REVINYLIZATION

As one of the first live albums to be recorded in the hallowed space that is New York City's Village Vanguard, Sonny Rollins's A Night at the Village Vanguard (recorded November 3, 1957, released in 1958) set the template, proving that recording in the odd, triangular club could not only work but could also produce distinctive, satisfying sound.

- ROBERT BAIRD

Soon after the recording of the Rollins album, Bill Evans and John Coltrane added live Vanguard albums to their recording catalogs.

Now reissued by Blue Note Records as part of its Tone Poet Series, this three-LP edition, which comes from a different source than previous releases, is that rare audiophile reissue where the sonic differences are immediately audible.

"On all the previous reissues of the album, everything had been done from the 15ips [inches per second] tapes. They were assembled into three different albums. It's also what the Japanese used when they put them out," Tone Poet producer Joe Harley told me in a recent interview. "For years though, I'd seen that picture of Alfred and Rudy tableside" at the Vanguard. He's referring to Blue Note Founder Alfred Lion and, of course, famed audio engineer Rudy Van Gelder. "And in that photo, I would see this Ampex 601 [tape recorder] and think that's interesting, because it only goes to 7.5ips. It doesn't do 15. I thought that maybe that was a secondary deck. I didn't know."