How are the blue note RVG CD's?

You can often find the Fantasy K2s in brick & mortar music stores. They will credit a JVC engineer on the back for the remastering, so they're easy to distinguish from regular issues. If a K2 is available (and www.fantasyjazz.com should have a complete list), they're the way to go. If not, the RVGs aren't bad. Blue Note also has a "Connoisseur" line, also remastered.

Get your RVGs at alldirect.com for $7.99 each!

I have a remastered RVG Blue Note Kenny Burrell "Midnight Blue" CD & I think that it sounds really very good. The tube mic hiss overtakes what should be a dead quiet spot but that's what tube mics did when there was so much gain in the system! I don't mind it at all, as I feel that the remastering job is trying to reproduce what was on those master tapes to begin with.

I can't figure the qaulity of the RVG CD re-issues, some of them like the kenny burrel you mentioed above sound great. Others seem to be extremly harsh and bright. I borrowed a copy of Dexter Gordons "GO"...very bright, remasterd in 1998, i think 24 bit if my memory serves me correctly. Wayne shorters "speak no evil" has me diving for the tone controls. I own a lot of the RVG series and i could go on and on and mention various differant titles by name, some sound ok other do not. I'm not a sound engineer but having read a number of books and aticles about blue note it was said that the attention to detail, including rehearsal time, studio preperation etc was second to none and much was better than that of other jazz labels at the time. many of the RVG recordings were made in the same studio....so why the differance in presentation and sound qaulity? to my ears the verve/fantasy/prestige re-issues sound better. Having said that I still love the music.

Just a note: Many RVGs were recorded in his parents living room. This is not a joke.