I always get a little bit excited when I get an email from Acoustic Sounds announcing their latest vinyl arrivals, and I'm way behind on telling you about some of the great albums I've come across lately.

With all the attention being paid to new vinyl releases in (re)mastering and cutting, and the advent of full 45 RPM albums, we're in the midst of a second Golden Age of vinyl.

Take for example, the Prestige remaster of Rollins Plays for Bird (mono) on the Analogue Productions label, which has become one of my favorite Sonny Rollins albums of all times after a few days of listening - it's superb by any measure!

On Rollins Plays for Bird, jazz tenor saxophonist, Sonny Rollins and his Quintet (Wade Legge, piano; George Morrow, bass; Max Roach, drums; and Kenny Dorham, trumpet), play in tribute a set of standards synonymous with the great alto saxophonist, Charlie Parker, who had died the year before (March 12, 1955) in New York City, at the young age of 34.

The album was recorded on October 5, 1956, at Rudy Van Gelder's Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, where some of the greatest jazz recordings in history were committed to tape (like Rollins' Saxophone Colossus and Tenor Madness; Miles Davis' Bag's Groove and Cookin'/Relaxin'/Steamin'/Workin'; Kenny Dorham's Quiet Kenny; Gil Evans' Out of the Cool; and Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth, just to name a few).

The Analogue Productions release of Rollins Plays for Bird was cut from the analogue master tapes by mastering engineer Kevin Gray (who I think is doing some of the finest remastering work in the world today), and then pressed on 200-gram vinyl by Quality Record Pressings.

I know at least some of you have been a little bit confused by the implications of the recent flurry of 'mono' recording releases, but you needn't be, as you can listen to mono releases just fine with your stereo cartridge. If you were here listening with me just now, and I hadn't told you it was mono while listening, I suspect you'd never have guessed that it was. It sounds great!

I'm using my trusty EMT TSD-15 stereo phono cartridge to listen to Rollins Plays for Bird as I write this blog post, and the sound & musicality of this release from Acoustic Sounds is sublime.

I have to admit though, I'd like to have a turntable with 2 tonearms so I could fit a mono Miyajima cartridge, and experiment with playing it through something like the Sentec EQ11 phono stage to check out a variety of EQ curves on my favorite records (trust me, EQ is your friend, phono curves and otherwise, even though many of us (i.e. me)  have been slow coming back to this realization).

Kevin Gray has captured absolutely beautiful tone here in mono (beautiful tone is something I've been noticing about the mono albums I've been listening to lately), with lots of natural detail, engaging tempos, rhythm, and melodies, and just overall a fantastically musical listening experience.

Rollins Plays for Bird, playing over my big Duelund'ized Westminsters - with vintage Mac gear providing the juice - is an absolute treat of a hi-fi music experience at its finest.

With great musicians, a great selection of music, inspired playing while Rudy Van Gelder was putting it down on tape, and Kevin Gray doing the remastering & QRP doing the pressings, Rollins Plays for Bird is a must have. Highly recommended by yours truly for the jazz lovers among us. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by. From my home to yours, may the music playing make you happy.