Top 10 Jazz recordings ever

Today's playlist:

Sir Roland Hanna - Duke Ellington Piano Solos.
Good recording and good piano playing, but a little too much interpertation of Duke's music. It can't get any better than Duke wrote it. Didn't grab me.

Gene Harris -- In His Hands
Not Jazz but Jazzy. Gospel numbers are the stand-outs. Battle Hymn of the Republic / Will the Circle be Unbroken and The Whole World in His Hands, make the CD. Harris' Daughter sings.

The Max Roach Trio -- featuring the legendary Hasaan
Roach is a great drumer. He plays just like another instrument in the group. Let's the bass keep time. very nice set. Good recording. This is Hasaan's (piano) only recording. A shame.

Jimmy Smith -- House Party
Not as fond of the organ as I used to be. Seemed to sound better on JBL! BUT, with Lee Morgan, Lou Donaldson,Tinas Brooks,Kenny Burrell, Donald Bailey and Art Blakey on board, I'll suffer thru it! Five tunes in over 53 minutes. They had a lot to say. :)

Sonny Rollins -- East Broadway Run Down
Indescribable!! This is improvised music of the highest order. Exceptional bass playing by Jimmy Garrison. Freddie Hubbard on the title tune. This is a great CD. This is as 'out there' as Jazz ever needed to go. There is no tone like Rollin's.

Happy Listening
Cheers

"This is a high fidelity recording. For best results observe the R.I.A.A. high frequency roll-off characteristic with a 500 cycle crossover."

This was printed on the fold out of a Max Roach CD. The CD fold out was a copy of the liner notes from the LP. Does anyone know what this means?
Thanks in advance
Cheers

Rok, the explanation is rather long and convoluted. It only applies if you have TT and phono pre that can do those tricks.

RIAA equalization is a form of pre-emphasis on recording and de-emphasis on playback. A recording is made with the low frequencies reduced and the high frequencies boosted, and on playback the opposite occurs. The net result is a flat frequency response, but with attenuation of high frequency noise such as hiss and clicks that arise from the recording medium. Reducing the low frequencies also limits the excursions the cutter needs to make when cutting a groove. Groove width is thus reduced, allowing more grooves to fit into a given surface area, permitting longer recording times. This also reduces physical stresses on the stylus which might otherwise cause distortion or groove damage during playback.

A potential drawback of the system is that rumble from the playback turntable's drive mechanism is amplified by the low frequency boost that occurs on playback. Players must therefore be designed to limit rumble, more so than if RIAA equalization did not occur.

RIAA equalization is not a simple low-pass filter. It defines transition points in three places: 75 µs, 318 µs and 3180 µs, which correspond to 2122 Hz, 500 Hz and 50 Hz.[2] Implementing this characteristic is not especially difficult, but is more involved than a simple amplifier. In the past almost all hi-fi preamplifiers, integrated amplifiers, and receivers had a built-in phono preamplifier with the RIAA characteristic, but it is often omitted in modern designs, due to the gradual obsolescence of vinyl records. Add-on phono preamplifiers with the RIAA equalization curve are available; these adapt a magnetic phono cartridge to an unbalanced −10 dB consumer line-level RCA input. Some modern turntables feature built-in preamplification to the RIAA standard. Special preamplifiers are also available for the various equalization curves used on pre-1954 records.

Digital audio editors often feature the ability to equalize audio samples using standard and custom equalization curves, removing the need for a dedicated hardware preamplifier when capturing audio with a computer. However, this can add an extra step in processing a sample, and may amplify audio quality deficiencies of the sound card being used to capture the signal.

Orpheus10:

Excellent explanation. Even I could understand it. Sure makes a body appreciate CDs even more. :)
Cheers

Rokadanny, on that DVD "Jazz On A Summer's Day", you are witnessing some historic music. Jimmy Guiffre and Bob Brookmeyer are playing "West Coast" jazz. It's a genre that I thought was boss, and it's hard to find. Unfortunately, the very best examples of this music could be heard on movie soundtracks at that time. The movies were forgettable, but the soundtracks were boss. I remember me and another "jazz aficionado" going to the movies at Lackland AFB and grooving to the soundtrack without even knowing what the movie was about. All of my best "West Coast" jazz is on LP's that are too scratched and noisy, but that's the genre I'm trying to presently acquire.

Enjoy the music.