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Great news – Verve have recently released a professionally recorded Stan Getz concert in AAA format from Nov 26th 1961 – featuring Steve Kuhn (p), John Neves (b) and Roy Haynes (d). Of all the great tenors, and the 1960s was the era of great tenor saxophone players, I think that Getz had the best tone – and he kept recording mainstream jazz right until the 1990s (Anniversary and People Time are among my favorite live recordings). This comes fairly hot on the heels of the “lost” Getz/Bill Evans album, that I though a little disappointing.

The album comes as 3 x 180g slabs, packaged in cheap “sandpaper” inner sleeves. The outer cover looks like the kind of photo-processing that one would have done with an early copy of photopaint and windows 3.0. The liner notes, which give a good historical context, are on the inner gatefold. Verve should look to Resonance Records for advice vis-a-vis modern deluxe packaging. Sound quality is excellent- nicely mastered and a good live re-production for the era. The muffled introductions by Chip Monck at the start of side 1 are un-necessary. It is a worthwhile investment if you are a Getz fan: this is after “West Coast Jazz” after Europe but before “Jazz Samba“, and he very much appears the equal of Coltrane and Rollins in that era. Incidentally, of the 1960s Stan Getz records, for reasons that I cannot explain, “Sweet Rain” is my favorite. It is one of those rare albums that could be released today, and would not appear out of time.

What is reassuring about this 1961 live album is that it came from the Verve music archive – which must have survived the UMC fire. Hopefully, sometime soon, the February 21st 1961 session, part of which has been released in compilation, will be released in a nice package like this. The major reason for interest in this concert was the presence of Scott LaFaro on bass.

Stan Getz Quartet
February 21 1961, New York, Ny Unissued Concert Live
Stan Getz Quartet Stan Getz (Ts) Steve Kuhn (P) Scott Lafaro (B) Pete La Roca (D)

• Baubles Bangles And Beads (Forrest-Wright)
• Little Old Lady (Adams-Carmichael)
• I Remember Clifford (Golson)
• For You, For Me, For Evermore (Gershwin-Gershwin)
• Speak Low (Nash-Weill)
• Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (Landesman-Wolf)

Incidentally, if I were to go to a desert island and was allowed to bring only a few live jazz box sets with me, People Time – with Kenny Barron would be one.

The others that I would bring:

• Bill Evans – Complete Village Vanguard
• John Coltrane – Complete 1961 Village Vanguard
• Wynton Marsalis – Live At Village Vanguard
• Shelly Manne – Complete live at the Blackhawk
• Miles Davis – Live at the Filmore 1970 (Bootleg series vol. 3)
• Miles Davis – Complete Live at Plugged Nickel (1965)
• Art Pepper – At Ronnie Scotts
• Art Pepper – Complete Village Vanguard
• Hampton Hawes – All Night Session vols 1-3

I’m sure there are more – but all of these I would recommend without hesitation.

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One of the most striking passages in David Hepworth’s recent book involved Hootie and the Blowfish. Who you might ask (unless you are of a certain age – and you will nod in vague recollection)? Their album “Cracked Rear View” has sold 21 million copies – 21 times platinum. “Kind of Blue”, by far the best selling jazz album ever, released 60 years ago, is only 4x platinum. Brubeck’s “Time Out” is platinum (1 million). Blue Train sold about the same. The remainder of the platinum awarded jazz albums are all fusion – Herbie Hancock’s “Headhunters” and “Future Shock,” Weather Report’s “Heavy Weather”.

Other alumni of the 20 million plus album sales include Linkin Park, Ace of Base, Backstreet Boys (2 albums) and a couple of Shania Twains’. All on heavy rotation in your living room, I don’t suspect. Susan Boyle sold over 8 million copies of her debut album (“I dreamed a dream”).

Oasis’ “Be Here Now” – one of the greatest abominations ever recorded – has sold over 8 million copies and there are 9 million in bargain bins around the world. At least there is some vague possibility that I might, one day listen to “Be Here Now” – particularly if they “deloudnessed”, remixed and remastered it. No chance would I ever contemplate – MC Hammer’s ‘Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em (10m), Linkin Park’s ‘Hybrid Theory’ (10m) and of course Creed’s ‘Human Clay’ (11m).

