Recording quality effect on listening pleasure ...

JP

I side with you on that end

Charlie Parker recordings don't do it for me
too murky - yes there's something going on but I can't feel the emotional end when it's so condensed and buried in poor sonics

Lester Young from the same period sounds much better and I'm more inclined to listen to him. Some of the old early Duke Ellington is moving and can nearly overcome the sonic end - but why not hear a later period piece or live reworking in all it's sonic glory

The period of jazz I most enjoy is late 50's early 60's Miles, Coltrane, Mingus, Bill Evans, Horace Silver, Blue Note etc
the sonics really unlock the performance magic
Rudy Van Gelder was one to really get the right recording studio sound early

Albert's Blue Note 45 series suggestion is dead on

if you like this period might I suggest the following dvd series - jazz icons

dvds from late 50' to early 60's some stellar sound from mostly european venues who taped these for tv
it's like being a fly on the wall
really great stuff

the coltrane and art blakely ones are my faves
and sound surprisingly good

To increase your pleasure I would put some of your favorites on cd and then process and clean them up with some sound software, especially the stuff that Steinberg makes.

Well JP, seems that I couldn't agree more with you on this one. I've got a lot of stuff that I absolutely love, but because the quality is so compromised, I will only listen to it in the car, as I really don't care what the sound is like there. In other words, I refuse listening to it on my system. Sure I like the music, and that's what it's all about. But what's the point of running a Ferrari on
diet pepsi? Case in point: I recently bought a remastered Mission UK cd which, I have been waiting and waiting for. Well I got it. The original sounds better than the remastered. I was like "what the hell"? what is the point of remastering something, if it ain't gonna better
the original? The original remains in the house while
the remastered got the boot to the Tacoma.
:(

you know a lot of great movies were made in black and white. Probably some of the best movies ever but I still can't watch them. I like my movies in living color. That being said, music is different. I grew up cherishing bootleg records and tapes of live performances. Sure the quality sucked but if the show was great it really didn't seem to matter. now that I'm older and my stereo costs thousands of dollars I don't have the patience for inferior quality recordings like I use too.

Cheers to that, Dredhead!