A couple of new releases - Miles Davis E.S.P. on Impex, John Coltrane With The Red Garland Trio on Analogue Productions:

A couple of new vinyl reissues - 33 rpm - appeared in my mailbox this week courtesy of Fedex.

I have been looking forward to the Impex reissue of Miles Davis "E.S.P.", his first recording with his classic 60's quintet (Shorter, Hancock, Carter, Williams) - the finest group he ever led. ESP is maybe the 'purest' record that quintet ever made (although arguably Nefertitti might be) and is s tone masterpiece. I have always had reservations about Columbia's mid 60's recordings, I sometimes found them to be slightly thin, and dry, there always seemed to be just that last bit of harmonic richness, or truth, missing. I was interested to see what Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Studios could make of these master tapes.

And as it turns out, it is somewhat of a minor revelation. Miles spits and shouts, his pinched, speech like tone bursting forward. Shorter is richly metallic, and both horns are realistically out front, with lots of space around them. Hancock is superb, crisp chromatic runs, tight percussive comping. Tony Williams is somewhat of a revelation, not only his wonderful cymbal work, but listen to the drum solo opening Side 2 - a bottom end to his bass drum bombs that has never been present before, and a huge, wide drum kit sound almost orchestral. Ron Carter's bass is very solid and deep, maybe a bit too much of a good thing, but then again, previous issues of ESP have never had Carter's bass so solid and deep.

Highly, completely recommended. This is THE prime Miles period, and more can only be hoped for - although MOFI is apparently doing the rest of the 60's Miles titles in 2014 (or whenever, as usual, they seems to be announced eons before they get released).

On to the John Coltrane With The Red Garland Trio on Analogue Productions. A good, solid 200g pressing at 33 rpm - all good so far. They use the original Prestige cover - very good move, the one more commonly associated with this title is nowhere near as interesting or evocative of the period.

The record is a classic, the first really good record Coltrane did, and in my opinion a better record than the more popular Prestige Soultrane.

For the most part, the Analogue Productions Prestige series, beset by multiple delays (Analogue Productions seem to like to announce release dates, take preorders, and at the last minute move the release date - often multiple times, a game I find unprofessional) and the titles have been, with a few exceptions, very uninteresting.

This one, though, is a classic deserving of a new look.

The sound is very full and solid, tonality is excellent. As seems to be the norm for AP, the high end is a bit muted, or softened by EQ, and so this misses the highest level of realism - it seems to be playing to that segment of audiophiles who recoil from realistic cymbal work in particular. But fortunately, not nearly as much as Hoffman did with the AP Blue Notes, so there is still plenty of high end shimmer. The Prestige recordings were, as a whole, blowing sessions, recorded very up front with not a whole lot of subtlety (as opposed to Blue Note RVG recordings) and this is what you will find here - a big sound, very up front, hard blowing - solid. A very good reissue, probably better than an original, certainly better than any reissue. Very welcome - a great title in the Analogue Productions series.