The Modern Jazz Quartet-Pyramid (1960)


 

Artist: The Modern Jazz Quartet

Title: Pyramid

Label: Atlantic

Format: CD

Cat #: A2 1325

Year of Release: 1960

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US  90's  Columbia House edition (unknown on Discogs, first CD date listed is 1998 Japan edition)

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 1/25/28 

Sell Price: $3.49

Discogs Last Sold: 12/16/21 $2.11

Low: $1.67

Median: $3.00

Average: $3.19

High: $6.00

Current low price: $2.55

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 5

Have/Want: 42/23

Where Sold: Henrico, VA

Time it took to sell: 10 years

Where and When Bought: Columbia House

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go: No

One of the baseline "Cool Jazz" releases that you can't really argue with except just how important it is in the trajectory of music in general.  It sounds amazing in headphones, particularly the resonance of the vibes.  It single handedly makes a case for digital audio being superior to  vinyl that would assuredly submerge the glorious resonant sound with surface noise.

I'm sure some audio semantics would want me hung for saying that but who really cares?  This edition was mastered in the first 10-15 years of digital mastering and the tech got better in later editions.  Maybe there is a gorgeous repress on vinyl taken from a digital transfer that someone will say is the definitive edition, but I am not that person.  Right now, I'm listening to a stream on some shitty computer speaker, about the 4th go-round this week of this fine example of Modern Jazz, the kind Chuck Berry railed against only a couple years earlier.

"Modern" is an operative term.  I wanted to believe that maybe someone in MJQ could be found in NYC at the Blue Note some weeknight.  Sadly, everybody on this record, the 16th for the quartet since 1953, has died in my conscious lifetime.  The group itself permanently broke up in 1997.  Drummer Connie Kay went first in 1994.  Milt Jackson, the Vibraphonist has been gone since 1999.   John Lewis, Pianist, passed in 2001. The composer of the title track, Ray Brown, left this earthly plane in 2002 at the age of 75.  Bass player Percy Heath passed in 2005.   

Perfect Sunday listening if you want some space for your brain.

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