really great coverage of the label. Nice work. For the best sonics, a person needs to look towards Japan. The Japan jazz market was much larger than the US or EU jazz markets for record collectors. This was true for Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige, Atlantic and others. Some of the Riverside pressings were done in Japan during the ABC records ownership. But most of the Japan pressings are from the era where Fantasy owned the catalog and contracted with Toshiba-EMI and Victor Musical Industries to press the Riverside and Prestige catalogs. Victor Music released several series of records from the Fantasy owned Riverside Catalog. Like the OJC in the US, the Japan Victor pressings have a prefix. These would include the SMJ, series, the VIJ series and later the VIJJ series.
@mcgjohn22 OTIS CLAY s two Jpn live doubles cut in Nippon late 70s also released by the Jpn Victor only ! The 1st one still in that state, the 2nd was released by Rooster Blues in the Snakes, the 2nd one in Europe by a dutch cmpny. BOTH ARE THE GORGEOUSMOST DEEP SOUL PEARLS e v v u h h h ... livewise ...was glad to socialize w the Voice 4 a day in Chitown, 88. Gone 4 good (by O.V. Wright) now, the records will stay cause they have been ....re-corded .. The nipponese legacy is doubly divine inasmuch as those 2 sets were captured & executed during the years the disco had captured & executed all true talent. And Otis was nearly starving & scuffling stateside ! O er & out 🇫🇮
@@sulevisydanmaa9981 The Japanese appetite for jazz and blues drove several of the labels and pressing plants to dig through the archives and issue all kinds of titles that were never released in the US or the EU. Another great label is the Pablo label. Often seen as a budget label in the US. The Earliest US releases were pressed by the RCA Indianapolis plant. These can be quite good. In Japan the pablo titles were originally pressed by Nippon Phonogram and later by Polydor K.K. After the giant Polygram conglomerate had gobbled up British Decca, Dutch Philips, Germany's DG and others they bought Nippon phonogram in Japan to press their catalog in the Japan market. During that era many jazz and blues artists could not make a living state side so went abroad. They were welcomed in Japan and Europe.
I’d like to mention a fine Riverside release: On the Trail, by Jimmy Heath. It was issued just prior to the Riverside collapse, so it suffered from lack of promotion and distribution. It did better in later reissues. It’s well worth looking for.
Excellent presentation as usual Alan. So well researched and to the point- another addition to my saved files. It is so good to hear the importance of Monk in this progression. Dig Jazz and Cheers from Oz.
As a big Riverside fan, I've been waiting for this one, and you delivered. Thank you. I first got deeply into Monk, Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery via Riverside when the OJC CDs were first issued in the '80s. Since then I've also picked up a lot of titles on vinyl, mostly reissues. (BTW, I loved hearing that jazz fans were complaining about labels' insufficient reissue programs, and the transfer between formats -- 78s to LPs -- back in the early '50s. Some things never change...) Evans immortalized Orrin Keepnews (1923-2015) in the first track on the first album ("Moon Beams," 1962) after the death of Scott LaFaro: "Re: Person I Knew," which is an anagram of his name. (It was also the title of the posthumously released 1981 album recorded at the same 1974 Village Vanguard sessions as "Since We Met.") Just a little bit of info that makes me appreciate these records even more...
Thanks. Yes, Keepnews is such a major figure, underappreciated these days perhaps. If you haven’t had a chance to dig into the Record Changer archives, I highly recommend it, not only for Keepnews’ writing but also for the art. And the odd sensation of seeing this era of music play out in real time.
Great video again. I love Riverside, I have about 125 Riverside, many OG´s. The vinyl quality of OG pressings is not as bad as it is with Prestige, but you still have to watch out, sometimes the vinyl can be noisy. Totally different than Blue Note and Contemporary, I always was lucky with pressing quality on these old vintage pressings. OJC is a save haven, but the sound on the old Mono pressings is better. So if you have a chance to listen before you buy, use that option. But as mentioned, it is not as bad as with Prestige. And don't overlook the European vintage Mono pressings, they are as good as the Americans with sound and have a better vinyl quality, sometimes they have a different cover design.
