{"product_id":"bakerplays_2604-1xx","title":"Baker, Chet - Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe - Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a stitch-like noise that plays lightly for approx. the first 1\/4\" of track 1 on side 1, \"I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face.\" There is also a mark that plays lightly and intermittently for approx. the first 1\/4\" of the last track, \"On The Street Where You Live.\" This same mark pauses for approx. 2-3 rotations and then plays 20 times at a light to moderate level.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a wonderful Chet Baker record that doesn't seem to be getting the respect it deserves in the wider jazz world. You may just like it every bit as much as the Chet album, and that is one helluva record to compare any album to, in our estimation about as good as it gets in most respects.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinding good Chet Baker records is like finding hen's teeth these days. The albums he did for Pacific Jazz in the 50s can be wonderful but few have survived in audiophile playing condition. The Mariachi Brass albums are as awful as everyone says -- we know, we've played them too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Old Paradigm, Not Really a Paradigm At All\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe've never heard the record sound better than in our most recent shootout, and that's coming from someone who's been playing the album since it was first reissued in the 80s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI used to sell these very records in the 90s -- we retailed them for ten bucks back then -- but we had no clue just how good they could be back in those days. We couldn't clean them right, or even play them right, and it would never have occurred to us to listen to a big pile of them one after another in order to pick out the best sounding copies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of ...Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221959%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1959\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCopies with \u003cstrong\u003erich lower mids and nice extension up top\u003c\/strong\u003e did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren't veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record. We know, we've heard them all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTop end extension\u003c\/strong\u003e is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural air and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTube smear\u003c\/strong\u003e is common to most vintage pressings. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On ...Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, full-bodied bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Players and Personnel\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Zoot Sims\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBaritone Saxophone – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22Pepper-Adams%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePepper Adams\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBass – Earl May\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrums – Clifford Jarvis\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFlute – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22Herbie-Mann%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHerbie Mann\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePiano – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22Bill-Evans%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBill Evans\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (tracks: A1, B2 to B4), Piano – Bob Corwin (tracks: A2 to A4, B1)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eProducer – Orrin Keepnews\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEngineer – Roy Friedman\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Baker, Chet","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51743690391848,"sku":"bakerplays","price":59.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/bakerplayst.jpg?v=1774371797","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/bakerplays_2604-1xx","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}