High Rez Jazz Selections

Perry Jonkheer · 04-26-2005, 12:00 AM

Hello,

I have recently gotten into Jazz and would love for some of you guys to recommend some really good high rez jazz discs. I bought a SACD compiled of Monk and Coltrane but the sound quality is quite bad and a waste of $21.

Basically I'm just looking for something with great sound quality with some of the more popular artists like Chet, Coltrane, Miles, etc...

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thank You.

PJ

Danny Tse · 04-26-2005, 01:30 AM

Here're my top 2....

Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

PaulDA · 04-26-2005, 08:25 AM

Joe Henderson--Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn SACD MCH.

I'm a big fan of Miles, Monk, Coltrane, Baker, Rollins etc. You will NOT be disappointed by the Henderson disc.

It deservedly makes the top 100 essential jazz albums/cds in the Rough Guide to Jazz.

Mike Broadman · 04-26-2005, 11:13 AM

I would definitely suggest starting with the "classics." Quite a few on SACD. The only downer is that some are expensive.

First I would suggest getting a bunch of Fantasy SACDs. They are priced like regular CDs, generally sound pretty good and contain some fantastic music, mostly jazz. Some of the best titles are:

Monk meets Mulligan
Miles Davis- Relaxin'
Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane
Monk's Music
Monk w/ Coltrane
Art Blakey- Caravan
Bobby Timmons- This Here
Bags Meets Wes
Bill Evans Trio- Portrait in Jazz and Explorations
Coltrane- Lush Life
Wes Montgomery- Incredible Jazz Guitar
Vince Guaralid Trio- two Charlie Brown SACDs
Cannonball Adderly Quartet in San Francisco
Eric Dolphy- Out There
Wynton Kelly- Kelly Blue
Quintet (Parker, Mingus, Dizzy, Roach, Powell)
Monk- Brilliant Corners
Art Pepper + 11 and Gettin' Together
Oscar Peterson- Skol
Modern Jazz Quartet- Django
Sonny Rollins- Sound of Sonny
Chet Baker- In NY
Cannonball and Milt Jackson- Things are Getting Better
Benny Carter- Jazz Giant
Nat Adderly- Work Song
Sonny Rollins- Tenor Madness

The Analogue Production SACDs are pricier but generally even better sounding:

Miles Davis- Cookin'
Bill Evans- Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Vince Guaraldi- Black Orpheus
Sonny Rollins- Saxophone Colossus
John Coltrane- Soultrane
Monk- 5 By Monk By 5

Mobile Fidelity are as pricy as AP and they have great SACDs of:
Miles Davis: Steamin'
Sonny Rollins + 4

note that all of these are hybrid stereo SACDs. Sony has some really nice sounding SACDs, some of which are surround, all of which are non-hybrid, the best of which are "Kind of Blue," "Miles Smiles," "Sketches of Spain," "In A Silent Way." They have a ton of Miles, Brubeck's "Time Out," Mingus' "Ah Um," Monk's "Straight No Chaser," Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters," Weather Report's "Heavy Weather" and "Mysterious Traveler." There are also Miles SACDs available only as imports from Japan. Those are too expensive for me, especially since they're not hybrids.

Universal also put out some single layer titles. The one I would recommend is Coltrane's "A Love Supreme."

Rachael B · 04-26-2005, 12:43 PM

Try some fusion & pop jazz like Monty Alexander's MONTY MEETS SLY & ROBBIE or IN MODERN TIMES by Spyra Gyro or David Sanborn's TIMEAGAIN or one of the two Pieces Of A Dream Sack-Dee's or WILL & Rainbow's HARMONY with quest vocalist Phoebe Snow or Kelli Flint's wonderful vocalizations for Dave's True Story's UNAUTHORIZED or Aaron Neville's STANDARDS.

If your Chet was Chet Baker get CHET on Analogue Productions SA-CD, pronto!

**HTF Ads**

Perry Jonkheer · 04-26-2005, 01:07 PM

Wow, thanks for all the recommendations everyone...

Looks like I have some $$$ to spend now.

Rich Malloy · 04-26-2005, 01:23 PM

My two personal favorites (performance/sound quality):

Charles Mingus "Mingus Ah Um" -- brilliant in every way, and still one of the finest sounding SACDs I've heard.

Bill Evans Trio "Waltz for Debby" -- ditto, with warm lush analog-y sound

John Garcia · 04-26-2005, 04:01 PM

Patricia Barber - any of the SACDs (stereo hybrid, Mofi). Cafe Blue and Companion (which is live) are my favorites.

04-26-2005, 04:49 PM

I just started getting SACDs in the past month or two. Haven't had a "bad" jazz disc yet, but I also did some online searches to "weed out" what wasn't so hot, in some cases. (A lot of the "classic" stuff I already had on CD I haven't bought or tried on SACD yet.)

Labels that seem to have consistently good SACDS (probably b/c of the original recording quality, and quality remastering):

Analogue Productions
Audio Fidelity
Mobile Fidelity
Telarc
Living Stereo
Waterlily

Jazz SACDs where I think the SQ is outstanding:

Patricia Barber: Cafe Blue
Jacintha: Lush Life
Al Dimeola, John McLaughlin, Paco Delucia: Friday Night in San Francisco
Chris Botti: Night Sessions

Lee Scoggins · 04-26-2005, 05:32 PM

Also check out Chesky Records....

McCoy Tyner: New York Reunion
Four Generations of Miles - various
Marta Gomez for Columbian flavored jazz
Anything by Clark Terry and anything by Paquita D'Rivera (cuban jazz)

I also like John Pizzarelli My Blue Heaven quite a bit.

Ted Todorov · 04-27-2005, 11:37 AM

Great recommendations! I have many of those albums on CD, and you guys have impeccable taste

Two questions - -which are the greatest improvements from the Redbook CDs? (I know that many of the above albums have had multiple editions, and there is huge difference between one CD & the next).

Where do you shop? My brief foray into the world of SACD has been a revelation in terms of sound quality, and a bitter disappointment in terms of what is out there (and for what prices). No wonder the format is dead

Amazon seems to sell at list price e.g.$28.99 for "Waltz for Debby" -- I mean does it include sexual favors along with the SACD? And the selection at DeepDiscountCD is pathetic.

I walked into J&R, if they had jazz SACD I sure couldn't find them. And their classical selection is pathetic.

Anyway, any shopping tips are appreciated.