Thanks. Your latter point is where I have arrived as well. Filling out the gaps in the early catalogues of the great labels is an expensive habit, and it’s possible to become a little TOO consumed with country-of-origin releases.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviews Yes, I have not a problem to pay a premium when I get a good record. I just don't want to pay the high prices for a noisy record.
Love your videos. Easy explanation and easy to follow. I do appreciate that the videos are typically short, because who has time to watch an hour video. Again thank you
Nice Video, I picked up some tidbits that I was not aware of particularly regarding the history of the label. I just checked my Discogs and it shows that I have 122 Riverside/jazzland title in various vinyl formats. I do run a separate mono turntable and the Mono original pressings do sound better IMHO than the early stereo. 2 other points, as you mention original pressings vary considerable in pressing and vinyl quality are are not nearly as good as original BN or Prestige. lots of pitting and some flaws. I do have about 30 Japanese pressing, often of some of the most desirable titles. Due to the flawless Japanese engineers and superb vinyl I feel these in many cases sound better than originals...and having A/B'd with Miles 1956 albums Relaxin' etc are definitely brighter and more detailed than the OJCs. Lastly the Milestone label is in there somewhere...and under the Fantasy Umbrella, the Milestone often in 2-fer release can be some of the best bargains of great sounding releases of this material. I look forward to hearing more of your videos... R
Another in a solid run of label overviews. Thanks, Allan. Your piece sent me down an early morning rabbit hole, exploring the wonderful cover art of The Record Changer magazine. One could get lost for hours. ('Odd that Keepnews's piece in The Record Changer misspelled Monk's name in the headline ;-) With respect to your comment about “fake stereo” re-issues of mono recordings, there were several “gimmicks” used, such as introducing a slight delay in one of the two channels, adding stereo reverb, or the worst scheme IMHO, EQing left and right channels differently. The best thing you can do with these recordings, if your system permits, is to engage the “mono” button in your phono signal path to re-centre everything.
Thanks, that’s helpful. Would that caveat apply to any ex post facto stereo release of that era do you think? And yes the Record Changer archive is a rabbit hole of some depth and width. Its amateur feel is what makes it so great, like a student newspaper at times. These guys were in their mid 20s! I’m thinking of sniffing about for bound copies online.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviews Re: fake stereo ... In my experience, the mono button will render different results on the LPs depending on the playback setup and the scheme used to make the mono source into 'post facto' stereo. I've largely purged my collection of faux stereo pressings, but if I'm playing one back and the faux stereo is irking me, I've found that engaging the mono function helps, generally. Interesting side note though ... I have a few LPs which are labeled as simulated stereo which are in fact straight up mono. My guess is that this is likely due to hap-hazard product assembly practices of the day, whereby older stockpiled pressings were mis-matched with newer jackets.
@@mortofon interesting. I wonder if anyone has managed to catalogue who was using real stereo and by when. It’s such an inexact science… one reads people going back and forth in online forums about whether certain recordings are true stereo, an effective fake, or simply a really compelling mono release. I tend to be skeptical of anything pre 1962 unless it’s known that the studio was doing stereo consciously and well (as with Contemporary).
Well done; you covered a lot of ground! Keepnews maintained quite a presence here in the Bay Area with Fantasy, headquartered in Berkeley. I used to see him in the audience at the original Yoshi’s Nightspot in Oakland-a jazz lover to the end. His book, View from Within, is a good read.
Thanks! As I learn more about him, I’m impressed by his capacity to roll with the punches and reinvent himself. The leadership at Fantasy wasn’t always the wisest over the years, but bringing him and his catalogue on board one of the smartest things the company ever did.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviewsFOGERTY HATED Zaents' guts ...to the bone. Big buxxx grabbed. Expect read & reply my significant question above, sep comm. The Filius Keepnews i-view not that NEWSWORTHY, (plenty of pussyfootin roun .., no nitty gritty suit stuff @ all)
Glad you enjoyed it Mike. Incidentally I do still want to do one of your Friday hangs - my challenge has been figuring out Discord. May engage local youth to get a tutorial.
