The album cover is peak 1950s with cheesecake charm and all, but don’t let the pin-up gloss fool you. Inside is some seriously swinging jazz. Originally released in 1957 on Savoy Records, Surf Ride pulls together 1952-54 sessions that spotlight the brilliant, often-troubled alto saxophonist Art Pepper at a creative high point.
A “holy grail” for plenty of jazz collectors, Surf Ride returns courtesy of Craft Recordings, now revived as part of the label’s excellent Original Jazz Classics series.
As with previous OJC titles we have reviewed at eCoustics, the album’s AAA cutting (the full all analog process) was done by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. The 180 gram black vinyl was pressed at RTI, one of the most respected manufacturing plants in the industry.
Surf Ride sounds great for such relatively early high fidelity monaural recordings. And if you like Pepper’s playing, you’d be wise to pick up a copy sooner than later as I suspect this is only going to go up in value. Why do I say that? Well, if you look at the what’s going on in the marketplace for the rare original pressings, the prices are very high and will probably stay that way given how relatively few of these albums have surfaced in top condition. For a handy barometer of availability, at the time of this writing there were just five original editions on collector’s marketplace Discogs (dot com) selling for between $450 and nearly $1,500 (the latter being the only one listed as mint condition given it is still sealed).
Surf Ride features many great West Coast session players including pianist Hampton Hawes, saxophonist Jack Montrose, bassist Monty Budwig (who would play with the great Vince Guaraldi) and drummer Larry Bunker (played with Bill Evans’ mid 1960s trio and many other stellar sessions — he might as well have been a member of The Wrecking Crew!).
All in all, I’m very happy with this new Craft Recordings reissue, especially as I would likely never be able to get my hands on a copy of the album in its original form. It never shows up out in the wilds of collecting (i.e. garage sales, thrift, shops and flea markets or even most collector’s record shops) so unless I happen to find a rare affordable “unicorn” copy somewhere this is the next best thing.
Craft Recordings continues to do right by these classic titles, bringing well made reissues of music that deserves to be back on store shelves and in our collections. And for a fraction of the cost of an original, you get a solid reproduction of this album, right down to the period correct label design and color.
Where to buy: $48.98 at Amazon | $39 at Craft Recordings
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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