Analogue Productions Prestige

"Since 2002, mastering facilities like those helmed by Kevin Gray have improved. Analogue Productions' 33RPM mastering produces an even larger soundstage with better depth. Add to that the fact that the new packaging is far superior to the 45RPM issue, and this one-disc package is Sonny Rollins nirvana. — 5/5 stars, Dennis Davis, vinylreviews.com. Read the whole review here. "Analogue Productions has continued to push its own already high bar higher still. Its Quality Record Pressings plant is delivering the best vinyl discs to be found, its jackets and cover reproduction quality have hit new levels, and it continues to have the best in the biz — such as Kevin Gray for this series (25 mono LPs from the Prestige label's exceptional late-50s run) cut lacquers from original analog master tapes. ... The sound on Saxophone Colossus is upfront and immediate. Rollin's tenor is appealingly fat and sweet-sounding, the piano and bass are as nimble as kittens' paws, and the drums have a great crispness and snap." — Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, December 2015 One of the pivotal recordings in bringing about the widespread acceptance of Sonny Rollins as a major figure, Saxophone Colossus inspired critics to write scholarly analyses and fans to revel in the hard-swinging invention, humor, and tender-strength balladry. Up to this album, while most musicians recognized Rollins as one of the new influential forces in the jazz of the ’50s, most critics were carping at Rollins or damning him with faint praise. "St. Thomas," a traditional West Indian melody which Mal Waldron remembered as "The Carnival," was recorded by many artists after Sonny introduced it here, and it remains a jazz standard today. The contributions of Tommy Flanagan’s elegant swing, Doug Watkins’s steady lift, and Max Roach’s most musical accompaniment and soloing (hear "Blue 7") make this a landmark album.  

"Analogue Productions has continued to push its own already high bar higher still. Its Quality Record Pressings plant is delivering the best vinyl discs to be found, its jackets and cover reproduction quality have hit new levels, and it continues to have the best in the biz - such as Kevin Gray for this series (25 mono LPs from the Prestige label's exceptional late-'50s run) cut lacquers from original analog master tapes. ... Lush Life mixes ballads (like the beautifully read title track) with up-tempo tunes, and the sound here is sweet, airy and open, with an especially lovely capturing of Coltrane's tenor and the lively percussion." — Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, December 2015 Here is one of the musical giants of the 20th century, poised on the precipice of greatness. Between the spring of 1957 and the winter of 1958, during which time Lush Life was recorded, the music of tenor saxophonist John Coltrane (1926-1967) was developing in giant steps, thanks in great part to a six-month 1957 stint with Thelonious Monk that had much to do with sharpening Coltrane’s harmonic conception and torrential attack. Lush Life contains Coltrane’s first recordings as sole leader, his initial date fronting a pianoless trio, and one of his first extended readings of a ballad, Billy Strayhorn’s resplendent title track. We also hear him at the helm of a quartet and quintet, featuring pianist Red Garland, with trumpeter Donald Byrd, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Louis Hayes added to “Lush Life.” Coltrane handles the tune’s delicate complexities with infinite style and finesse. Coltrane and jazz would never be the same.

"Analogue Productions' 180-gram mono LP reissues of Jackie McLean's first two Prestige albums prompts us to reevaluate this hard-swinging jazzman. ... The only way McLean's bright, biting sound was ever heard to better advantage was live." Sonics = 5/5; Music = 3.5/5 — Duck Baker, The Absolute Sound, April 2013 A perpetual favorite among Jackie McLean’s earlier recordings, Lights Out finds the hard-swinging young alto saxophonist in 1956 still very much under the wing of Charlie Parker, who had died less than a year earlier. Yet McLean was beginning to find ways out of the seductive artistic security of Bird imitations. For one thing, he was experimenting with tonal variations. For another, he was working with Charles Mingus, and Mingus’s genius as a leader included forcing musicians to look deeply into their most cherished stylistic practices. The McLean of Lights Out is the hot young bebopper with a slightly acid edge to his sound and a solid blues foundation under everything he played. McLean and trumpeter Donald Byrd occasionally engage in the "pecking" technique of mutual improvisation they developed as members of the George Wallington Quintet.

This relaxed, rather informal August 15, 1963, session is one of Jimmy Witherspoon’s rarest and was the only time that the great Arkansas shouter recorded with T-Bone Walker, the Texas-born father of electric blues guitar. In an unusual appearance as a sideman, Walker contributed his trademark brittle-toned solos, obbligatos, and “from the five” intros to a set of tunes that included such standards as “Money’s Gettin’ Cheaper” (a ’Spoon favorite since he borrowed it from Charles Brown in the late Forties), “How Long Blues,” “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Kansas City,” and “Don’t Let Go.” And adding further Texas seasoning was San Antonio saxophonist Clifford Scott, best known for his distinctive solos on “Honky Tonk” and other Bill Doggett hits, who not only played tenor (as the original credits indicate), but blew searing alto on “Grab Me a Freight” and flute on ’Spoon’s reading of the haunting title track, a blues ballad previously associated with both Jimmy Rushing and Walker. With Clifford Scott, Bert Kendrix, T-Bone Walker, Clarence Jones and Wayne Robertson.

