I wasn’t trying to have an audiophile Jazz shootout this month, but these days violence erupts in unexpected places. By now, I feel like I pretty much know who to trust in this arena, and it’s a short list.

Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Empyrean Isles
Music Matters Jazz
Performance:
Sound:

My dad told me when I was young that a person was lucky to have three true friends in life. He was talking about folks that would help you hide the body. Or let you hide out under the bed when the Heat found the body. (The Noir imagery is the author’s, not his dad’s.) Anyway, there are more than three labels you can trust to various degrees for superior Jazz offerings, but not many more. Music Matters wears the crown in this era. They misfired on a pressing once, and they replaced that run with their standard, stellar pressing at no additional charge to their customers. All of them. Try getting that service from the folks at Warner Bros. Or don’t bother. It doesn’t work. I’ve done the leg work already. We’ll start this party with MM’s take on Herbie Hancock’s Empyrean Isles from 1964. As always, they’ve set their guns on “Stun.”

One of a million interesting things about this record is that it features Freddie Hubbard and the rhythm section throughout – every bit as much or more than the titular artist. Hancock’s Maiden Voyage was a revelation to me. It provided a “just right” challenge. Plenty accessible with enough surprises to keep you alert. I love it like I love chocolate. I prefer Empyrean Isles. I’m not the most articulate person in the world, especially when it comes to describing Jazz music. It’s like reading about meditation. You’ve just gotta get involved, become a primary stakeholder. Isles isn’t quite as shimmery as Voyage is, musically speaking. It has less curve balls too. It’s simply some of the most compelling Jazz music I’ve heard. Hubbard’s horn negotiates and exclaims, pleads and attacks. The rhythm section supports the soloists unconditionally, and Hubbard and Hancock never betray that trust. Nobody goes sideways. Always forward, never straight. It’s a damn circus act, folks. Unlike any you’ve ever seen. If any of these compositions are going to stretch your limits, it might be “The Egg.” It has what could be considered a hint of the Free Form with a call and response between Hubbard and Hancock before finding its resolution. If you can’t handle it, then you need to get back in the kiddies pool. I’ll wade into these waters any day. Without wings. Immerse yourself, gang. Swim out to “Cantaloupe Island.” You’ll emerge a little more enlightened, I guarantee it.

There’s not much more I can say about the Music Matters presentation at this point. These discs retail for around $40 each and you get way more than your money’s worth with this label. The heavy, high-def gatefold sleeves with session photos that you wish you could hang on your wall. The dead silent pressings that you wish every pressing plant would hang on theirs. These folks are clearly in it for the music. I can’t imagine they’re getting rich at this price point, but their customers are. Get ‘em while you can. These are the types of small businesses that need our support. Right now.

Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Head Hunters
Analogue Productions
Performance:
Sound:

Speaking of Herbie Hancock, have y’all heard of Head Hunters? You know the disputed greatest selling Jazz album of all time? (You could also debate whether or not it’s a Jazz album at all. It’s not Blue Train.) Analogue Productions has put their stamp on the latest vinyl version. This is just fine by me. I’ve never heard a better one, I can tell you that much right now. AP doesn’t specialize in a specific genre or focus on a particular label’s output. Its fun to keep up with what comes next from them, and this title was in need of some love. It’s an important piece of work. It’s in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, if that means anything to you. Or you might be more impressed with the amount of times it’s been sampled or used in commercials. Regardless, this one’s essential. I’m always in the mood for it. Perhaps never more so than right now.

This one is not hard to find so if you’re one of those folks that always tries for the original version, you can probably skip to the next review. I had a generic reissue that I abandoned years ago so seeing this one on the docket got me all jittery. Head Hunters was recorded just down the street from my place at Wally Heider’s studio. San Francisco, 1973. By then, strict separation between instruments had been written into some secret, crappy constitution. So this one feels pretty clean. But it works! Hancock and Stevie were pumping synthesizers into the public bloodstream, and none would ever do it better. This is the recording I think of when I walk by the studio which is really saying something because Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was recorded there too. Along with Small Change by Tom Waits, and a ton of CCR’s best work. The neighborhood is pretty funky so maybe that’s why this one comes to mind more readily. Musically, this disc has more in common with the Meters’ halcyon days than with Empyrean Isles. Tonally, you can almost hear the shag carpet on the studio walls. There aren’t any sharp corners, but this version, at least, is far from dull. Hancock’s Fender Rhodes floats out of the soundstage about halfway through the iconic “Chameleon,” and the clarity is almost disorienting. “Watermelon Man” first appeared on Hancock’s debut album, and it’s re-imagined here with the percussionist blowing into a beer bottle during the song’s intro. If Groove is your thing, then you’re in the right vein, baby. “Sly” is a tribute to another San Francisco institution, but the salute is in the title alone. Nothing about that song’s vibe suggests any influence by the Family Stone. “Vein Melter” puts a bow on side two, and voila! You’ve got yourself one of the most influential Jazz/Soul/Funk recordings of all time. The picture of the band on the back cover sums things up more persuasively than I ever could with words.

