Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder

[BrianB]

I’ve been trying to find a copy of this on vinyl but available copies are waaaayyyy out of my budget. Plus, vintage record store rummaging is constantly futile for this album. I guess people don’t want to give up a good thing I have it on Apple Music and love it - but would also love it on vinyl. 

I found one list of upcoming Blue Note reissues but this wasn’t on the list. Does anyone know if this is slated for a rerelease anytime soon? 
 

 

[porcy62]

I don’t know but Japanese pressings are fairly common on Discogs 

[sidewinder]

There’s also the French DMM reissue if prepared to ‘rough it’.

Agree with Porcy there - the King Japanese reissue is a good option.

[BrianB]

Thank you both - how’s the sound quality of the pressing? 

[sidewinder]

I don’t have the pressings readily available but the King will be smooth, low noise with very nice presentation. Maybe lacking a little presence. The Pathe Marconi will be a little on the ‘thin’ side. An original will have lots of ‘oomph’ and life, although noise might be an issue if the condition is not great (although Plastylite pressings usually are very good in this regard).

My NY pressing has a blank white label on one side. They were churning them out so fast in 1964/65 that quality control took a dive !

And as usual, Londonjazzcollector has a whole treatise on it..

https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/lee-morgan-the-sidewinder-1964-blue-note/

Edited September 20, 2020 by sidewinder

[kh1958]

I have a King pressing and a 70s era blue label  pressing. The King is preferred but the 70s pressing is an acceptable alternative. 

[mjzee]

I used to have this:

[Brad]

4 minutes ago, mjzee said:

I used to have this:

I’ve seen this at estate sales. Unfortunately, it was badly beaten up. 

[mjazzg]

I live happily with the 1977 UA edition not that I play it very often not because of the pressing just don't need to hear it much

[porcy62]

I have a Classic reissue and it sounds fine 

[B. Clugston]

It's crazy how much the vinyl goes for on this one considering how many were pressed back in the 1960s. I have an original mono with lovely punchy sound. Music Matters reissued it a few years back and it sounds OK, but not as vibrant as the original or even the RVG CD. You are probably in safe hands with a King or Liberty era pressing.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, B. Clugston said:

It's crazy how much the vinyl goes for on this one considering how many were pressed back in the 1960s. I have an original mono with lovely punchy sound. Music Matters reissued it a few years back and it sounds OK, but not as vibrant as the original or even the RVG CD. You are probably in safe hands with a King or Liberty era pressing.

And the resale prices on the Music Matters one is crazy stupid, $200 and up. 

[BrianB]

All very helpful feedback! Thank you. 
 

I’ll keep looking in shops & online - maybe I’ll get lucky  

Or Blue Note Records will get around to reissuing the album. 

[JSngry]

Wow, this one was in print up until the end. Is there really a shortage of even latter/last day pressings? I mean, that one used to go for, like 5-6 bucks tops in used bins, that's how many of the there were.

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, I got a decent $2 Liberty USA copy maybe 20-25 years ago; decided to purge it a while back and was surprised to get like $40 for it. Good record but I did not feel the need to keep one in the racks. Maybe I'll grab a Japanese at some point.

[Dan Gould]

This is becoming an interesting question to me ... I've been looking at jazz in used record store racks since 1988, cannot really say I've ever seen a copy of The Sidewinder. You'd really think they would be all over but if so, where did they go and when did they become scarce? I am pretty sure I've seen a few copies of Rumproller though ...

23 hours ago, mjzee said:

I used to have this:

I used to object to BN slapping on the "Finest In Jazz" mark on non-Blue Note reissues, but I actually never knew that this reissue program actually was also used on BN vinyl and pretending they were PJ issues. I've only seen PJs reissued with these covers.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

16 hours ago, Brad said:

And the resale prices on the Music Matters one is crazy stupid, $200 and up. 

it is?? 

 

 

omg theyve all jumped in price

[Daniel A]

32 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

This is becoming an interesting question to me ... I've been looking at jazz in used record store racks since 1988, cannot really say I've ever seen a copy of The Sidewinder. You'd really think they would be all over but if so, where did they go and when did they become scarce? I am pretty sure I've seen a few copies of Rumproller though ...

I used to object to BN slapping on the "Finest In Jazz" mark on non-Blue Note reissues, but I actually never knew that this reissue program actually was also used on BN vinyl and pretending they were PJ issues. I've only seen PJs reissued with these covers.

It was also used for some Solid State albums. This is my favorite; Chick Corea's 1968 Solid State album, re-released as a Pacific Jazz album by Music For Pleasure on cassette! 

[Brad]

14 minutes ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

it is?? 

 

 

omg theyve all jumped in price

Yes, I looked at Discogs and eBay and they’re all super expensive. 

[Dan Gould]

24 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

It was also used for some Solid State albums. This is my favorite; Chick Corea's 1968 Solid State album, re-released as a Pacific Jazz album by Music For Pleasure on cassette! 

[sidewinder]

44 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

It was also used for some Solid State albums. This is my favorite; Chick Corea's 1968 Solid State album, re-released as a Pacific Jazz album by Music For Pleasure on cassette! 

Hitting all the bullseyes there in terms of optimal sonics - not..

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

theres also the black triangle original cd:

[DMP]

Every time I hear it, I still hear the skip in Barry Harris’ third chorus of the title cut after all these years - don’t miss my vinyl copy.

[BrianB]

How’d this become so popular? I enjoy it (clearly) but didn’t know it was so elusive or expensive! 

[clifford_thornton]

It is an iconic album in the Blue Note catalog, and the title track is very listenable.