Jazz at the Pawnshop

If you're looking for the Best Live Jazz That's Ever Been Played, then Pawnshop is not for you.  

Pawnshop is a remarkable document of the best players in Sweden on a given night at a given club.  If you can start from that premise and imagine yourself a tourist who happened to wander into the pub on that winter night, you would feel pretty lucky to have caught it.  The value of Pawnshop is that it puts you inside that pub.

Regarding the bass on this recording, if you pay attention you can hear solid-state distortion.  It's because the bassist had a very small combo amp on stage so that he could be better heard, and the poor little thing was working a bit too hard.

I agree with all 3 comments right above this

I have the original issue. No bass heaviness there.

 I find the sound quality to be really good. It puts you into the recording venue.  However, to my ears, it sounds like a bunch of okay musicians trying to emulate some great American jazz players like Paul Desmond and Lionel Hampton. They don't pull it off. Fun record though. 

OP

I've always thought of Jazz at the Pawnshop as a very good recording... Maybe not the best, but this recording does some things very well...
in the same vain as this recording... I prefer:
For Duke..... Duke Ellington All-Stars.

I agree with what most have said here. It's a pretty neat recording. Over the years, I've bought at least four copies....original CD release, SACD box set, 88.2kHz HDtracks download, and 352.8kHz Naxos 2xHD download. I don't recall any of them being bass heavy...if anything, perhaps a tiny bit lean.