"I've never heard an original pressing, but this reissue by Chad Kassem's Analogue Productions — a 200-gram QRP pressing, mastered at 33 1/3 RPM by Kevin Gray — is every bit the equal of Van Gelder's Blue Note LPs from the same era: the trumpet's brash brass and bushels of air, the pluck and wood of the bass, the sizzling hi-hat and smashing snare of the trap set. ... Listen to 'Blue Friday,' and you'll be reminded of the trumpet-led passages on 'Stolen Moments,' the high point of Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth. There's a similar sound, and it's no accident." — Fred Kaplan, Stereophile, Feb. 8, 2017. Read the whole review here. Quiet Kenny is yet another reminder of what a trumpet giant Kenny Dorham was. Whether limning ballads such as "My Ideal," "Alone Together," "I Had the Craziest Dream," and "Old Folks," or investigating the timelessness and intricacies of the blues (his originals in this set with "Blue" in their titles), the former Charlie Parker cohort and ex-Jazz Messenger exhibits his subtle swing, personal sound, and finely-honed harmonic sense. Along the way these reflections and connections with Bird, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Harry James, and Louis Armstrong make for a rich legacy. With Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Arthur Taylor

As the tenor sax is not in the same key as an alto, Sonny Rollins would have to transpose a lot of music to take a tribute to Charlie Parker to a high level. Instead Rollins has chosen standards associated with Parker, and recorded them within a year after Bird’s passing. The music certainly has its moments, as on the inexhaustible 27-minute medley of seven tunes seamlessly stitched together. Rollins plays the melody on alternating songs "I Remember You" and "They Can’t Take That Away from Me," Kenny Dorham has at it for "My Melancholy Baby" and "Just Friends," with Wade Legge getting his two cents in on trio only versions of "Old Folks" and "My Little Suede Shoes." Finally the whole band joins in on the ten-minute medley finale "Star Eyes." Two independent selections accompany the medley: Rollins does the ballad "I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your (Her) Face," from the musical "My Fair Lady" and the horns finally play together for the nearly 12-minute cool waltz "Kids Know.

Originally released in November 1960, Ballads by Cobb, as its title suggests, is all slow ballads, putting the emphasis on the Texas tenor’s warm tone. A Texas tenor player in the tradition of Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb's accessible playing was between swing and early rhythm & blues. His stomping, robust style earned him the title "Wild Man of the Tenor Sax." Cobb spent most of the 1960s playing back in his native Texas but he returned to the national scene in 1973 and during his final 15 years engaged in many exciting tenor battles, showing that there were few tougher Texas tenors than the legendary Arnett Cobb. Here, the Wild Man takes a smoother, more emotional approach. The album was recorded Nov. 1, 1960 by Rudy Van Gelder at his studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.. It was produced by Esmond Edwards.

"...hard-bop devotees shouldn't overlook Mobley's Message, especially when they can savor this superb vinyl reissue." Sonics = 5/5; Music = 3.5/5 — Duck Baker, The Absolute Sound, October 2013 Critic Leonard Feather asserted that Hank Mobley was “the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone,” meaning that his tone wasn’t as aggressive and thick as John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins, but neither was it as soft and cool as Stan Getz or Lester Young. Mobley helped inaugurate the hard bop movement: Jazz that balanced sophistication and soulfulness, complexity and earthy swing, and whose loose structure allowed for extended improvisations. Born in Eastman, Georgia, in 1930, but raised in New Jersey, Hank’s long-lined tenor offerings became a staple for pianist Horace Silver’s group, which evolved into the ‘50s super quintet co-led by Art Blakley, dubbed the Jazz Messengers. Their groundbreaking first album for Blue Note, 1955’s Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, was a hard bop landmark, featuring sophisticated solos and bright, almost funky rhythms. Mobley hit his peak in the first half of the 1960s with hard bop cornerstones like Soul Station, No Room for Squares, and A Caddy for Daddy.On this Prestige offering, Mobley delivers his signature swinging style in three different variations. Four numbers are by the quintet in which Hank is helped by telegrapher Donald Byrd and his “sending” trumpet. They disseminate the information of two pronouncements from bop’s palmy days, Bud Powell’s “Bouncin’ With Bud” and Thelonious Monk’s “52nd Street Theme,” plus two more numbers, Hank’s “Minor Disturbance” and the group’s “Alternating Current.” For Charlie Parker’s blues, “Au Privave,” the group becomes a sextet with the addition of a young turk of the alto sax, Jackie McLean. Hank is the sole horn on “Little Girl Blue.”

"Analogue Productions has continued to push its own already high bar higher still. Its Quality Record Pressings plant is delivering the best vinyl discs to be found, its jackets and cover reproduction quality have hit new levels, and it continues to have the best in the biz — such as Kevin Gray for this series (25 mono LPs from the Prestige label's exceptional late-50s run) cut lacquers from original analog master tapes. ... Steamin' is the warmest sounding of the lot, with wonderful textures and detail. It also has the most relaxed and easy feeling of these titles, even when the band is smoking on tunes like the bop classic 'Salt Peanuts.'" — Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, December 2015 Of Miles Davis’s many bands, none was more influential and popular than the quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Davis’s muted ballads and medium-tempo standards endeared him to the public. The horns’ searing exposition of classics like "Salt Peanuts" and "Well, You Needn’t" captivated musicians. The searching, restless improvisations of Coltrane intrigued listeners who had a taste for adventure. The flawless rhythm section became a model for bands everywhere. Although there is no original material on Steamin, it may best represent the ability of the Miles Davis quintet to take standards and rebuild them to suit their qualifications. Steamin’ is a significant portion of the music of this remarkable group. Originally released in 1961 Miles Davis, trumpet John Coltrane, tenor saxophone Red Garland, piano Paul Chambers, bass Philly Joe Jones, drums