Guide to Riverside Records (Jazz Label Guide No. 5; Episode 359) 

really great coverage of the label. Nice work. For the best sonics, a person needs to look towards Japan. The Japan jazz market was much larger than the US or EU jazz markets for record collectors. This was true for Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige, Atlantic and others. Some of the Riverside pressings were done in Japan during the ABC records ownership. But most of the Japan pressings are from the era where Fantasy owned the catalog and contracted with Toshiba-EMI and Victor Musical Industries to press the Riverside and Prestige catalogs. Victor Music released several series of records from the Fantasy owned Riverside Catalog. Like the OJC in the US, the Japan Victor pressings have a prefix. These would include the SMJ, series, the VIJ series and later the VIJJ series.

Interesting and informative! Thanks for creating this video!

Ah my favorite series on RU-vid is back ! Great episode as always. Keep up the good work

Another great and informative video - well done Allan. Thanks 😊

Excellent presentation as usual Alan. So well researched and to the point- another addition to my saved files. It is so good to hear the importance of Monk in this progression. Dig Jazz and Cheers from Oz.

I’d like to mention a fine Riverside release: On the Trail, by Jimmy Heath. It was issued just prior to the Riverside collapse, so it suffered from lack of promotion and distribution. It did better in later reissues. It’s well worth looking for.

great overview, thank you!

Excellent

Love your videos. Easy explanation and easy to follow. I do appreciate that the videos are typically short, because who has time to watch an hour video. Again thank you

Thanks for this!

Another in a solid run of label overviews. Thanks, Allan. Your piece sent me down an early morning rabbit hole, exploring the wonderful cover art of The Record Changer magazine. One could get lost for hours. ('Odd that Keepnews's piece in The Record Changer misspelled Monk's name in the headline ;-) With respect to your comment about “fake stereo” re-issues of mono recordings, there were several “gimmicks” used, such as introducing a slight delay in one of the two channels, adding stereo reverb, or the worst scheme IMHO, EQing left and right channels differently. The best thing you can do with these recordings, if your system permits, is to engage the “mono” button in your phono signal path to re-centre everything.

Nice to start the week with some well researched jazz enlightenment , well done.

As a big Riverside fan, I've been waiting for this one, and you delivered. Thank you. I first got deeply into Monk, Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery via Riverside when the OJC CDs were first issued in the '80s. Since then I've also picked up a lot of titles on vinyl, mostly reissues. (BTW, I loved hearing that jazz fans were complaining about labels' insufficient reissue programs, and the transfer between formats -- 78s to LPs -- back in the early '50s. Some things never change...) Evans immortalized Orrin Keepnews (1923-2015) in the first track on the first album ("Moon Beams," 1962) after the death of Scott LaFaro: "Re: Person I Knew," which is an anagram of his name. (It was also the title of the posthumously released 1981 album recorded at the same 1974 Village Vanguard sessions as "Since We Met.") Just a little bit of info that makes me appreciate these records even more...

Thank you for this video and all the others.

Well done; you covered a lot of ground! Keepnews maintained quite a presence here in the Bay Area with Fantasy, headquartered in Berkeley. I used to see him in the audience at the original Yoshi’s Nightspot in Oakland-a jazz lover to the end. His book, View from Within, is a good read.

This was great. Thanks for putting it together - Mike

Nice Video, I picked up some tidbits that I was not aware of particularly regarding the history of the label. I just checked my Discogs and it shows that I have 122 Riverside/jazzland title in various vinyl formats. I do run a separate mono turntable and the Mono original pressings do sound better IMHO than the early stereo. 2 other points, as you mention original pressings vary considerable in pressing and vinyl quality are are not nearly as good as original BN or Prestige. lots of pitting and some flaws. I do have about 30 Japanese pressing, often of some of the most desirable titles. Due to the flawless Japanese engineers and superb vinyl I feel these in many cases sound better than originals...and having A/B'd with Miles 1956 albums Relaxin' etc are definitely brighter and more detailed than the OJCs. Lastly the Milestone label is in there somewhere...and under the Fantasy Umbrella, the Milestone often in 2-fer release can be some of the best bargains of great sounding releases of this material. I look forward to hearing more of your videos... R

Brilliant stuff Allan. Thank you.

Great video again. I love Riverside, I have about 125 Riverside, many OG´s. The vinyl quality of OG pressings is not as bad as it is with Prestige, but you still have to watch out, sometimes the vinyl can be noisy. Totally different than Blue Note and Contemporary, I always was lucky with pressing quality on these old vintage pressings. OJC is a save haven, but the sound on the old Mono pressings is better. So if you have a chance to listen before you buy, use that option. But as mentioned, it is not as bad as with Prestige. And don't overlook the European vintage Mono pressings, they are as good as the Americans with sound and have a better vinyl quality, sometimes they have a different cover design.

Excellent, educating video! Thank you👍

Do you ever review albums on request?