Original 1930 pressing Personnel: Fats Waller, piano Recorded September 11 and September 24, 1929 in New York City Selection: “My Feelin’s Are Hurt” (Waller) While I still haven’t delved all too deeply into ‘pre-bop’ jazz, I managed to find another great 78 from that era. For a stretch in 2019 I was accustomed … More→
Original 1927 pressing Personnel: Louis Armstrong, cornet Johnny Dodds, clarinet John Thomas, trombone Lil Hardin Armstrong, piano Johnny St. Cyr, guitar Pete Briggs, tuba Baby Dodds, drums Recorded May 7 and May 10, 1927 at Okeh Studios, Chicago Selections: “Willie the Weeper” (Melrose-Bloom) “Alligator Crawl” (Waller) So far, Deep Groove Mono’s coverage of … More→
Although for many years I knew nothing of Japanese jazz, our hobby has helped me become aware that the Japanese by and large have a deep, heartfelt appreciation of jazz music. Before I bought this album though, all I knew about Japanese jazz musicians was what a disgruntled New York City record store clerk told me once, that they didn’t know how to ‘swing’… More→
My relationship with the full-length album that contains this EP, Brown & Roach Incorporated, began very early on in my collecting years. I would have initially ripped the album from a CD checked out from the library and now I own that CD, which is the ‘official’ PolyGram… More→
A couple years ago I switched up my philosophy of collecting, moving away from chasing expensive, high-demand vintage jazz LPs and working harder to find less expensive, less sought-after records that managed to bring me an equal amount of joy, if not more. This is… More→
Though this seven-inch EP only contains two songs, they are both outstanding picks from an album that shares the same cover art. I had an encounter with an original pressing of the full LP about a year ago. The European seller graded it NM/M- on Discogs and it played with absolutely terrible distortion on the trumpet. When I asked the seller about… More→
Last spring I got a Columbia GP-3, the workhorse portable record player made in Japan that has been serving beatdiggers and the like for decades. Finances were good at the time and I had been trying to find ways… More→
For a picky, minimalist collector like myself, collecting Monk on vintage vinyl has proved challenging. Never a fan of collecting compilations on vinyl, I have never pursued the early Blue Note LPs (BLP 1510/11). While the performances are undoubtedly world-class (and my… More→
I ignored this album for quite some time for a couple reasons. First, it was primarily comprised of standards and short on originals, but also because the album has rarely been reissued in mono and I kept reading about issues with the consistency of Rollins’ volume level in the stereo mix (apparently caused by the leader’s motion in the studio… More→
My first interaction with Curtis Fuller Volume 3 came when I bought a Japanese reissue at a local record store on a whim. The lineup looked good and I knew it was fairly rare in any format so I decided to take a chance. After an initial round of unfocused listens, I prematurely dismissed the album and sold it locally. Then about a year… More→