Craft Recordings Expands Original Jazz Classics With AAA Vinyl Reissues of Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, and The Young Lions

From a technical standpoint, The Young Lions may be the most revealing listen of the three. Multiple frontline horns and alternating drummers can easily turn congested if the lacquer is cut hot or the low mids are overfed. Here, the presentation stays disciplined, with clear separation between Shorter’s tenor and Strozier’s alto, suggesting careful management of groove geometry and conservative level-setting. Pressing consistency from RTI further supports this, minimizing non-fill and maintaining quiet lead-ins—details that matter when evaluating subtle cymbal decay and room tone on sessions that straddle hard bop structure and early avant-garde looseness.

There’s also an interesting contrast between how these releases are framed across coverage: some outlets emphasize historical narrative and star power, while others focus on the reissue program’s track record. The more compelling angle lies in how these albums demonstrate different recording philosophies from the same period, now unified by a transparent, largely hands-off mastering ethos. For listeners comparing the vinyl to the parallel high-resolution digital releases, the takeaway isn’t format superiority but consistency of source handling—no aggressive noise reduction, no modern compression, just faithful transfers that let the original engineering decisions speak. In an era of increasingly revisionist remastering, that restraint is arguably the most audiophile-friendly choice Craft could make.