You would think that the music industry was being kept alive by Beyonce, Jay-Z, Katy Perry etc. based on the amount of press that they receive. In fact, the saviours of the music industry are Adele (50 million albums – including a lot of CDs) and Ed Sheeran (some staggering number). Adele and Sheeran fans listen to their albums – a lot!

One last thought: Norah Jones has sold 50 million albums. It is likely that she has sold more albums that every other artist that has recorded for Blue Note put together in the 1950s (and possibly the 60s – and possibly ever). When did you last listen to “Feels like home” (12 million).

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Have you ever had a record/tape or CD that has been lying around for years – you play it once or twice – it doesn’t grab you and it gets thrown on a pile, then one day, you discover it? The most egregious example of this for me was the Stone Roses’ debut album that suddenly infected me in about 1997 (8 years after release). The most important, though, was a cassette of “Blue Train” by John Coltrane that was my soundtrack in the early summer of 1991.

Every “greatest jazz albums of all time” list ever constructed will point you towards “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane. I have owned many versions of that recording – CD, LP, Blu-Ray audio, Box set etc. and I can say, for certain, that I am not quite ready for it. Yet.

In 1990 – for most of us, jazz was Stanley Jordan, Stanley Clarke, David Sanborn, Kenny G – and all of the crap that was featured, back then, in Jazziz magazine (so called “contemporary jazz” analogous to elevator music). The sounds were echo gated, overproduced, layered with synthesizers. There was no jazz on the radio, as I have mentioned before. My only access was from various sampler tapes and CDs. And then a jazz movie came out – not a crusty old bio flick like “Bird” or “Round Midnight” but bright and colourful and ambitious and elegant.

The movie, a Spike Lee joint, was “Mo Better Blues.” It starred Denzel Washington as a jazz trumpeter. Wesley Snipes played Shadow Henderson, the saxophone player in Washington’s quartet. They are competitive professionally and romantically – principally for the attention of Clarke (played by Cynda Williams). Neither the movie nor its soundtrack ever grabbed me – but one scene jumped to my attention. Shadow goes into a record store and buys a bunch of John Coltrane CDs (says something like “I have all of these already) just to spend a few seconds at the till with Clarke – and maybe arrange a little bit more.  The message was clear – if you wanted to be taken seriously as a jazz saxophone player in 1990 – you needed to study Coltrane. My first JC album was “Blue Train” picked up on cassette, mid-price, in the late 1980s, at the Virgin Megastore. It did not click instantly.

“Blue Train” is an anomaly. Recorded in 1957 (September 15^th), it was is only recording as a leader for Blue Note (Coltrane had previously contributed to a Johnny Griffin blowing session and a Paul Chambers album). He had recently quit heroin – for which had been banished from the Miles Davis band. He had been recording as a sideman and leader at Prestige records for about 6 months, and would continue to do so through most of 1958 (hence the recent Craft recordings boxset).  At the time, Coltrane had playing with Thelonious Monk and was soon to rejoin Davis.

The session came about as a result of a visit Coltrane made to Blue Note records the previous year – in order to scrounge some Sidney Bechet records. At the time he made verbal agreement and received an advance from Alfred Lion. In the meantime Coltrane signed an exclusive contract with Prestige and required the permission of Bob Weinstock to record with his competitors.

The band he assembled will be familiar to Miles Davis fans: the drummer was Philly Joe Jones and the bassist Paul Chambers. Kenny Drew played piano. In addition Lee Morgan played trumpet and Curtis Fuller trombone.

I’m not going into detail about the tracks on the album – it opens with the fabulous “Blue Train” and fizzes along for 42 minutes. The sound is marvelously crisp – typical Van Gelder and the band are tight – nicely rehearsed and disciplined. All of early Coltrane is here from sheets of sound to blues to ballads. It is wonderful and not “over valued” as suggested in the Penguin Guide to Jazz (which I will visit in a later post).

My original version was on cassette – listened through a Walkman. I have, at least, three copies on vinyl (see picture above), the best of which is the Music Matters 33rpm. I have a CD copy or two and the 24/192 high res version. They are all good. It is one of the few jazz albums that I can listen to in the car, at home while working or by the fireside. It is a great place to start with Coltrane. Unfortunately, being the early 1990s, the only CDs that I could afford were those that were on sale – and I followed it up with the (relatively) inaccessible  The Major Works (including Ascention), Expression,  and the outtakes album From the Original Master Tapes. Newport 1963, however, was terrific.

