One track comes immediately to mind:
Steve Cardenas/ / Ben Allison / Ted Nash’s "Healing Power" from the recording of the same name. The music is poignant, performance inspired, and Ben Allison’s mix techniques put you in the room with them. There’s one section where guitar / bass duet is joined by saxophone; the sax is so immediate, so real, that I jump every time even though I know it’s coming. (BTW, it’s on Bandcamp)
Had to think a little about the other two:
Elise Einarsdotter’s "I Know a Lovely Rose" from the CD Summer Night. Solo piano improvisation, beautifully recorded. When first entering the studio, Elise sat down at the piano and began to improvise, to get a feel for the instrument, without knowing she was being recorded. One take, no questions. Superb.
Weather Report "Birdland" from Heavy Weather. Maybe a little compressed. Maybe too many multitrack artifacts, but boy this track hangs together well. The air around the percussion, the slap of the bass all come through. An audiophile system might pick apart the mix, but maybe that’s what great systems do.
