Despite the mass-market acceptance of the compact disc, lingering doubts remain about how well CDs and digital recording convey important musical nuance. Many serious music listeners still perceive that all-analog LPs are better at reproducing subtle music cues that make the overall listening experience more convincing. With this conviction, many audiophiles have resisted the market dominance of CDs for over fifteen years now.

To better understand the significance of this, it’s notable that fifteen years after the introduction of the long-playing record, you’d have been hard-pressed to find anyone with a preference for 78s. In 1963, Victrolas were no longer manufactured and no one in their right mind would have started a 78 "reissue series." Contrast this with 1996: several turntable lines are still sold and LP reissues are flourishing. While some may attribute this to "retro" fashion, to many audiophiles, audio reproduction technology took a step in the wrong direction with the compact disc.

The Classic Records reissues of the RCA Living Stereo catalog must certainly rank as one of the most extensive LP reissue programs ever attempted. Less organized, but nearly as ambitious, are jazz vinyl reissues from a mix of audiophile and non-audiophile labels. Joining Classic Records are audiophile labels Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs and Dunhill Compact Classics (despite "compact" in the name, they cut records, too). From the more mainstream side of the industry, Capitol and MCA have embarked on vinyl reissues of Blue Note and Impulse titles. Recently, I had the opportunity to sample several of these offerings.

All these new offerings sport original covers and labels, pressings on 180 gram or heavier vinyl and prices ranging from around $15 to $30 per record. Notable differences between them are carefully worded claims such as "all-analogue" or "mastered from the original analog source." More about this later.

One of the best of this new crop of jazz re-issues is the Thelonius Monk Quartet with Johnny Griffin, Monk in Action (Analogue Productions APR 3002). Recorded live at the Five Spot Cafe in 1958, this record is a stunning exception to great-sounding audiophile albums with lame music. Monk was at his height here and saxophonist Johnny Griffin’s wry, burnished tone superbly compliments Monk. The session featured Monk classics such as "Blue Monk" and "Epistophy," and some great soloing on cuts such as "Rhythm-a-ning" and "Evidence."

There’s something about Monk in Action that reminds me of a rather obscure two-record live jazz set called Jazz at the Pawnshop. This mid-1980s release became the rage at hifi salons across the country, as audiophiles listened for startlingly real cash register and telephone ringing sounds in the background of this recording. While Monk in Action may not have the dynamic punch of Jazz at the Pawnshop, the various club sounds percolating in the background convey a similar sense of intimacy with the original event.

Monk’s piano is very well articulated in the foreground. The bass notes have a that certain "short" quality to them that you get from an upright piano. The drums are as well recorded as you could expect from a 1958 live date -- the solo on "Blue Monk" is huge, complete with the single ring of the telephone halfway through. About the only shortcoming is the double bass, which is a little undernourished. On my Original Jazz Classic (OJC-103) reissue of this title, the double bass is somewhat punchier against a loss of definition in the bass drum and generally coarser textures.

Less successful is Analogue Productions re-issue of the Curtis Counce Group You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce (Analogue Productions APR 3006). The problem here, though, is not the fault of the reissuers but rather the extreme mix on the original release. During the early stereo era, certain engineers adopted an unfortunate technique of panning instruments to the extreme left and right of the stereo field. This resulted in essentially two mono recordings; in this case the bass, drums and piano panned right and the trumpet and sax panned left. I kept wishing the CAT had a mono switch...

Despite this shortcoming, . . .Counce still exhibits many fine attributes: a superb sense of the instruments with a very clean, precise sound. The warm, relaxed timbres very effectively convey Counce’s smooth West Coast jazz sensibilities. This one is worth getting but make sure your preamp has a mono switch.

Though Dave Brubeck’s Time Out (Classic Records/Columbia CS 8192) may not be as important in the jazz hierarchy as labelmate Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, there are elements of Time Out’s rhythmic concepts that changed the course of modern music. This material has become so familiar that it’s hard to imagine the sensation it created back in 1959. The use of odd time signatures (such as 5/4 and 9/8) presented swing-bred audiences with an adventurous, exotic sound that made Time Out an all-time jazz best-seller.

My original Columbia "Six-Eye" release sports a wide soundstage with drums and horns on the left and piano on the right. The center is filled with the double-bass in characteristic Columbia fashion: very deep, but with an image that is somehow spread out laterally and difficult to precisely localize. Despite the hazy imaging, this bass effect is satisfying in weight and musicality.

The Classic Records reissue brings the entire soundstage into tighter front-to-back focus. On the original, the drums, especially the cymbals, and the alto sax are placed slightly forward of the piano, with the double-bass further back. On the Classic Records, the instruments are strung along an axis that can best be described as mid-hall. This effectively reduces the sense of front-to-back depth while creating a better sense of lateral imaging.

