Gigi Gryce/Donald Byrd - Jazz Lab Jubilee JLP-1059: Styrene pressing?

[Mark13]

Yesterday I bought this album in a store in Amsterdam. it set me back only a couple of Euros but it was also labelled as being in a poor condition. The seller honestly warned me, claiming it was a styrene pressing.

I have given it a spin and its 'problem' is consistent with worn-out polystyrene. The record plays with a loud hiss throughout. But as I understand it, almost all styrene-records are 45s, and this is a late fifties-lp. And on the independent Jubilee-label as well. I have checked the Discogs-site, and my copy is a 1959 'Superlaphonic' repressing.

I have tried several of the styrene-indication tips found on YouTube and elsewhere and find the results inconclusive. The label doesn't look glued on, and tapping produces the same dull thudding sound as a vinyl-record.

For this record, it's of no importance whether it's vinyl or styrene - sonically it is what it is. But the whole thing has me wonder about styrene-pressings and how common they were back in the day. I believe DECCA released some styrene jazz-lps in the second half of the 1950s, but did the process extent to smaller independent (jazz)labels as well? To be honest, as a collector of (mainly) 50's and 60's hardbop, I never expected to see one.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Mark13

[Stonewall15]

Not exactly on topic but the Jubilee LP has been issued on CD.

[Bill Nelson]

Jubilee pressings will be either styrene or shit-grade recycled vinyl with surface blisters and artifacts.

In my 50 years as collector and dealer, I avoid Jubilee LPs for the sake of my customers.

[Mark13]

Thanks Bill,

I Although there are no surface blisters I guess my copy falls in the 'shit-grade recycled vinyl' category. 😀

I have no great experience collecting jazz-vinyl and only buy titles that have never had a proper CD-release, or that have eluded me. At a couple of Euros, I 've also been tempted to buy vinyl copies of albums I already have, as was the case here. Dutch Fontana-pressings from the early 1960s (with alternative covers) especially, are easy to find over here, and most are affordable and pretty decent. This US-pressing of 'Jazzlab' is bloody awful.

So if Jubilee are notorious for their shitty (styrene-) pressings, are there other independent jazzlabels/outfits that better be avoided? Or where buying European or Japanese pressings is the safer way to go?

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Mark13

[Big Beat Steve]

7 hours ago, Mark13 said:

Thanks Bill,

I Although there are no surface blisters I guess my copy falls in the 'shit-grade recycled vinyl' category. 😀

...

So if Jubilee are notorious for their shitty (styrene-) pressings, are there other independent jazzlabels/outfits that better be avoided? Or where buying European or Japanese pressings is the safer way to go?

 

CROWN (the "early reissue/recycling" subsidiary of the Modern/RPM label stable) is not exactly top-notch vinyl. 😄 But I guess those who buy them anyway have learned to live with it.

One period-original label I (sadly) have come to be a bit wary of and better look twice is the (Danish) SONET label from the 50s/60s. I have had several cases where the records (particularly 45rpm EPs) display more or less numerous warts and pimples that extend randomly across the vinyl surface. Like acute cases of vinyl acne. Worse still - I am under the distinct impression that these warts show up over time as the vinyl "ages" - from no particular age of the record and at an unpredictable speed of degradation. I have been caught out occasionally when I had failed to inspect the EPs before purchase (probably because the records were cheap and I bought them mainly  for the picture covers) but I remember buying a copy of the "Message from Newport" LP by Maynard Ferguson on Sonet and am really very, very sure it did not have any noticeable pimples when I bought it some 10-15 years ago. However, when I  pulled it out again about 2 years ago (after a longish period of disuse) to spin it I was shocked to see to what extent it had grown warts on both surfaces! Strangely the record still does not skip but it has a very distinct and irregular background rumble and of course this is not the kind of abuse you want to subject your stylus to. 
Another similar case was the Sonet EP of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" which I bought back in the 80s at a fleamarket. The surface definitely was OK (though not NM, of course). Recent inspection relevaled it has grown surrface irregularities too - not really warts and pimples but what can best be described as streaking, as in the case of some wooden surface where an insect had dug a path directly underneath the surface.
As I have not pulled out this record too often during those 40 years of ownership I have no way of judging this ageing process but it does seem that the vinly of these Sonets somehow just starts disintegrating (like a car panel beset by rust underneath the paint) from a certain age, and once the process has started it tends to accelerate. (It seems like very occasionally this can also happen with early (Swedish) METRONOME EPs)

However, this is NOT always the case. Other 50s/early 60s Sonets I have are fine. The other day I bought a period-original copy of the "Count Basie Presents Eddie Lockjaw Davis" LP on Sonet which is in perfectly okay VG+ condition. So I am keeping my fingers crossed it will remain that way now that it has reached that age without deterioration.

Close inspection pays anyway - even where you do not expect to find defects of this kind. My copy of the Tal Farlow "Fuerst Set" on Xanadu 109 (not a label that has a bad reputation for poor pressings AFAIK) has some kind of foreign object embedded in the vinyl that shows up as a sort of "floating rice krispie" on both sides and causes an annoying click. I had totally failed to notice this before purchasing as a very quick glance at the vinyl revealed a shiny NM surface and you do not really expect that kind of defect on a collectible label with this pedigree.

[Mark13]

Thanks Steve. Any tip that helps me avoid beginner-mistakes is much appreciated. I will be careful with Sonets. Or Crown-pressings for that matter. 

With regard to vinyl-checking, I don't know. I've come across pretty scratched-up records that sound surprisingly good, and some clean-looking ones that turn out to have major issues. This Jubilee reveals no serious defects, looks unplayed even,  but it is just awful. There are no clicks or pops, just a loud hiss that pushes the music to the background. I was not aware that this level of deterioration with an otherwise 'clean' record was possible.

That said, i was warned, so really no complaints there. 

[jazzcorner]

On 5/21/2023 at 9:15 PM, Bill Nelson said:

Jubilee pressings will be either styrene or shit-grade recycled vinyl with surface blisters and artifacts.

In my 50 years as collector and dealer, I avoid Jubilee LPs for the sake of my customers.

Have  other pressings   and japanese  JUBILEE  vinyls in excellent condition!

Costa,Eddie    Eddie Costa - Vinnie Burke Trio    1956    Jubilee (jap)    7567
Cuozzo,Mike    Mike  Cuozzo & the Costa-Burke Trio    1955    Jubilee(FS)    1027
Flory,Med    Jazz Wave    1957    Jubilee(FS)    1066
Geller,Herb    Fire In The West    1957    Jubilee    1044
Geller,Herb    Stax of Sax    1958    Jubilee    1094
McLean, Jackie    The Jackie McLean Quintet feat. D. Byrd    1955    Jubilee (jap)    1064

Edited June 28, 2023 by jazzcorner

[Big Beat Steve]

23 hours ago, jazzcorner said:

Have  other pressings   and japanese  JUBILEE  vinyls in excellent condition!

...

Yes ... but the reissues certainly are not what the others posters' questions and misgivings about the Jubilee pressing defects were all about. Because they referred to the original pressings. Different bag ... ... apparently a mixed one ...