Vinyl Me Please Classics

Yeah Blossom Dearie is definitely really bad, and I always thought the colors on Erroll Garner's Magician were oversaturated, losing a lot of detail in the process.

I don't have the VMP Lee Morgan yet myself (just got shipping this morning woo woo) but I will say it doesn't look like the OG is much of an improvement, if at all:


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dhodo said:
I don't know what to say other than a professional could easily do a better job and scanning in ringwear on titles that originals are cheap to buy is laughable. I haven't even seen the title that this was brought up in context of so I'll take your word for it on that one. Many examples in the past look much worse than originals or other reissues.

Of course it would be a last resort if you can charge $43 for a blurry scan with different colors and brightness from originals and people keep buying it. Not surprised they keep doing amateur work.
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Brubeck’s Jazz Impressions Of Japan was laughably bad.
 
I screwed up looking at an expiring add-on track last month and messed up and swapped away Lee Morgan. I really wanted it! It shows up in the store, but I can't actually try and buy it, it just says 'YOU SWAPPED THIS RECORD' where it would be add to cart button. hrm
 
Selaws said:
This has always been a bit of annoyance. In the past there have been some really really bad examples (Blossom Dearie being a prime example).

I think you would be surprised when it comes to scanning original copies. It actually happens quite a lot. DJ Pari has a super clean copy of Yusef Lateef's Eastern Sounds and Craft approached him for a high res scan which ended up being the one that they used for the recent Small Batch release.

I work with photoshop regularly and I am nowhere near the level of an expert but I would humbly argue that I could produce a better job with a high res scan than the alterations that have been made on some of these (Blossom Dearie being a prime example again). There's no bounds to what a competent graphic designer could produce when it comes to this kind of stuff. Just look at videos of people restoring old photos on youtube, its eye-opening. Nowhere near this level of detail would be needed for this kind of work when the base file is provided anyway.
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Fair points. I am certainly not a Photoshop expert. You are probably right about the extent of scanned originals.

Labels like Prestige, Jazzland and many other small to mid level labels of the day did a terrible job of keeping original cover materials, if they ever had them - many times it went straight to the printer and no one cared to get it back. Verve and Impulse stuff probably went up in smoke, as Atlantic probably did.

Major labels tend to have stuff. I understand that WEA and Sony owned stuff is mostly all there. Blue Note archives contain pretty much all the original imagery, but reissue labels must specifically ask and force the label to dig, as default is to send a .jpeg of whatever quality is on file. I would imagine in many cases it is just easier to work on what is given, particularly if running up against a release date, rather than wait for the label to find better.

Given how many times record labels have changed hands over the decades, nothing is a surprise. And let's be realistic - 50, 60 year old images and negatives are not always in great shape.
 
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NewsFedora said:
Yeah Blossom Dearie is definitely really bad, and I always thought the colors on Erroll Garner's Magician were oversaturated, losing a lot of detail in the process.

I don't have the VMP Lee Morgan yet myself (just got shipping this morning woo woo) but I will say it doesn't look like the OG is much of an improvement, if at all:


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You saved me a job, I don't think the Lee Morgan photo is much different on the OG's I think it's intentional to have a very narrow focus on his face, leaving most of the picture a bit vague.
 
Just received the Lee Morgan & haven't plaid it yet. Very surprised to see it's an RTI pressing not QRP. I thought all Classics were QRP. (I'm not complaining, but don't remember anyone mentioning)
 
So the Throwback Thursday has the Coleman Hawkins Classics ROTM on there around the same price as an add on. Is it worth it? Listening to it and it sounds pretty good. I loved the Lee Morgan ROTM. Not sure if I'll be on board for the next Classics since it doesn't really seem like a genre I want. Plus not sure if Coleman will be there to swap.
 
Andy said:
Just received the Lee Morgan & haven't plaid it yet. Very surprised to see it's an RTI pressing not QRP. I thought all Classics were QRP. (I'm not complaining, but don't remember anyone mentioning)
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I think the last time a Classics wasn't QRP was with Erroll Garner's Magician, which was at Furnace, if memory serves. So it does happen, even if it's not that often. It could also be VMP is looking at other plants to spread the workload.

mdmost said:
So the Throwback Thursday has the Coleman Hawkins Classics ROTM on there around the same price as an add on. Is it worth it? Listening to it and it sounds pretty good. I loved the Lee Morgan ROTM. Not sure if I'll be on board for the next Classics since it doesn't really seem like a genre I want. Plus not sure if Coleman will be there to swap.
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I like the album and picked it up as a swaption this month, but it hasn't arrived yet. But based on other people's reviews, it's another solid release with the quality you'd expect from Classics.

Swaps open back up next week, so you could take a chance and wait and see if it's back in there. If not, it's possible it won't sell out on the TBT page and you could just grab it then. Dunno how many they have left but I'm sure it's still a wee bit more than that Eddie Gale. ;)
 
mdmost said:
So the Throwback Thursday has the Coleman Hawkins Classics ROTM on there around the same price as an add on. Is it worth it? Listening to it and it sounds pretty good. I loved the Lee Morgan ROTM. Not sure if I'll be on board for the next Classics since it doesn't really seem like a genre I want. Plus not sure if Coleman will be there to swap.
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I love that Coleman Hawkins album
 
mdmost said:
So the Throwback Thursday has the Coleman Hawkins Classics ROTM on there around the same price as an add on. Is it worth it? Listening to it and it sounds pretty good. I loved the Lee Morgan ROTM. Not sure if I'll be on board for the next Classics since it doesn't really seem like a genre I want. Plus not sure if Coleman will be there to swap.
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I picked up the Original Jazz Classics version of the Coleman Hawkins for $18 and it is scratches the itch for me. Don't think I need to spend an extra $20 for a sturdier jacket. Not sure if the OJC is truly AAA, but with my aging hearing and modest setup, not sure I'd be able to really tell the difference.
 
mdmost said:
So the Throwback Thursday has the Coleman Hawkins Classics ROTM on there around the same price as an add on. Is it worth it? Listening to it and it sounds pretty good. I loved the Lee Morgan ROTM. Not sure if I'll be on board for the next Classics since it doesn't really seem like a genre I want. Plus not sure if Coleman will be there to swap.
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It's in mono not stereo like the Morgan, plus it's recorded about 10 years before, so hard to compared SQ-wise. It's also more bebop era jazz whereas the Morgan is straight mid-60s hard bop. Definitely a wonderful record with an all-star lineup though but if you expect it to sound like Take Twelve it's not gonna be quite the same.
 
mdmost said:
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So to put it all together...

Current Months Guess Thread: October > December

October: Teddy Pendergrass - Life Is A Song Worth Singing (1978 Philly Soul)
November: 1969 Blues (Freddie King - Freddie King is a Blues Master?)
December: 1971 Jazz/Soul Vocalist

Hint 1: "Philly Soul, Blues, Jazz/Soul Vocalist"
Hint 2: "Cl: 78, 69, 71"
Hint 3: "1 album is arranged by a former Classics artist. That arranger is important to another album. 1 artist is important to a recently announced Anthology." (King Curtis? Donny Hathaway? Other?)
Hint 4: "Cl: All are billed as soloists, but 1 came from a group. Another is in an unofficial blues trio"
 
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Teddy Pendergrass was probably the one he's referring to that was in a group (Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes) so this clue narrows things down zero percent from what we guessed after last week. Though it does confirm Freddie King even further.
 
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