Were there any pre-Connoisseur series single-CD releases of (then) previously unreleased Blue Note sessions (apart from Mosaics)

[Rooster_Ties]

Or another way of asking: was the US-European “Connoisseur” series (which started in July 1994, or maybe June?) the first time ANY (then) previously unreleased Blue Note sessions saw the light of day on CD as individual (single-CD) releases?? — specifically talking CD’s, mind you.

Maybe in Japan (but anywhere else really), were there any individual CD issues of previously unreleased BN titles (entire sessions) that HADN’T come out on LP in the 70’s — before that started a little more frequently with parts of the Conn series, and later the Rare Groove series.

(So I’m NOT talking about things like the McMaster issue of Dimensions & Extensions (Rivers), which I seem to remember came out in 1987 — since it had already seen release on LP a decade before.)

Talkin’ all pre-Conn — before whatever the very first previously unreleased Conn was (and remind me, what were those first few previously unreleased Conns too?? - btw — or only previously released on Mosaic, but never on LP, pre-Mosaic).

But if it was part of a Mosaic, just never a single CD issue, then let’s DO include those.

What was the very first one? Or first handful?

Edited March 25, 2021 by Rooster_Ties

[Dan Gould]

There were probably dozens unless I am mis-understanding your question.

Off the top of my head, CD releases pre-Conn:

Lee Morgan Tom Cat

Hank Mobley Far Away Lands, Straight No Filter

Jackie McLean Tippin The Scales

(Lucky me, I became a mad collector around early 1988 as these were easy to find as they appeared, even pre-internet  )

Edited March 25, 2021 by Dan Gould

[Rooster_Ties]

5 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Lee Morgan Tom Cat

Hank Mobley Far Away Lands, Straight No Filter

Jackie McLean Tippin The Scales

Looks like Lee Morgan Tom Cat came out on LP at part of the LT series in 1980, so that doesn’t count.

Jackie McClean Tippin The Scales came on LP in Japan (King) in 1979, so no there too.

The two Mobleys (Moblies?) DO both appear to count, having been issued for the very first time in 1984 & 1986 (on CD).

[JSngry]

IIRC, the "new BN" vault reissues came first on both LP and cassette, and then a few years later on CD. There was no "series" associated with them.

[Dan Gould]

11 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Looks like Lee Morgan Tom Cat came out on LP at part of the LT series in 1980, so that doesn’t count.

Jackie McClean Tippin The Scales came on LP in Japan (King) in 1979, so no there too.

The two Mobleys (Moblies?) DO both appear to count, having been issued for the very first time in 1984 & 1986 (on CD).

Fine then.

Three Sounds, Babe's Blues. Found in the vaults by Michael.

[JSngry]

"Connoisseur series" was intended for existing catalog that perhaps had had a slower profile than the "staples". Is that right? Not to get vault items out.

[JSngry]

Just now, Dub Modal said:

I think Andrew Hill's Pax is one that counts...

That one was part of a 70s 2-fer.

[JSngry]

[Dub Modal]

2 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Lo & behold...I had an idea that was out there. 

[mjzee]

12 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

And here's one I know nothing about - Lou Blackburn's Imperial Sessions

 

You should check it out.  Excellent music, full of polish and fire.

[JSngry]

Lou Blackburn/Imperial...obscure (for me, anyway), but previous LPs contained.

 

[mjzee]

4 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Michael Cuscana!  I wasn't aware of this BN typo.

[JSngry]

2 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

Lo & behold...I had an idea that was out there. 

It's a most satisfying package.

[Dub Modal]

8 minutes ago, mjzee said:

You should check it out.  Excellent music, full of polish and fire.

 

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Lou Blackburn/Imperial...obscure (for me, anyway), but previous LPs contained.

 

Yeah, on my list now. 

