The Vinyl Beat this month brings it on home to the Mitten State, particularly the Motor City, where these following releases were recorded. The final title in this month’s installment is a new recording by a favorite artist, with a bit of a disappointment thrown into an otherwise excellent set of music.
Motor City Grooves
The Oscar Peterson Trio: At Baker’s Keyboard Lounge (Verve, 2026, 3LP Verve Store exclusive)
I credit my appreciation for Oscar Peterson, and a handful of other jazz artists, on a single CD from 1985: Jazz Like You’ve Never Heard It Before. This was a jazz compilation released by Polygram which became my gateway drug into the many jazz artists under the Polygram umbrella, like Verve, EmArcy, Mercury, and others. Among the seven CDs that I bought because of this sampler was Oscar Peterson’s West Side Story. (Which, I should tease, is finally being reissued in the Verve Acoustic Sounds series late this year.) I always liked piano trio jazz, still do in fact, and this led to other early CDs of Peterson’s from the Verve catalog.
My jazz gateway drug.
A chance posting on Instagram from Verve promoted a new release from Peterson: At Baker’s Keyboard Lounge. While I’m typically not a fan of live recordings, this one seemed to have a lot of standards I haven’t heard his versions of, so that was a plus. But more importantly, this set was recorded at the legendary Detroit jazz club, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, in 1960. The club is still active, celebrating its 90th-ish year as a continuously operating jazz club. Back in the day, anyone who’s anybody came through Baker’s, and Peterson was no exception.
While there is a single CD and LP version in wide release, the only way to get all five sets is to purchase and download it via streaming, or buy the 3-LP version from the Verve Store, where it is an exclusive. I can stream it anytime via Qobuz (and if you’re a fan of Peterson’s, by all means give this a listen!), but opted to get the 3-LP set just as much for my growing collection of recordings made at local venues as I did for Peterson’s trio.
And the trio does not disappoint. This is textbook Oscar Peterson Trio, as sensitive and exuberant as his studio recordings, with a set of standards that again, I hadn’t heard the Trio perform before. I can’t even pick out a single outstanding track – this is one to listen to straight through, one record at a time, or all three if you’re in the mood. A pure pleasure all the way through.
So, how’s the sound? Not much to comment on, really, as I’m more a music guy than a sound guy. (I don’t really bring it up unless something is egregiously bad, to where it distracts from the listening.) It’s “a good remote recording” (as the late jazz reviewer Chris Albertson would say) – not the ultimate in clarity or not as meticulous as some of the live recordings by, say, the Bill Evans Trio. But still, it’s a very good recording and it gets out of the way of the music. The vinyl pressings, at least in my purchased copy, are excellent – flat, and quiet all the way through.
Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Collective: Groove in the Face of Adversity (927 Records/Mack Avenue Records, 2025)
I’ve been aware of Don Was ever since he was part of the locally-organized group Was (Not Was), who had a lot of attention in our area for “Out Come the Freaks” and the eponymous Was (Not Was) album. Our local record store, Sam’s Jams, played it incessantly back when it was released. I rediscovered the album several years ago when I finally got a copy of it. I didn’t realize that the Wham!/George Michael song “Where Did Your Heart Go?” was originally from this Was (Not Was) record.
A native of the Detroit suburb Oak Park, Don Was is better known today as the president of Blue Note Records, helping to preserve and properly reissue many of the classic recordings in their vault, and promote new recordings by established and up-and-coming jazz artists. He is also an acclaimed producer, composer, bassist, and arranger.
Woodwork squeaks and out come the freaks…
As far as performing goes, his new group, the Pan-Detroit Collective, has a record out on the 927 Records label. Only half of the tracks were performed live, two of them at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall, and a third at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco. The remaining three were recorded at Rustbelt Studios, located in Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit. The project came about when trumpeter Terrance Blanchard, the jazz creative director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, approached Was about performing a show with an all-Detroit band. Assembling local talent, Was coined the name The Pan-Detroit Ensemble for his group, and the two Orchestra Hall songs on this record are a document of that first gig.
The range of songs on this project is impressive, including a Yusef Lateef favorite, “Nubian Lady” (penned by Kenny Barron), the Cameo funk workout “Insane,” Curtis Mayfield’s “This Is My Country,” and speaking of country, “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time” by Hank Williams makes an appearance also, a nod to the Southerners who migrated to Detroit for work following World War II. Kudos to Was for putting together an ace funk-jazz ensemble that touches on his musical roots in Detroit, and is chock full of prime Detroit talent.
J. Geils Band: Live: Full House (Audio Fidelity, 2009 reissue)
Many years ago, the now-defunct Audio Fidelity label reissued this early album from blues rockers The J. Geils Band. The Detroit connection is due to Full House being recorded live at a legendary venue back in the early 1970s – the Cinderella Ballroom, long since demolished. This is a Steve Hoffman/Kevin Gray mastering and the sound is so fresh that you’d think it was recorded only recently. Yet it dates to 1972. The record predates their best-known songs by a few years but still, it is a bluesy, rollicking good time and demonstrates why Geils was so popular onstage throughout the years. J. Geils on guitar is one thing, but Peter Wolf’s bluesy growling on vocals and Magic Dick’s fierce harp soloing kicked the group into the stratosphere. While Freeze Frame remains my favorite of Geils’ albums (for numerous reasons), this live recording is a testament to their sheer power on the stage.
