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Mark Smotroff  |  Jan 02, 2026

Since we ended 2025 with a review of one of the two best-selling jazz albums in history, it is only appropriate — and remarkably timely! — that we begin 2026 by reviewing a most important 180g 2LP update of the other album of such esteemed, 5x-platinum-selling lineage: Miles Davis’ August 1959 Columbia landmark, Kind of Blue. The offering of a new, definitive audiophile version of Kind of Blue from Analogue Productions — one that is based on the much-sought-after speed-corrected edition originally issued by Classic Records in 1995 — is certainly big news, so read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if this new Kind of Blue release is worthy of getting in your hands and onto your turntable ASAP. . .

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2017
It’s not an insult to call singer Lyn Stanley’s fourth album “formulaic”. Not when the formula includes bringing onboard some of today’s best studio and touring jazz musicians and arrangers, recording in the best studios and hiring the greatest engineers. Another part of the formula is the cover art: highly stylized, glamorous black and white photos of Lyn.

Mark Smotroff  |  Aug 17, 2023

Mal Waldron Sextet’s Mal/2 — a new AAA OJC 180g 1LP reissue from Craft Recordings of what some might deem a “lost classic” of vintage, mid-century 1950s jazz — offers important and wonderful music for fans of not only titular pianist Mal Waldron, but also of saxophone legend John Coltrane in particular. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why he considers the new OJC Mal/2 LP is essential listening, and why it’s well worth adding to your collection. . .

Michael Fremer  |  Apr 13, 2022
Craft Records today announced Miles Davis’s Relaxin’ as the next “Small Batch” limited to 5000 copies release. The pre-sale launches Friday April 15th at 2:00 PST/5:00 EST on the “Small Batch” website.

Ken Micallef  |  Jan 17, 2025

As noted in our coverage of the press event that happened in NYC back in December 2024, Miles Davis’ Birth of the Blue assembles, “in a single release, music recorded in 1958, one year prior to the landmark Kind of Blue.” Read Ken Micallef’s review to see if this AAA 180g 1LP release from Analogue Productions lives up to its advance billing. . .

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 09, 2020
Miles Davis's second collaboration with arranger/orchestrator Gil Evans (and the first recorded in stereo) is arguably the duo's best effort—a majestic, moody re-working of George Gershwin's classic folk opera recorded in three summer of 1958 sessions at Columbia's 30th street studios.

Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2021
Seven years ago (2014) Sony/Legacy reissued for Record Store Day a swell version of Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years, mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at RTI. It was positively reviewed on this site.

Michael Fremer  |  Oct 20, 2015
Donald Rumsfeld once famously said "You go to war with the army you have not the army you want". While reissuing Miles Davis' iconic Kind of Blue is hardly as consequential as invading a country, in context of our little musical and sonic world it probably is.

Michael Fremer  |  Jul 28, 2015
1968 was a period of political and musical unrest. Miles was moved by where rock music and culture were going and clearly, he wanted to be part of it.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 22, 2018
Mobile Fidelity just announced the availability for order of its Bridge Over Troubled Water reissue, produced as a limited to 7500 copies "one-step" double 45rpm release.

Michael Fremer  |  Oct 02, 2016
One of the great albums of the 1960s—for me an essential album— gets the double 45rpm treatment from Mobile Fidelity. Rhino reissued this a few years ago mastered by Chris Bellman and Bernie Grundman Mastering from the original tape.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 23, 2015
If the iconic Miles Davis album Kind of Blue captured an event—an abrupt musical switch from melody to modal, these three mid-period quintet albums, Sorcerer (1967), Nefertitti (1968) and Filles De Kilimanjaro (1969) represent a period of transition as the quintet moves slowly towards Miles’s amplified instrument embrace.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 29, 2021
The Yardbirds original "Shapes of Things" took the protest song—a surprising departure from the group's blues-based output— as a smartly rendered military march with mild middle eastern undertones. Jeff Beck played on the original but here for his first solo outing he led with a slinky, heavily syncopated version that presaged by a few years Led Zep's heaviest of metal. The song's conclusion, a rhythmic meltdown to a complete stop was something altogether new to rock fans. Needless to say, back in 1968 buyers of this record had minds blown, in part thanks to the great Ken Scott's impeccable engineering skills and of course by much of the world's first exposure to Rod Stewart.

Mike Mettler  |  Oct 15, 2025

Is it love, or lies? Well, when it comes to the sound and content of Linda Ronstadt’s rightly hailed September 1975 opus Prisoner in Disguise, it is very much of the love variety. In celebration of this important mid-’70s LP’s 50th anniversary, Mobile Fidelity has just seen fit to reissue it as a 180g 2LP 45rpm edition, remastered from the original master tapes. AP editor Mike Mettler reports on its overall spin-worthiness, and he also includes firsthand comments from interviews he conducted with Ronstadt and one of her key collaborators on the album — the late, great JD Souther. . .

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 10, 2016
Before you pay $100 for any record you have to ask yourself if you really like the music, right? Then the question becomes is this version that much better than the one you already have, assuming you already have one.

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