Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – The Big Beat

FLAWLESS pressing. Dead quiet, perfect sounding, flat and heavy. Highly recommended.

My copy is flawless with correct ( I hope) soundstage and good instruments separartion: Morgan on the left side, Shorter on the right side, piano in the center and Blakey's drums in the right center. No distortion.
Remaster is ok - maybe nothing spectacular (yeah, I know it's Kevin Grey) and it's a bit on the light side of the sound , but with very good clarity, depth and dynamics.

1st copy is mediocrity all round. The pressing is heavily warped and off centre which is only slightly audible but shouldnt be at all. Its otherwise very quiet. As mentioned below there is horrid distortion on some of the trumpet and piano peaks sections. The mastering is very hard panning and it almost seems like its all coming from the right channel for most of A1 for instance. I for one think this is a digitally stepped record... its not very dynamic or warm. At this stage and doing an A/B I honestly prefer the balance of what i heard on Youtube without the distortions.
Tested on Project Debut Pro with Pick It Pro cart - 30hrs tops - running @ 2.1g. I will double dip for a flat and well centre'd one and hope it somehow sounds better too

Excellent music, excellent line-up, excellent compositions, excellent remaster, excellent cover and packaging. A great lp of a great band. Blakey, Morgan and Shorter are in great form.

was listening to chess players and when i heard wayne's sax solo i was like.,. hmmm that sounds familliar. and true enough, it was the opening notes of coltrane's good bait from soultrane, another superb LP imho. i have to admit, big beat is one of van gelder's best sounding recordings and if you have a well done analog copy like this one, you're all set

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – The Big Beat:
Music:5.0.
Mastering/pressing:5.0.
Inner sleeve:4.0
Cover:4.0

Turntable used:
Modified Rega P3:RB880 tonearm w/144g counterweight, 11g Denon DL103r in a metal cap/housing,Delrin Platter, Rega Neo Swagman psu, Isoacoustic Orea bronze feet(3),pro-ject turntable platform.
Phono Stage:
Whest Audio TWO.2 class a dual mono fully balanced phono stage,65db/220ohms.

"The Big Beat" is my latest Blakey edition on blue note classic vinyl series and for me amongst the best for music and sound quality.
One of the five or six Art Blakey LP`s in my collection is "Indestructible" which I`ve posted a review about here:https://www.discogs.com/release/14136610-Art-Blakey-The-Jazz-Messengers-Indestructible.
On this current blue note series "Indestructible" is a FANTASTIC sounding vinyl record and well deserving of it`s high praise,but "The Big Beat" is even BETTER!
Comparing the quality of "Indestructible" to this from my copies "The Big Beat" has more (obvious) air in & around the instruments which results in a more transparent recording/mastering - ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL sound quality for the price (£21.24).

So in summary this is ANOTHER Excellent release on the classic vinyl series and goes a long way into showing; music,record,turntable fans & audiophiles that Good/Excellent vinyl records ARE still cut & pressed in modern times.
Highly recommended five stars,buy,clean,spin & enjoy thank you for taking the time & effort to read this review.

*Note*
All my vinyl records are cleaned on a "Project VC-S MK II Record Cleaner" vacuum record cleaning machine.

No issues with my pressing whatsoever. Sounds excellent to me, all the way through. Although I haven't compared to any other pressings of this fantastic album, I feel this run does just fine.

First copy was warped and the stylus jumped on A1. Second copy is fine, trumpet is loud and a little bit distorted on A3 and B3 but still the overall sound is great. Listening with Goldring Elite MC system.

One of Messengers best records. Fantastic harmonics and amazing sound! Art Blakey is drumming in the listening room with holographic sound. Great pressing and amazing quality!

Amazing pressing in every way. Unbelievable sound quality. Snag it - it's still pretty inexpensive (under $30).