Blue Note's TONE POET series.

[danasgoodstuff]

As I've already said elsewhere on the web, I'm not paying $50 (or even $40) just to have these same 7 tunes spread over 3 sides of vinyl - if they had put some alt. takes on the 4th side I would have at least thought about it.  Lovely music, but no.

[Ken Dryden]

I have no interest in the Tone Poet LP series as well. Some of this music I've probably purchased several times between LPs, CDs and boxed sets that include these sessions. I am not about to add a duplicate LP for music that I have long owned. I probably own nearly all of the vintage Blue Note music that I desire.

[danasgoodstuff]

I've bought two - one I'd never owned (The Phantom) and one I only had on a homemade cassette (Contours).  Quite happy with both.  But Further purchases from this or their other series will remain infrequent.

[Pim]

Yeah I am not going to replace or buy duplicates. I was tempted for a moment by Passing Ships as it’s one of my favorite jazz records, but it’s too expensive. But the big advantage of being a relatively young jazz lover is that their are still lots of records to buy as my collection is only just beginning to take shape  

Not sure if I will buy any of the planned releases of this year. Only one I initially doubted about was Katanga by Curtis Amy. But I think I will get me the Mosaic Select which will probably cost the same.

[soulpope]

11 minutes ago, Pim said:

Only one I initially doubted about was Katanga by Curtis Amy. But I think I will get me the Mosaic Select which will probably cost the same.

Strongly believe "Katanga" is a must have independently of format ....

[BFrank]

35 minutes ago, Pim said:

Yeah I am not going to replace or buy duplicates. I was tempted for a moment by Passing Ships as it’s one of my favorite jazz records, but it’s too expensive. But the big advantage of being a relatively young jazz lover is that their are still lots of records to buy as my collection is only just beginning to take shape  

Not sure if I will buy any of the planned releases of this year. Only one I initially doubted about was Katanga by Curtis Amy. But I think I will get me the Mosaic Select which will probably cost the same.

The Select box is a good set. Worth having.

[Dmitry]

On 1/5/2021 at 5:12 PM, mjzee said:

Sadly, there's no mention in the product description.

I guess that our best route to non-fold-down mono, aside from the pre-Liberty pressings are the King and Toshiba releases. From the research of authorities like Fred Cohen, and documented by Rich Capeless,  RVG started mastering mono pressings from the fold-down stereo two-track recordings with the BLP-4004 [Art Blakey - Holiday for Skins, vol.1]. For all the releases prior to that catalog number, and starting with the BLP-1554, he ran two separate recording rigs simultaneously in mono and in stereo.
Mind you, this only pertains to BN, I have no idea if he was using fold-down stereo for other labels which he worked with.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Dmitry

[Clunky]

Received Tyner’s “Tender Moments “ in this series. Usual standard but nothing extraordinary compared to the McMaster CD from the late eighties. Don’t get me wrong it sounds better but it’s not some sort of revelation audio wise. 

[sidewinder]

4 minutes ago, Clunky said:

Received Tyner’s “Tender Moments “ in this series. Usual standard but nothing extraordinary compared to the McMaster CD from the late eighties. Don’t get me wrong it sounds better but it’s not some sort of revelation audio wise. 

Interesting - I have a decent original Liberty of this one and after reading this I will probably pass.

Edited January 30, 2021 by sidewinder

[Clunky]

I’d figured that it might have sounded better than a Liberty given how variable they can be. Who knows... or really cares. It’s a great session which I fancied having on vinyl 

[sidewinder]

The Liberty sounds fine - blue/white label. Heck, even the 1970s British UA pressing I have of this one sounds fine (that was a good burst of reissues - around 1977/78, which preceded the ‘Jazz File’ series).