Not of new music, unless it's something I think will resonate with the audience for the channel which is, primarily, fans and collectors of 20th century jazz recordings. I do get requests to review certain older records from time to time and I have sometimes done that, so suggest away! For the most part my motivation for each video is a record in my own collection that I am "feeling" that week for whatever reason, and I learned pretty early on that if the motivation for a review wasn't internal, my heart wasn't in it.
@TenMinuteRecordReviews yeah, that's true. I think it would be interesting to get you to review an album that was completely different to your normal listening for the sake of having it be completely different, and I liked the way your articulated your thoughts so well. But I get it because if I had a channel like yours, I'd be the same. It's not that reviewing it is a chore, but it can become one of the passion for the record isn't there when you start. Still, great content, I love all the stuff you've done that I am familiar with, but I don't have much crossover so maybe I will have to use some of your videos for recommendations 😂 one LP I have really been enjoying which could be classified as Jazz is Amy Winehouses Back to Black but you've probably talked about that one already
@TenMinuteRecordReviews oh definately, especially of you're nor familiar with the tracklist yet! Give it a spin and you'll fall in love, it blends so many different genres and era styles it's magnificent
really great coverage of the label. Nice work. For the best sonics, a person needs to look towards Japan. The Japan jazz market was much larger than the US or EU jazz markets for record collectors. This was true for Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige, Atlantic and others. Some of the Riverside pressings were done in Japan during the ABC records ownership. But most of the Japan pressings are from the era where Fantasy owned the catalog and contracted with Toshiba-EMI and Victor Musical Industries to press the Riverside and Prestige catalogs. Victor Music released several series of records from the Fantasy owned Riverside Catalog. Like the OJC in the US, the Japan Victor pressings have a prefix. These would include the SMJ, series, the VIJ series and later the VIJJ series.
Thank you for this excellent addendum. I’m very happy with my Japanese Riversides. And just picked up two or three more in Hanoi!
@mcgjohn22 OTIS CLAY s two Jpn live doubles cut in Nippon late 70s also released by the Jpn Victor only ! The 1st one still in that state, the 2nd was released by Rooster Blues in the Snakes, the 2nd one in Europe by a dutch cmpny. BOTH ARE THE GORGEOUSMOST DEEP SOUL PEARLS e v v u h h h ... livewise ...was glad to socialize w the Voice 4 a day in Chitown, 88. Gone 4 good (by O.V. Wright) now, the records will stay cause they have been ....re-corded .. The nipponese legacy is doubly divine inasmuch as those 2 sets were captured & executed during the years the disco had captured & executed all true talent. And Otis was nearly starving & scuffling stateside ! O er & out 🇫🇮
@@sulevisydanmaa9981 The Japanese appetite for jazz and blues drove several of the labels and pressing plants to dig through the archives and issue all kinds of titles that were never released in the US or the EU. Another great label is the Pablo label. Often seen as a budget label in the US. The Earliest US releases were pressed by the RCA Indianapolis plant. These can be quite good. In Japan the pablo titles were originally pressed by Nippon Phonogram and later by Polydor K.K. After the giant Polygram conglomerate had gobbled up British Decca, Dutch Philips, Germany's DG and others they bought Nippon phonogram in Japan to press their catalog in the Japan market. During that era many jazz and blues artists could not make a living state side so went abroad. They were welcomed in Japan and Europe.
Ah my favorite series on TH-cam is back !
Great episode as always.
Keep up the good work
Thank you very much.
Interesting and informative! Thanks for creating this video!
My pleasure. Thanks for the positive feedback :)
Another great and informative video - well done Allan.
Thanks 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’d like to mention a fine Riverside release: On the Trail, by Jimmy Heath. It was issued just prior to the Riverside collapse, so it suffered from lack of promotion and distribution. It did better in later reissues. It’s well worth looking for.
