Jazz listening: Is it about the music? Or is it about the sound?

I'd say that it's both, and I too listen to more jazz than ever these days.

To my ears acoustic music almost invariably sounds better than electronic on a high-quality system, and I suspect that the recording engineers (e.g. Rudy Van Gelder) who focussed on jazz were among the very best.

I grew up listening to should and funk, and still love to spin Tower of Power discs, etc. But ultimately, the nuances of acoustic music draw me in more deeply. 

Hate to tell you, but if any of your recordings sound worse then your system is more selective, not better. I have zero recordings that don't sound a whole lot better, and a lot of them that were blah are now captivating. Whole lot of em. Could give all kinds of examples, but what's the point, easier to just say all of em. 

Always loved rock and blues, always had jazz and classical too but never really got into them. Now my favorite record is Tchaikovsky, but my U2 is more awesome than ever and playing Crime of the Century the other night at concert level was a religious experience right up there with Tchaikovsky. I paid big money for a White Hot Year of the Cat, and it is in a whole new universe from the average pressing I had, but there was nothing wrong with that average pressing in fact it got better and better as my system improved. Which is one of the ways I know my system really did get better and better! 

If you are noticing ANY recordings that sound worse in any way, focus in like a laser beam on precisely why that is, because it is in your system and not the recording, and so if you can fix that problem then you will indeed have made your system truly better. 

I only got into jazz once I set up a vinyl system a few years ago.  Now, it's about all I listen to.  I can put on nearly any jazz album and just relax into listening.  It's really the sound that my system produces rather than specific albums/artists/songs, at least at this point, that I'm attracted to.  I can even listen to the same albums frequently and not tire of them.  That's not the case with other genres.

I can put on nearly any jazz album and just relax into listening. It's really the sound that my system produces rather than specific albums/artists/songs, at least at this point, that I'm attracted to.

Exactly!  So...the sound is the thing.  Not the melody or anything so much about the musical details.  At least with jazz.  Still, it's not like all jazz is created equal.  There's still jazz I like and jazz I don't, irrespective of sound quality..  Personally, I have a hard time with so-called "free jazz".  And I can't tolerate some artist's tendency to vocalize along with the music.

IMHO, with jazz you get both – good music and good sound. Like @whipsaw mentioned, Rudy Van Gelder (Blue Note) engineered tons of material from the bebop/hard bop/post-bop eras. Several other labels had good production quality as well, like Prestige, Riverside, Columbia, Verve, and Impulse. I don’t know if there was an unspoken standard or a small group traveling within that genre, but most of the stuff they produced was pretty consistently good.

 

Yeah rock, R&B, even blues, can be all over the place. But again, I think that was a function of engineering and where/how they were recorded. Earth, Wind and Fire’s first album sounded like it was recorded in someone’s garage. Their sound improved substantially with the move to Columbia. Chicago (CTA) put out great stuff with Columbia as well.

 

The other day, remembering my high school days, put on “Stand” by Sly & the Family Stone. It was pretty bad. I liked that album playing on the system I had back then. If one’s system is fairly resolving, capable of faithfully reproducing what’s been recorded, then sound quality will necessarily vary based on how well it’s been engineered. It’s the old adage “garbage in garbage out” at work.  

 

One last thing, keeping with the central theme: is it the music or the sound? I had a plumber doing some work and I asked him “… anything or anybody you care to hear while you’re working?” He suggested Vince Gill, Randy Travis, and a couple of other country artists I can’t remember. That day – song after song - I discovered how much high quality sound comes out of Nashville. Those guys really know how to engineer great sounding music! Am I now a country music fan? Well no, all things being equal, music trumps sound. Just saying …