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What are the treasures in your vinyl library?

They don't have to be the collector's items, necessarily. I'm just asking, what is your short list of LPs in your personal library that you prize the most (maximum 5)?

I'll start:

Diana Krall: "From This Moment On" from Classic Records, mastered on a tube cutter

Buddy Rich: "Class of '78", Direct-to-disk recording of my favorite drummer leading the best incarnation of his band

Muddy Waters: "Folk Singer", not MFSL or German pressing or original pressing or anything fancy, just a Chess/MCA 1987 reissue LP that puts you in the room with Muddy

I also have a 35mm Everest recording of Mozart woodwind sonatas that I picked up at St. Vincent DePaul for $1. It's old and a little ragged, but that 35mm mag tape really puts the players right there in the living room.
johnnyb53
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
My current "front five" on the stack are:
1) Cootie Williams Sextet & Orchestra "Original Hit Recordings from 1944 featuring Bud Powell, "Cleanhead" Vinson, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Pearl Bailey (Phoenix LP-1)
2) Sonny Rollins' Movin' Out (Prestige 7058 mono)
3) Schubert Piano Sonata in C Minor, Impromptus; Alfred Brendel (Japanese Phillips)
4) Chopin Preludes; Martha Argerich (DG Japan pressing)
5) Zino Francescatti and Robert Casadesus playing Faure Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Japanese pressing; CBS Sony mono SOCU 58)

But what I am really waiting for is the next 30: just bought a stack of (only) saxophone jazz over the weekend - several Coltranes I don't have, a few Sonny Rollins I don't have, more Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Coleman Hawkins, Archie Shepp, and a bunch of other artists. Am really looking forward to that!
axelwahl
788 posts
 
E. Grieg, Peer Gynt, Oivin Fjeldstad with LSO,
DECCA 2012, Silver Wide Band :-)
johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
Well, I've acquired a few LPs since my first post in this thread.

My sister (she's in her 70's) was cleaning out her shelves and sent me some LPs. There, nestled in the box among the movie soundtracks and swing band collections was the 1965 Mercury Living Presence edition of Janos Starker playing the Bach Cello Suites. Yee hah!

I grew up listening to this version, and it's spoiled me for all others. Unfortunately, the one I grew up listening to got destroyed when my brother's garage and part of his house burnt about a year ago. The stereo versions of this still fetch something north of $1K on eBay. Mine is the mono version, but even those go for amazing money. Besides, with solo cello you aren't losing a whole lot going from stereo to mono.

Anyway, that's got to be at the head of my new short list.
jsman
246 posts
 
My copies of 1st pressings of Led Zeppelin's I-IV and Pink Floyds DSOTM.
tubetan
24 posts
 
I guess "maximum 5" means different things to different people, but here's mine.

MFSL Half Speed Mastered
Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
Supertramp - Crime of the Century

Cisco
Steely Dan - Aja
Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat

WB/Rhino
Van Morrison - Moondance
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