Anyway, for the uninitiated – here is my suggested Coltrane listening in order:

1. Blue Train (Blue Note)
2. My Favorite Things (Atlantic)
3. Giant Steps (Atlantic)
4. Ballads (Impulse) or Africa/Brass
5. Settin’ The Pace or Lush Life or Soultrane (Prestige)
6. Bags & Trane (Atlantic)
7. With Thelonious Monk at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note)
8. With Johnny Hartmann (Impulse)
9. Live at the Village Vanguard (Impulse)
10. A Love Supreme (Impulse)
11. New Thing At Newport (Impulse)
12. Ascension (Impulse)

There are now bad Coltrane albums – although I would advise against Live at the Village Vanguard – Again: it is tough going and, strangely, seem to be in every vinyl bin I ever visit containing Coltrane albums.

Of course there are lots of albums on which Coltrane plays as a sideman – various Miles Davis recordings, a load of Prestige albums and then albums with Kenny Burrell, Cannonball Adderley and Duke Ellington. The are all highly accessible and wonderful. If you were to pick one era – it would be Atlantic (the Heavyweight Champion Boxset). My personal favorite is Live At The Village Vanguard (1962). I have a lovely mid 70s Japanese pressing, but the 1997 box-set is truly wonderful – featuring Coltrane’s best band: McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones,  Jimmy Garrison and Eric Dolphy (I have a nice copyright free bootleg box of the band playing in Europe and there is a Jazz Icons DVD available featuring the group).

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Smash Hits magazine came out in 1979: it was a glossy lightweight pop mag that featured the lyrics of several of the current hit records, so you could sing along with your 45rpm singles (in those days lyrics for many records were in-comprehensible – I challenge anybody to unravel the words of “Into the Valley” by the Skids ). An early contributor and, later editor, was David Hepworth. It was compulsive reading for a pop music fan in that era. Of course by 1981, I was reading Kerrang and the NME rather than Smash Hits and pretty much ignored Hepworth until the arrival of “The Word” – the greatest music magazine EVER (well in my memory anyway). It remains the only magazine that was worth reading cover to cover each month: I still have a few copies lying around. Unfortuately, a few years ago (see blog below), it closed. Hepworth was the editor. I then followed his blog; and still do.

Thankfully, David Hepworth has now published a few books to keep me happy: “1971 – Never a Dull Moment” – about 1971, “Uncommon People – the rise and fall of Rock Stars,” “Nothing is Real” (which I haven’t read yet) and his current masterpiece: “A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved Our Lives.” I downloaded the audiobook for Audible – Hepworth, thankfully, reads this love letter to the long playing record himself. It is really good. He starts the book in 1967 – 20 years after the LP had first come out, 8 years after “Kind of Blue” – with Sgt Pepper. His assertion is the “Pepper” started the LP revolution (i.e. not 2 hits and filler) and opened up the mass market for album music and it’s associated lifestyle. He then follows an Anglocentric path through the 1970s and 1980s to describe the habits and culture of crate digging vinyl lovers, the transition to cassettes – driven by the Sony Walkman and the movement from singles to albums to “tunes”. He parallels the development of video technology with the simultaneous development of the world of “always on” audio. Everything, to me, is familiar. Some things I had forgotten. It is like the book is a biography of the record loving aspect on my life (entirely separated from career, marriage and kids). Some albums give significant attention – “Thriller” (Jackson), “Tusk” (Fleetwood Mac). He has a section on comedy, but not soundtracks. The CD is a revolution, but is “unloved”.

My favorite comment by Hepworth, in Word, was that most bands have, at most 12 good tunes/songs (enough to fill 2 albums) – after that they are threading water. The book reinforces that view. He discusses record reviews and points out that most albums are mediocre – so the reviewed either goes “Meh!” (which, as they are usually freelance, will result them in not being invited back) or enthuses or savages the record. Most well reviewed records are not as good as your remember, most badly reviewed records are not as bad as you remember.

An excellent book – a great read – must buy a hard copy now. He seems to have another one coming out in October. Truly prolific!

Into the Valley

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The new Dexter Gordon BN 80 LP arrived (at last) today. After Herbie, I had lowish expectations. Worry not.

