UHQR Vinyl Reissue: Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue

The best-selling album in jazz history, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue; mastered from the original master tapes by Bernie Grundman is set for re-release on Clarity Viny®. The limited edition Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) 33 1/3 RPM LP release will be limited to 25,000 copies with a visually stunning presentation and packaging.

Quite clearly and obviously this new UHQR Kind of Blue sourced from Bernie Grundman’s (1997) ‘live’ mix from the 3-track master, directly to lacquer sounds best compared to two early ‘6-Eyes,’ Classic’s own double 180g set and that label’s single-sided 45rpm set, and Mobile Fidelity’s double 45 boxed edition, to which I compared the UHQR.

Even the quietest original pressing creates a pleasing romantic blur over a soft bed of noise but compared to this issue the overall picture is distant and hazy (though the romanticized version still pulls).

The UHQR Kind of Blue offers the blackest, quietest backgrounds and unparalleled transparency, but more critically, the modified Finebuilt hand press produces unprecedented transient precision and instrumental focus and resolves low level details that will deliver surprises to even the most blasé KOB veteran, one of whom visited and exclaimed ‘I’ve never heard that before.’

This pressing allows you to see further into the mix and transports you back in time and into the 30th Street studios. I don’t care what version you now have you’ve never heard Kind of Blue quite like this.” — Music = 11/11; Sound = 11/11 

Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com, May 17, 2021. Read the whole review here.

“Until now the Classic Records Clarity Vinyl Flat Profile version of Kind of Blue was the closest to the sound on the three track session master from which it was cut. The Analogue Productions UHQR pressing from the same metal parts has taken it up a notch and gotten us even closer to the sound on those 1/2″ analog session master tapes! Buy two so you have one for a backup or to give someone the gift of music!” — Michael Hobson, founder of Classic Records

Legends have a way of sticking around. If there was ever an album awaiting a high-fidelity, custom-pressed vinyl treatment of the level you now hold in your hands, it is Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. The top-selling jazz album of all time, it has been lauded, entered into “Best Of” lists and Halls of Fame, and universally acknowledged as a landmark recording — a five-track masterpiece of melancholy mood and melody.

It continues to be one of the most listened-to and studied recordings of all time, a required primer for many young musicians, and one of the most transcendent pieces of music ever recorded. Davis played trumpet sublime with his ensemble sextet featuring pianist Bill Evans, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley with Wynton Kelly playing piano on “Freddy the Freeloader.”

Now Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds, Inc., together with Quality Record Pressings, is putting Kind of Blue where it belongs: the Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) pressed on Clarity Vinyl on a manual Finebilt press with attention paid to every single detail of every single record.

The 200-gram records will feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable. From the lead-in groove to the run-out groove, there is no pitch to the profile, allowing the customer’s stylus to play truly perpendicular to the grooves from edge to center. Clarity Vinyl allows for the purest possible pressing and the most visually stunning presentation.

Every UHQR will be hand inspected upon pressing completion, and only the truly flawless will be allowed to go to market. Each UHQR will be packaged in a deluxe box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

Mark your calendars for May 26th 4pm ET/ 3PM CT for a live panel discussion on the music of Kind of Blue with Ron Carter, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Vince Wilburn Jr, Chad Kassem, and moderated by Ashley Kahn.