And that Turrentine Bluish Bag has a track (or 2...) but not every song on this LP set:

Oh, and now I read the title of pre-Conn. Lol. Drinking some more coffee so my comprehension level can improve. I'll shut up now.  (and delete that rambling post )

Edited March 25, 2021 by Dub Modal

[JSngry]

Not necessarily...I think the premise of this thread, which, if I'm getting it right, is - were there CD issues of vault material that came out pre-Conn? - is a cloudy one, maybe? Because the Conn series was never about vault material, it was about catalog items that had not gotten a lot of sunshine, so to speak. Maybe at some point they started adding vault material to the series, or adding vault material to catalog items (pretty sure than got to be a thing) but Conn discs were always premised on catalog items in some for or fashion, I though? But I can't think, offhand, of any Conn disc that was a entirely a first release of vault materia?

Maybe?

[mjzee]

5 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Not necessarily...I think the premise of this thread, which, if I'm getting it right, is - were there CD issues of vault material that came out pre-Conn? - is a cloudy one, maybe? Because the Conn series was never about vault material, it was about catalog items that had not gotten a lot of sunshine, so to speak. Maybe at some point they started adding vault material to the series, or adding vault material to catalog items (pretty sure than got to be a thing) but Conn discs were always premised on catalog items in some for or fashion, I though? But I can't think, offhand, of any Conn disc that was a entirely a first release of vault materia?

Maybe?

In the beginning, yes, but mid-2000s they also did first releases (I don't count Mosaic boxes as "prior releases"; for one thing, the Conns required designing covers that never existed before):

But I don't think this was even on a Mosaic:

I think the overriding point of the Conn series was that they were limited editions, made for a smaller audience (what one might call "connoisseurs").

I remember that Concord tried something similar with a limited-edition series of OJCs - Tadd Dameron's Fontainbleau was one of them.  But then they never took those titles out of print!

[felser]

4 minutes ago, mjzee said:

I think the overriding point of the Conn series was that they were limited editions, made for a smaller audience (what one might call "connoisseurs").

IIRC, they also had a higher list price (standard rather than mid-range).  Of course, we were glad to pay that.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Dan might be right that The Three Sounds' "Babe's Blues" might be the only one.

[JSngry]

I can count Mosaics as "prior releases"...they farmed out a Tina Brooks record or two like that, no? But the JOS thing, that was indeed all-new.

[Dan Gould]

I thought Rooster's point of interest was non-Conn releases only? So most of the images here fail on that point.

Three Mobleys that were otherwise "new" - Faraway Lands, Another Workout, and Straight No Chaser - all had US LP releases prior to CD by 1989.

[Dub Modal]

Would Grant Green’s Born to be Blue meet the parameters of the question? I don’t think it was part of a 2-fer, and its first LP release was an ‘85 DMM. CD came in ‘89 and was individually released, so pre-Conn. Mosaic set that included this session came in ‘90 on both LP and CD. 

[Dan Gould]

15 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

Would Grant Green’s Born to be Blue meet the parameters of the question? I don’t think it was part of a 2-fer, and its first LP release was an ‘85 DMM. CD came in ‘89 and was individually released, so pre-Conn. Mosaic set that included this session came in ‘90 on both LP and CD. 

I don't think so, if he is only interested in non-Conn, CD only debut of unissued sessions.  If that is the definition, even Babe's Blues doesn't make it, it actually came out in 1986 in France and the US on LP.

All of these vault discoveries that are pre-conn and no 70s LT or Brown series material - the three Mobleys, the Morgan, the Grant, the Three Sounds - they all had LP releases prior to CD. And wasn't Six Views of the Blues a Conn?

Edited March 25, 2021 by Dan Gould

[Dub Modal]

Got it. Was going to throw in ZTs Blues but that matches the Green set in terms of DMM LP first, then CD later. 

[Dan Gould]

2 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

Got it. Was going to throw in ZTs Blues but that matches the Green set in terms of DMM LP first, then CD later. 

Yeah, and Comin' Your Way, too.

[Dub Modal]

1 minute ago, Dan Gould said:

Yeah, and Comin' Your Way, too.

Add the second side of Quebec’s Easy Living as well as it had concurrent (non DMM) LP and CD releases in ‘87. 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Dub Modal