While this version could be worth seeking out, Rhino released their own Kevin Gray-mastered edition last April, and Frank Doris received a copy. Here are his thoughts:
"Well, this is easy. The Rhino High Fidelity reissue utterly demolishes my original Atlantic pressing. I know we’re comparing apples to oranges to bananas here, but between the Atlantic and the Rhino, it’s no contest. The original is spatially flat, rough-sounding with a harsh upper midrange, and rolled off in the bass. The Rhino is so much better it’s almost comical.
The harshness is gone in favor of a good tonal balance, warmer and deeper. Peter Wolf’s vocals are more natural and present, as are Stephen Bladd’s, and you don’t have to struggle to hear the between-song banter. The bass and drums sound like actual instruments, not cardboard cutouts. While a dynamically compressed recording, the sound jumps out of the speakers rather than being lifeless. And with a band that was as electrifying live as the J. Geils band, that’s crucial. Good remastering like this is what good remastering is supposed to be about – taking a flawed original release and, well, bringing it to life."
Lonnie Smith: Live at Club Mozambique (Blue Note, 2019 reissue)
This was recorded in 1970 during Smith’s time with the Blue Note label, but it was only released in 1995, and was reissued on vinyl several years ago in the Blue Note 80 series. It features Lonnie Smith on his trademark Hammond B3 organ (sans turban), but George Benson is also on hand, providing his signature guitar licks. Fellow sidemen include Ronnie Cuber, Gary Jones, Joe Dukes, and Dave Hubbard. This was recorded at another legendary jazz club in Detroit, Club Mozambique, which still operates to this day and is the oldest continuously operating jazz club in the US. This live recording captures Smith during the tail end of his run with Blue Note, and seven of the eight tracks are new songs not yet recorded by Smith. “Seven Steps to Heaven” is my favorite of his tracks from this era, and is a live version of what appeared on Drives, his prior Blue Note record. The song starts off in a very frantic take on Miles Davis’s original, but towards the end it breaks into an irresistible hard-swinging rhythm.
Gallery: Nice To Be With You (Sussex, 1972)
While this album isn’t a live recording, the title song on this record is a recognizable pop song from the early 1970s, “Nice to Be with You.” It was a recording made at a small studio in suburban Detroit, GM Studios, where a relative of mine worked as a recording engineer. The buzz in the studio was that the single (the title track of this record) would be a million seller, which it was, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The two other singles pulled from this LP were the Mac Davis song “I Believe in Music” and “Big City Miss Ruth Ann.” I lucked into finding a sealed copy of this record a few years ago. Sadly, the follow-up album (Jim Gold and Gallery) tanked, being lost in the shuffle during the collapse of Sussex Records. Gold, pictured on the cover in the gold vest, went on to record a couple of solo albums, but mostly quit recording to focus on composing music.
New Grooves (The Good, The Bad, and the Not So Ugly)
Pat Metheny: Side Eye III+ (Uniquity Music, 2026)
Pat Metheny’s latest record, Side Eye III+, is his first group recording since 2020 (From This Place). While this isn’t a Group (as in Pat Metheny Group) record, this album does echo many of the influences of the lineup that made him and his sidemen famous. The overall Side Eye project is a rotating cast of young musicians playing with Metheny, where he gives young musicians the same chance to perform with a mentor similar to how older musicians mentored Metheny when he was first starting out. Paying it back to the jazz community, in other words.
This album features a trio with Metheny on his guitars, Chris Fishman on organ and piano, and Joe Dyson on drums. The way the group plays together in such a fluid manner makes you believe they’ve played together for a decade or more. The trio is augmented with other musicians where appropriate, including percussion master Luis Conte and a handful of others (including vocalists).
Musically, the compositions (all penned by Metheny) have that same sense of melody and harmonic content that immediately places his stamp on it, and the arrangements are easygoing and upbeat. Some of these songs are reminiscent of the old Pat Metheny Group sound yet take on a newly updated flavor of their own. It’s been 21 years since The Way Up (the last PMG record) and Metheny has successfully navigated that fine line of both moving on and touching on the past with this set. While I can’t speak for all fans, this is in my opinion the closest he has come to the PMG, or as much as possible without his musical sidekick Lyle Mays.
Musically, I strongly recommend this record. I liked it the first time I played it (streaming) and haven’t stopped playing it since. The added flavor of the Hammond B3 organ on some of the cuts, and the augmentation of the band with a gospel-flavored vocal group led by Mark Kibble of the renowned Take 6 takes it to a whole other level. That gospel feel is reminiscent of both the “world” sound of Metheny’s recordings, as well as his love of Midwestern values (he was raised in Lee’s Summit, Missouri).
All of the above is The Good.
Vinyl-wise, The Bad. I ordered the colored splatter vinyl version (the Not So Ugly) from Metheny’s own store. While the mastering of this record is top notch (turned up, this record rocks), the quality of the colored vinyl is terrible. The first disc had a constant and clearly audible background hiss on both sides. The second disc had numerous noises throughout. Such a disappointment. Especially since I’m a sucker for colored vinyl. This is one of the worst I’ve owned; some I own are dead quiet, so colored vinyl is not inherently noisy. I’ve tried a copy of the black vinyl version and it is dead quiet and perhaps due to the absence of that background noise, sounds more dynamic to my ears.
One notable fact about Metheny’s record is that it is the first release on his new label, Uniquity Music, where he now controls his entire back catalog beyond his ECM Records output. He plans to begin reissuing some of those past albums on his new label, good news for fans who missed out the first time around.
Next month? No idea yet!
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