AP slapped one over the fence with this one. Some of their pressings have not been so spotless, but this one is. They press less than 1,000 discs per stamper. Don’t sleep on this one. It’s too important to miss…

Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
Performance:
Sound:

Well, if Head Hunters isn’t the best selling Jazz album of all time, then I guess Kind of Blue is. I’m not sure where the discrepancy is. Seems like this would be an easy enough thing to clear up if anyone truly cared. The goods are in the grooves though so I’m not going to trouble myself about it. One thing is for certain, Kind of Blue is a Jazz album. Through and through. It shan’t be confused for Funk or Fusion or anything else. The depth of the roster is staggering. Clearly, Miles Davis had some heavy hitters in his rolodex. For those who have been living under a rock with their fingers crammed in their ears for the last 60 years, Davis’ support group involves John Coltrane, “Cannonball” Adderley, and Bill Evans as the soloists with a rhythm section to match. The music that was created by this gang during two recording sessions in 1959 is legendary for its quality and for having been analyzed to death. We won’t trouble ourselves so much with the latter here. We’ll cut to the chase and focus more on Mobile Fidelity’s latest take on this masterpiece, then move on.

There are a couple of things that set this release apart from the million or so versions that came before it. Some of the juicier details are as follows: this is a stereo release, its cut at 45rpm spanning two discs, and MoFi put it in a box. I whiffed on the mono version that Columbia released on Record Store Day a while back. I couldn’t find much info regarding the tapes and mastering process, and I foolishly let it float right on by me. Multiple audiophile forums suggest that I erred. Had I grabbed it, I’d have a version that documents side one at the corrected speed (stereo), the mono version for RSD, and now the MoFi version at the traditional speed that we’ve known all these years. That would have about done it, I guess. All of that to say that this is the kind of recording that warrants extra space on a collector’s shelf. This version at 45rpm is as stellar a release as you’d expect from MoFi, but it doesn’t quite have the “in the room with Miles” feel that I’d imagine a Music Matters version might give you. It is, however, pressed flawlessly and without the more obvious “sonic stamp” that some of MoFi’s earlier releases displayed. Maybe not as airy as some folks would like, but far from muddy. Something about the MoFi technique allows them to round off some of the horns’ natural harshness and let the sounds kind of waft out of your speakers. There’s plenty of low end without a hint of distortion, and Evans’ piano work is especially vibrant on top of it. The 45rpm presentation is labor intensive for the listener, especially if you clean sides before each listen. But you would have known that going in so why worry? There are some cool session photos in the LP-sized booklet included. Some folks may have preferred a glossy presentation; I like the matte just fine. The box isn’t saving me any space on my record shelf, but it sure looks cool. It’s tempting to put it next to MoFi’s Blonde on Blonde box just to see the two together, but that would be crazy. These are hand numbered. If you’re lacking a version of Kind of Blue in your collection, this may be your time. It’s lovely.

Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean
Right Now!
Music Matters Jazz
Performance:
Sound:

I’m afraid of getting older. I mean, it beats the alternative, but it’s still weird for me to realize that, more and more, I’m reaching for Jazz titles above my beloved Rock and/or Roll discs. There’s nothing going on here that should make Keith Richards nervous. In fact, we’ll be looking at his latest solo release soon enough. Still, change is happening. Maybe it’s the stress of grad school that causes me to reach for something more melodic and less intrusive than the early Kinks catalog. Regardless, I find myself branching out more and more into the Jazz Universe, exploring artists’ works that I’ve known of for years, but have never known in my own experience. Not surprisingly, I trust the folks at Music Matters to steer me in the right direction. To that end, we’ll be checking out what they’ve done with Jackie McLean’s Right Now! Next. Here we go…

