Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers* – Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers

Finally, we have the 1st issue (pressing). Thank you! words

Why is this pressing so expensive? I have some WRC pressings that are great but this seems excessive

At long last, a listing for this!! Many thanks to whoever was able to push it through.

I have a Blue Note 2021 release and one of Wax Time 2012 European reissue.
Could anyone describe how this 85 reissue sounds like panning wise?

Because on the WaxTime it's more classic and in the center (which I prefer), but on Blue Note trumpet is artificially (or at least unnaturally) panned all to the left, and sax to the right and I hate it...

It sounds MUCH MORE realistic on Blue note if we're talking about the sound of each instrument individually, but the way it's mixed and panned... So, could anyone share how it's done on this release? Do trumpet and sax sound more close to each other, or there is a "black hole" between them? )

Thanks.

I'll be comparing this pressing to 8436542011112 of WaxTime (771792 released in 2012) which I owned since 2022 and decided to "upgrade".

As for the objective and measurable things, that's what I came up with:

1. BlueNote has much more bass and it's one of the few things I LIKE about this record )

2. Dynamic Range: everything sounds more realistic and punchy, especially drums and sax: you can hear micro-spitting through the mouthpiece, also biting tom hits sound gret...

but that's where things start to change )

3. Mixing, or to be precise: PANNING

as an amateur sound-producer I assume that it was a goal to reach "more wide soundstage", so they decided to shift a trumpet ALL THE WAY to the left, and a sax ALL THE WAY to the right channel... And it sounds terrible: it's like two separate islands floating above the stage without any bridge between them, UGH...

as an audiophile, I always aim to reach the point where my speakers disappear and I'm in the cloud of music, but here each channel is ANCHORED to each speaker, like two beams screaming at you with an empty hole in the middle...

as a professional musician (and it's not only my thoughts, many jazz critics and columnists can confirm) I understand that the Idea of the most songs was to mix trumpet and sax to play like one inseparable sound, to create a "Big Band effect" on the dynamic fragments (the end of Moaning illustrates it the best) where you can't really tell what sax plays and what trumpet plays.

And here is where the idea or concept of the artists was killed by the counterforce of the engineers, who tried to separate those instruments as much as possible, trying to convict the listener that it sounds "wider"... Shame...

4. Even though, this record is 3-5 db louder that WaxTime (I measured it with a db-meter) it may have better signal/noise ratio, but IMO it doesn't help )

5. Sleeve printing quality is better color-wise (it looks as it should look), but I also like to read the reviews on the back of the record while listening, and the font is terrible and hard to read... Yes, may be you don't care about it, but this was a bad surprise for me as well...

CONCLUSION: I understand and I HEAR that each instrument sounds much better on this pressing, but the way it sounds together drives me crazy and kills all the joy... You can always add more Low frequencies, but you can NEVER change how it's been mixed. So, the Wax-Time is still my go-to record: it's better to listen a normal band, than a mix of perfect, yet lifeless SAMPLES of each instrument...

I like this pressing MORE that Blue Note Classic Series and this is why:

- first and foremost: MIXING.
IMO, it's recorded quite balanced and the instruments sound like a real band: even on this record this "holographic effect" can be observed as if you're listening to the real quintet.
- Frequency range: what I hear is BASS lacking, but overall it's easily cured, no big deal
- Dynamic range: it's quite above average ad may be one of the best in this price range, punchy, distinctive, yet not as precise and realistic as I wish it to be.
- PRICE is TWICE less that Blue Note, and a few years ago when it was one of the buying factors, it's something to consider.

Downsides: from what I see here it's quite a gambling regarding the random deffects and it seems I've won this lottery )
As usual, signal/noise ratio can be bigger than of releases from another league, and "realism" of the instruments could be better.

VERDICT: after I bought Blue Note, I understood that you can always add more bass or highs (sorry my dear puritan audiophiles) and enjoy your favorite music, instead of listening to much more realistic, yet artificially put together "samples" that kills all the joy.

Does anyone else noticed a bit of distortion on this pressing? Especially on Lee Morgan's trumpet

This press sounds good. I couldn't compare it to another one but I like it and sounds fine to me. I wouldn't go out of my way to find another.

This pressing is mind blowing, like hearing the album for the first time. I found a copy of this in a record store in Tokyo for around 10 dollars, and it had been signed by every member of the Jazz Messengers during their 1979 tour in Japan. Obviously I have no real way to authenticate this, but the signatures line up with his band at the time and would make complete sense given this record was pressed 2 years prior. Instantly one of the coolest pieces I own, and I could care less how much its worth, this is a piece of music history that I hope to keep in my collection for years to come.

Really great pressing of this iconic album. There is a bit of distortion during a handful of highest-level points, but I hear these in the lossless digital tracks also. I think those anomalies must be in the master tapes.

Still thrilled to add this one to my collection.