More BLUE NOTE MANIA! New Acoustic Sounds 45 RPM 180 gram vinyl cut by Steve & Kevin

I'm a bit confused. The acoustic sound web site says 25 titles from analog production and 25 from music matters for a total of 50. According to the link provided in this thread there are 63 music matters titles for a total of 88 titles. Why the discrepancy?

 

They are not being released all at once. Two or four a month at best. This is a project that will go on for years. AP is only disclosing their first 25 titles, and MM have only disclosed their first 63 titles. Acoustic Sounds predicts 50 titles out during 2008. Maybe a bit more.

 

Huh... Steve ain't cheap and is universally regarded as having the best set of mastering ears out there. He is living THE life dude, and has been for a long time. (lucky us)

 

I am thinking that is a mistake on the AS website.When I placed my order they werent really sure how the music matters releases were going to be handled at this time.The orders are for the AP releases.The 25.

I understand at this time Music Matters will soon be taking orders.I emailed them a couple of times :

Hi,

I am interested in pre-ordering the first 6 titles you are putting out on
the BLUE NOTE jazz reissue series through your site . Not sure how this
works but I would be interested in all 63 titles as they come out on
pre-order status.

thanks so much!

Reply :

Hi ,
Will arrange that for you, and be back in touch soon.

My best Ron




I dont think the process has been finalized yet from what I gather. Either way I was told that these will not be coming out until January.Sounds like a long time. But it will be here before we know it. I am just glad to have some time to save .

I think we just need to be patient and let them get all the bugs worked out on how the 63 will be ordered.

 

I would just like to chime in here about the relatively conservative choices made by "audiophile" labels when reissuing jazz. The 100 titles in the previous Fantasy/Prestige 45 RPM series included many, many bland clunkers that no serious jazz fan (vs. audiophile) would want to own. I sent an email to Acoustic Sounds about this, and was essentially told that the choices were based largely on sales of their earlier reissues--in other words, they just stuck with the same, tired list. They did relent and release one Eric Dolphy title, but that was it.

Anyway, I recommend that those of us with more adventurous tastes email the various companies with our suggestions. To be sure, the BN catalog is not a hotbed of free jazz, but there are some great titles in there, many of which have been mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

aht,

They went with a very GOOD list. They knew the hot sellers and the ones that get a lot of critical acclaim and they released them. To say there was a "clunker" in there is well.... opinion and nothing more. I missed a couple of titles among the lesser desired ones and now there gone (unless I want to pay $200 which is way out there). If I was blessed with all of these even as OJCs, I'd be... estatic.

I can think of a-many way they could have released 10 titles ONLY and only had one Monk and Chet title in there. Fantasy (at the time) gave everyone a wide choice of licensing titles. BN is doing this now, but none of this would happen if the Fantasy titles were NOT a success.

I'd be much more positive if I were you.

 

I see your point to some extent. But I do think it's important to add that while the jazz on the LP's is not necessarily in the "New Thing" vein, there are a number of obscure titles specially in the Music Matters list some of which are not available on CD in the US.

 

It is a very exciting project. Unfortunately I've spent a a lot on the Classic 33 & 45 RPM re-issues, so I don't want to buy the same titles again and again.

I'll cherry pick the titles, like I did with the OJC 45's. I seemed to pick the right ones there.

Thanks Steve. This is amazing.

 

So, at this time, the subscription is only for the 25 analog production titles?

 

That's the why I understand it.

 

I seem to remember that number for another subscription. It eventually turned into 100. I susbscribed for the 25. easier to sell the wife on 25. Then..well... just never got around to cancelling. Will history repeat itself? Will I be stuck with 100 Blue Notes like I was with that other subscription? Will my wife buy it the next time I tell "really, that's almost all of them."?? Will I have to stop doing art house movies and get a high paying low artistic yield job? Is there any way I can sneak these in the back door? are we looking at 164 LPs when all is said and done? God I hope so. "Honey, really really really the subscription is almost over for real this time...yes both of them..er..um...I didn't realize there were two seperate series really dear really." What do you think? will she buy it?

 

Ackk! Two seperate reissues, and no sign of Lee Morgan - Sidewinder!

Why, oh why?

 

I agree. The big question though is: where's Herbie Hancock?

 

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/77077

 

Who really believes Analog Productions is going to stop at 25? My bet is there will hardly be a title of note missed when the dust settles.