Noted! He’s always a bit underrated I feel.
Excellent presentation as usual Alan. So well researched and to the point- another addition to my saved files. It is so good to hear the importance of Monk in this progression. Dig Jazz and Cheers from Oz.
Glad you enjoyed it Ray, and thanks for this note.
As a big Riverside fan, I've been waiting for this one, and you delivered. Thank you. I first got deeply into Monk, Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery via Riverside when the OJC CDs were first issued in the '80s. Since then I've also picked up a lot of titles on vinyl, mostly reissues. (BTW, I loved hearing that jazz fans were complaining about labels' insufficient reissue programs, and the transfer between formats -- 78s to LPs -- back in the early '50s. Some things never change...) Evans immortalized Orrin Keepnews (1923-2015) in the first track on the first album ("Moon Beams," 1962) after the death of Scott LaFaro: "Re: Person I Knew," which is an anagram of his name. (It was also the title of the posthumously released 1981 album recorded at the same 1974 Village Vanguard sessions as "Since We Met.") Just a little bit of info that makes me appreciate these records even more...
Thanks. Yes, Keepnews is such a major figure, underappreciated these days perhaps. If you haven’t had a chance to dig into the Record Changer archives, I highly recommend it, not only for Keepnews’ writing but also for the art. And the odd sensation of seeing this era of music play out in real time.
great overview, thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Excellent, educating video! Thank you👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video again. I love Riverside, I have about 125 Riverside, many OG´s. The vinyl quality of OG pressings is not as bad as it is with Prestige, but you still have to watch out, sometimes the vinyl can be noisy. Totally different than Blue Note and Contemporary, I always was lucky with pressing quality on these old vintage pressings. OJC is a save haven, but the sound on the old Mono pressings is better. So if you have a chance to listen before you buy, use that option. But as mentioned, it is not as bad as with Prestige. And don't overlook the European vintage Mono pressings, they are as good as the Americans with sound and have a better vinyl quality, sometimes they have a different cover design.
Thanks. Your latter point is where I have arrived as well. Filling out the gaps in the early catalogues of the great labels is an expensive habit, and it’s possible to become a little TOO consumed with country-of-origin releases.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviews Yes, I have not a problem to pay a premium when I get a good record. I just don't want to pay the high prices for a noisy record.
Excellent
Thanks
Thanks for this!
and thank you for watching.
Brilliant stuff Allan. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it Mark - appreciate the feedback!
Love your videos. Easy explanation and easy to follow. I do appreciate that the videos are typically short, because who has time to watch an hour video.
Again thank you
Thanks for the feedback Joe. I guess I make the videos that I want to see on TH-cam, so I’m glad they are being well received.
Thank you for this video and all the others.
Glad you enjoy them; they are a lot of fun to do.
Nice to start the week with some well researched jazz enlightenment , well done.
Thanks very much! These are fun to do but require a longer run-up :-)
Nice Video, I picked up some tidbits that I was not aware of particularly regarding the history of the label. I just checked my Discogs and it shows that I have 122 Riverside/jazzland title in various vinyl formats. I do run a separate mono turntable and the Mono original pressings do sound better IMHO than the early stereo. 2 other points, as you mention original pressings vary considerable in pressing and vinyl quality are are not nearly as good as original BN or Prestige. lots of pitting and some flaws. I do have about 30 Japanese pressing, often of some of the most desirable titles. Due to the flawless Japanese engineers and superb vinyl I feel these in many cases sound better than originals...and having A/B'd with Miles 1956 albums Relaxin' etc are definitely brighter and more detailed than the OJCs. Lastly the Milestone label is in there somewhere...and under the Fantasy Umbrella, the Milestone often in 2-fer release can be some of the best bargains of great sounding releases of this material. I look forward to hearing more of your videos... R
@@rsyalom Thanks very much. Some really useful detail in there, and I appreciate you taking the time to comment. It takes a village!
Another in a solid run of label overviews. Thanks, Allan.
