{"product_id":"montgdayin_2603","title":"Montgomery, Wes - A Day In The Life - White Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis superb album includes Montgomery's great cover of \"A Day In The Life\" on side one and killer tracks like \"Eleanor Rigby,\" \"Willow Weep for Me,\" \"Windy\" and \"The Joker\" on side two.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's damn near impossible to find decent sounding early A\u0026amp;M pressings, but the sound here is surprisingly good. There are plenty of dull, lifeless, overly compressed copies out there. That sound becomes especially offensive when the strings come in, most notably in the climactic middle section of \"A Day In The Life.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFortunately for everyone who loves this kind of guitar-led jazz, our Hot Stampers have the warm, rich sound that lets you enjoy this wonderful music without making your ears to bleed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eOrchestral-Backed Jazz\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is one of our favorite orchestra-backed jazz records here at Better Records. A few others off the top of my head would be Wes Montgomery's California Dreaming on Verve from the year before (1966, and also Sebesky-arranged), Grover Washington's All the King's Horses (1973) and Deodato's Prelude (also 1973, with brilliant arrangements by the man himself).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat’s especially notable is how well-recorded the orchestra's string sections are. They have just the right amount of texture and immediacy without being forced or shrill. They're also very well integrated into the mix. I wouldn't have expected RVG to pull it off so well -- I've heard other CTI records where the orchestration was abominable -- but here it works as well as on any album I know of.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis kind of warm, rich, Tubey Magical analog sound is gone forever. You have to go back a ways to find it!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On A Day in the Life\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\u003eDigging Creed Taylor Inc.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe've been digging this CTI jazz stuff for years. On his better albums, the players tend to sound carefree and loose -- you can tell they're having a heck of a time with the material. Don't get me wrong -- we still love the Blue Note and Contemporary label stuff for our more \"hard core\" jazz needs, but it's a kick to hear top jazz musicians laying down these grooves and not taking themselves so seriously... especially when it sounds this good!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGive some credit to Don Sebesky. His arrangements are brilliant. He also did the arrangements for another one of our favorite jazz guitar albums, Wes Montgomery's California Dreaming. We love what Sebesky is doing on both albums, and both can have amazing sound on the best pressings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Ingredients\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\nWes Montgomery – guitar\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22herbie-hancock%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHerbie Hancock\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e – piano\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22ron-carter%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRon Carter\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e – bass\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22grady-tate%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrady Tate\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e – drums\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22ray-barretto%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRay Barretto\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n – percussion\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\nCreed Taylor – producer\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22don-sebesky%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDon Sebesky\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n – arranger, conductor\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\nRudy Van Gelder – engineer\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd about two dozen string, wind and percussion players.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better 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 originals.\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":"Montgomery, Wes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51574502916392,"sku":"montgdayin","price":499.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/products\/montgdayin.jpg?v=1774371724","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/montgdayin_2603","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}