Music Matters Definitive Blue Note 45 RPM and 33 & 1/3 RPM vinyl series (pt7)

Me too. My experience was delightful at first, but apparently they blacklist you after you get two bad pressings.

I might have to get Back to the Tracks. I'm haven't been too keen on getting the 45s, but I may have to check that one out, what with it being from-the-vaults and all...

 

I have a lot of Music Matters releases and have never had anything except excellent customer service from Lori and Ron.

One time I ordered a Joe Henderson album (Our Thing), and they sent me a test pressing of the album by mistake.

When I brought it to their attention they immediately sent me a replacement, and let me keep the test pressing as well.

It doesn't get better than that.

 

I have returned many LPs to Music Matters and they still communicate and sell to me. But I've been buying from them since 2008/2009 and have spoke to Ron dozens of times. There was a thread on AudioAsylum a while back where someone wrote a scathing review of MM's customer service, Lori got back to the customer and apologized. I won't pretend to know what happened with your situation, but will only add that I've had my bad days only made worse when things are particularly stressful at work.

If you really don't like 45 rpm there might be a King or Toshiba Japanese pressing of it. Based on my dozens of King reissues I am sure it would sound excellent, but won't have the resolution of Music Matters/AP. It is indeed from the vaults, probably only the second time the master tape was used for a vinyl version as it never had an original US pressing.

He also played on Bluesnik that Music Matters also reissued, but I would get Back To The Tracks and Jackie's Bag (he plays on half the album) before it. The interplay between McLean and Tina Brooks on the latter is particularly alluring. Those are just suggestions as far as Blue Note goes. He recorded more for other labels, I particularly like him in a trio setting.

Kenny Drew and Duke Jordan two under rated favorites. Such lyrical playing.

 

Thanks for the recommendations! I haven't heard much McLean or any Jordan. I might see if I can hunt down a 33 of Tracks for a decent price, but I'm guessing it'd be more than the 45 (and as you point out, of lesser quality) given that it's such a scarce album in LP format...


I've bought directly from MM twice before subscribing, records from the first run, which were all four flawless pressings, so I don't have a history, unfortunately. I can completely understand being skeptical when a customer claims to get three bad records in a row, though. I've tried to give the benefit of the doubt, and as someone whose job is to work with large clients via phone and email, I completely understand how easy it is to get frustrated with needy clients. But the way to handle that isn't to, literally, ignore the client until they email you from a different account. I don't know if I emailed Ron at the correct address—I just used the address that sends out invoices/shipping notices—but I never got any response from that address either. I emailed Lori in reply to previous emails exchanges and as wholly new emails and got no response. Then I wrote from a new account and was replied to within 30 minutes, with no apology for a lack of prior response to three emails.

 

Im still measuring 30 cm from my ear to my speaker... Ill have to get back with you guys...

 

You need a ruler?

 

Are you talking about Vanguard or Somethin Else? The Vanguard cymbal distortion is on my RVG CD as well, so I'm guessing it's on the tape...?

EDIT: Ok, I was confused, pretty sure you were talking about Somethin Else and that's what the comment about your response not being directed at me was about (you can delete quotes if you quote someone by accident yaknow).

 

I'll give you the same advice I gave other fellow; get your record thru another vendor or get a different version of the record.

there is no record dealer out there that will keep replacing records for you indefinitely until you find the copy that soothes your needs. That is just impractical.

If MM has given up on you then it's time for you to move on.

I've said this before and I'll say it again; as good as this reissues are they are not for everyone

 

I don't understand why some people think music recorded in a confined studio environment with brass instruments in the frontline are bright sounding. I am seriously puzzled as to why anyone will think such a recording is bright as if there is anything unusual there. Last time I checked trumpets, saxophone and cymbals are all bright.

 

Is it possible that some folks are more sensitive to those higher frequencies?

 

I'm not even sure if I should dignify this with a reply since you seem to be one of the most condescending posters in this thread. But here goes- there is a difference between a recording and a mastering being bright (and distorting). How many versions of Somethin' Else have you heard?

 

No condescension intended here. It's dangerous to read intent behind anyone's post unless clearly stated.

My point here is that the recordings are bright to begin with, and if you prefer versions where the frontline has been tamed via mastering then you are essentially showing preference for a less truer version of what's on tape.

 

You seem to be forgetting that terms like "bright" are relative. The intruments featured in the recording have no impact on whether mastering is bright, dull, or neutral. If it is neutral, each instrument will sound correct in relation to one another. If it was recorded in an imbalanced way to begin with, then yes, a mastering engineer might need to either tame or add brightness. Different recording engineers bring different qualities to the recording of brass instruments, just like any other. If hvbias were complaining about every recording featuring brass instruments being too bright, I could see your logic. But given that he praises almost all the MM 33s except for this particular one (which therefore sounds brighter to him than all those other recordings featuring the same frontline), your argument makes no sense to me.

Regarding this particular title, I've not heard the 33, but I find the AP 45 to sound perfect--the brass instruments sound live and in my space. I wouldn't want them any more or less bright, and I wouldn't want the cymbals to be somehow pushed more up front than they already are (which is what it sounds like hvbias was describing). If that AP mastering, which sounds so vividly true to life to me, is somehow less "true" to the recording on the master tape, all I can say is kudos to whomever made the decision to adjust it.

 

I personally wouldn't use the term 'bright' (or any term to describe sound) in a way that suggests that there is some sort of objective definition of what it is and everyone should know what that definition is, that doesn't come off well. The way I see it is, if someone thinks a recording sounds bright and I don't, big deal. We're all in this together, people.

