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Great and well-recorded jazz on CD

I'm looking for recommendations for great CDs that are also great recordings. Let's keep it to jazz recorded between 1950 and 1980. Some CDs I've been listening to recently that fit the bill as posed in this post include Sarah Vaughan's first LP with Clifford Brown (Verve), or Bags Meets Wes (Riverside).

I listen to just about anything, including free jazz and fusion. Not looking for suggestions of awesome records per se, or for suggestions of audophile-quality recent jazz.

I listen to music for all sorts of reasons, and some of the albums I like are horribly recorded. I do appreciate a nice Sun Ra album for example that has bedroom-quality recording (hear the telephone ring just before the cut ends!) But that's not what I'm asking about here. On the other hand, I don't mind old recordings where you can really hear the hiss and the bacon frying---those can still be beautiful recordings with a sense of space, depth, etc.

Any ideas? Thanks.
price
quadophile's avatar
quadophile
418 posts
 
Ella Fitzgerald - Porgy and Bess (stunning sonics even on plain CD.

As for Cool Struttin I own the Japanese pressing on vinyl and it has stunning sonics. I believe this album has been released a few times and I think a JVC XRCD version is also available. If I were you I would pick the XRCD version, as I have never been disappointed with any XRCD issues. I would not be surprised if the plain aluminium CD is also very good sounding.

I remember this album fetched US$ 497 on Ebay for the original vinyl issue from 1952 and that was a record high price for any vinyl. This was good five years ago if I remember it correctly.

I hope this helps :)
quadophile's avatar
quadophile
418 posts
 
Please check out this thread which has great music selection. I had created this thread back in 2003 with very similar reasons that you created this thread. I keep going back to this thread and find gems every now and then.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?gmusi&1070546159&openmine&Quadophile&4&5&st0
hifimaniac
508 posts
 
I forgot these favorites; on Reference Recordings; Dick Hyman's the Age of Swing. Bill Evan's Waltz for Debbie. Miles Davis LP's, Relaxin, Workin, Steamin.
Diana Krall's LIve in Paris. Wyton Marsalis's Unforgiveable Blackness.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Hifimaniac, That's Barney Kessel not Bernie Kessell.
grimace
624 posts
 
Check out the last two James Moody CDs, 4A and 4B. They only came out in the last two years, but they're played in that classic style and the recordings are outstanding.
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