AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Analogue Productions - AAPJ 111 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - CS 8040 Columbia   

AAA 100% Analogue - Limited Edition - Pressed at QRP Quality Record Pressings

Mastered by Ryan K Smith at Sterling Sound from the Original 3 Track Tapes

100 Recommended All-Analog LP Reissues Worth Owning - Michael Fremer  Analogplanet.com

"The only reason Classic Records failed to reissue this one back in the 1990s and 2000s is because the reel containing one side had gone missing. For this reissue Sony/BMG located the original 3 track recording from which this stereo record was sourced so it's one generation ahead of the mixed two track master. This tape probably hadn't been played in almost sixty years and so sounds remarkably fresh. ... Analogue Productions reissued this in a tip-on gatefold sleeve with great black and white photos taken at the recording session of Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Ben Webster. A moment in musical time perfectly captured that's easy to recommend for the music, the sound and the packaging. The reissue sound is somewhat drier than the original, which makes it all the more intimate and less dated. A great lacquer cut by Ryan K. Smith." — Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com Sound 9/10 Music 9/10

This is jazz at its best with a recording to match the great artists on this album. If you like or listen to jazz this is a must for your collection. I was blown away by the sound of this vinyl masterpiece. It's warm, defined and amazing. If you pass on this you'll regret it.This reissue is first-rate in every respect and I am grateful to all responsible. It feels like the musicians are all around me - LP review

The  soundtrack version of the most perfect hour of jazz ever carried on national TV. 5/5 Audaud

Starring Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Henry "Red" Allen, The Jimmy Giuffre Trio, Jimmy Rushing, Mal Waldron & Featuring Many More!
 
In early December of 1957 the most perfect hour of jazz ever on TV was telecast. Four days before that, all the musicians (except Gerry Mulligan, who reneged because he wasn’t paid extra for it) assembled in Columbia’s 30th Street studios in NYC to record, in early stereo, the same selections that would be featured on the live TV show four days later. It was such an excellent hour of jazz TV because CBS had the good sense to leave everything to two jazz experts: Whitney Balliett and Nat Hentoff. They decided from the start to concentrate on the music and forget about the usual TV show trimmings. Everyone dressed casually, the cameras, mikes, lights and wires were visible. Media critic John Crosby was the relaxed host, who only introduced the hour and gave credits at the end of it. The way Billie looks at Lester Young during closeups in her tune is priceless; within two years both were gone.

With its compilation-like title, black and white cover art and wide ranging artists roster, The Sound of Jazz, originally issued in 1958, is often confused with one of Columbia Records' early stereo sampler albums.
Some browsers exploring the back jacket annotation—a reprint of a Harper's magazine article about the show— get no further than the first paragraph that explains it's not a compilation album at all but rather the soundtrack to a 1957 television show. TV sound back then was monophonic and often mediocre so the "stereo" band at the jacket top has many thinking it must be "electronically reprocessed for stereo" sound. it's anything but.

Many of the musicians who performed live on the December 8th 1957 CBS television show "The Sound of Jazz" "pre-created" their performances four days earlier in Columbia's legendary 30th Street Studio—a de-sanctified church with the superb acoustics that later produced many of the label's greatest musical and sonic recordings including Miles Davis's Kind of Blue.

That's what's on this record originally issued by Columbia Records in 1958. The original is a sonic stunner. A few artists who performed on the television show, including Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan were not signed to Columbia at the time and so were not permitted to appear on the record.

The musicians who appeared on both television and vinyl were a mix of the traditionalists like trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen and clarinetist Pee Wee Russell and the more modern ensembles like The Jimmy Giuffre Trio featuring Giuffre on baritone and tenor sax and clarinet, Jim Hall on guitar and Jim Atlas on bass. Some were past their prime but still vital. Guiffre also plays with Pee Wee Russell, Jo Jones (drums) and Danny Baker (guitar). The musicians mixed and matched per the vision of jazz critics Whitney Balliett and Nat Hentoff.

