Comments on: Shades of Blue Note

By: London Calling

London Calling — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:46:51 +0000

A vinyl “afficionado” tells me its all in the depth of the groove. Scratches and scuffs on the surface do not interfere with the information which is stored in the deeper cut groove walls on early heavy vinyl. Original quality recording is pretty well protected.

I have a number of classic OG 1500/4000 that the record stores rated only VG or VG- on the visuals – lots of surface tracery and scuffs, but they play fantastic, as I knew they would. Its the “feelable” scratches that are really the enemy. Feel it, hear it.

I’ve also found the intrusiveness of surface noise varies with arm/ cartridge/ turntable quality. The noise-to-signal ratio changes as you improve the ability to extract that music from the grooves, such that nowadays I hardly notice surface noise. Its drowned out by music.

By: Katharsis

Katharsis — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:45:23 +0000

Today I listened to some Blue Notes, I haven’t heard in a while and I would grade them all as copies around the VG-area. It’s absolutely right, what Mike says. The later the pressings are, the higher the surface noise is. Records within the 1500 and 4000 series tend to sound better, even if they have a lot of marks and scratches.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 02:37:26 +0000

Yea but with a VG BN you usually have pretty high surface noise. So it’s pick your poison. Also, the J-presses I have vary in quality, some are more anemic than others. They usually sound nice and are in good condition though. but to be honest, I haven’t heard any that really stand up to the modern audiophiles presses in terms of in low end fullness(or mid range fullness).

By: jack

jack — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:20:51 +0000

vg original Blue Notes often sell at reasonable prices so why settle for Japanese pressings? The bottom end on those are never right.

By: Mattyman

Mattyman — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:31:00 +0000

Hmmmm… Misspelled items on eBay… Now THAT is something I hadn’t thought of before. But I should have known, of course: misspell your query on Google and it asks “did you mean…”. eBay doesn’t do that, but might cough up some seriously collectible stuff. So it doesn’t only pay to understand the eBay search engine, but also the carefully read the comments! 😉

By: Katharsis

Katharsis — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:01:47 +0000

@London Calling: Oh yes, I can remember countless hours thinking of possible mis-spellings.
Once I got lucky with a Tina Boorks for 10$…no, I’m just kidding. Your 25 bucks are absolutely well spent, my congratulations for such a find!

By: London Calling

London Calling — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:38:42 +0000

Jack – “never found a King pressing that comes close to an original Blue Note”

Neither have I.

On the other hand I’ve never found an original Blue Note of Shades of Redd I can afford, or Cool Struttin’ or Mobley 1568.

I prefer King over any of the other reissues, they are generally always NM, and I can afford more of the rarer titles. One by one, very slowly, they get replaced when an affordable VG+ or original but subsequent pressing turns up.

Katharsis – top copy of Moanin for $20? Bring a collector to tears with such a story. Correctly described items get sold at the correct price. But I did manage to pick up a NM early pressing of 1521 for $25 late last year, being only bidder due to defective spelling of the item title. Not as good a story as yours I concede, but it pays to understand the ebay search engine.

By: Katharsis

Katharsis — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:00:12 +0000

I never really liked the Freddie Redd LP and I even think, that the unissued “Redd’s Blues” does a better job to introduce Redd. Comparing to all the fantastic sessions Tina Brooks has made and which stayed on the shelves I just wonder. This is true with a lot more sessions that where shelved. The thing why I don’t like this LP has to do with McLean. I rarely like him during these days, he really matured, being paired with more visionary players.
And for the Burrell: You really can se, how much the difference is, when there are no exact descriptions.
I onc saw an auction for BLP 4003. The most beautiful copy I’ve personally seen and it went for like 20$, because most of the details were missing but were somewhat recognizeable on the pictures. Stunning.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:43:25 +0000

Maarten,
I think myself and all other bidders on ebay can agree with you. All Tina sessions and most(all?) side sessions fetch a kings ransom even compared to other Blue Notes.

By: maarten kools

maarten kools — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:14:57 +0000

i like every blue note album with Tina Brooks!