It’s probably dumb to say that jazz sounds better on vinyl, but it’s not dumb to suggest the format’s reliable limitations perhaps gave recorded jazz some of its power, like a picture frame accentuating its contents. No matter where the musicians go—no matter what black holes and cosmic nebulae their music propels us through—it’s certain that after 20 minutes or so, the needle will hit the dead wax and we’ll be landing back on earth. Perhaps those confines are partly what allowed jazz musicians of the late ’60s and ’70s to enter some very freaky territory, with the knowledge that their explorations would be administered in side-length increments.
Two recent reissues from Jazz Dispensary revisit the exploratory attitudes of an era more than four decades past. Both albums were originally issued on the foundational Prestige label, and continue Jazz Dispensary’s “Top Shelf” series.