2019: Blue Note's 80th Anniversary

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

_{itlll go good.  BN needs to do more archival stuff not just new releases and top-30 bn classics}

Edited August 26, 2018 by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez

[jcam_44]

On 5/15/2018 at 5:07 AM, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Regarding Tyrone Washington's "Natural Essence" - have you sampled the music before paying big money for the CD? I've owned it twice and dumped it twice. I just don't find it very good.

 

I came across the cd at amoeba cheap yesterday and decided to buy it based on its praise from members here. I don’t find it that impressive either. The writing is good, woody is great, but I could see why it sat unreleased. Only spun it twice but Tyrone’s solos all sounded the same. 

Edited September 16, 2018 by jcam_44

[Daniel A]

26 minutes ago, jcam_44 said:

... I could see why it sat unreleased.

But it was released.

Anyhow, I never feel like listening to it either. Have a (Japanese) LP, but have probably not played it for ten years. 

[jcam_44]

20 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

But it was released.

Anyhow, I never feel like listening to it either. Have a (Japanese) LP, but have probably not played it for ten years. 

I don't know why I thought this was one of the albums "from the vault", maybe because it was only released on cd in japan. 

[felser]

9 hours ago, jcam_44 said:

I came across the cd at amoeba cheap yesterday and decided to buy it based on its praise from members here. I don’t find it that impressive either. The writing is good, woody is great, but I could see why it sat unreleased. Only spun it twice but Tyrone’s solos all sounded the same. 

I think Joe Chambers is oustanding on tht album, love the rhythm section.  And it's a good solo that Tyrone plays.

[jcam_44]

Which solo are you referring to? I do enjoy his intro to Song of Peace and James Spaulding on Ethos is excellent. The end of the album is stronger to me than the beginning. After a third spin the writing is still good but I'm still not clicking with his solos. 

[felser]

48 minutes ago, jcam_44 said:

Which solo are you referring to? I do enjoy his intro to Song of Peace and James Spaulding on Ethos is excellent. The end of the album is stronger to me than the beginning. After a third spin the writing is still good but I'm still not clicking with his solos. 

I was referring to the comment " Only spun it twice but Tyrone’s solos all sounded the same " rather than to any specific solos.

[Rooster_Ties]

I will concede that Tyrone's language is all coming from a similar place.  But it's a place I've come to really love.

FWIW, I've never been able to get into Pharaoh Sanders or Archie Shepp (or at least not any of their 60's & 70's output).  But Tyrone speaks to me pretty deeply, what can I say.  Maybe it's the context that does it for me partially -- so called 'Avant Boogaloo' -- though little of the infamous 'Trainwreck' is especially 'boogaloo' in nature, and it still speaks to me a TON.

Hello, it's not inaccurate to say that I dig Tryone more than most late-era Coltrane.   (Of course, I've got nothing but the utmost respect for Trane, even if I've never really gotten bitten by that bug.)

Not suggesting Natural Essence is even his very best appearance on album -- that'd be a toss-up between Roots and the Trainwreck, I'd imagine (at least for me).

As always, your mileage may vary. (...and probably does!)

[Pim]

I really think it is a pity that so much Blue Note is out of print these days. I am 27 years old. That means that I didn’t have much time to collect al those Blue Notes. Sure I got plenty but I am still looking for a lot of Grant Green, Lee Morgan, Andrew Hill etc. Nowadays my only option is Discogs which is ok but the shipping costs are ridiculous a lot of the time. I still hope for some nice reissues. 

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, Pim said:

I really think it is a pity that so much Blue Note is out of print these days. I am 27 years old. That means that I didn’t have much time to collect al those Blue Notes. Sure I got plenty but I am still looking for a lot of Grant Green, Lee Morgan, Andrew Hill etc. Nowadays my only option is Discogs which is ok but the shipping costs are ridiculous a lot of the time. I still hope for some nice reissues. 

Keep your eyes out for specific titles on ebay.  Set up an automatic search, and limit it to your preferred media/medium (LP or CD).  You can also set price-limits on each search, so it's quite easy to set up 20 or even 30 different automatic daily searches, with price-limits set more closely to your own personal threshold -- and then you'll get daily emails from eBay whenever anything comes up that matches your search criteria.

I've got a couple dozen such searches set up -- some of them for some really obscure titles (that I rarely get a hit on but about once ever 2-3 months).

