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Johnny Hartman's "Once In Every Life" Gets Well-Deserved 200g Treatment
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 14, 2016  |  8 comments
Three years before he passed away in 1983 at age 60 from lung cancer, a somewhat diminished Johnny Hartman entered Ben Rizzi's Master Sound Productions in the small Long Island 'burb of Franklin Square and recorded this album for the small Bee Hive label. It would be his next to final appearance on record, and one that earned him a "Best Male Jazz Vocalist" Grammy Nomination.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Joni Mitchell's Hejira  Reissued AAA on 180g Vinyl
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2014  |  47 comments
Not that it’s any of my business, but I was disappointed reading that Joni Mitchell had nixed Taylor Swift’s playing her in a biopix. “All you’ve got is a girl with high cheekbones” she’s reported to have said.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Katie Mahan Plays Gershwin (Direct-to-Disc)
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 05, 2018  |  2 comments
It takes nerves of steel and a healthy serving of humility to agree to record direct-to-disc a solo piano recital but that's what Katie Mahan signed on for here. The results are both musically and sonically rewarding. Mahan gave her first piano recital at age 6, having decided at age 4 that she wanted to be a concert pianist after attending a performance of Gershwin's "American in Paris". From her online bio:

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AAA VinylLAAS 2017
Kevin Gray Cuts AAA Series For Speakers Corner
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 08, 2017  |  13 comments
At his Masters of Vinyl seminar at LAAS 2017 mastering engineer Kevin Gray mentioned that he'd cut a series of records for Speakers Corner using original master tapes.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Kult of Kogan Kontinues!
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 20, 2016  |  21 comments
By now you know the drill: The Electric Recording Company finds a collectible and music-worthy title to reissue and does its fanatical-attention-to-details thing, both in the mastering from the original tape on a lovingly restored all-tube cutting system to a meticulously produced record sleeve and jacket that are in most ways difficult to distinguish from the original as described in previous ERC reviews.

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AAA VinylNews
Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished! Craft Announces "Small Batch" Alert Newsletter
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 09, 2022  |  45 comments
When Craft Recordings rolled out its exclusive "Small Batch" limited edition "One Step" series last year it thought it had done a good thing.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Lifeline Quartet's Music of the Underground Railroad
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 17, 2020  |  4 comments
There’s no better time than now to release a live performance of Civil War era “lifeline” spirituals dedicated to Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave herself, who is best known as an “Underground Railroad” organizer personally responsible for smuggling to freedom hundreds of slaves, first to the North and then after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 that allowed the recapture of freed slaves in non-slave states, to Canada.

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AAA VinylNews
Listen to Two Compositions From Jack DeJohnette's New Solo Piano LP
Michael Fremer  |  May 25, 2016  |  33 comments
The new subscription-based vinyl-only label Newvelle Records has given analogplanet.com permission to post this video with audio sourced from "Return" Jack DeJohnette's first solo piano record and the label's latest release.

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AAA VinylFeatures
Listening Session Impressions of Miles Davis’ New Birth of the Blue 180g 1LP at All Blues in NYC
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 05, 2024  |  2 comments

Last night (i.e., December 4, 2024), a select group of journalists gathered at the All Blues listening bar in New York City’s Chinatown, and were treated to an exclusive preview of Analogue Productions’ special 180g 1LP edition of Miles Davis’ Birth of the Blue, which is set for release on December 13, 2024. Read Ken Micallef’s firsthand listening report to get a taste of what you can expect from this historic LP. . .

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Lyn Stanley's Daring “The Moonlight Sessions- Volume One”
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2017  |  41 comments
It’s not an insult to call singer Lyn Stanley’s fourth album “formulaic”. Not when the formula includes bringing onboard some of today’s best studio and touring jazz musicians and arrangers, recording in the best studios and hiring the greatest engineers. Another part of the formula is the cover art: highly stylized, glamorous black and white photos of Lyn.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Mal Waldron Sextet’s Mal/2, a Rare 1957 Prestige Records Supersession With John Coltrane and Others, Gets a Long Overdue and Well-Deserved AAA 180g 1LP Reissue From Craft Recordings
Mark Smotroff  |  Aug 17, 2023  |  8 comments

Mal Waldron Sextet’s Mal/2 — a new AAA OJC 180g 1LP reissue from Craft Recordings of what some might deem a “lost classic” of vintage, mid-century 1950s jazz — offers important and wonderful music for fans of not only titular pianist Mal Waldron, but also of saxophone legend John Coltrane in particular. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why he considers the new OJC Mal/2 LP is essential listening, and why it’s well worth adding to your collection. . .

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AAA VinylNews
Miles Davis's Relaxin'  is Craft's Next "Small Batch" Release!
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 13, 2022  |  68 comments
Craft Records today announced Miles Davis’s Relaxin’ as the next “Small Batch” limited to 5000 copies release. The pre-sale launches Friday April 15th at 2:00 PST/5:00 EST on the “Small Batch” website.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Miles' & Gils' Porgy And Bess  Still Sublime After All These Years
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 09, 2020  |  12 comments
Miles Davis's second collaboration with arranger/orchestrator Gil Evans (and the first recorded in stereo) is arguably the duo's best effort—a majestic, moody re-working of George Gershwin's classic folk opera recorded in three summer of 1958 sessions at Columbia's 30th street studios.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Mo-Fi Does the "One Step" With Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2021  |  72 comments
Seven years ago (2014) Sony/Legacy reissued for Record Store Day a swell version of Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years, mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at RTI. It was positively reviewed on this site.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Mo-Fi's "Kind Of Blue": Kind of Blah? (Updated 10/28/15)
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 20, 2015  |  77 comments
Donald Rumsfeld once famously said "You go to war with the army you have not the army you want". While reissuing Miles Davis' iconic Kind of Blue is hardly as consequential as invading a country, in context of our little musical and sonic world it probably is.

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