Doin’ Alright was Gordon’s first foray into Blue Note records. He had spent the 1950s, like Art Pepper, in and out of prison and had lost his cabaret card to play in New York. His spell with Blue Note yielded a number of classics including Go and A Swinging Affair. Locating subsequently to Europe he recorded Our Man in Paris, One Flight Up and Clubhouse there (without RVG). All great albums. His wife has recently published a well written biography – Sophisticated Giant – which (so far as I have read) is significantly less harrowing than the Art Pepper equivalent.

You can buy a reasonably good quality original mono copy of “Doin’ Alright” for $350 or you can buy the new Kevin Gray mastered AAA version (from the original stereo masters) for $20. It is a bargain.

The sound is spectacular – of a caliber that I have heard only on AP Prestige and MM  Blue Note reissues (same mastering engineer, after all). This blows away the 24/192 digital version that I have. The sense of space is extraordinary, the timbre and timing of Gordon’s saxophone is as rich as coffee beans, the bass and drums punchy – and the  trumpet sound of Freddie Hubbard is just gorgeous. The sound of the record is truly immersive. It’s a great audiophile record.

Now, I’m in a quandary – should I open and listen to the duplicate Herbie Hancock album that Amazon sent me – in case the other one was a dud, or will I send it back?

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Dublin, mid 1980s. Synth pop is fading; indie hasn’t really happened yet. I currently hate U2. I have grown tired of heavy metal and new wave. I want a new musical experience. I want to explore jazz. Where do I start? Despite what revisionists will tell you – Jazz was OUT in the mid 1980s. Nobody that I knew knew anything about jazz and those that did, such as my dad, favored the Acker Bilk 1950s British Trad variety. There were no books about Jazz in the library or in the small bookshops of the time. Record shops (this was before the HMV, Virgin, Tower era) sold current hits, (what we now call) classic rock, country and western and compilations. The “jazz” section contained nothing much, usually swing (I once bought what felt like a 90g Benny Goodman album that was likely recorded before the Americans commandeered Ampex from the Germans). Louis Armstrong – that’s jazz – right? I was given a 3 LP Louis Armstrong box, again likely copyright free stuff from the 1930s – hifi it was not. Meh.

I visited Freebird Records, still going strong – “any jazz?” – I was treated like I was some form of poserish-tosser (I suppose they call them hipsters today) and pointed at a rack that contained tapes from Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis. Miles – that’s jazz – right? So I bought a second hand tape by Miles – “Water Babies.” If one was to assemble every recording ever released by Miles Davis and rank them from 1 to 70 (or 80) – starting with “Kind of Blue” (best) and ending with “Decoy” (worst), “Water Babies” is so inaccessible, being leftovers of leftovers – stuff that didn’t even make up padding for padding albums, that it doesn’t make the list. I thought it was, well, shite. The cover, one of the I love (heart) jazz series, was crap – the original at least was a painting of some black kids playing in a fountain! (just a thought – I see that it is on Qobuz, must stream it to see if I still hate the album after 30 years).

In 1986 there was no internet, Google, no Spotify – just a big vacuum of information. That’s the way we lived. It would take one second now to Google “10 best jazz albums for beginners” – every single one of the lists generated would start with “Kind of Blue” – would I be a different person if I had discovered that gem in the mid 80s?

Why was there no great jazz albums in the second hand bins in Ireland in 1986? For the same reason as is the case today – nobody sold  them because very few people knew enough or heard enough to buy high quality jazz albums and those that did sure as hell didn’t need the quick fix money from selling their collection to buy the new Smiths album. I gave up.

One day in 1988 I was wandering through the Virgin Megastore, and remember this was the worst period in popular music history – almost as bad as now,  looking for something decent to listen to. Obviously I couldn’t afford anything on compact disc (staggeringly expensive £15 at the time). However – there was a cassette sale – 3 for £5 –  going on, and, on a whim I bought 3 tapes – one of which was “A Sample of Blue Notes” – a compilation of Blue Note recordings (released in 1987). I don’t thing that I have really ever quite recovered from first hearing that Blue Note tape. I still have it and treasure it. It is the greatest sampler EVER.

Side one (see picture) starts with “Blowin’ the Blues Away” by Horace Silver, followed by another blues by Stanley Turrentine, Jimmy Smith, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and finishes with the original version of “Round Midnight” by Monk.

