The early UK release “Strictly Personal” is a gatefold, it’s a USA Blue Thumb jacket carrying a Liberty vinyl, and sounds very nice.
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Thanks to you both for your replies.
It sounds like the crackling on my copy is worse than you describe, it’s clearly audible during normal volume passages.
I’ll get a replacement and let you know how it turns out.
By contrast, the 35 years or so old used copy of a k.d.lang album I bought the same day, for 1/7th the price, is one of the quietest records I have heard!
Good stuff, look forward to your thoughts on the ST. Vincent replacement - is this the bronze version or the black? May plunge for a standard black to compare. IIRC, my pink copy of Masseduction is not the greatest pressing either.
I also have that same KD. Lang album (bought when it came out), and it’s an outstanding pressing, both in terms of production and whisper quiet backgrounds - tremendous overall SQ.
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The bronze. Yeah I’ll go for the black version this time.
That’s great about the k.d.lang album! I’ve always been a fan, she’s got such a great voice and creamy music. Just have to track down a copy of Ingenue and whatever the album is that came after it (I’ve got it on CD, can picture the cover, I Want It All or something)
Agree - she’s superb. Ingénue has excellent SQ and worth looking for a minty copy, and not too expensive on the used market IIRC. Think the next album was All You Can Eat and that is a gap in my collection, so will hunt a copy down eventually. Inspired by @seakayaker (I think it was) playing it in the big ‘now playing’ thread, I recently bought a CD copy of Hymns of the 49th Parallel - cover versions of her fav Canadian singer / songwriter tracks, and it is tremendous - esp the opener of Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush. Amazing voice.
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Been feeling pretty unwell most of this weekend, terrible head (not intoxicants) and just havent been able to listen to anything.
The first record I’ve played all weekend, the new Craft Records Kevin Gray mastered/RTI pressed…
Abbey Lincoln - Abbey Is Blue LP
Typically good mastering & pressing from the above (if ever so fractionally off centre on side 1 but doesnt affect pitch)
Reasonable card sleeve, not lightweight as I mistakenly said earlier, but I dont think it’s a Stoughton as described elsewhere.
For around £20 though, very reasonable. Raises the bar imo over the similarly priced but pressed at Optimal (who’s quality is not as good these days ime) Blue Note Classic series, take note Blue Note.
If you love Jazz vocal from the period (1959) Billie Holiday/Sarah Vaughan etc you need to hear this
The music is sublime and highly recommended, shame my head wont let me fully appreciate it today
Allaboutjazz.com;
In 1959 Abbey Lincoln was poised to make a truly great album, and Abbey Is Blue was it. Not only was it a breakout performance for Lincoln, who delivered on the promise she had already shown, it was also a breakthrough performance in jazz singing.
With the civil rights movement looming over the horizon, no longer did singers need to stick with standards and Tin Pan Alley tunes and could truly sing about subjects that mattered to them. Lincoln picked up Billie Holiday’s skill at inhabiting the lyrics of a song and projecting its emotional content outward, and these songs, all of which deal with sorrow, are stark and harrowing accounts of loss and injustice. There’s a sense of social protest in the first half that is tempered with weariness from the fight (especially on Lincoln’s own "Let Up ) and "Empty House is surely one of the most melancholy performances on record, featuring isolation and desperation in equal measures.
The backing groups, both Max Roach’s and another all-star combo, are a ghostly presence behind Lincoln, popping up through the murk for an occasional solo, but mostly sticking to sparse backing, highlighting the desolation that pervades the entire album. Only "Afro-Blue (the first vocal version of the tune) and "Long As You’re Living feature anything close to high-powered riffing. Abbey Is Blue may not be pleasant listening, but it’s truly one of the great performances of the fifties and it paved the way for sharply agitated work later on.
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Yusef Lateef/Cannonball Aderley Sextet - Love Theme From Spartacus / Brother John, Prestige/Ace (2020)
7" Double A Sided Single.
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Just put this one on. By far the best version I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard some… Wow, just wow! It’s so alive, close and real I almost start crying…
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This is a superb album.
Oh, nice - do let us know how it sounds. I have been a bit sceptical about the SQ and thought it might be one for CD rather than LP.
Snap! On the doorstep when we got home. Judging by the imaginative titles: ein; svei; drei it’ll be totally improvised. Saw them at the UEA in early 1974, Damo had left and they just played non-stop for 45 mins then a break then another 45 mins then stop. Mesmerising. Aided and abetted I must confess by a square of blotter acid!
I got this reissue a week ago. It sounds good but I’m not sure it’s quite as good as the original UK mono I picked up some time ago - nice vinyl but a battered sleeve. The mono/stereo question is open as both have strengths. One thing though is that the sticker claims ‘original sound and design’ but as far as I can see the original US release was a gatefold and this isn’t. The photos and text originally inside the gatefold are printed on an inner sleeve. I am not complaining too much as it was a sensible price. If anyone has any other recommendations from this Verve reissue programme I would be interested to hear them.
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My Speakers Corner version is very good, you might try and find one. Happy enough not to desire the expensive AP one.
Sound quality is good enough. It was recorded from the audience by a fan, but Irmin and Rene Tinner have done an ace job enhancing the sound. I think I might have to get it on CD as well, as one of the tracks is 36 minutes long and had to be split for vinyl.
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It’s a fabulous performance!
Yes it is, I’ve been streaming it since it first came out and have been on the lookout for a vinyl copy ever since but ECM are a bit pricey at £30+ but Amazon are selling it now for £20 with free postage so a bargain.
This is very good news I’m getting mine in about 3-4 weeks hopefully.
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Yes, and her cover of A Case of You on the same album is also stunning. I think this is the best version I’ve ever heard.
