When you listen to a record, what about that record and the music on it do you notice first? The answer to this question will be very different for each person, and very different for each and every record.
As an audiophile I typically hear the quality of reproduction before I tune into the quality of the music. This begs a question that I find myself often asking when engaging with this hobby, one that I’ll admit makes me a bit uncomfortable – Am I music fan first and an audiophile second or is it the other way around?
Whatever the answer, it softens the edge off the possibility that I may care more about how good music sounds that I do about how much I actually enjoy the music when I find myself bored by records that don’t speak to me, regardless of sound quality. It also hones that edge back up when I can’t bring myself to play records with music that I do really like because the reproduction is lousy.
Fortunately, some albums transcend this issue and the confining nature of being a music fan and audiophile, or even an audiophile music fan, and Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is just such an album. I’ve listened to Kind of Blue more than any other jazz album by far, and likely any other album period. KOB is an album that occupies its own place in the story of my life. It speaks to the same place in my brain as the dopamine inducing aromas of a Thanksgiving dinner or the thrilling sights and smells of a summer thunderstorm. It is an album that conjures up memories and feelings that penetrate my psyche as deeply as any work of art I can think of.
The intros, melodies and solos on Kind of Blue are ones that I connect with so viscerally and immediately that I barely have a moment to even notice the quality of the reproduction. I find I have to pull myself away from the experience of listening to KOB to even notice whether the version I’m hearing sounds good. As a result I’ve found this record harder than most to approach critically to and evaluate pressings of.
Recently I was presented with a unique opportunity. Tom Port at Better Records offered to give a listen to a few of the records I’d found on my own that sounded, to me at least, deserving of a hot stamper rating. I was excited, but also a bit nervous sending them off to him. This is the guy who’s made vinyl shootouts his full time occupation and no doubt has done more of them than anyone. I manage to squeeze in maybe one or two a month if I’m lucky, and that’s only when I have at least 2 interesting copies of the same title to do it with.
So how did things turn out with the records I pitched to Tom? I went 2 for 3 with a home run on a classical record, The Carmen Ballet, that I wrote about here recently. I also got a very favorable call on a wonderful copy of Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman which I wrote about last year.
The third record, a 70’s red label pressing of Kind of Blue was a different story. I’d been regularly shooting this copy out against my A+ – A++ Hot Stamper over the past few years and regularly changing my mind about which copy I liked better. Typically as my system has improved the differences between pressings have become easier to discern, but for some reason I was stuck on this copy. Did it beat my Hot Stamper? For whatever reason I just couldn’t figure it out.
So I sent this copy on to Tom, who after playing upwards of 100 copies of KOB over the years had no trouble at all hearing the differences between my copy and his. He then sent me the A++/A++ copy he used to compare to mine to help me get a handle on KOB. He said he’d taken notes during his shoot out and requested I do the same and send them along, promising to send me his notes afterwards so I could compare them.
Needless to say when the record arrived I was eager to get started. It’s not hard to get me to put on Kind of Blue and spend time with it, so for the past week or so I’ve been carving out opportunities to do just that and play the 3 copies I now have in my possession to see what I’ve been missing up until now. Luckily Tom’s copy has conveyed KOB in a way that has been enlightening and has accomplished something I didn’t really think was possible – it’s made me love the album even more.
Below are the notes, observations and conclusions I drew from this shoot out. The results are likely, not surprising. Regardless, I do hope some of the details will inspire some of you, my loyal readers, to seek out your own great copy of this masterpiece.
My copy – Good amount of bass, although it’s a bit “boomy”; trumpet a bit bright, piano lacks some weight, tenor saxophone a bit thin. Alto sax also a little bright but not terrible.
BR 2+ – Piano has much better tonality. Bass is tighter and cleaner. Trumpet sounds fuller and better defined. Overall there’s a higher resolution sound to this record and an overall improvement in listenability. I very quickly found myself enjoying the performance more.
The individual players feel less “forward” than on my copy and present as more “together.” The saxophones both sound sweeter, have more bite and sound better integrated into the studio space. This really stands out in the intro to Freddie Freeloader. Also on this track I find myself really digging Wynton Kelly’s piano solo. The keys strike in such a satisfying way and again, the tonality is so dead on I find myself getting pulled even further into the performance…
My copy – …When Miles comes in the lack of resolution on this copy really stands out. The sound of the horn on is somewhat “washed out”, lacking edge and bite. When Coltrane comes in on Freeloader, you can hear the sound of the studio space but it sounds somehow to loud and doesn’t have the ambience on the BR 2+ copy, on which the horns have a relaxed sound that’s very appealing and a lot more enjoyable to listen to.
My copy – Reflecting on the sound of this copy after listening the BR’s 2+ copy, the higher resolution makes all the difference. The performances on my copy aren’t fleshed out the way they are on BR’s 2+ and the studio space isn’t revealed the way it is on the BR 2+. The result is a less satisfying, perhaps somewhat disjointed reproduction on my copy. I don’t have the experience of these six artists playing together in the same room the way I do on the BR 2+.
BR – A+ – A++ copy – Shares the wonderful tonality of the 2+ copy with a bit less weight and transparency. Again on Freddie Freeloader, Kelly’s solo early on sounds wonderful, albeit not quite as engaging as with the 2+. Davis doesn’t seem quite as real or as well placed in the soundstage, and Coltrane’s sax doesn’t quite sing to me the way it did on the 2+. It also doesn’t sound as big and, as is also the case with Adderley’s alto, just doesn’t sound as free and open. It just doesn’t sound quite as “living and breathing” as the 2+ copy. This copy has cleaner, tighter bass than “My copy.” but it is not as well defined as the 2+.
The differences between the 2 hot stamper copies are more obvious to me on “Blue In Green.” The tighter, cleaner bass stands out on this track, as does the clarity at the top end. The horns have a sharper, cleaner and sweeter sound. Especially Miles’ muted trumpet.
In the end I have to come to the same conclusion that Tom did on the copy I sent him. It’s not a hot stamper. It’s not a bad copy by any means, but not worthy of an A+ or higher grade.
A while back I had a chance to borrow and play a mono OG of KOB that I failed to make any notes on but I do remember it being terrifically underwhelming. So you might be relieved to hear that when it comes to finding a great sounding copy of Kind of Blue, you needn’t waste your time on expensive mono OG’s.
There’s a reason that all 3 of the copies in this shoot out are 70’s red label stereo reissues. They really can sound wonderful and somehow just right for Kind of Blue.