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago (II) (SACD)
Frank Sinatra: Point of No Return, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers, A Swingin’ Affair (LP and SACD)
Hall and Oates: Voices, Private Eyes, H2O (LP and SACD)
Aretha Franklin: Aretha Gold (SACD)
Bill Withers: Live at Carnegie Hall (LP and SACD)
Los Lobos: Kiko (LP and SACD)
Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle: One from the Heart (LP and SACD)
Bill Evans and Jim Hall: Undercurrent (LP only)
Ryan Adams: Love Is Hell (3-LP box set with bonus material)
Judas Priest: Stained Class, Killing Machine, Screaming for Vengeance (LP only)

Vinyl Heaven

Original Recordings Group (ORG)
Though a relative newcomer to the world of reissues, ORG has an ace-in-the-hole in audiophile record veteran Ying Tan, who was an original founder of Classic Records as well as Groove Note. And based on the rather extraordinary list of titles Ying sent to me, as well as the outstanding 45rpm, double-LP masterings by Bernie Grundman, ORG now must be counted among the top—and perhaps the most prolific—players in the field of top quality audiophile reissues.

Hang on, we’re just getting started…

Elvis Presley: Golden Hits Vol. 3
John Barry: Dances With Wolves (soundtrack)
Jeff Buckley: Grace (LP and SACD) Roy Orbison: Lonely and Blue
Diana Krall: Quiet Nights
Melody Gardot: My One And Only The Mysterious World Of Bernard Herrmann
Peter, Paul and Mary: In The Wind
Diana Krall: Love Scenes

 

…forthcoming titles from Sony/BMG (all double 45rpm unless otherwise noted)…

Thelonious Monk: Monk’s Dream (SACD)
Shawn Colvin: A Few Small Repairs (33rpm, first-ever vinyl release)
Charlie Mingus: Tijuana Moods (45rpm and SACD)
Harry Belafonte: Return To Carnegie Esquivel: Other Worlds Other Sounds Dvorak: Cello Concerto, Munch/Piatogorsky
Gershwin: Piano Concerto, Fiedler/Wild
Billie Holiday: Lady In Satin
Coleman Hakwins/Clark Terry: Back In Bean’s Bag
Zimmer: The Thin Red Line (soundtrack, and the first time on LP)

…these ORG titles from WEA/Rhino will be distributed by Elusive Disc…

Miles Davis/Marcus Miller: Music From Siesta (Soundtrack)
John Coltrane: Coltrane Plays The Blues Richard and
Linda Thompson: Shoot Out The Lights

…Now, take your first deep breath classical music lovers because ORG has announced 15 titles from the Decca/ London and Mercury catalogs on 180-gram double-45rpm LPs that will be released throughout 2014. All titles will be mastered and cut by Bernie Grundman from the original analog masters using Grundman’s newly upgraded mastering and cutting chain.

Borodin: Symphonies 2 and 3, Ansermet (London CS 6126)
Bizet: Carmen and L’Arlesienne Suites, Ansermet (London CS 6062)
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Mehta (London CS 6609)
Grieg: Piano Concerto, Lupu/Previn (London CS 6840)
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite, Dorati (Mercury SR 90226)
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Maazel (London CSA 2312—3-LP set to be released as 6-LP 45rpm box set)
Mozart: Piano Concertos, Curzon (London CS 7251)
Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Mehta (London CSA 2249—(2-LP set to be released as 4-LP 45rpm box set)
Mendelssohn/Bruch: Violin Concertos, Ricci/Gamba (London CS 6010)
Khachaturian: Spartacus, Khachaturian/VPO (London CS 6322)
Debussy: Nocturnes/Ravel: Mother Goose, Ansermet (London CS 6023)
Brahms: Violin Concerto, Szerying/ Dorati/LSO (Mercury SR 90308)
Dvorak: Cello Concerto, Starker/ Dorati/LSO (Mercury SR 90303)
Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Dorati (Mercury SR 90199)
Ravel: La Valse, Paray (Mercury SR 90313)

…And coming Spring 2014, double-45rpm reissues of classic film scores conducted by Charles Gerhardt with the London Symphony Orchestra, recorded by Kenneth Wilkinson at London’s Kingsway Hall: Citizen Kane, The Music Of Bernard Herrmann, and Sunset Boulevard, The Music Of Franz Waxman.

 

…Now take a second big breath, classical and RCA freaks, because sometime in the second half of 2014 ORG will release a limited-edition (2500 copies) embossed linen box set of four 45rpm LPs of what is arguably the most sought-after of all Golden Age collectibles: The Royal Ballet Gala (original RCA Soria Series LDS 6065). Conducted by Ernst Ansermet with The Royal Opera House of Covent Garden Orchestra, this famously great recording features excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, as well as other ballet music from Adam, Delibes, Schumann, and Chopin.

Vinyl Heaven

Reference Recordings
The esteemed Reference Recordings, which, let us add, is the only label here that releases its own original recordings, has announced a trio of new releases slated for the first half of 2014.

From the Kansas City Symphony comes the first recording in the orchestra’s new home, Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Conducted by Michael Stern, Hindemith, Prokofiev, Bartok will include Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (Hindemith), Love for Three Oranges Suite (Prokofiev), and The Miraculous Mandarin Suite (Bartok). Planned formats include LP, CD, Hybrid SACD (stereo HDCD, SACD and surround 5.1 SACD), and HRx.

Also from Helzberg Hall, organist Jan Kraybill’s premiere recording of the Casavant organ includes pieces from Widor, Franck, Alain, and Dupré. (LP, CD, HRx.)

New York-based pianist Joel Fan has two recital programs on RR, World Keys and West of the Sun. In a new recording with the Northwest Sinfonietta, conducted by Christophe Chagnard, Fan plays a program of dances for piano and orchestra featuring rare and first recordings. Works are by Chopin, Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Gottschalk, and the American composer Charles Wakefield Cadman, whose Dark Dancers of the Mardi Gras (1933) receives its first modern recording. (CD and HRx.)

And coming in RR’s “Fresh!” series, guitarist Roberto Moronn Perez’s Andres Segovia: French Composers (CD only), a recital of compositions commissioned by that late great master of the six strings; and also on CD, Banner Saga, which features the Dallas Wind Symphony playing Austin Wintory’s Grammy-nominated soundtrack to the video game of the same title.

Reference is also releasing a pair of 200-gram LPs from its archives. Both are with the Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra: Respighi’s Pines of Rome and Belkis Queen of Sheba Suite; and Mephisto, a collection of orchestral nuggets including Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, and Arnold’s Tam O’ Shanter.

Vinyl Heaven

Speakers Corner
Kai Seemann and his crew at Germany’s Speakers Corner are known for a wide-ranging catalog of fine vinyl reissues, and continue in that vein with Santana’s Amigos, Elvis Presley’s His Hand In Mine, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing songs from Porgy and Bess, and Glenn Gould’s complete Bach Keyboard Concertos.

Wayne Garcia

By Wayne Garcia

Although I’ve been a wine merchant for the past decade, my career in audio was triggered at age 12 when I heard the Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! blasting from my future brother-in-law’s giant home-built horn speakers. The sound certainly wasn’t sophisticated, but, man, it sure was exciting.

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