Sheffield Lab


if anyone's seriously into vinyl and doesn't have a gaggle of Sheffield recordings (direct to disc) go and get some. They're startling! Anyone else value their old Sheffield LPs as I do?

Most amazing Sheffield buy- I was in an FYE store a few years ago that had a small used LP section. All LPs were either $1 or $2. I wound up buying a bunch of records- spent about$20, including LAB-5, Discovered Again by Dave Grusin- it was $2. Coincidentally, My first Sheffield LP, back in the day, was LAB-5. So now I have 2 copies?
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Sorry, my mistake. The Blazing Redheads were on Reference Recordings not Sheffield.

I was thinking of the Usual Suspects and wrote the wrong group.
Thank you, Al. The audio hobby, like any hobby, is supposed to be fun. Yet people often take it too seriously. So much so that it can be difficult to ignore their bloaviating vituperance.
'Blazing Redheads' was a Reference Recordings release. For me being an absolute Latin Jazz fanatic, this record is the 'Jazz At The Pawnshop' of the genre (I own it!), a spectacular recording of a very pedestrian band, more of a collector's item for me than anything else. As far as Sheffield's concerned, I own a few, but rarely re-visit them. Their Tower Of Power release (I'm also a TOP fanatic, and still love me some hard-chargin' horn based funk!) is probably my least favorite recording by this band. The Harry James records stand up. Sheffield does have what I consider seminal records in a sub-genre that I still enthusiastically listen to, what I affectionately call Rock Jazz. Instrumental records by primarily Rock/studio (for lack of a better term) musicians. The James Newton Howard & Friends is a favorite due to it featuring many members of Toto and being a primo recording of one of the great drummers; the late Jeff Porcaro. Coincidentally, I recently re-visited the Sheffield Track/Drum record after not hearing it for many, many years. This record was one of the 1st things that made me think Harry Pearson wasn't the end-all/be-all guru of Audio back in the day as he referred to this as "Absolutely the best sounding Rock & Roll recording ever made!" Really!? It's good, but the best? Even back in the day, I didn't even consider it R&R. Anyhow, I didn't realize it than but the record features a current favorite of mine, the amazing Michael Landau on guitar. The instrumental recordings on 'The Usual Suspects' still hold up also.
The only exception to the musical value comments was the boxed set Moscow Sessions. I keep around for the Barber First Essay.