For some the standout performance is "Fine and Mellow" with Billie Holiday on vocals backed by the Mal Waldron All-Stars featuring Holiday's ex-beau Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Doc Cheatham and others. The Count Basie All-Stars contribute "I Left My Baby" (with vocals by Jimmy Rushing) that covers "St.James Infirmary" territory, and "Dickie's Dream".

Hearing these mostly veteran players let loose under great studio conditions is a joy. Of course by 1957 jazz had become far more adventurous than what's here, but the point of this assemblage was to bring real jazz to a mainstream "straight" American television audience, many of whom in "white bread" America had never before heard it or seen so many black people on screen in one place. Not only that; the television show producers asked that the musicians dress as they might for a studio gig, not for a stage show. The cameras were there to capture the studio experience, not to fake a "show". And it was all done "live".

The sound is "wide spread" stereo not unlike "KOB" though with more center fill and less reverb. It's also remarkably transparent and natural-sounding.

The only reason Classic Records failed to reissue this one back in the 1990s and 2000s is because the reel containing one side had gone missing. For this reissue Sony/BMG located the original 3 track recording from which this stereo record was sourced so it's one generation ahead of the mixed two track master. This tape probably hadn't been played in almost sixty years and so sounds remarkably fresh.

Analogue Productions reissued this in a tip-on gatefold sleeve with great black and white photos taken at the recording session of Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Ben Webster.

A moment in musical time perfectly captured that's easy to recommend for the music, the sound and the packaging. The reissue sound is somewhat drier than the original, which makes it all the more intimate and less dated. A great lacquer cut by Ryan K. Smith.

When you have Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Harry Carney, Jim Hall, Jimmy Guiffre Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Jo Jones, Milt Hinton and Jim Hall together under one cathedral roof, how could it not be great?

Musicians: 

Ben Webster, tenor sax (Mal Waldron All-Star)
Billie Holiday, vocals
Coleman Hawkins, tenor sax (Henry "Red" Allen All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Count Basie All-Star)
Count Basie, piano (Count Basie All-Star)
Danny Barker, guitar (Mal Waldron All-Star)
Dickie Wells, trombone (Count Basie All-Star)
Doc Cheatham, trumpet (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Count Basie All-Star)
Earl Warren, saxophone (Count Basie All-Star)
Eddie Jones, bass (Count Basie All-Star)
Emmet Berry, trumpet (Count Basie All-Star)
Frank Rehak, trombone (Count Basie All-Star)
Freddy Green, guitar (Count Basie All-Star)
Harry Carney, saxophone (Count Basie All-Star)
Henry "Red" Allen, vocals, trumpet 
Jim Atlas, bass (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Jimmy Giuffre Trio)
Jim Hall, guitar (Jimmy Giuffre Trio)
Jimmy Giuffre, baritone, clarinet, tenor sax 
Jimmy Rushing, vocals (Count Basie All-Star)
Jo Jones, drums (Henry "Red" Allen All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Count Basie All-Star)
Joe Newman, trumpet (Count Basie All-Star)
Lester Young, tenor sax (Mal Waldron All-Star)
Mal Waldron, piano, piano soloist 
Milt Hinton, bass (Henry "Red" Allen All-Star)
Nat Pierce, piano, piano soloist (Henry "Red" Allen All-Star)
Pee Wee Russell, clarinet (Henry "Red" Allen All-Star)
Rex Stewart, trumpet (Henry "Red" Allen All-Star)
Roy Eldridge, trumpet (Count Basie All-Star)
Vic Dickenson, trombone (Henry "Red" Allen All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Count Basie All-Star)
 
Selections:
Side I: 
1. Wild Man Blues - Henry "Red" Allen All-Stars
2. Rosetta - Henry "Red" Allen All-Stars
3. Fine and mellow - Billie Holiday, Mal Waldron All-Stars
4. Blues - Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Giuffre, Danny Barker, Jo Jones
Side II: 
1. I Left My Baby - Count Basie All-Stars 
2. The Train and The River – The Jimmy Giuffre Trio
3. Nervous - Mal Waldron
4. Dickie’s Dream - Count Basie All-Stars