Side two is even better: Lou Donaldson, Herbie Hancock, Cannonball Adderley, and then the extraordinary trio of “Dig Dis” (Hank Mobley), “Midnight Blue” (Kenny Burrell – covered around that time by Stevie Ray Vaughan) and “The Sidewinder” by Lee Morgan.

I frequently hear musos complaining about compilation albums and making condescending comments about people who buy them. For my generation, radio was terrible (only hits and weird alternative stuff) and discovering new music was really difficult. This was particularly bad in the 1990s and the early 00s (before satellite radio in the US – literally all you had was classic hits and the current manufactured smooth R&B crap in the charts). The compilation gave us a low risk window into the world (unfortunately, frequently if you bought the album based on hearing one song from the compilation you discovered that it was the only good song on the album).  In fact, so popular were compilations then that they are reissuing some of them now, on vinyl.

Within 10 years I had bought, on cassette or CD, all of the original albums featured on the Blue Note sampler. I’m sure that I have bought them all again on reissued vinyl. There is no doubt that hard boppin’ Blue Note recordings are really accessible jazz – and that is why the brand has such a strong current cachet (and quality used product is unbelievably expensive). You can pretty much pick up any classic era Blue Note recording and will enjoy it.

In 1989, the now resurrected Blue Note issued another sampler – the Blue Note 50th Anniversary Sampler. Hmmm. This release followed the now familiar approach of stuffing in recently released and truly mediocre output (side 1) with classic Blue Note recordings (side 2). I’m pretty sure that I listened to side 1, once.

Below is a list of 10 Blue Note Albums that I would strongly recommend to anyone who is just “getting into” jazz (no surprises here). The best versions currently available (but hurry) are the 33rpm releases from Music Matters.

1. Something Else – Cannonball Adderley

2. Moanin’ – Art Blakey

3. Midnight Blue – Kenny Burrell

4. Maiden Voyage – Herbie Hancock.

5. GO – Dexter Gordon

6. Song for My Father – Horace Silver

7. Open Sesame – Freddy Hubbard

8. Soul Station – Hank Mobley

9. Blue and Sentimental – Ike Quebec

10. Blues Walk – Lou Donaldson

I could list another 100.

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In 1954 Sarah Vaughan released her eponymous album “Sarah Vaughan” on EmArcy records (picture on right above). A NM copy of the original album will set you back £200, at least. My first copy, a CD bought in 1990 or 1991, was called “Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown (picture on left above)” – Brown being upgraded from accompanist to co-lead (for reasons that are unclear to me). I have loved the album since I first heard it. However, I have always found the vocals to be quite “thin” and sibilant on the CD. I recently bought a reasonably affordable Japanese print from 1974. The record sounds completely different to the CD – Vaughan’s vocal is deeper and clearer and more, dare I say, analogue. There is a richness and punch to the mono production that I had not heard before. The album has had a couple of digital remasters that I have not heard, including an SACD reissue. Strangely, when I went to catalogue my purchase, I discovered, to my horror, that I had two copies already. The first, a 2008 Jazz Track and the second, a 2016 copy from the wonderful De Agostini jazz at 33 vinyl LP series (the majority of which I have obtained – both UK and Ireland and Italian versions, which had different releases). I decided to play the records side to side. The Jazz Track record, of course, sounded exactly the same as the CD – but used the original artwork. The De Agostini version sounded exactly the same as the Jazz Track, similar cover but with the original labels. Both of these records were likely sourced from the CD. And therein lies the problem.

Under European law, pre 1963 recordings are copyright exempt. In general, this is a good thing for music lovers, as most of the artists are now dead, and the record companies made hay re-issuing CD of historic recordings in the 80s and 90s and selling them for top dollar prices. Now you can happily pick up classical and jazz CD box sets for €10 to €15 that contain 8 to 10 albums. Presumably, the CDs are digital clones of the official releases. Occasionally, the manufacturers boast that the recordings have been 20 or 24 bit remastered, which is a little ridiculous without the master tapes.

