Reissue roundup.(THE MUSIC)

It was nearly 27 years ago that I first discovered Concord Jazz records. At the time I was just becoming interested in jazz, thanks due in large part to my having developed a fervid interest in audio years earlier, and the kinds of music reviews I was reading in all of the magazines. I had already bought a few jazz recordings that were aimed primarily at audiophiles--Bill Berry's A Tribute To Duke on the M&K label immediately comes to mind--and I had already come to recognize the names of the recording engineers upon whom many audiophiles heaped their adoration. So it was while browsing through the bins of a record store in Texarkana that I stumbled upon Victor Feldman's The Artful Dodger (LP: CJ-38, CD: CCD-4038). I immediately recognized the artist as someone who was performing on one of my audiophile records, so I turned it over to discover that Concord Jazz had credited the engineering to Doug Sax. I remember thinking to myself that since Mr. Sax had engineered all of my Sheffield Labs LPs it might sound pretty good. On that basis, I bought the record. It was the first of many from the label I would buy eventually. I was so impressed with the Feldman record that I wrote to Carl Jefferson, founder and president of the label, to tell him how terrific I thought this one was. About a month or so later, I received a letter of thanks from Mr. Jefferson along with a box of records that he sent with his compliments.

There were at least a dozen records in that box as I recall. Many of them were recordings of artists I already knew, like Charlie Byrd and Ray Brown; but there was one in particular that remains one of my favorite records of all time, and it was a great introduction for me to the phenomenal Ernestine Anderson. That album's catalog number has been a part of my permanent memory all of these years (CJ-102), as well as its title, Ray Brown Trio Live At The Concord Jazz Festival 1979--With Special Guest Ernestine Anderson. Back in the days of the LP, I wore four copies of side 2 of this record pretty severely, as Ms Anderson's singing didn't appear on side 1. Over the years, I bought all of my Concord Jazz records directly from the company through their periodic customer newsletters announcing their new releases. I collected every Ernestine Anderson title that CJ published. Ernestine's voice and style is somewhat reminiscent of Sarah Vaughan. She sings with much the same impact and emphasis. On this particular recording, Ms Anderson really gets her audience into a great mood and my toes to tapping.

Phil Edwards engineered most of the CJ recordings during the seventies and eighties. I began checking every one I bought finding that those Edwards didn't engineer were somehow lacking in the sound department. His recording style typically uses multiple microphones as is common today. That is to say that although there is usually very good tonal definition in his recordings, there isn't much in the way of natural perspective in them. Pianos and drums generally span the entire width of the sound stage, and soloists are then highlighted as necessary. It's also fair to say that with another 26 years experience as an audiophile, my preferences lean towards recordings made on tube equipment and with as few microphones as possible.

Meanwhile, my good friend, Karl Nehring, ...