Wow. This one heads for the rafters right out of the gate with an original McLean tune called “Eco.” I doubt that it’s shorthand for “economical,” really. This guy can play a bunch of notes quite quickly. Like a barely restrained Charlie Parker. Seems that the two were neighbors in NYC for a while, and that Bird offered up some pointers to the younger McLean. My ears say that McLean was an apt pupil. And he was far from a one trick pony. “Poor Eric” slows things down and lets McLean (the only horn player on Right Now!) really spread out. He jabs and weaves. Flails and flies. Clifford Jarvis’ cymbal work sounds like a gentle rain and I imagine McLean as a bird soaring straight up through it before descending in spirals and pulling up at the last conceivable second. This one is from 1965. There was a lot going on then, and the music reflects that like the moon in a turbulent lake. The two songs that comprise the second side heat things right back up with a lot of percussive flair from all four players on the title track. If this isn’t Hard Bop, then Hard Bop was misnamed. Finding a record like this is so exciting because you know that music recorded in this way has gone the way of the dodo bird. There may be players that are as technically proficient, but I just don’t see a producer “regressing” to the techniques and equipment that made these recordings sound so warm and so present. The folks at Dap-Tone are doing it for Soul music so I guess you never know. But there’s very little Jazz music being made today that really lights me up. Some of Dr. Lonnie Smith’s stuff has been pretty compelling, but the recordings still sound too clean for my taste. I like grits in my groceries, and that’s an aspect of modern recording that is conspicuously absent across the board. Forgetting all that for now, I’m going to luxuriate in the discovery of an alto saxophonist that I wish I’d found years ago. But these things happen in their own time. And now’s the time to add some Jackie McLean to your collection if you haven’t already.

Larry Young
Larry Young
Unity
Music Matters Jazz
Performance:
Sound:

I used to give a college buddy hell about his affinity for the pedal steel guitar. He’d listen to any drivel you cared to trot out to him as long as it had steel in it. He accused me of the same blanket appreciation of the organ. Seems like we were talking about Dwight Yoakum at the time so both of us should have been on pretty steady ground. Anyway, I was right and he was wrong, but the proverbial “kernel of truth” was in his assessment. I do love an organ. I think that, in the right hands, it makes just about any music better. I’m usually thinking about Jimmy Smith’s hands, but I’ve learned that there are others. Larry Young also had hands. Man, he could make some sounds with them if you sat him behind a Hammond. If you doubt me, check out Unity. That’ll fix you. It helps to have Woody Shaw and Joe Henderson on horns with Elvin Jones on drums too. But Unity is Young’s statement. That much is obvious.

My dad turned me on to Jimmy Smith when I was a little kid. Used to say that Smith could make the organ “talk.” And I agree. Smith’s playing did seem lyrical, and much of the music he played was pretty accessible if you’re into the Blues and Soul music, generally. The problem is that some of Smith’s recordings don’t really make the grade sonically. More importantly to my tastes, he often had a damn orchestra behind him, and I’m pretty much anti-orchestra unless I’m going specifically to hear an orchestra. None of those hang-ups are in play with regards to Unity. The recording is as clean and alive as any of the others in Music Matters’ catalog. Young’s playing seems a little less structured than Smith’s. He doesn’t seem too concerned with recreating vocal parts or any of that. He often hangs back in the mix before springing to the fore with some otherworldly solo. And you know it when that happens. “Light fuse, get away.” There’s no bassist credited on this record so I have to assume that those parts are being played by Young’s feet. The version of “Monk’s Dream” is an organ fan’s bonanza as Young and Jones are the only musicians involved. That’s the opposite of muddying up the proceedings with orchestral arrangements, right? And Young’s playing is simply amazing throughout. There’s really not much more you need to know. If his name is unfamiliar to you, you should remedy that immediately. If, like me, you feel like your time is better spent looking backwards for inspiration as opposed to accepting what’s available today, discoveries like this will keep you afloat. Getting to hear a master like Larry Young ply his trade without the congestion so often found in non-Blue Note titles is a gift. I feel obligated to appreciate it.

I actually have a 45rpm Music Matters version to compare to the newer 33 take that just came out. Somehow, the 45 set sounds a little tighter than the recent release. I prefer the 33, but you can’t go wrong with either. Beyond that, I think you’d be splitting hairs. Again, this month was not initially intended to be a Jazz duel between varying audiophile labels. MoFi and Analogue Productions acquit themselves quite well in any sonic domain. But I’ve never found records that are more listenable than the ones that Music Matters is releasing. It’s great to be alive.