Michael Fremer

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Album Reviews
Court and Spark Revisited
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 01, 2010  |  1 comments

Joni Mitchell’s move to jazz on this 1974 game changer upset her hippie contingent, who wished she’d remained a “lady of the canyon,” and it didn’t exactly thrill fans who considered themselves jazz aficionados either—not with the likes of “jazz-lite” guys like Tom Scott, Joe Sample, Wilton Felder and Larry Carlton involved.

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Record Buying TipsUsed Record Buying Tips
Cracking the Columbia Records Code
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 21, 2017  |  First Published: Mar 21, 2017  |  45 comments
You can find a great deal of information online about matrix codes and their meaning. Unfortunately some of it is incorrect.

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News
Craft Chooses Yusef Lateef's Eastern Sounds As Its Second "Small Batch" One Step Release
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 24, 2021  |  First Published: Mar 24, 2021  |  46 comments
Los Angeles, CA (March 17, 2021)—Craft Recordings is pleased to announce the second title in its one-step series, Small Batch: Yusef Lateef’s 1961 classic, Eastern Sounds. Originally released on Moodsville (an imprint of the legendary jazz label, Prestige Records), the upcoming Small Batch pressing of this groundbreaking album will be limited to 1,000 copies and released exclusively through CraftRecordings.com on April 23rd. The public pre-sale launches this Friday (March 26th) at 2:00 pm PST/5 pm EST.

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News
Craft Recordings Announces Record Store Day Dozen Exclusives
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 29, 2021  |  First Published: Apr 29, 2021  |  8 comments
Craft's Record Store Day Dozen includes the first ever vinyl release of John Martyn's 1998 blues covers album The Church With One Bell as well as a deluxe edition of the indispensable 1966 3 LP set Chicago/The Blues/Today! originally on Vanguard.

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AAA VinylNews
Craft Recordings Launches “Small Batch” Series With One-Step AAA John Coltrane Lush Life
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 14, 2021  |  First Published: Jan 14, 2021  |  60 comments
Los Angeles, CA ( January 14,2021)—Craft Recordings today announced its first lavishly packaged and produced “Small Batch” series release: John Coltrane’s Lush Life, an original 1961 Prestige monophonic release recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in his Hackensack, NJ living room studio. The record consists of unissued tracks recorded in three sessions, two in 1957 and one in 1958.

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News
Craft Recordings Reissues Collective Soul's Triple Platinum Sophomore Album On Vinyl, Celebrating 25th Anniversary
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 14, 2020  |  First Published: Sep 14, 2020  |  3 comments
Craft Recordings recently announced the first ever on vinyl release of Collective Soul's 1994 eponymously titled sophomore album as well as a vinyl reissue of the album's 1993 debut album hints allegations & things left unsaid. The CD reissue includes six bonus tracks

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AAA VinylNews
Craft Recordings Reissues Big Star #1 and Radio City AAA on 180g Vinyl
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 03, 2019  |  First Published: Dec 03, 2019  |  20 comments
"What happens in Memphis stays in Memphis"—at least until you get these home (unless you live in Memphis!) might be Craft Recordings' slogan for this all-analog pair of Big Star reissues, probably the first all-analog reissues of these two ignored when first released but now highly regarded early '70s albums since Classic Records released them in 2009 AAA on Clarity vinyl.

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News
Craft Recordings To Launch Exclusive "Small Batch" LP Series
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 08, 2021  |  First Published: Jan 08, 2021  |  56 comments
Craft Recordings will soon launch a limited-edition one-step series focusing on their most revered recordings available exclusively via Craft Recordings.
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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Craft Recordings' 5 LP Chet Baker Box Sure to Please Fans
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 05, 2020  |  10 comments
For every reason, from mastering to pressing to packaging and annotation—and pricing, Craft’s 5 LP Chet Baker Riverside box scores the highest marks.

The recent RSD mono release of It Could Happen to You—Chet Baker Sings signaled what this set might and turned out to be. For those fans who might have some of these albums on original or OJC reissues, you can be sure the audio here soundly beats those.

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Album Reviews
Craft Records Reissues on Vinyl Creedence Clearwater Classics Green River and Willy and The Poorboys
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 17, 2019  |  16 comments
Though you could argue that Bayou Country containing "Proud Mary" and "Born on the Bayou" was a better album, I'm going with Green River as a stronger, more consistent overall album (you remember albums, don't you?), which also had some hits like "Bad Moon Rising" (with it's refrain "there's a bathroom on the right"), "Lodi", which at the time made me wonder why Fogerty was writing about New Jersey and of course the title tune. In retrospect, despite the New Orleans musical setting, much of what Fogerty wrote was about his life growing up in Berkeley, Calfornia. But I digress.

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