In my online adventures I stopped at a few places, Blue Note, Craft, and a label called The Lost Recordings. I bought two vinyl reissue records from Craft: The Kenny Drew Trio originally on Riverside and Miles Davis, The Musings of Miles originally on Prestige. I think I paid $39 for Miles and $18 for Kenny Drew. I bought these two records for a couple of reasons. One was to check out the new version of the Original Jazz Classics series. I admit that I hated the original OJCs, which began in 1983. While I appreciated that the music was being made available, I never liked the packaging, i.e., the thin vinyl and thin covers. I would buy the OJCs because they were not overly expensive and they could fill gaps in my collection, but I always sought to replace them with original pressings. Of course. Wouldn’t you? I had reached the point where I didn’t own any more of the original OJCs. When Craft came out with the current OJC series, I reached out to their public relations people to get review copies, but, alas, I was not placed on the list, despite my seemingly stellar credentials as not just the owner of Jazz Collector dot com, but also as the host of the Jazz Collector Radio podcast. In any case, I wasn’t getting any free copies of anything from Craft, so when the urge to buy became too strong, I bit the bullet and ordered these two records, plus the Bill Evans boxed set called Haunted Heart, which I haven’t even opened yet.

I chose the Miles and Kenny Drew records primarily because of my radio show/podcast. I have an original pressing of The Musings of Miles, but I hate bringing some of these $1,000 records into the radio studio if I can avoid it. So I could kill two bird with one stone: I could check out the new Craft OJC Series and have an alternative to bring into the studio when it came time to play the Musings of Miles, which I did on the podcast called Old Vinyl, New Bottles. I bought the Kenny Drew Trio record because I don’t own an original copy and I had decided to do a radio show/podcast on Kenny Drew.  When I did do that podcast, Unsung Artists – Kenny Drew on Piano, I was able to use the Craft reissue and play a couple of tracks.

My opinion of the new Craft OJC series is different that that for the original OJCs. I really like these reissues. I liked that they used heavier vinyl, heavier cardboard, and they keep the original packaging. I’m no audiophile, but they sound great to me. There’s a slight mistake on the Kenny Drew packaging band – they refer to it is Kenny Drew’s first as a leader, when, to my knowledge, he had recorded two or three records as a leader prior to this one (a 10-incher on Blue Note, one on Norgran, and one on East-West?). But the band comes off, so it’s merely a packaging thing. For the Miles record, I had always felt that on the original record, Miles’ trumpet on the track “I See Your Face Before Me,” was recorded at too low a volume. I was hoping the reissue would fix that, but it doesn’t. Still, it’s a great record and package. Bottom line, for anyone who doesn’t own an original pressing and wants the music, I don’t think you can go wrong with these OJC vinyl pressings at their prices.

As always, I’m curious as to what others have experienced with these reissues, but I also realize that most of my most loyal readers are not here anymore since I stopped posting regularly and started doing more of the radio shows/podcasts.

BTW, in addition to the Craft reissues, I bought a few new/old Blue Notes. Hopefully, I will be inspired to listen to them and write about them sometime soon.

The post Old Vinyl, New Bottles, Craft OJCs first appeared on jazzcollector.com.]]> https://jazzcollector.com/riverside/old-vinyl-new-bottles-craft-ojcs/feed/ 4 9841 https://jazzcollector.com/features/coming-to-you-live-sort-of-jazz-collector-radio-and-podcasts/ https://jazzcollector.com/features/coming-to-you-live-sort-of-jazz-collector-radio-and-podcasts/#comments Thu, 13 Jul 2023 20:08:14 +0000 https://jazzcollector.com/?p=9191 I just got back from taping my seventh Jazz Collector Live radio show in the studio of WTBR-FM in Pittsfield. I’ve really enjoyed doing the [...]

I just got back from taping my seventh Jazz Collector Live radio show in the studio of WTBR-FM in Pittsfield. I’ve really enjoyed doing the show, but I have to admit that it has taken away time that might otherwise have been devoted to posting here at the Jazz Collector web site. Hopefully, I will soon be able to strike a better balance, especially because doing the radio show is getting me more involved with my collection and listening much more attentively. For example, today’s show was devoted to John Coltrane, as a leader, playing standards, on the Prestige label. Soultrane, Settin’ the Pace, Lush Life, et al. Great stuff. Last week, I did Bill Evans as a sideman, and the week before the show was devoted to Thelonious Monk. Sound interesting? Well, the shows are now available to be downloaded as podcasts. Go to this site: WTBRFM.COM. There’s a tab for shows, and under the tab for podcasts you will find the familiar Jazz Collector logo at the very bottom.

As of now, there are five podcasts available:

June 11 is a general introduction, some Cannonball, Horace Silver, Miles, Brubeck and more, with a bunch of personal stories mixed in.

June 18 continues the introduction, Rollins, Trane, Miles and a taste of Shades of Redd (of course).

June 25 is devoted to Sonny Rollins on Prestige

July 2 is devoted to some interesting Prestige recordings from the mid and late 1960s, perhaps into 1970 or even 1971.

July 9 is Monk.

The Bill-Evans-as-sideman show will air live this Sunday at 8 pm Eastern. If you want to listen live, you can stream it at the same link I listed earlier. Or, you can wait for the podcast.

As I mentioned, I’ve never done radio before, so if you do listen, please be understanding. I’m definitely looking for feedback. I know it’s not perfect, or even close, and I tend to cringe when I make a mistake or forget to say something obvious. But I’m seeing improvement from show to show to show.

My biggest bugaboo, believe it or not, has been dealing with surface noise on the records. The main conceit of the show is that I’m playing vinyl from my own collection. Some of the records are not in as great a shape as I’d hoped, and I’m not playing them on my Linn Sondek turntable when I’m in the studio. Also, there have been times where I haven’t taken the care to clean the records first, which came back to bite me today during the Coltrane show, which will air July 23. The other major conceit of the show is the idea that I am playing the records for you as if you were sitting with me in my living room and we were talking about the records and the music, although, being alone in the studio, it’s a monologue and not a conversation.

From my standpoint, the main thing is that I’m really having fun doing the show and the people at the radio station have been very supportive and have let me do whatever I want to do as long as I don’t violate any FCC rules and follow the station’s guidelines. I have ideas for zillions of shows and, fortunately, even after scaling back the collection by about 4,000 records, I still have more than enough music to do as many shows as I want. And if I choose to play Coltrane for two hours every week, would that be such a bad thing?

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