I have the MM Basra. The album is a must-have if you are a Joe Henderson fan. Lazy Afternoon is sublime.
Excited for what's to come, hopefully they succeed with better pressings and better mastering. Optimal can be hit or miss, usually the former. Would be interesting if we could figure out which 75th titles were cut analog and which digital. In my experience they were decent starter copies but the 80's DMM counterparts were clearly better.
I think I'll try the Herbie Hancock as well to see how it sound, although I don't have any version of Takin' Off yet to compare it to. Also definitely in for Canvas (first time on vinyl it seems) and Hand Jive.
Kudos to Don Was for possibly using analog sources when possible and having the LPs pressed at Optimal. I’d gladly pay $25 for a few of these titles, even if some are digital. At least he’s not using United. Hopefully, plants like United who continue to suck and do nothing about it will lose business.
I’m so happy about Basra!!!!!!! Also there are some great titles here. I’ll take Optimal o we United any day. I’ve got big hopes for these. I stopped buying BN75s after getting burned a few too many times. However, I have recently received a few more as gifts and thought they were not bad. We shall see.
Looking forward to these. Most of these are titles I haven’t heard and the price point is right for my budget.
Looks like Blue Note are going to get some of my money this year between these and the Tone Poet series.
We should wait to see what info about mastering comes out, but the 80th series is lower in price from the Tone Poet series by being pressed at Optimal in a standard single pocket jacket, where the Tone Poet series are RTI pressings in a deluxe gatefold Stoughton Tip On jacket.
Is it clear that 80th anniv LPs will be AAA mastered in case the analog tapes are available ? That would be very very interesting.
It is not abundantly clear, but the safest assumption would be that they will be hi-res transfers. Do I want all-analog? Yes. Will I be happy with the BN 80th releases if they are hi-res transfers? Most likely, yes.
75th were hi-res tranfers? If yes, we have now 80th being the 75th using better vinyl and better pressing from Optimal Germany ... just that, right?
Interesting to know that Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio is involved in the 80th Anniversary reissues. But I'm still wondering if they still use the high-resolution digital files, sourced from the original analog tapes. Though to be quite fair, Gray's cut for Vangelis' Blade Runner from 24-bit 88KHz audio files do sound absolutely sublime. I honestly thought they'd reuse the metal parts for the 75th Anniversary pressings with the Bernie Grundman/Ian Sefchick cuts.