Sunday, March 2, 2008

What to get? Vinyl or Cd?

Cti albums must be heard with the best possible material - period. Almost all recordings (thanks to the now legendary sound engineer Rudy van Gelder) have a stellar recording quality and the sonic depths with the large bands + the orchestras needs to be fully explored - preferably on CD. I have quite a few albums in good quality on vinyl but it's just not the same, the CD's especially the remastered reissues are superbe. Many of the reissues contain some previously unreleased bonus tracks that make the CD even more inferior to the vinyl.

Finding them is a different issue. As I already wrote, many of them are out of print for a looong time, a few gems have been issued in Japan only (I so hate the record labels for this legalese crap). I luckily bought a couple from 2001 here in Germany for very little money, it's worth to check their website for updates.

Vinyls are more difficult to find, except the very popular albums, for example from George Benson and Grover Washington. If you belong to the few enthusiasts that want a holistic experience then you'll certainly like Cti's gatefold covers (designed by Pete Turner) that have similar to the Blue Note and ECM albums a distinctive design (usually a simple but colorful motif with a black surrounding). Many of them are certainly a grace on the shelf (a couple are quite boring though).

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