 

amen brother.thats what we are hoping for

 

Ya give me the Blues, bring on a hundred or so... (we're ready)

Happy Listening!

 

I am sure the series will sound very good. I take one exception to the press release from music matters though. Van Gelder has gone on record about the stereo vs mono thing. I don't particularly like his later aesthetic (bright!), and I am not saying wouldn't have agreed with what was heard when the tapes were put up, however, fo the record here is what van gelder said:

AAJ: How did the invention of stereo effect your approach to recording jazz?


RVG: That was a problem for everyone and not just me. There was no artistic rush to get into stereo from the people I worked for. They had to get into because they had to get into it. As a matter of fact, for quite awhile Alfred and others too had to be making...this is pretty important that you understand this. They had to make two products from the same session. They had to make a mono release in order to have anyone buy it and they had to make a stereo release to make that available to people who were buying stereo. And then of course when the stereo LP came in there was this question of compatibility. Who wants to buy two albums of the same music? You had to make both available and that became very difficult so what happened was everything that was made in Hackensack was mono. Even towards the very end when we were recording two-track we weren't listening in stereo. We were recording in two-track and we were listening in mono because there was only one speaker in Hackensack in the control room and only one speaker in the studio. So how could you listen in stereo when you only have one speaker? And all the judgments, Alfred's judgments, as to mix and balance, and mine too and the musicians too and how they sounded in relationship to each other, and all that during the creative part of those recordings was done in mono. It couldn't be any other way. Towards the end we were running two-track sessions but no one had ever listened to them. So there was no particular attention or attempt at creating a stereo field at that time.


AAJ: Please discuss your approach to the new Rudy Van Gelder Edition Blue Notes in terms of working with the stereo and mono tapes and deciding which format to use for the new master.


RVG: My approach was totally different from what I had heard in the previous CDs. This was first time I had any opportunity to deal with those tapes. Once or twice they sent to me both the mono and stereo versions, which I described to you a minute ago, and the mono would sound much better for obvious reasons, because no one who had been involved in the creation of the original session had ever listened to stereo, but everyone had listened to mono. So I tried to convince them to release the mono version even though it had previously been issued as stereo because I felt that the mono version sounded as if Alfred would have wanted it to be that way. And that is really my goal here. However, there are plenty of albums in this series that are in very good stereo

 

Maybe the tape sounds poor. I haven't yet heard a decent sounding CD reissue of this. Does anyone know how the original LP sounds?

Same for another Blue note bestseller, Horace Silver's "Song for my father".

 

Sorry if I'm being dense here, but can someone clarify what "limited to 2,500 numbered editions" means? Is it:

1) Only 2500 total records will be issued for each title?

or

2) The first 2500 will be numbered, but these titles will be available in numbers beyond that in un-numbered format.

I fear that only 2500 will drive up demand to ridiculous prices, especially for the more popular titles.

 

2500 should be enough for most everyone interested, although Blue Train will possibly sell out in the first 5 weeks.

2500 means the first 2500 will be numbered. Ones returned or exchanged, defective - will be destroyed for the spares made and those will be un-numbered. This is how the Fantasy Jazz issues went for the most part.

I grabbed a few late ones before they went poof. Those have no Acoustic Sounds foil sticker.

 

Neither of these sound bad at all. In fact, the earlier US CD of Sidewinder sounds excellent. I have an RVG cut original and also a later 180g Analog cut from Capitol (not DMM) and IT sounds excellent.

Agreed, Sidewinder is a vital BN LP and so is Father. All I have is the DMM of Father and it's OK.

Most of the classic Blue Notes were recorded on Scotch 111 most likely and are in better shape than some Riverside titles.

 

I'd love to see Anthony Williams 'Spring' come out on vinyl...

 

I haven't heard the LPs, but I don't think the US CD (mastered by Ron McMaster) sounds very good, compared to most other Blue Note sessions from the early to mid 60's.

If that is how the tape sounds, I would not pay $50 for an audiophile LP version, even if Steve manages to make thze best out of it.

 

Personally, for me, this is absolutely fantastic! I'm just getting back into vinyl and there are at least 10 albums I want from that list. Many I already have on CD, but I want these vinyls!!! Especially with Mr. Hoffman involved!

This is a win-win for me.

What a blast this going to be! Can't wait till I get these vinyls in my hands!