Hooray I say! All 4 of the next round of the Tone Poet's are now in stock at my store's supplier and I will be able to get them later next week. Just a damn fine way to start the weekend hearing that news!
When is "My Point of View" going to be available. It is the only one of his Blue Note (as a leader) records that I don't have. Well almost, I have "The Prisoner" on preorder.
I just ordered from Acoustic Sounds Donald Byrd’s Ethiopian Knights and Lou Donaldson’s Alligator Bogaloo (plus Rocket #9 10” by Sun Ra) with credit for a couple of returns.
Release week is finally upon us. Confirmed with my local store yesterday that I can pick all four titles up this Thursday. What a weekend of music it will be. Will probably just admire the covers for a few hours before I choose which one to listen to first..."Nigeria" you say, well that's fine by my twitching ears, bring it on Mr. Green!
Got everything ordered I'd missed in the last couple of months. I've had the week off so am doing a second purge of the rarely played to make room for the incoming. It's a slow process as I spot play every lp for SQ, condition & content. So far I've freed up about 10" of space thanks to some orchestral titles that weren't getting any love lately. Should keep me going for the rest of the year at least.
Anybody know when they'll be announcing more Blue Note 80 titles for this year? I e-mailed Joe Harley a while back with some suggestions but never heard back. Anybody want to join a campaign to reissue these titles AAA? Maybe if we inundate them with messages, they'll reissue at least one of these! Donald Byrd — A New Perspective, Black Byrd Bobby Hutcherson — Components, Spiral, Medina, and Dialogue Thad Jones — Presenting Joe Williams and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra Jackie McLean —Let Freedom Ring Thelonious Monk — Genius of Modern Music 1 and 2 Big John Patton — Let em Roll Duke Pearson — The Right Touch Bud Powell — Amazing Vol 1 Ike Quebec — Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions Sam Rivers — Dimensions and Extensions Sonny Rollins — Night at the Village Vanguard 2 Cecil Taylor — Unit Structures McCoy Tyner — Expansions, Cosmos, Extensions, Asante
I asked Joe Harley about Components by Bobby Hutcherson and he said that it‘s definitely on his radar for the Tone Poet series in 2021.
Joe Harley doesn't curate the 80th series, you should email Don Was But you may need to come up with some themes to go with the titles.
Ah, getting ever so close now...I've been walking around my house like a nervous wreck in anticipation of the "The Fantastic Four" that are arriving this week. Nope, not obsessed with music, not me. But got into a side two theme of previous released gems from this wonderful series of awesome sounding Jazz. Went with Now He Sings, one of my favorites from the bunch, but I still say "Tones For Joan's Bones" is a better album, as I listened to side 2 of my MOV copy as well. Never hear much love for that release, some don't know what they are missing with that one. Then on to "Contours" and just an amazing listen once again. Wrapped up the Tone Poet fun with side 2 of "Sings" and the sound finally hit me as to what I am experiencing with the music, especially the vocals here, it has an almost "Tube like warmth" to it, yes that natural/real sounding.
Tones for Joan’s Bones is a mighty fine record. I picked it up a few months back and I have to agree with your take. Spinning Donald Byrd’s Blackjack this morning. This record just exudes ‘fun.’
Great question. When the 75th Anniversary reissues came out, I had repeated issues with pressing quality on the same release. Then I learned that my local record store could not return defective pressings for credit because of record company policies (only so many returns allowed). I was highly annoyed about the pressing quality and the inability for my local shop to return clearly defective records. I mean, my local shop was now reluctant to order me Blue Note records because of the issue and they did not want to be stiffed. I searched high and low on the internet for a way to get Don Was a note. I could not find one. But I did find a way to send an email to the parent company, addressed to Don Was, but that note was never responded to. Good luck. As a post script, I am not on FaceBook. If BN has a presence, you could leave a message there.
i also sent about 5 emailed to Blue Note and tweeted Don Was about the terrible first batch of BN75 pressings. I also never heard back. However he did get the message since he started theTone Poets and went all analogue and better pressings with the BN80s I ended up skipping all the 75s. I heard some got better but only have one or two which will eventually be replaced
I'm passing on all the Feb Tone Poets, as a handful of titles I've purchased already are now $10-$15 cheaper on amazon.ca, plus I've blown up my budget with the MMJ SRXs. I'll let others do the QC and hopefully scoop them up cheaper in 3-4 months. Cancelling my pre-order of Grant Green Nigeria really hurt.
It's not like the Tone Poets are limited edition releases. They'll be there when you get out of self-imposed debt prison.
I’ve purchased a sample of all the different reissues. Have done my personal testing and compared them to the few originals I have. I have always intended on acquiring originals but the budget for them keeps getting eaten up by reissue purchases and my unfortunate habit of buying guitars. The Tone Poet Series seems to scratch the itch at the right pricing where any other reissue either has quality control problems or priced too high.
I had only heard a couple of the 75s (which is to what I think you meant to say), and they sounded sort of dead to me. Tonally balanced, but just sort of dead. Was that the main complaint (other than pressing quality control)?
Not the sound at all. They are all digitally sourced but sound just fine (the few I heard). Plus they were about $20. It’s the price point that indie stores wanted from Blue Note. They lusted for this catalogue in their stores. But the first 3-5 that came out were horribly pressed. Surface noise, clicks and pops etc. So really just the pressings and not the sound. I tried two of each and then gave up after failed contact attempts with BN. Returned them or passed on to friends Jumped back in with the 80s and TPs.
I had several issues with the 75s but so far both 80s I own sound great. Especially Basra, I think it’s one of my best $20 dollar records. Will be excited to pick up rumproller next from this series
