Real Gone Music: Some new BN reissues!

[Swinging Swede]

Last month a label called Real Gone Music reissued some early 70s BN albums that all are new to CD. These are from the late 4000 series and thus predate the BN-LA and LT series that are currently covered in Japan. I couldn't find any previous mention of them, so here is a thread. The releases are:

Jeremy Steig - Wayfaring Stranger (1970)

Gene Harris / The Three Sounds (1971) & Gene Harris Of The Three Sounds (1972)

Bobbi Humphrey - Dig This! (1972)

Hopefully more will follow. There are still a number of BN albums from the late 60s-early 70s that never have seen CD light.

Real Gone Music should (probably!) not be confused with Real Gone Jazz, the public domain label that has come out with all of those "Eight Classic Albums" boxes of questionable quality.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Swinging Swede

[J.A.W.]

Real Gone Music is legit - indeed, not to be confused with the European public-domain label Real Gone Jazz. They (Real Gone Music) are an American label whose owner posts regularly over on the Hoffman board.

http://realgonemusic...re.com/browse/1

Edited January 6, 2013 by J.A.W.

[sidewinder]

Always good to see new BN Liberty era issues but I'll pass on these..

[Eric]

Now this seems a little odd ... Dusty Groove has just released three out the four titles on their own label:

http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=w3qfjvrcwh&ref=browse.php&refQ=kwfilter%3Ddusty%2Bgroove%26amp%3Bincl_oos%3D1%26amp%3Bincl_cs%3D1

http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=fnsd6ydcdg&ref=browse.php&refQ=kwfilter%3Ddusty%2Bgroove%26amp%3Bincl_oos%3D1%26amp%3Bincl_cs%3D1

http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=rrk6n9hx49&ref=browse.php&refQ=kwfilter%3Ddusty%2Bgroove%26amp%3Bincl_oos%3D1%26amp%3Bincl_cs%3D1

[Dan Gould]

FWIW, Gene Harris Of The Three Sounds is the last listenable BN he recorded. Not great but not gaak-invoking either.

So sayeth the Gene Harris Fanatic.

[Swinging Swede]

Now this seems a little odd ... Dusty Groove has just released three out the four titles on their own label:

That is indeed odd!

[Swinging Swede]

FWIW, Gene Harris Of The Three Sounds is the last listenable BN he recorded. Not great but not gaak-invoking either.

So sayeth the Gene Harris Fanatic.

What about the next one, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow? I have never been able to find that one in the blogosphere, but it looks promising on paper. According to Lord, it is a trio only, recorded in Detroit, and they do tunes like On Green Dolphin Street, Love For Sale, After Hours and Li'l Darlin'. It is coming out in Japan in March, so I have been thinking of getting it.

I have heard most of Gene Harris's subsequent 1974-77 output, and it is indeed 70s Blue Note at its worst, but I had some hopes for the 1973 album.

[StarThrower]

I used to do business with Dusty Groove until they started peddling punch hole/promo copies.

[dougcrates]

Dusty Groove and Real Gone teamed up to reissue these albums. They are remastered from the original tapes and they sound great but the music is inconsistent. The Steig didn't move me but the Gene Harris twofer is fantastic.

As far has Dusty Groove peddling punch hole / promo copies I have been fine with that especially in the case of the OJC stuff because most of them are priced at 3.99 or 4.99.

[JETman]

Dusty Groove and Real Gone teamed up to reissue these albums. They are remastered from the original tapes and they sound great but the music is inconsistent. The Steig didn't move me but the Gene Harris twofer is fantastic.

As far has Dusty Groove peddling punch hole / promo copies I have been fine with that especially in the case of the OJC stuff because most of them are priced at 3.99 or 4.99.

Yeah, but fwiw, it is expressly ILLEGAL for anyone who obtains promo copies from record labels to sell them for profit. So that puts Dusty Groove on both sides of the fence. On one hand, they finally woke up a few years ago and stopped selling black market Euro releases. On the other hand, they continue to resell promos that they shouldn't have bought in the first place.

[StarThrower]

Who knows if they even "bought" them. They may have paid nothing for them? I'm assumming they got this stuff for a song, along with a bunch of other leftover stock after Fantasy was bought out.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Dusty Groove and Real Gone teamed up to reissue these albums. They are remastered from the original tapes and they sound great but the music is inconsistent. The Steig didn't move me but the Gene Harris twofer is fantastic.

