At the time, no one realized that listening to vinyl records actually trained the listener’s ear.
I discovered this while teaching a high school class this year. I assign various songs/albums for the kids to listen to, and after the first assignment, I realized that all of the kids only listen to music for background, or as they say, “to chill”. Because of streaming, it’s easy to just play it like white noise; no one attentively and actively listens to music anymore!
Lps make you pay attention.
Here are some recent vinyl reissues ready to train your ear.
Prestige Records has a “Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf Series”, and their latest three are noteworthy for their 
emphasis on sounds from the 70s.
Jack DeJohnette’s Sorcery from 1974 has the famed drummer also doubling on keyboards and even C melody sax, teamed with Bennie Maupin/bcl, John Abercrombie-Mick Goodrick/g, David Holland/b, and Michael Fellerman/tb-metphon for three songs that stretch out on “Sorcery #1” and strikes up the fuse on “The Rock Thing” and “The Right Thing” A trio of DeJohnette, Holland and Fellerman put emphasis on a meandering “The Reverend King Suite” and more concise “Epilog”. Trials and errors .
Drummer Idris Muhammad is associated with Lou Donaldson, Ahmad Jamal, Grant Green and Gene Ammons, but got into the soul/funk feel in the early 70s,like this 71 release Black Rhythm Revolution. He forms a rhythm team 
with Jimmy Lewis/fb, Buddy Caldwell/c, Harold Mabern/ep and Melvin S parks/g with Clarence Thomas/ts-ss and Virgil Jones/tp in the lead for a take on James Brown’s “Super Bad” and the big funk hit “Express Yourself”, while “Wander” gives the leader a chance to solo and s how his wares.
Best known for his work with Sonny Stitt and Lou Donaldson, Keon Sp encer plays the keyboards on his 1972 Where I’m Coming From that features soulful originals and Motown hits like “Superstition”, “Give Me Your Love” and “Trouble Man”. The team of Victor Paz-Jon Faddis-Virgil Jones/tp, Frank Wess-Seldon Powell/fl-sax, 
Ernest Hayes/p, Joe Beck/g, Huber Laws/fl, Sonny Fortune/as, and Idris Muhammed/dr-Grady Tate/dr keep the grooves easy and mellow.
Original Jazz Classics has been reissuing vintage material for the past year, and have barely scratched the Desert Island Disc surface. Ornette Coleman’s 1958 debut of “free jazz” seems absolutely tame by today’s standards, but it was a gauntlet at the time of its release. With Don Cherry/tp, Walter Norris/p, Don Payne/b and Billy Higgins/dr, Coleman shows his blues-dna on “Jayne” and “The Blessing” while Coleman’s bright tone still raises some ears on “Invisible”, with Higgins creating clever modes on “Disguise” and “Chippie”. The world was never the same.
Pianist Mal Waldron was an in-demand session artist in the 50s before creating a long term partnership with soprano saxist Steve Lacy. His sophomore release in 1957 has him in heavy company in John Coltrane/ts, Idrees Sulieman/tp, Jackie McLean/as, Bill Hardman/tp, Sahib Shihab/as, Julien Euell/b and Ed Thigpen-Art Taylor/dr. McLean is fantastic on “JM’s Dream Doll” while the leader is masterful when he returns to former employer Billie Holiday’s “Don’t Explain”. Coltrane is in his searching years here, reaching for the stars on “The Way You Look Tonight”. Classic hard bop tones.
Verve Records has created “By Request” Series, starting off with one of Billie Holiday’s last small group sessions, from 1957.Her voice is a bit worn, but her expressiveness more than makes up for it, as she’s joined by Harry “Sweets” Edison//tp, Ben Webster/ts, Jimmie Rowles/p, Barney Kessel/g, Red Mitchell/b and Alvin Stoller-Larry Bunker/dr for a haunting read of “One For My Baby” and “Stars Fell On Alabama”, while sounding sly and saucy for “Day In, Day Out”. Twilight of the Day.
One of the great vamps of jazz vocalists, Eartha Kitt is in her element in 1962 with Bill Loose’s orchestra, especially when she sweats through Billy May’s charts as on “Love For Sale” and “Al I Want Is There Is and Then Some”. She works the audience of you for “”Do It Again” ad “Whatever Lola Wants”, acting out the lyrics like Pagliacci. Who let her off her leash?!?
On the same year (1965) and the same label (Impulse!) as John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Yusef Lateef plays a variety of flutes and his bluesy tenor sax with James Black/dr, Georges Arvanitis/p and Coltrane alumnus Reggie Workman/b. He swings on the sax for a gorgeous “Why Do I Love You” and floats on the flute for “First Gymnopedie”, creating clever ideas with Black’s percussive hands. One of the true progenitors of World Music, he uses a Chinese wood flute on the title piece and the simmering “Bamboo Flute Blues”. A balm for the ears.