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

I was a subscriber to the AP Verve series and have them all.

I also have all the Billie Holiday on Verve that was reissued in the 80s in a 10 LP box set for the Japanese market. The AP's are clearly superior, but they are $50 each.

The true gems of the AP Verve reissues are Wynton Kelly/Wes Montgomery "Smokin at the Half Note," Oscar Peterson "We Get Requests" and the two Stan Getz titles ("Getz and Gilberto" and "Jazz Samba"). Everyone should get these. "Smokin'" is one of my all time favorites.

 

I feel that the 33 it Cool Struttin is slightly more detailed overall , with less flipping than the 45 .. Maybe the 45 is a little more liquid (smoother maybe) but the 33 still seems more detailed to me , that's the best way I can describe it !! Maybe I just line the Extra clarity that I hear .. It definitely is awesome!!! It's amazing what they can do with equipment upgrades !!!

 

argh can't wait for it to come in! I've been waiting for these two for so long. I was a little sad that it was last on the release list.

 

Just put on Coltrane's "Om" one time. She'll appreciate anything on Blue Note after that.

FWIW, my wife doesn't do sitting and listening either, though we like most of the same music. But since there's only one sweet spot in my listening room, I'm good with that.

 

Just curious how you know it's digitally sourced? I recognize they don't have access to the master, but does that mean that don't have access to an analog copy?

 

I put on the ECM "Circle: Paris-Concert" album (Braxton, Corea, Holland, Atlschul) for my first wife (back int he 80s) and she totally got off on it. Made her hot!

My present wife doesn't like it so much, but she tolerates a fair amount of avant garde. She likes Eric Dolphy, and she really digs Mingus big time! Once I was playing "Charlie M" by Art Ensemble of Chicago. She came in and asked what Mingus that is. She missed that it wasn't Mingus, but she got that it was a tribute and heard that Malachi Favors Maghostus played the bass line in the style of Mingus. Smart girl!

 

EMI has created digital archival copies of the BN master tapes. You can see the stickers on the photos of the tapes at MM's web site. Companies that license Blue Notes get digital copies. It's that simple. Only a select few – like AP and MM – ever get to touch the tapes.

If you think anyone else like Heavenly Sweetness are using analog copies of tapes, I'd like to hear more about it, but I doubt it's anything but digitally sourced. Even the new BN reissues from BN are from digital sources. Don't expect anything but MM and AP to give you a full analog mastering chain for BN. If there is truth to the contrary then someone please correct me with the evidence for it.

If some BN reissue I want is digitally sourced, I'd rather just download the high-res digital audio from Acoustic Sounds, et al than throw good money at vinyl.

 

I also at one point vetted Heavenly Sweetness since they had titles I wanted, but was suspicious about their mastering. I found enough info to satisfy me they were using digital sources for the BNs, etc. I did this research for myself, and did not save any of the info I found once I satisfied myself I would avoid the label. Google should help if you are interested for yourself.

 

I'm really curious how you ended up so defensive about this? All that you've stated I already know. I'm not making any claims about what Heavenly Sweetness does. All I asked is how you know they are digitally sourced? Just because they don't have access to the masters tapes, doesn't automatically equate to me that they don't have access to any analog copies. If I'm not mistaken, the Japanese for years produced analog sourced Blue Notes, and I don't believe they had master tapes flown into Japan. It's an innocent question. Do the labels, or did the labels, ever make copies of their masters to be distributed overseas so that their subsidiaries could press LP's there? I believe I read on London Jazz Collector that in the case of some UK labels, that original metalwork was produced in the US for a label like Prestige, and flown to Europe for them to use pressing LP's. I'm not an expert on this, so I asked a question.

Again, I don't know what I said to put you on the defensive, but whatever it was you have my apology.

 

Who's being defensive? You asked me a direct question. I gave you my most reasoned answer and included personal opinion. I also explained what I did to come to my own conclusion about it. If I am wrong about any of it, I would truly like to be corrected. I never found any evidence that Heavenly Sweetness' BN reissues used an analog mastering chain, so I passed. That's not defensive. It's how I choose to spend my money on vinyl; i.e. I am only interested in analog vinyl.

So now to be defensive, what's wrong with that?

 

This came across as being defensive to me. I never made any claims about what Heavenly Sweetness does or does not do. I really have no idea what they are using since they don't say. I only asked you how you know they are digitally sourced. When you start asking me for evidence, when all I did was ask a question, it sounds defensive. If you weren't being defensive, then you have my apology and clearly I misread you.

And I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I think your logic is pretty solid, it certainly makes sense about what they are doing *today*. However, these performances have been around for decades, and in this case I'm curious how the music business used to operate. Mobile Fidelity has their silver line, where the album is still sourced from analog tape, but not from the master tape. So, are the only analog tapes of Blue Note performances the master tapes that are in EMI's vaults here in the US? The Japanese produced all analog LP's of Blue Notes to my knowledge. Did they have copies of the tapes? Or did it work like London Jazz Collector has written about where perhaps the metal stampers were produced in the US, and then flown to Japan to produce LP's? So I'm just curious if any other entities might have access to analog copies of Blue Note performances. They may not be master tapes, but they could still be analog copies. I don't know and I'm open to being educated.