Basically all you have to do is complete one search, further refine it by preferred media, and set a price-limit -- and hit "save search" -- and you'll get automatic emails every day (or however often there's a new match).

[Late]

Yawn.

But hey — these ultra-high quality CD reissues include "rubidium clock cutting" and a code to access "BLUE NOTE CLUB" (system requirements unknown). I always had a hunch that those system requirements were unknown. Now the hunch has been confirmed. 

[riverrat]

This was posted over on the Hoffman forum today:

"Don Was, of Blue Note/Universal Music Group and Joe Harley (sic) of Audioquest, announced a reissue program. While the pending reissue series will be under a different banner than Music Matters, it will follow the same level of quality - both in packaging, extras, and sonic quality as the Music Matters series.

Two of the first reissue titles will be: 1) Wayne Shorter, Et Cetera, and, 2) Chick Corea, Now He Sobs, Now He Sings. (Please note: I am sure on the Wayne Shorter title and 80% sure on the Chick Corea title)."
 

[Late]

20 more titles. The usual suspects, but Bobby Hutcherson's Components is a nice change of pace.

[Rooster_Ties]

11 hours ago, Late said:

20 more titles. The usual suspects...

No indication (one way, or the other) whether these have any of the new bonus tracks previously only on the semi-recent SHM issue of some of these titles. Here's the Dolphy OTL. Would be a shame if these didn't include those extra tracks...

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UCCQ-9432

[mjzee]

2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

No indication (one way, or the other) whether these have any of the new bonus tracks previously only on the semi-recent SHM issue of some of these titles. Here's the Dolphy OTL. Would be a shame if these didn't include those extra tracks...

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UCCQ-9432

The page you linked to says this: Special Feature / Bonus Track: two bonus tracks

[Late]

It looks like the Japanese market will be releasing batches of 20 titles at a time. It'll be interesting to see how many titles show up. This series does indeed appear to have the bonus tracks from the earlier SHM-CD series. Some of the new titles, however, weren't part of the SHM-CD series (Una Mas and Components are two), and, in the case of Components, there's no previous RVG remaster, which could mean an entirely new (2018) remaster — which would be nice, as the old (1994?) Larry Walsh remaster is showing its age.

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, mjzee said:

The page you linked to says this: Special Feature / Bonus Track: two bonus tracks

Whew!!  Glad to know!!  I already have an SHM issue of Out To Lunch (with the bonus material), but it's something really everyone should have.  And the upgrade in the sound quality (something I normally never worry too much about), is really noticeably much better (like light-years better).

Great news!!!

[king ubu]

I managed to get the TOJC of "Natural Essence" recently ... overpaid a bit, but not too much - so they may do whatever they want for the 90th (a reissue of the complete Art Hodes Blue Note sessions would be nice, though, but I know that's not gonna happen) and I'm out  

[bertrand]

On 9/17/2018 at 0:02 PM, Pim said:

I really think it is a pity that so much Blue Note is out of print these days. I am 27 years old. That means that I didn’t have much time to collect al those Blue Notes. Sure I got plenty but I am still looking for a lot of Grant Green, Lee Morgan, Andrew Hill etc. Nowadays my only option is Discogs which is ok but the shipping costs are ridiculous a lot of the time. I still hope for some nice reissues. 

You will find a few snobs who complain about reissues of sessions that already existed on CD and are now out of print.

Those people seem to forget that old people die and new people are born. Or perhaps they believe they are the center of the Universe.

I went through the same frustrations when I started collecting Blue Notes around your age. I would hear 'Oh, I have that on vinyl' a lot. Like I gave a fuck.

There were a couple of golden ages of Blue Note reissues, but now I think Japan is your best bet. They can be found for not that much more.

Two huge advantages to your situation:

1. Think of all the titles you still have to discover! You would not want to get the whole catalog in one fell swoop, right?

2. A lot of the new issues will have bonus tracks, and us older folks will be buying CDs again for those extra cuts. For you, it will be the first time.

My two cents.

[felser]

54 minutes ago, bertrand said:

You will find a few snobs who complain about reissues of sessions that already existed on CD and are now out of print.

Those people seem to forget that old people die and new people are born. Or perhaps they believe they are the center of the Universe.

I went through the same frustrations when I started collecting Blue Notes around your age. I would hear 'Oh, I have that on vinyl' a lot. Like I gave a ***.