Your piece sent me down an early morning rabbit hole, exploring the wonderful cover art of The Record Changer magazine. One could get lost for hours. ('Odd that Keepnews's piece in The Record Changer misspelled Monk's name in the headline ;-)
With respect to your comment about “fake stereo” re-issues of mono recordings, there were several “gimmicks” used, such as introducing a slight delay in one of the two channels, adding stereo reverb, or the worst scheme IMHO, EQing left and right channels differently. The best thing you can do with these recordings, if your system permits, is to engage the “mono” button in your phono signal path to re-centre everything.
Thanks, that’s helpful. Would that caveat apply to any ex post facto stereo release of that era do you think?
And yes the Record Changer archive is a rabbit hole of some depth and width. Its amateur feel is what makes it so great, like a student newspaper at times. These guys were in their mid 20s! I’m thinking of sniffing about for bound copies online.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviews Re: fake stereo ... In my experience, the mono button will render different results on the LPs depending on the playback setup and the scheme used to make the mono source into 'post facto' stereo. I've largely purged my collection of faux stereo pressings, but if I'm playing one back and the faux stereo is irking me, I've found that engaging the mono function helps, generally. Interesting side note though ... I have a few LPs which are labeled as simulated stereo which are in fact straight up mono. My guess is that this is likely due to hap-hazard product assembly practices of the day, whereby older stockpiled pressings were mis-matched with newer jackets.
@@mortofon interesting. I wonder if anyone has managed to catalogue who was using real stereo and by when. It’s such an inexact science… one reads people going back and forth in online forums about whether certain recordings are true stereo, an effective fake, or simply a really compelling mono release. I tend to be skeptical of anything pre 1962 unless it’s known that the studio was doing stereo consciously and well (as with Contemporary).
Well done; you covered a lot of ground! Keepnews maintained quite a presence here in the Bay Area with Fantasy, headquartered in Berkeley. I used to see him in the audience at the original Yoshi’s Nightspot in Oakland-a jazz lover to the end. His book, View from Within, is a good read.
Thanks! As I learn more about him, I’m impressed by his capacity to roll with the punches and reinvent himself. The leadership at Fantasy wasn’t always the wisest over the years, but bringing him and his catalogue on board one of the smartest things the company ever did.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviewsFOGERTY HATED Zaents' guts ...to the bone. Big buxxx grabbed. Expect read & reply my significant question above, sep comm. The Filius Keepnews i-view not that NEWSWORTHY, (plenty of pussyfootin roun .., no nitty gritty suit stuff @ all)
This was great. Thanks for putting it together - Mike
Glad you enjoyed it Mike. Incidentally I do still want to do one of your Friday hangs - my challenge has been figuring out Discord. May engage local youth to get a tutorial.
Do you ever review albums on request?
Not of new music, unless it's something I think will resonate with the audience for the channel which is, primarily, fans and collectors of 20th century jazz recordings. I do get requests to review certain older records from time to time and I have sometimes done that, so suggest away! For the most part my motivation for each video is a record in my own collection that I am "feeling" that week for whatever reason, and I learned pretty early on that if the motivation for a review wasn't internal, my heart wasn't in it.
@TenMinuteRecordReviews yeah, that's true. I think it would be interesting to get you to review an album that was completely different to your normal listening for the sake of having it be completely different, and I liked the way your articulated your thoughts so well. But I get it because if I had a channel like yours, I'd be the same. It's not that reviewing it is a chore, but it can become one of the passion for the record isn't there when you start.
Still, great content, I love all the stuff you've done that I am familiar with, but I don't have much crossover so maybe I will have to use some of your videos for recommendations 😂 one LP I have really been enjoying which could be classified as Jazz is Amy Winehouses Back to Black but you've probably talked about that one already
@@kingglobby4179 No, not yet, and I don’t have it on vinyl for that matter. Perhaps one for the future!
@TenMinuteRecordReviews oh definately, especially of you're nor familiar with the tracklist yet! Give it a spin and you'll fall in love, it blends so many different genres and era styles it's magnificent