Perhaps I should have phrased my question differently to you and said something like "Do we know for sure that the only analog copies of Blue Note's albums are the master tapes that are in EMI's vaults here in the US?" Because not finding evidence that a company is using an analog mastering chain is not the same as having evidence that they are using a digital chain. And for the record, (no pun intended) I have one LP from Heavenly Sweetness, Harold Vick's Steppin' Out. It sounds really good. Certainly not of the same caliber of Music Matters or Analog Productions, but I've never seen a copy of this LP in a store before.

And lastly, I totally get your stance towards digitally sourced LP's. It makes sense you'd rather just buy the hi-res files. For me though, the vinyl ritual is part of the experience and so while I'd much rather have an all analog LP, there are times when I'm ok with a digitally sourced LP. I have plenty of CD's, as well as some downloads from HDtracks but really I just like to play vinyl LP's.

 

Please go back and read what I really said. I didn't ask anyone directly for evidence of anything. I said if anyone had any evidence contrary to my position I'm happy to be corrected That's really very different things. I was trying to be humble about it, rather than claiming to be know it all.

I think you really misread me on that.

As for the rest, I don't think there is any disagreement for the most part.

My understanding is the Japanese only had copies of tapes and that the owners of the Blue Note tapes were unwilling to risk them traveling far. That is what I have been told from someone in the business.

 

Back to business, I am about to order another three titles.

Opinions? These are what I don't have....

Art Blakey - Like Someone In Love
Hank Mobley Quartet - w/ Outakes
Lou Donaldson - Lou Takes Off
Art Blakey - Indestructible
Clifford Brown - Memorial
Paul Chambers - Quintet
Sonny Clark - Sonny's Crib
John Jenkins - With Kenny Burrell
Cliff Jordan - Cliff Craft
Hank Mobley - Sextet
Hank Mobley - Quintet
Lee Morgan - Indeed!
Lee Morgan - Vol. 3
H. Silver - 6 Pieces of Silver
H. Silver - The Stylings Of Silver
Louis Smith - Smithville

 

Art Blakey - Indestructible (one of the best MM's mastered records....)
Hank Mobley - Quintet ( awesome music and beautiful mastered...)
Louis Smith - Smithville (great mono album...)

You're almost there !

 

Sonny Clark - Sonny's Crib
Lee Morgan - Vol. 3
Louis Smith - Smithville
John Jenkins - With Kenny Burrell
Paul Chambers - Quintet
Cliff Jordan - Cliff Craft

Avoid anything with Art Blakey, it just a noise.

 

You don't think any of the Art Blakey's sound good... ? I would agree on the Big Beat.. that one is the weakest sounding.. but I think A night In Tunisa sounds decent.. still not as good as some of the others but pretty good... Isn't Indestructible supposed to be pretty stellar as well and Like Someone In Love?

 

Someone in love is actually very good. You are right. Indestructible though is just bang bang bang, musically speaking of course.

 

I tried Om. Even putt myself off Coltrane for years

 

I love Sonny's Crib, great album. I also have John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell. It's not my favorite album, certainly worth owning but would not be at the top of my list. Hank Mobley - Sextet is a wonderful album, really enjoy that one and I can also comment on Horace Silver - 6 Pieces of Silver. I really enjoy this album and love the cut Señor Blues off to it. Louis Smith - Smithville is another great album very much worth owning, great stuff.

 

After holding off buying some of these reissues because I already have the RVG CDs, I took the plunge.

I was thinking 'how much better can they be than the CDs?' The answer is night and day.

So I now have all of the available 33 1/3 rpm reissues and am amazed at the sound quality.

The only LP that is not quite outstanding to my ears is Lee Morgan - Sidewinder. It's still very good, mind you.

The music is great, but the sound doesn't quite sparkle and shine to the same degree as the others. Perhaps these master tapes were used a

lot over the years because it was such a big seller back in the day.

Looking forward to the final two LPs of this run and hope for a new batch in 2015.

 

Another vote for Sonny's Crib. One of my favorite Blue Notes, or just favorite albums period.

 

Me too. Would love to see MM release it on 33 also.

 

NO! no 45rpm's Musicmatters remasterings re-releasing on 33rpm... too much other blue notes are screaming to be re-mastered and released.
After all there are about 400 blue note albums, so there's really no need to dive again in the 113 albums that appeared on MM's 45rpm.

 

Thing is though the 45s include some of the best titles on Blue Note (and we know they sound excellent), so if you exclude them from re-issue on 33 then you are not left with that great a selection.

 

After all do not forget Musicmatters needed 7 years to remaster 113 albums ! So thats another 25 years for the other 300 albums.
How old are Ron Rambach & Kevin Gray ?????????