My foray into the mono Analogue Productions limited numbered edition Prestige mono series continues to delight me with the Bags Groove and Mobley's Second Message LPs.

Miles Davis' Bags Groove was recorded in 1954 in Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack, New Jersey, studio. The title tracks were recorded the day before Christmas, but the present of the album wasn't sent to us until 1957. That's ok, it was worth the wait!

'Bags' was the nickname for the superb jazz vibraphonist, Milt Jackson, and the first two tracks, Bags Groove, are his compositions, which are now considered jazz standards. On Bags Groove Miles Davis  plays the trumpet, Milt Jackson plays the vibraphone, Thelonious Monk plays the piano, Percy Heath plays the bass, and Kenny Clarke is on the drums.

The other five cuts are Airegin, Oleo, and Doxy, by Sonny Rollins, and two takes of But Not for Me by George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin. Wonderful music by amazing musicians, definitely don't miss this album!

Mobley's 2nd Message was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in 1956, and was released in 1957. This too is a fantastic mono album, with Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Walter Bishop on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Art Taylor on drums, playing These Are the Things I Love, Message from the Border, Xlento, The Latest, I Should Care, and Crazeology.

Here's what I've noticed with these mono reissues: aside from the fact that Analogue Productions cherry-picked some of the greatest jazz recordings ever laid down on tape, these mono recordings have superb tone. Tone color, timber, melody, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, for example - all of the musically relevant aspects of recordings - just shine on through in a stellar way. I haven't found the mono recordings to be quite adept as stereo recordings at soundstage width & depth or imaging, or the like. While I enjoy certain aspects of those recording artifacts as much as the next man, it doesn't bother me terribly that they're less pronounced, because you don't really hear that sort of thing in live music much anyways, so there's no impact to that 'live' feel of musical enjoyment.

However, I say that with somewhat of a caveat, because I've done all my listening with my stereo EMT TSD-15 phono cartridge, and not a mono cartridge.  I'm told when listening with a Miyajima mono cartridge, for example, the improvement in mono playback is profound. So that's something I need to check into before too much time goes by.

Anyways, Bags Groove & Mobley's 2nd Message are fantastic albums, and I'd like to thank the folks over at Analogue Productions for taking on this reissue series, it has been a wonderful experience listening to these mono albums. I'm definitely ordering more before they disappear of the face of the Earth!

I've got some really exciting things to tell you over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by, and from my home to yours, may the music make you happy. 🙂