Best Record You Have Ever heard

Hello,

Angelo Branduari -IL Ladro (1990 Ariola Label)
Dynamic open Sound, One of my Top 5

Best Regrets 
Stephan

I am a jazz guy so for me the best of the best is going to be jazz, and as anyone who knows anything about jazz will concede, the first and foremost jazz performer of all time was Louis Armstrong.  The rarest of his early recordings is "Cake Walking Babies from Home" with Clarence Williams' Blue Five, OKEH, January 8, 1925.  The cleanest reproduction of it on vinyl can be found on the Time-Life Giants of Jazz, Louis Armstrong set, record 1, side 1, which also has excellent copies of the more famous Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.  As an audiophile recording, this is a non-starter, but as music, in the words of Duke Ellington, it is beyond category.

My kids moved recently, and among the vinyl that surfaced was my favorite of all time. I’m listening to it now via Spotify but I sure remember this in vinyl from the 80s--wish I had the system then that I have now (though it's all CD and digital). I need a hi res download...

Title: The Fantasy of Indian Drums
Artist: Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao
Label: Polydor of India 2392 913 Stereo
Year: 1980, I believe. It has also been reissued, though I haven't heard the reissue.

Sound-staging on this album is hallucinatory--there’s no other word for it. Especially side 2. People are all around me playing different instruments. Bells behind the lamp, drums on the stairs, tablas moving across the wall. A violin on the couch next to my chair.  On the couch!

"There are times when reality comes closer. In a field, in the actual air"

For some music from this century, Glass Animals self titled LP on their Wolf Tone label in conjunction with Caroline is amazing. Incredibly quiet with excellent dynamics. A beautiful world of sound!

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington
Recording Together For The First Time
Classic Records 4 LP - 45 RPM Clarity Vinyl

As close as we'll ever get to being in the room with these gentlemen.