Edited January 30, 2021 by sidewinder

[Aftab]

2021-22 Tone Poet titles have been announced

March 12, 2021

• Charles Lloyd & The Marvels – Tone Poem (Blue Note, 2021) *mastered directly from the original 24/96 digital files*

May 7, 2021

• Dexter Gordon – One Flight Up (Blue Note, 1964)
• Andrew Hill – Passing Ships (Blue Note, 1969)

June 4, 2021

• Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – The Witch Doctor (Blue Note, 1961)
• Curtis Amy & Dupree Bolton – Katanga!(Pacific Jazz, 1963)

July 9, 2021

• Sonny Clark – My Conception (Blue Note, 1959)
• McCoy Tyner – Expansions (Blue Note, 1968)

August 6, 2021

• Lee Konitz & Gerry Mulligan – Lee Konitz Plays With The Gerry Mulligan Quartet (Pacific Jazz, 1953)
• Wayne Shorter – The All Seeing Eye(Blue Note, 1965)

September 10, 2021

• Joe Pass – For Django (Pacific Jazz, 1964)
• Stanley Turrentine – Rough ‘N Tumble(Blue Note, 1966)

October 8, 2021

• Sonny Red – Out of the Blue (Blue Note, 1959-60)
• Grant Green – The Latin Bit (Blue Note, 1962)

November 5, 2021

• Hank Mobley – Curtain Call (Blue Note, 1957)
• Jackie McLean – Tippin’ The Scales(Blue Note, 1962)

December 3, 2021

• Gerald Wilson – Moment of Truth(Pacific Jazz, 1962)
• Freddie Hubbard – Breaking Point! (Blue Note, 1964)

January 7, 2022

• Kenny Burrell – Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1956)
• Grant Green – Feelin’ The Spirit (Blue Note, 1962)

February 4, 2022

• Harold Vick – Steppin’ Out (Blue Note, 1963)
• Bobby Hutcherson – Stick Up! (Blue Note, 1966)

March 4, 2022

• Chet Baker & Art Pepper – Picture of Heath (Pacific Jazz, 1956)
• Blue Mitchell – Bring It Home To Me(Blue Note, 1966)

April 1, 2022

• Donald Byrd – At The Half Note Cafe, Vol. 1 (Blue Note, 1960)
• ScoLoHoFo (Scofield-Lovano-Holland-Foster) – Oh! (Blue Note, 2002)

 

There’s a lot of great titles in this batch IMO. Especially excited for the Vick (my favorite BN of all-time), Konitz, Chet, Scofield and the Hill. Those Grant Green titles will be nice too. 
Charles Lloyd as well. 

[JSngry]

25 minutes ago, Aftab said:

2021-22 Tone Poet titles have been announced

March 12, 2021

• Charles Lloyd & The Marvels – Tone Poem (Blue Note, 2021) *mastered directly from the original 24/96 digital files*

 

Somebody, please, help me understand why you would want to get an LP from a digital file? I'm assuming there's no analog in this chain anyway, so WTF? Is Exxon/Mobil trying to get in on this vinyl action (remember when vinyl was "doomed: because of the oil shortage?)?

[Dmitry]

It’s the  business decision based solely on the “let’s capitalize on this vinyl thing” . I don’t see any other reasons for releasing digitally-recorded music on LPs. Labels would happily churn out music on 78s if they started to become popular again.

[Dub Modal]

15 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Somebody, please, help me understand why you would want to get an LP from a digital file? I'm assuming there's no analog in this chain anyway, so WTF? Is Exxon/Mobil trying to get in on this vinyl action (remember when vinyl was "doomed: because of the oil shortage?)?

Possible explanation (not advocacy, mind you): as I understand it, there's a difference in the mastering for vinyl in order to cut the lacquers. This mastering could "better." Also, some people have systems set up where their turntable components are supreme in the chain. They would obviously choose the LP.

And that's all I have...

[Aftab]

18 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Somebody, please, help me understand why you would want to get an LP from a digital file? I'm assuming there's no analog in this chain anyway, so WTF? Is Exxon/Mobil trying to get in on this vinyl action (remember when vinyl was "doomed: because of the oil shortage?)?

