Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet Reissues on Vinyl

Frequenting my usual vinyl haunt, Academy Records on 18th street in Manhattan (unrelated to the Academy Records that has locations on 12th street in Manhattan and in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, one of the bizarre facts of life in the NYC record hunting scene), I was going through the new jazz bins and found a reissue of Shades of Blue by the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, the first of five legendary records recorded by this group in the mid-to-late 60’s for Columbia’s Lansdowne Series label (so named because the recording was done at the now-defunct Lansdowne Studios in London).

Surprisingly enough, this reissue wasn’t on some suspicious possibly spurious label that screams “unauthorized pressing sourced from mp3.” No indeed – it’s released by the venerable Jazzman records in the UK, a real label dedicated to real records, known primarily to American collectors for their reissues of rare soul and funk 45’s.

The five Rendell/Carr Quintet albums were never available in the U.S. and in that the band didn’t achieve much success when it was active, not many copies were sold. The reputation of these records has grown considerably in the decades since, however, making original pressings much sought after and virtually unobtanium, especially the first two, Shades of Blue and Dusk Fire (no copies of the mono Shades of Blue available at Discogs right now, while there is one mono Dusk Fire for sale at the nice nice price of $1572.05).

I didn’t buy the Jazzman reissue of Shades of Blue, largely because I stumbled upon it on Tidal earlier this year in an MQA file that, if you have the proper software, plays at 96/24. I have listened to that version quite a few times but never bothered to look for the other albums on Tidal for some reason. I did that today and saw that yes all five of the Columbia Rendell/Carr Quintet records are on Tidal in MQA files (yay streaming!!!!).

I have to believe these MQA versions are somehow the result of the Jazzman reissues, despite the fact that they did not make any digital releases available other than a CD sampler. As I learned today, Jazzman released a boxset of the five Rendell/Carr records late in 2018 titled The Complete Lansdowne Recordings and due to the overwhelming demand (it sold out quickly and is now going on Discogs for around $300) they decided to release all five records individually over the course of this year.

The London Jazz Collector claims that the Jazzman pressings are of excellent quality, said he heard almost no difference between his OG pressing of the Live album and the Jazzman vinyl, and he is generally a very tough critic on reissues so I am inclined to believe him. In other words, I may have to pick up that Shades of Blue at Academy after all. If you have never listened to this quintet before, you should at the very least check out the first two records on your streaming service of choice. I rarely feel so confident in recommending something in the jazz genre. This is largely straight ahead, impeccably played and creatively arranged jazz with a post bop tinge. Both Rendell (reeds) and Carr (trumpet) are dynamic and thoughtful players with a Mulligan-and-Desmond brand of simpatico, while the unsung hero of the band IMO is pianist, Colin Purbrook. Just trust me on this – if you like “jazz” you will like these albums. The fact that they are not better known is one of those weird anomalies of history, like how Big Star couldn’t sell any records or how most people thought Exile sucked when it first came out. Or how Johnny Thunders never became a household name. Life’s a bitch… he should have been rich…