European Vs. U.S. Pressings
I recently picked up a batch of European — and South African — pressings of original jazz records from the ’50s and ’60s. Being American and a New Yorker at that, I’ve always had access to the U.S. pressings and, frankly, never had interest in the European pressings. I’m now listening to a Brubeck Columbia, CBS actually, with the heavy vinyl, red label, deep grooves. It has the soft cover and, now that I look at the cover, is actually from South Africa. There’s a note at the bottom: “Everyday is somebody’s biirthday. Give a national record gift token exchangeable anywhere in Southern Africa.” I just took off the Brubeck and am now listening to Ella Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook. All of this is leading to a point and some questions. For those who follow these things closely, is there a noticeable difference in sound quality between the American and European pressings?In listening to the Ella record now, the pressing, quite frankly, sucks. Really bad. The Brubeck was much better. How do you feel about the soft covers? And for those of you who were actually buying records in the era — Rudolf? Michel? — were you content to have the European pressings, or did you focus on the U.S. pressings? Just curious. Not sure what I’m going to do with these European pressings I now own. There’s something nice about having them, knowing they were issued at the same time as the U.S. versions, but I do have U.S. pressings of most of these. Oh,the challenges of being an obsessive collector. I hate to get rid of anything, even if I have it.
Personally I have always opted for waiting till a U.S copy V European. The quality of the pressing is usually inferior to the U.S. version (I say version, if they were produced at the same time) The soft cover is a very poor relative of the stiffer board used on U.S. pressings and subsequently deteriorated rather quicker and never really stood the time test.
Market value, the European pressings fetch considerably less but can be a welcome in times of hardship or scarceness of the U.S. copy.
What was quite nice is they opted for an alternative cover on some titles. So broadly speaking it’s U.S. pressings all they way for me, better sound quality, better packaged and they feel authentically original.
Interesting questions, raised by Al, our friend and moderator.
For our discussion we limit ourselves to (almost) simultaneous European versions of original U.S. records.
Sellers of European versions, e.g. Esquire, pretend the U.K. Esquires were much better than their American equivalent. This is not always true. It depends: Esquire was better than the original Transition pressings. Also the 10″ Esquires were better than 10″ Prestige. But the 12″ Prestige albums were as good as the equivalent Esquires.
The U.K. London label of the Decca group had better quality pressings than any of the US equivalents which made up the label (Riverside, United Artists, Atlantic and Savoy).
Continental Philips/Fontana was as good as Columbia.
Danish Metronome slightly under the first pressing Prestige equivalent.
When I started collecting, I had no choice but to buy national Philips/Fontana and EmArcy and imported London, Esquire and Metronome. The only labels imported directly from the US were the Norman Granz labels, Fantasy, Contemporary, Savoy and Blue Note. At that time I was not happy and preferred an “original” hard cover American pressing, but they were just not available.
Since some time I find European issues, sometimes with original art work, very attractive and collectible.
As a matter of fact, these “despisable” soft covers have withstood the test of time much better than most US hardcovers, many of which have seam splits or traces of spilled liquids. Look at Jazz West or Pacific Jazz, the cover is just two thick cardboards with a piece of paper glued all around to keep them together. After 60 years many of my Pacific Jazz covers are split by fatigue or wear.
The laminated, soft flipover Esquires, Londons and Metronomes withstood the test of time much better. They were more resistent to wear and in case of beer, wine or coffee spills, no problem, just wipe it off. No traces left. This does not apply to Philips/Fontana.
I guess my collection spans around 50:50 between US first pressings and European first pressings. I must say I have found no universal this or that is best. Esquires, of which I have over thirty, seem to me easily the equal of Prestige, being pressed with metalwork originating from the same lacquer.
The same applies comparing London American Jazz Recordings against Atlantic and Bethlehem originals, though these have the unique UK Decca hallmarks. I have a few original US Savoy and they are all very disappointing. Contemporary and UK Vogue/Decca are head to head on audio quality.
Bottom line is there were a huge number of cut-price pressing plants in the US, competing on price and cutting corners to get orders. That’s why a lot of New Jazz/Prestige Sixties hisssss.
In the UK there was Decca New Malden, EMI Hayes, and Philips, all of which had highly skilled engineers and pressing facilities and no economies that spoiled the quality. The idea that somehow US pressings were “better” is just flag-waving IMHO.
The untold story is how our friends in Japan in the 70s and 80s managed to ensure such stunning audio quality at a time the US was churning out, forgive me, “dogs”.
Being in the US, I have many more US pressings than Euro pressings but I like the European versions for slightly different reasons. I’m very familiar with the US versions of BN, prestige, Coloubia, et al. The European versions are much less familiar to me so I find them interesting. I’ve had good luck with pressing quality with various Euro pressings, but it’s not even that. They are just more exotic to me and therefore more desirable. I imagine the Europeans don’t think the same way, but they feel different to me. I’m going to keep collecting both, because I’m crazy like that, but I am more interested in Euro pressings because(at least in the US), they are more exotic.
Strange reasoning I know, but it’s how I think about it.
It’s also why I’m less in love with the Japanese pressings, they are too similar to the American pressing. That, and I’d just as soon grab an Audiophile repress, as a Japanese King with the prices around the same.
I’m with Mike.
Hi,
What do you guys think on the quality of Jasmine pressings? They did some issues of records i would like to listen to and are often really cheap. I only recently started on my travels into the world of jazz and there are a couple of albums i would like to own but can’t either find or afford to buy first pressings.
There’s an The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard on the Jasmine label on its way to my collection and i was wondering how it compares to the Impulse.
Most, if not all Jasmine product originates from needle drops & not the original master tapes. They can do this & for cheap prices, due to the EU “public domain’ law, not having to pay royalties for the issues.
I know this is an old post. But I saw it and could not resist responding! I have only recently started recollecting vinyl records since I originally sold my collection back in the late 80’s. But I have *always* heard the European pressings are of superior quality! In fact, the plant in California that pressed the 2012 reissued Beatles albums apparently has (or had) some quality control issues whereas the EU pressings did not. If I have a choice, I choose the EU pressings whether it’s an original issue or reissue.