For me it’s just a current format preference. Not an analog/digital kind of thing. I like the production quality of the Tone Poets and it’s more fun to hold and read a big LP jacket than a little cd booklet 😎 Though I do like being able to sit for a whole album and not have to get up after every 2 songs. I may get the CD of the Lloyd too just because I’m a big Frisell fan.

[Daniel A]

On 2021-01-30 at 11:54 AM, Clunky said:

Received Tyner’s “Tender Moments “ in this series. Usual standard but nothing extraordinary compared to the McMaster CD from the late eighties. Don’t get me wrong it sounds better but it’s not some sort of revelation audio wise. 

 

On 2021-01-30 at 0:11 PM, sidewinder said:

The Liberty sounds fine - blue/white label. Heck, even the 1970s British UA pressing I have of this one sounds fine (that was a good burst of reissues - around 1977/78, which preceded the ‘Jazz File’ series).

I have this one on an early 80s Pathe Marconi pressing. It sounds kind of muddy, even if I am usually not that enthusiastic about these pressings. I always had the impression that it was a less than ideal recording to begin with. Though I should listen to it again - it's been years! 

[Dmitry]

3 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

Possible explanation (not advocacy, mind you): as I understand it, there's a difference in the mastering for vinyl in order to cut the lacquers. This mastering could "better." Also, some people have systems set up where their turntable components are supreme in the chain. They would obviously choose the LP.

And that's all I have...

Mastering tapes for vinyl, among many other tricks would involve summing bass to mono, so the cartridge wouldn’t fly out of the groove, limiting dynamic range, EQ’ing. 
If you look at any known LP mastering lab, there will be multiple machines used to adjust various parameters in order to make vinyl records from tape. If it weren’t the case, you’d just see the reel to reel deck plugged directly into the cutting head amplifier. It’s a very flawed, imperfect format. I should know, I’ve got a lot of records, and still buying.

[Brad]

It’s a nice list but I can’t see myself purchasing more than a few as I have them on cd and just don’t see the need to purchase them on vinyl. 

[JSngry]

46 minutes ago, Brad said:

It’s a nice list but I can’t see myself purchasing more than a few as I have them on cd and just don’t see the need to purchase them on vinyl. 

I have most of them on vinyl (old), and CD (not as old), so I really don't see the need to buy $25 vinyl (new), I mean, what, do I look like I'm made of money here? 

[Clunky]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

It’s a nice list but I can’t see myself purchasing more than a few as I have them on cd and just don’t see the need to purchase them on vinyl. 

i'd agree as I'm in a similar position with a combination of CDs and LPs. Passing Ships and Tippin' the scales might be all - even then I'm not 100%. The McLean certainly isn't his best but it's pretty decent in my book. Over here these are at best £32 which must be around 40 US. 

[Pim]

Looks like I am going to save a lot of money. Already have most titles and the ones I have not are not really ones I am interested in. Hoped for a nice reissue of Bobby Hutcherson’s Patterns which is pretty hard to find in any format these days. 
 

for Curtis Amy I probably grab the mosaic select instead. Only one I’ll add to my wishlist is the Joe Pass LP

[Daniel A]

Hill's 'Passing Ships' will be a three-sided album with a playing time of 47 and a half minutes. EU Amazon price: 55 Euro. This is a title I would have been interested in, but it's simply too expensive. 

[JSngry]

"Passing Ships" is great music, but the original recording was a little "unfinished" in terms of mixing and balance. I really don't see what value is added by LP, except for packaging (can't argue that, even if I can argue the price). Otherwise, get the CD and have it all for one sitting.

[BFrank]

This release list has a lot of nice stuff in it. I don't buy vinyl anymore, but for those looking there are a lot of gems. I have friends who buy lots of these and have recommended some of the less obvious but excellent sessions here, incl: Gerald Wilson, Donald Byrd (will they release Vol 2?), Andrew Hill, Blue Mitchell, Curtis Amy