There were a couple of golden ages of Blue Note reissues, but now I think Japan is your best bet. They can be found for not that much more.

Two huge advantages to your situation:

1. Think of all the titles you still have to discover! You would not want to get the whole catalog in one fell swoop, right?

2. A lot of the new issues will have bonus tracks, and us older folks will be buying CDs again for those extra cuts. For you, it will be the first time.

My two cents.

Bertrand, the complaint about the same BN titles getting endlessly reissued is that other BN titles then get bypassed from reissue campaigns again and again.  Not sure how that makes us snobs.

[JSngry]

I'm a snob about drooling over RVGs that don't sound even close to my lps,  but geez, that's just for me. If you're still discovering the music in any form, carpe diem, and funk all us snobs!

[Pim]

7 hours ago, bertrand said:

You will find a few snobs who complain about reissues of sessions that already existed on CD and are now out of print.

Those people seem to forget that old people die and new people are born. Or perhaps they believe they are the center of the Universe.

I went through the same frustrations when I started collecting Blue Notes around your age. I would hear 'Oh, I have that on vinyl' a lot. Like I gave a fuck.

There were a couple of golden ages of Blue Note reissues, but now I think Japan is your best bet. They can be found for not that much more.

Two huge advantages to your situation:

1. Think of all the titles you still have to discover! You would not want to get the whole catalog in one fell swoop, right?

2. A lot of the new issues will have bonus tracks, and us older folks will be buying CDs again for those extra cuts. For you, it will be the first time.

My two cents.

All very true. So much to discover it makes me dizzy. My wishlist just keeps growing while I’m trying to make it shrink haha. Anyway, the new reissue program got one surprise for me: the Hutcherson. But I am still hoping for those Andrew Hill, Booker Ervin and Sonny Clark reissues. And it’s not Blue Note only of course. Recently saw two new Mal Waldron reissues: One Upmanship and Moods for the 100th time. Mal has got so much OOP masterpieces, some extremely rare. 

This sometimes makes me sad. I see Japanese Strata East releases, India Navigaton stuff, Mal Waldron cd’s that were once available for a neat price, for the most ridiculous prices. It means I will probably never have them on CD. Few examples from my personal list:

Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah (from 65 dollar)

Dollar Brand - Third World Underground (from 88 dollar)

Mal Waldron - The Call (from 120 dollar)

Hannibal Marvin Peterson - Hannibal (from 120 dollar)

and so much more to go. Amazon seams to have really lose it. Sometimes ordinary RVGs or OJCs easy to get releases are sold for more than 100 dollars.

CDJapan is a very nice store indeed. Lately ordered me some 7 Lee Morgan’s

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Pim said:

All very true. So much to discover it makes me dizzy. My wishlist just keeps growing while I’m trying to make it shrink haha. Anyway, the new reissue program got one surprise for me: the Hutcherson. But I am still hoping for those Andrew Hill, Booker Ervin and Sonny Clark reissues. And it’s not Blue Note only of course. Recently saw two new Mal Waldron reissues: One Upmanship and Moods for the 100th time. Mal has got so much OOP masterpieces, some extremely rare. 

This sometimes makes me sad. I see Japanese Strata East releases, India Navigaton stuff, Mal Waldron cd’s that were once available for a neat price, for the most ridiculous prices. It means I will probably never have them on CD. Few examples from my personal list:

Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah (from 65 dollar)

Dollar Brand - Third World Underground (from 88 dollar)

Mal Waldron - The Call (from 120 dollar)

Hannibal Marvin Peterson - Hannibal (from 120 dollar)

and so much more to go. Amazon seams to have really lose it. Sometimes ordinary RVGs or OJCs easy to get releases are sold for more than 100 dollars.

CDJapan is a very nice store indeed. Lately ordered me some 7 Lee Morgan’s

Patience - not always - may be of help .... probably you should also file with Discogs and put items on your personal wants list -  you will receive notification as soon one of your wants is offered (and sometimes sellers appreciate near time cash and are offering items for much less money than Amazon tec.) .... just my 5 cent worth ....

[Pim]

The wishlist I was talking about is a Discogs wishlist soulpope 

[soulpope]

34 minutes ago, Pim said:

The wishlist I was talking about is a Discogs wishlist soulpope 

Fair enough .... some good deals are a matter of time - and others will never materialize ....