I’ve been meaning to write this post for a few months, but life has a habit of getting in the way. Anyway, last month I wrote a post about my experiences with the Craft OJC Series (Old Vinyl, New Bottles, Craft OJCs), and now I shall write about my experiences buying a few “new” titles from the Blue Note catalogue. At the time I brought the Crafts, I bought five records from Blue Note. Two were from the Tone Poet Series: Dexter Gordon Landslide and Sonny Red, Out of the Blue. Two were from the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series, Hank Mobley, Roll Call, and Horace Silver, Serenade to a Soul Sister. The final record was a new discovery, Horace Silver, Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse.
Out of the Blue and Landslide were replacements for records that I had let slip through my fingertips over the years. I had an original mint pressing of Out of the Blue that I bought for $5 maybe 40 years ago – and immediately traded for a record that was not equal in value. It has been a hole in my collection ever since. With Landslide, I had one of those Liberty pressings with the white cover, and I just never took to those pressings and wound up selling most of them when I pared down my collection a few years ago.
I figured I could replace those records and check out the Tone Poet Series and also share my observations here, killing a few birds with two purchases of about $39 for Landslide and $28 for Out of the Blue. The records arrived in the mail with promotional material on the outside promising wonderful things once opened: “Cut Directly from The Original Analog Tapes; Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder; Reissue Supervised by Joe Harley; Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio; Manufactured at Record Technology Inc. (RTI) on 180 Gram Vinyl.”
I quite like the packaging on the Tone Poet Series. These two records have slick gatefold covers. On the inside are Francis Wolff photos from the original sessions. The covers are the “originals,” although there was no real original pressing of Landslide since it was not released at the time it was recorded. Both records have the original liner notes on the back, Landslide being from the 1980 issue. I’m not an audiophile by any notion, although I have a great system, and to my ears these pressings sound great. If I was starting out as a collector today and couldn’t afford original pressings of Blue Notes – who can? – I’d certainly be pleased with these pressings.
Same goes for the two records I bought that were part of the Classic Vinyl Series, Roll Call and Serenade to a Soul Sister. I never had an original pressing of Roll Call – although I think I’ve just fixed that with a new purchase (more to come later). I had a copy of Serenade to a Soul Sister, but it wasn’t in great shape and I sold it a few years back hoping to replace it. As with the Tone Poet Series, this reissue is a suitable replacement. It has the original packaging, cover, liner notes, and it sounds good to these ears. The promo on the cover speaks to it: “Audiophile Vinyl Reissues from the Finest in Jazz Since 1939. Mastered from The original Analog Tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio; 180 Gram Vinyl.”
Finally, the promo on the shrink wrap of the Horace Silver discovery tells a it all:
“Previously unissued fiery live sets with powerhouse Horace Silver Band in 1965. Deluxe 180-gram LP transferred from the original tapes and mastered by Matthew Luthans. Stunning broadcast quality recording captured 60 years ago! Liner notes by jazz scholar Bob Blumenthal, and statements by Roger Humphries, Randy Brecker, Alvin Queen and Sullivan Fortner.”
Fiery and powerhouse. Quite a combination. Quite a package as well. In addition to the record, there is a 16-page booklet with all of those liner notes described above. It is a great set and it is well recorded, so if you’re a Horace Silver fan, I would definitely recommend it. It’s the quintet that featured Silver on piano, Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor, Teddy Smith on bass and Roger Humphries on drums.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has dipped a few toes into these new waters, so if any of the regular readers and commenters are out there, I would definitely be interested in hearing your opinions.
Anytime I have had a Blue Note LT series album (came out around 1980) I have always like the sound of the Tone Poet better. Some of my Tone Poets I recommend include Dexter Gordon Clubhouse, Stanley Turrentine Comin Your Way, Lee Morgan Infinity, and Donald Byrd Chant.
I have a Blue Note Classic series of Dizzy Reece Starbright in stereo. It sounds better than my 1972 Blue Note mono!
Al you mentioned Mobley Roll Call. I have. 63rd mono that sounds great. Never liked the stereo versions I’ve heard of that one including my 1960’s Van Gelder without ear, and an early Japanese pressing. This album needs to be heard in mono.
Packaging of Tone Poets looks great when they come with a gatefold. A good affordable way to start a Blue Note collection or to fill in holes with sessions that were held back until the LT series and the 2-fers came out.
My Tone Poet purchases have dwindled significantly — as has my new record buying generally. I’m not a collector in the sense that I now see collecting depicted online (ie obsessive, completist, apparently unlimited budget and space) and recently have found the extension of the Tone Poets to labels other than Blue Note of generally little personal interest — not necessarily poor records, but records that don’t strike me essential.
But the TPs I do have (along with some of Music Matters 33s that preceded that series), the BN Classic Vinyl series, the Decca British Jazz Explosion series, and oddities such as isolated Vocalion analogue reissues, have all found a permanent place amongst my records for two simple reason: first, I can’t afford (and generally am not interested in) originals, and second, the overall production and sound quality of TPs and Blue Note Classics seems to me unbeatable in all respects at their price. Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Joe Henderson, Duke Pearson, Dolphy, Donald Byrd, Silver, McLean, Horace Parlan and Don Cherry — to name only those I can bring to mind — I bought as they came out, generally to replace 80s/90s pressings, such as Blue Note/Toshiba-era or DMM pressings. I had a lot of these and being able to replace them with new records in absolutely top-quality pressings was something I never thought would be possible.
For these reasons I would say that the past decade or whatever has been a golden age for vinyl jazz reissues, but I do now have a growing feeling that the best has been done and that increasingly the vinyl reissue marketplace has become increasingly cynical and opportunist, thriving on ‘manufactured scarcity’ and hype.