There are timbral differences, too. Compared to the original, the Classic Records reissue suffers from a midrange peak in the piano, a sense of constriction to the alto sax and a crunchy texture to the cymbals. In going back to the original, I heard a much better sense of overall dimensionality. Certain tom fills that went unnoticed on the Classic Records were much better defined on the original. Joe Morello’s drum solo on "Everybody’s Jumpin’" virtually explodes out of the speakers.

Concerned with these findings, I sampled the Classic Records reissue of Paul Desmond’s Desmond Blue (Classic Records/RCA LSP-2438). This RCA recording featured alto saxophonist Paul Desmond with a string orchestra playing various jazz standards of the time. If ever a label could get string timbres right it was RCA but such is not the case with the Classic Records reissue. While the original RCA was not available for direct comparison, the string section came across as hard and opaque and Desmond’s bell-like alto sax was again constricted in character -- as if he was pinching his nose.

By this point, suffering from a degree of audiophile angst, I turned to Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s Hank Crawford and the Marty Paich Orchestra Soul of the Ballad (MFSL 1-224). This Atlantic production is very similar to Desmond Blue, with saxophonist Crawford soloing over an orchestral background. An erstwhile Ray Charles sideman, Crawford blows a lighthouse-beacon tone over lightly swinging southern R&B tunes. The warmth and breadth of massed strings is very nicely portrayed here along with Crawford’s sax precisely and consistently imaging from dead center.

To come full circle, another Mobile Fidelity reissue, the Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond Quartet Blues in Time (MFSL 1-241) offers the best tonality and sense of realism of Paul Desmond’s alto. The tight interplay between Desmond and Mulligan is superbly captured here. Going back to the Classic Records Desmond on Time Out and Desmond Blue, the horn consistently lost some of its bell-like qualities and Desmond’s distinct "signature" was missing.

While much has been speculated concerning Classic Records’ use of solid-state cutting electronics and its possible deleterious effects in their classical reissues, it should be noted that Mobile Fidelity uses Pass solid-state electronics in their GAIN system of mastering. These listening results could be explained away by the possibility that Pass’ electronics simply sound better, but I couldn’t rid myself of the notion of digititus rearing its ugly head. While I can’t imagine that Classic Records would feign all-analogue mastering, the question does arise about noise leaking from DACs that may have been operational in the cutting room during mastering.

A similar concern exists with the Blue Note Connoisseur and MCA/Impulse reissues. A consistently flat soundstage and instruments without a sense of mass plague many of these. For example, on Grant Green’s Green Street (Blue Note B1 7243 8 32088 14), a simple trio recording, the ride cymbal is bright and forward. It’s notable that the stickers on the Blue Notes claim "mastered from the original analog source." While this says they used original analog tapes (what else could they have been?), it does not follow that they were mastered analog. Ironically, I found the 20-bit compact disc issue of this same title (CDP 7243 8 32088 21) to have a much tamer top end and was overall more listenable. Serious questions must be asked when the CD issue sounds better than the LP version.

Several of the Blue Note Connoisseur reissues also appear on vinyl in Mosaic box sets. Tina Brook’s True Blue is available on LP as a Blue Note Connoisseur (B1 7243 8 28975 14) and is part of The Complete Blue Note Tina Brooks Quintets (Mosaic MR4-106). This particular comparison revealed a warmer, more dimensional sound on the Mosaics as against coarser textures on the Connoisseur. Different pressings, for sure, but what about mastering?

The comparison between John Coltrane’s Ballads on MCA/Impulse (GR-156) with my second-label Impulse (A-32) was not quite as dramatic. This 1962 release was an attempt to show a kinder, gentler Coltrane and the result are mixed: he sticks very tightly to the quiet themes and never really catches fire. The recording does not have the same sense of "air" as original Blue Notes, Columbias and RCAs, with Tyner sounding as if he’s playing the piano in a box. Even here, though, the reissue is flatter and drier. Again, the question arises: are these reissues truly analog-mastered with no DACs in the chain or elsewhere operational during mastering?

Before we finish this survey, the DCC reissue of Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus (DCC LPZ-2008) must be highlighted as another smashing success. Despite the monophonic presentation, this release truly conveys the original event. As you close your eyes and concentrate, the instruments magically transcend their monophonic limitations and take on a dimensionality and palpability that is astounding. Like Monk in Action, Saxophone Colossus is a must-have: detailed, punchy and expressive.

The best of these jazz reissues beautifully capture the essence of a very fertile period of music history. At the same time, there seems to be a recurring tendency for many of these reissues to sound subpar for reasons that are, admittedly, speculative. It is lamentable that the glory of the vinyl LP is being subverted by these unfortunate releases. Producers would do well to examine the operations of Analogue Productions, Dunhill and Mobile Fidelity to get their sound back on track.

Siegfried P. Duray-Bito