Author: Paul Sinclair

Craft Recordings are launching a new curated audiophile collection under the banner ‘Small Batch’, with a view to creating the highest quality vinyl reissues of legendary recordings. The inaugural release for this series will be John Coltrane‘s 1961 album Lush Life.

Issued by Prestige Records in early 1961 (around the same time as Atlantic’s Coltrane Jazz), long after Coltrane had left the label, the album was assembled from three separate recording sessions in 1957 and 1958 and features an all-star lineup of talent, including Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, Donald Byrd on trumpet, and Art Taylor on drums. Upon its release, Lush Life was a critical and commercial success and is considered a highlight from his time on the Prestige label.
For Concord’s ‘Small Batch’ initiative, each album selected for the series will undergo all-analog mastering and then be pressed on 180-gram vinyl in a one-step lacquer process—as opposed to the standard three-step process—allowing for the highest level of musical detail, clarity, and dynamics while reducing the amount of surface noise on the record. Each title from the series will be accompanied by new liner notes from acclaimed writers.

For the Lush Life reissue, specifically, the original tapes—recorded live at Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack, NJ studios—were sent to mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, who carried out an all-analogue mastering process. The details are as follows: He utilised a custom tube pre-amp and analog mixing console with discreet electronics — both made in-house — as well as a Scully solid-state lathe with custom electronics.