CES 2015

One of the most long awaited reissues will soon come from Mobile Fidelity. Selected room visitors had a chance to listen to a test pressing of one mastering of the legendary Kind of Blue most likely sourced from Mark Wilder's 1997 mix to analog tape from the 3 track safety copy.

Wilder used a GML custom line mixer, an all-tube Presto 3 track playback deck from which he made a flat copy onto an Ampex ATR-102 with Dolby SR using no EQ or compression. That tape became the new two track master, a copy of which was probably used for this test pressing and for what will be the final release.

The folks at Mo-Fi seem to be "walking on eggs" about this release both because of its historical importance both musically and sonically. They really want to get this one 100% correct—even more so than their Foreigner or Mastadon reissues (just busting balls).

There's certainly some stiff competition from the 1990s Classic Records edition, reputedly mastered from the 3 track tape and mixed down "live" by Bernie Grundman. The 3 track tape is apparently no longer useable and Sony/BMG policy no longer allows masters out of the east coast.

So this reissue will, by definition, not sound identical to either an original pressing or to Grundman's mix down reissue but if the HDTracks digital version is any indication, this one could and should be sonically superb.

What was heard in the noisy CES room on an unfamiliar system was promising but there's no point in "navel-gazing" comments at this point and this test pressing is from a lacquer cut that may or may not be the final production cut so why get into the sound other than to say it didn't sound bad!