As far has Dusty Groove peddling punch hole / promo copies I have been fine with that especially in the case of the OJC stuff because most of them are priced at 3.99 or 4.99.

Yeah, but fwiw, it is expressly ILLEGAL for anyone who obtains promo copies from record labels to sell them for profit. So that puts Dusty Groove on both sides of the fence. On one hand, they finally woke up a few years ago and stopped selling black market Euro releases. On the other hand, they continue to resell promos that they shouldn't have bought in the first place.

The courts have ruled that selling promos is NOT illegal. It was a big lawsuit and it went pretty high up the appellate food chain. The court ruled that once a label gives away a disc, it's no longer theirs.

[Dan Gould]

FWIW, Gene Harris Of The Three Sounds is the last listenable BN he recorded. Not great but not gaak-invoking either.

So sayeth the Gene Harris Fanatic.

What about the next one, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow? I have never been able to find that one in the blogosphere, but it looks promising on paper. According to Lord, it is a trio only, recorded in Detroit, and they do tunes like On Green Dolphin Street, Love For Sale, After Hours and Li'l Darlin'. It is coming out in Japan in March, so I have been thinking of getting it.

I have heard most of Gene Harris's subsequent 1974-77 output, and it is indeed 70s Blue Note at its worst, but I had some hopes for the 1973 album.

Y, T & T is more of a mixed bag, imo, then Of the Three Sounds. The title is highly apt as there are "Yesterday" tracks which aren't as great as the original trio but still good, and then there are "Today" and "Tomorrow" tracks that are putrid. For me, that is.

[JSngry]

Punch hole does not necessarily = promo copy. I might well be a good old-fashioned cutout.

[felser]

Was just thinking that. One of the foundations of my original jazz LP collection in the early 70's was cut-out Blue Notes.

[JSngry]

One of the foundations of my original jazz LP collection in the early 70's was cut-out Blue Notes.

You and me both...and Pacific Jazz/World Pacific, etc. The great purge of whenever it was...maybe when United Artists (or Transamerica) bought Liberty...I forget when, but it I do remember seeing one Schwann catalog where there was a buttload full of BN/PJ/etc sides marked with the black diamond, signaling that they had been designated for deletion. For several years afterwards, the cutout bins were the best records stores in town sometimes!

[RDK]

FWIW, Gene Harris Of The Three Sounds is the last listenable BN he recorded. Not great but not gaak-invoking either.

So sayeth the Gene Harris Fanatic.

What about the next one, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow? I have never been able to find that one in the blogosphere, but it looks promising on paper. According to Lord, it is a trio only, recorded in Detroit, and they do tunes like On Green Dolphin Street, Love For Sale, After Hours and Li'l Darlin'. It is coming out in Japan in March, so I have been thinking of getting it.

I have heard most of Gene Harris's subsequent 1974-77 output, and it is indeed 70s Blue Note at its worst, but I had some hopes for the 1973 album.

Y, T & T is more of a mixed bag, imo, then Of the Three Sounds. The title is highly apt as there are "Yesterday" tracks which aren't as great as the original trio but still good, and then there are "Today" and "Tomorrow" tracks that are putrid. For me, that is.

I actually like (most of) YT&T and I think even included one track on one of my blindfold test discs years ago. Dan's right, though, as it's real hit or miss. I think we would have seen this released earlier if it could have fit on one CD (it's a 2-fer LP), but it runs just over 80 minutes iirc and would have had a hard time selling domestically at a 2-CD price point.

[Dan Gould]

I actually like (most of) YT&T and I think even included one track on one of my blindfold test discs years ago. Dan's right, though, as it's real hit or miss.

You did indeed - six years ago this month. George Harrison's "Something,"Track 5 of Disc 2 of BFT 43. Here's my comment:

You know, when Ray declared that there would be one track I was sure to identify, I figured that it would have to be a Gene Harris tune, and I would have to participate in Ray's BFT as a result. Then I found the Gene Harris track.

Ray, if I have ever done or said anything to offend you, I sincerely apologize for my transgression. But whatever it was, I would hope that we are even now.

What a steaming pile of poo that was. Gene sounds fine, and then that other keyboard/synthesizer kicks in and I wanted to throw my stereo out the window.