However, when it comes to vinyl, the copyright exemption has led to a vinyl version of Greshams’ law: bad vinyl is pushing good vinyl out of circulation. I have been in dozens of record shops all over Europe over the past decade, and crate after crate of jazz records are chock full of copyright free (i.e. CD sourced) reissues by – Jazz Wax, Jazz Tracks, Vinyl Passion, DOL, Vinyl Lovers, Not Now, Panam, Doxy etc. If you get lucky, there are a few Rhino, Impulse or Atlantic reissues and of course new pressings from ECM and Blue Note – but literally nothing else. If you visit Amazon’s european sites, most of the 1950s and 1960s jazz vinyl on offer is the same rubbish. Take, for example – Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section – a true classic from 1957. If one goes to Amazon.com – you are offered a 2011 Original Jazz Classics pressing for $22. If you go to Amazon.co.uk – you are offered a 2013 Waxtime pressing for £20. It is possible, that both of these pressings derive from the same 16 bit files, but at least OJC own the original master tapes (they may be all analogue), and presumably pay some reasonable attention to mastering. The point is that, for basic vinyl reissues, European jazz enthusiasts are being subjected to second rate CD sourced junk, and it is very difficult to source the good stuff.

It might be worth noting that CD sourced 180g virgin pressings may sound a lot better than the 27th repress of a 1950s recording on 120g vinyl from the 1980s.

For years, American audiophile labels such as Analogue Productions, Music Matters, Org, Org Music, Analogue Spark, Mobile Fidelity etc. have reissued AAA versions of, often, hard to find recordings that likely sound as good as the first pressings. Unfortunately, these are not widely sold in Europe. And although one can buy many, but not all, through reputable sources such as the Vinyl Gourmet, there are very few record shops that stock these records. When they do, the double taxation makes these audiophile records prohibitively expensive. Pure Pleasure and Speakers’ corner records are manufactured in Europe – and available online at a reasonable price, but rarely have I ever found their products in a record store. Thankfully, Universal Music have internationalized the “Tone Poet” Blue Note re-issue series. Unfortunately, they are charging top dollar for albums that most of us wouldn’t necessarily choose if we were starting a Blue Note collection. I am excited about the prospects of a UK based AAA Blue Note reissue label Wallinbink.

The Jazz Workshop is a Spanish reissue label. I have a number of their releases – all of which I have enjoyed immensely.  I have no idea of the provenance of these recordings – except for a record shop owner in Salzburg telling me that they were all analogue and audiophile. The records in question are beautifully presented and difficult enough to find on CD.

Finally, there is the used market. Again, I have been in dozens of used record shops across Europe and, everywhere you go, it the same stuff: crappy 1970s and 1980s Italian pressings of classic records in weird jackets on thin vinyl. Anything remotely decent is up, on the wall, at staggeringly elevated prices. This, for me, is the ongoing problem of used record stores: as soon as any new high quality stock arrives it is cherry picked by the staff, regulars, lucky browsers etc. such that most of what fills the crates is fairly ordinary. Yes, you might pick up a much wanted replacement of “Nightflight to Venus” for €1, but forget about finding a first or second pressing of an american jazz classic. Indeed, my own experience is that even a first UK or German pressing can be very very expensive.

So, what about the internet? Let’s face it – Discogs is the greatest thing that has happened to vinyl in the internet era. Apart from the fact that virtually every release is catalogued properly, the marketplace give one the opportunity to source and price records with a fair amount of safety. Unfortunately, over-grading is epidemic. It is remarkable how many “near mint” records I have bought with what turned out to be “good+” sleeves. At least you can contact the seller to warn them that you are going to give them a bad review – usually resulting in a bit of a rebate. Record shops that sell directly do not have that feedback system: I was recently badly burned with a copy of Bill Evans’ Interplay – that was sold to me as first pressing VG+ NM sleeve and record. The cover was Good (at best – big split in the top) and there were audible scratches on both sides. Oh and it was a 1966 repress (I should have spotted this by the photo of the record label). Of course, it’s my own fault – the record price (€40) was too good to be true – I should have consulted Popsike before buying.

The major problem with buying used jazz on discogs (or ebay) is that most of the records on offer are in the USA and buying them risks the wrath of customs and VAT – currently applied on anything that costs more than €22 – often the price of shipping a few records alone. Consequently, one is usually forced to accept later European or Japanese pressings (which often sound great).

Of course, a sensible person wouldn’t spend a penny on vinyl and just enjoy the music – every possible album out there is available on multiple streaming platforms at CD and often high res bitrates.

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