Regarding the idea of universally preferring what's 'truer' to the original recording, if for some reason I thought an album was recorded 'bright' and there was a remastering that was less bright, I certainly am going to be interested in that remastering.

 

I think I'm bright, but others don't

 

That makes two of us.

 

Given the way this thread has been lately, it is amazing that people are shocked that the series is coming to an end for good.

 

I need to figure out what my next MM Purchase is going to be. I'm going back and forth with "Our Man in Paris", "Blue and Sentimental", or "Empyrean Isles". All of these are great albums, do any of these stand out fidelity wise on the MM release?

 

could you elaborate on "coming to an end for good"?

 

I agree with you
What mastering a person prefers is subjective. All I'm saying is that sax, trumpets and cymbals are just bright instruments. On Somethin' Else Miles is using a mute which gives his horn an even more higher pitch, almost a shrill sound.
I don't question anyone's preference in how their record sounds but I question any suggestion that the instruments I mentioned are anything other than bright

 

Very possible

 

Blue and Sentimental sounds stunning. Dont have the other two.

 

I'm not looking for indefinitely. I'm not even looking for pressings as flawless as all four I have from the first series. I'm just looking for not too-distracting-to-enjoy. The replacement copy of Maiden Voyage I got? It's got a small scratch on each side, but each one only lightly ticks for ~3-4 rounds. I'm fine with that. I'm not over-joyed to have that on a $35+shipping "audiophile" pressing, but I can deal with that. The previous two copies I received? One had gunk/glue that caused swooshing which overpowered the music for upwards of 30 seconds, the other had crackling/non-fill throughout an entire side. The copy of Out to Lunch I got had a chunk embedded in it that caused a skip and noise even after two rounds of two-step cleaning on a vacuum machine:


And the cherry on top: I returned the faulty copies to MM, despite being told I didn't need to, because Lori told me they would get a credit if they could return the bad pressings! I clearly was not trying to dupe them, and was doing my best to accommodate what I'm sure is a stressful, unfortunate situation for MM, because yes, these reissues are amazing, and yes, I'd assume the fault here is RTI's increased production leading to carelessness. But I have no recourse to RTI, and if MM is having QC problems, they need to take it up with RTI, not blacklist customers, not accuse customers of trying to steal from them, and—at the godforsaken least, the absolute minimum necessity for running a retail business—to actually send customers what they have paid for (and maybe keep records well enough to know whether they have or not—that might help). I understand this is a labor of love. But if you're not willing to deal with customers, don't deal with customers.

Agreed, but also haven't heard the other two. Blue & Sentimental has been my go-to relaxing, late-night record since I've gotten it...

 

I'll bite. All that I write here is pure conjecture. I've just thought about the business as a businessman, with some knowledge of economics of running one. And I have done a lot of reading and listening.

For one, MM is only going to release titles for which they can use a fantastic master tape. So by definition that is self limiting on Blue Note releases. Therefore, a host of 1500 BN titles not already released by MM are not likely to be released by MM.

Second, MM will take a chance now and again, but they are likely to only release titles where they have a modicum of a change to do a bit better than breakeven. If they cannot make money, how can the 'project' be funded. That economic reality further limits the subset into a subset of a subset. MM has already demonstrated a willingness to re-release a title that Analog Productions released as a 45 RPM audiophile record...and if they experienced diminishing returns, they will think twice if not three times about that.

Third, MM may stretch this boundary condition, yet they may only want to release titles that tickle their fancy. They know BN inside and out, backward and forward, they have a wide appreciation for this jazz, but there may be titles they just don't really care for, don't excite them, so they are not motivated to issue it. That is now the third parsing of the subset.

Fourth, MM can only release titles where they can afford to pay BN its royalty fees. As reported on these pages earlier, BN has demonstrated an inflexibility in discounting their required rent to release a title. That feeds directly into reason #2 noted above. If BN is hard nosed about the business end, MM has little choice but to move on. An additional qualifier here is whether or not BN is willing to have MM release a title at all. They could deny a request, for their own reasons. Those reasons could be they want to release that title themselves, perhaps recognizing a thin market for that title. They may have licensed it to another firm and want to limit further use, or they are not willing to release the master tape for reasons only they know. So that creates potentially further limits to releases given all of the above.

Finally, fifth, MM is unlikely to release BN titles released after the late 1960s, particularly the post Liberty period. I looked it up once, but I think the latest BN recorded title MM released was from 1971 (Elvin Jones - Genesis). There are likely several reasons for this, in my opinion, and by the way, as a reminder, all that I am writing is pure conjecture. One is that beginning in the mid-1960s multi-track recording began and that makes mastering a reissue considerably more difficult. Technically, it simply may not be worth the exercise. Two is that jazz became more funk oriented, the vanguard artists moved on, vocals added, free jazz of diminishing appeal, and deviated from the bebop, hardbop and early free jazz that gives BN its richest history (my opinion music lovers, just my opinion, which like some body parts we all have). The final issue within this fifth reason is that many of the Liberty and United Artist era releases are still available as near mint originals for prices less than what MM would need to charge, even it the MM release would be sonically superior. I could add that who knows, maybe Ron & Company are not particularly wild about this era of BN jazz, again cycling back to all the prior noted reasons the 1,000 or so BN catalog is likely to see limited action as a MM release.

The point is the universe is limited for MM here with respect to BN. Think the 80/20 rule. So enjoy these treasures while you can, non-fill, minor scratches, embedded paper, swooshes and all.

 

1971:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(Elvin_Jones_album)

1998:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Tracks

2013:
https://www.musicmattersjazz.com/product_p/mmbst-84401.htm