Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers* – Moanin'

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...

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.

Got my copy June 2023, it is perfect.
Looking at the numbers at the time I write this, 9893 people have this record in their collection. 980 ratings, with average of 4.73. Not bad at all.

No issues here. Flat. Clean. Quiet. No non-fill. The cymbals have a great presence. The bass is tight. Great dynamics to boot. It gets a little hot at points, but that’s more than likely an og source limitation. Very happy.

As many have said, this version is great mastering with a mediocre pressing. 90% of the time, it sounds great...punchy, lively, dynamic. But there are frequent instances of annoying distortion/static that are pretty unacceptable, especially from a Classic Vinyl Series release pressed at Optimal. My copy is not unlistenable by any means, but it is one of a couple of these Blue Note pressings that have issues. But, when it is clean, it sounds very good, so I tolerate the dozen or so brief moments of static across both sides.

I got a good copy, and if you do, it's really the best I've heard. Worth the hassle of multiple exchanges. KPG really hit this one out of the park. It's also mind bogglingly quiet right out the shrink. Somehow quieter than my MoFi SuperVinyl's. Couldn't he happier.

Side 1 is basically unlistenable as many here have also stated. Sounds like non fill, really loud scratching distorted sound. Really unfortunate because side 2 sounds amazing as one would expect of a KPG cut.

Lots of distortion and noise, makes it hard to listen to. Great album, but mediocre pressing.

So I've tried a lot of these Blue Note Classics reissues, which have been excellent to my ears. And I'm not overly picky... but to echo what others have said...

yeah, side one of this one is a mess. I'm on my second copy and I'm hesitating to return to my record store as I feel bad about returning two copies of the same record. Virtually unlistenable. Unfortunate that a pressing of such a magnificent album could be done so poorly.

My copy also had distortions or pressing faults in numerous places on side 1, especially on the first track. Exchanged it for a new copy, which definitely is better but still isn’t perfect. Wish they’d repress the Music Matters versions.