Very good American "modern" jazz from the 1950's
SPECIAL NOTE: This is an early vinyl "Microgroove" 200g pressing and I suspect that to obtain the best possible sound reproduction, the playing styli should be 1.0 mil tip, not the modern, common fitted smaller tips usually in the range 0.6 ~ 0.7 mil
Full information about this and possible "work-arounds" are detailed below in the description
Keep in mind that this is a mono recording, best played as originally intended using a mono cartridge but this would be very unusual these days so just "flip the switch" on your power amplifier to MONO (if you have that facility)
Al "Jazzbo" Collins - East Coast Jazz Scene Volume 1
Corel Records
Cat# C12-1020
1956 (yes, 1956, this is not a misprint!)
MONO recording
Australian release
Cover is in good (minus) condition, no tears, no seam splits or but clearly there has been light-medium damage to the front graphics (tired looking) and the rear has a "grubby" appearance, not helped by previous attempts to repair seams splits, which have now been repaired properly.
New inner plastic liner sleeve
Vinyl is in very good condition, inspected under a white halogen light source and I can see just a couple of light scratches on each side, quite amazing considering this is now around 65 years old!. I then played both sides entirely and this is really nice jazz! Surface noise is not a significant issue (but see my notes below) and click/pops are also not a problem.
SPECIAL NOTE (Continued): This is vinyl (not a shellac) and described as microgroove but visually the grooves are much more noticeable and considering the age of this pressing I believe the grooves are in fact wider than later vinyl grooves.
When playing the record (on either side) and I can hear a low level "swishing" sound which is changing in nature as the record plays, something like a phasing effect. This swishing is not a nuisance to the listening pleasure but I can hear it.
My turntable is fitted with a standard 0.7 mil styli tip and as I suspect these grooves are 1.0 mil (or even larger), I believe the tip is moving laterally (i.e sideways movement) inside the groove while playing. I believe this movement is the cause of the swishing sound. I think that by using a large 1.0 mil styli, this issue will disappear. Unfortunately I have no older cartridges/styli left now so I cannot test out this theory.
But that aside, this album still plays very nicely with modern equipment.
New outer protective sleeve
All tracks recorded at Pythian Temple, New York, November 7th 1955
The Pythian Temple was a historical building in NY, built 1927 within which the recording studio was housed and this building is now known as the Pythian (full of condominiums).
Recording begins with a spoken introduction by Al Collins on Side A and also quite a bit of "banter" on Side 2 as well - nice.
Tracks: Zany, Ida Bridges Falling Down, Flying Down To Rio, The Things We Did Last Summer, Darn That Dream, Vibraphone Impressions, Foolin' Around, The Man I Love, Tony's Blues
