Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series

[Pim]

The Tone Poets have a thread but these series not (yet). Now they do. So the new list was presented this week and I can't say I'm very happy with it.... Some nice records but not the ones I hoped for.

January 20, 2023 – The 70s

• Grant Green – Green Is Beautiful (1970)
• Bobby Hutcherson – San Francisco (1970)

February 17, 2023 – Hard Bop

• Jackie McLean – Bluesnik (1961)
• Horace Parlan – Speakin’ My Piece (1960)

March 17, 2023 – Post-Bop

• Herbie Hancock – Empyrean Isles (1964)
• Sam Rivers – Fuchsia Swing Song (1964)

April 21, 2023 – Hidden Gems

• Dizzy Reece – Star Bright (1959)
• Johnny Coles – Little Johnny C (1963)

May 19, 2023 – Bebop

• Miles Davis – Volume 1 BLP 1501 (1952-53)
• Fats Navarro – The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol. 1 BLP 1531 (1947-49)

June 16, 2023 – The Rebirth

• Robert Glasper – In My Element (2006)*
• Madlib – Shades of Blue (2003)*

July 21, 2023 – Soul Jazz

• Ike Quebec – Heavy Soul (1961)
• Lonnie Smith – Turning Point (1969)

August 18, 2023 – The Avant-Garde

• Anthony Williams – Spring (1965)
• Cecil Taylor – Unit Structures (1966)

I will definitely pick up the Hancock and the Cecil Taylor. I may be picking up the Lonnie Smith, the Sam Rivers, Horace Parlan, McLean and the Hutch. The rest is not interest to me and the Anthony Williams I already have.

I really hoped for Lee Morgan's Gigolo and Search for the New Land. Plus Jackie McLean's Let Freedom Ring or Right Now. On the other hand: the list only goes to august.... So now I am here again doubting if I have to buy an expensive Japanese reissue or just be patient and wait a little longer....

[danasgoodstuff]

Somewhat surprised there's no core hard bop on the new list:  no Lee, no Hank, no Blakey, no Horace.  But we haven't seen next year's Tone Poets yet and there's plenty of fine music on the list.  I have decent copies of everything but the 21st century stuff, and I'm not particularly interested in that.  Over at the SHF there's a lot oc complaints about quality control on this series, I haven't bought any of these, but my 3 TP so far have been perfect.

[Rabshakeh]

Nice to see San Francisco getting a reissue.

[Pim]

Well I got around 20 of the Tone Poets and 12 Classics and never had an issue. But since I am reading the Hoffman board I am seriously thinking my hearing isn't working properly.

[sidewinder]

I might go for the January Hutcherson/Land and Grant Green as my copies are on CD. Hardly the strongest sessions for both though.

[jnorek]

Hallelujah!  It is is so hard / expensive to find Horace Parlan on vinyl. So glad to see a reissue for him.

[Bol]

I'm just getting into this series, and so far I love them.  The only complaint I have is about the very thin cardboard used for covers.  I wish that Blue Note had pursued a middle path between the thin covers for this series and the downright ridiculous amount of cardboard being used for the Tone Poet series.  I also love the fact that the LP's in this series do not suffer from the warping problems that I have been experiencing with the Tone Poets and the Acoustic Sounds LP's.  It's dismaying how the German plant producing the Classics does such better job of quality control than the plants in the U.S.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Bol

[Brad]

On 12/4/2022 at 11:07 AM, Pim said:

Well I got around 20 of the Tone Poets and 12 Classics and never had an issue. But since I am reading the Hoffman board I am seriously thinking my hearing isn't working properly.

Many of the people over there are overly fixated on the minutest of issues. 

31 minutes ago, Bol said:

I'm just getting into this series, and so far I love them.  The only complaint I have is about the very thin cardboard used for covers.  I wish that Blue Note had pursued a middle path between the thin covers for this series and the downright ridiculous amount of cardboard being used for the Tone Poet series.  I also love the fact that the LP's in this series does not suffer from the warping problems that I have been experiencing with the Tone Poets and the Acoustic Sounds LP's.  It's dismaying how the German plant producing the Classics does such better job of quality control than the plants in the U.S.

The Classics series has re-issued some rare recordings. I tend to purchase more of that series than TPs, which I mostly have in cd and are fine for me.