Joe has become a favorite player of mine. I need Mode for Joe, hopefully it will become a BNC or part of another future series. I have the AP Page One but all the other MMJ titles for Joe. My favorite BN artists at this time probably are: Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver and Eric Dolphy (1 title).
It is hard to fund two hobbies if they both get expensive. Also, a good reason to cull and fund the other hobby. My other hobbies/interests are less expensive: hiking and fitness/nutrition.
All this Joe Henderson chatter has helped build my playlist for later. Going with the Tone Poet of State of the Tenor Vol. 2, and the SRX's of "Solid" and "Inner Urge". Thanks! And any fans of the Bill Charlap Trio? I have a couple titles of his and was looking at the December release (vinyl) of Street of Dreams. Nice Bill Evans vibe... And hobbies, I have three that I enjoy... 1) buying and collecting records 2) cleaning them up real nice and adding very good protective inner and outer sleeves 3) listening to them until the wee small hours
My new bicycle frameset alone is close to $8k. The bike will be about $13k completed. This bike is special as a retirement gift to myself, but I have two expensive hobbies for sure.
We have similar taste my top 5 Blue Note artist (and in order, I think lol) are 1 - Wayne Shorter 2 - Art Blakey 3 - Herbie Hancock 4 - Joe Henderson 5 - Horace Silver Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean are so close to making this list that they might as well be on it too. I would add guys like Sam Rivers and McCoy Tyner, but they just didn't quite have enough material on the label to make the cut, but the material they do have is tops. The most underrated Blue Note artist imo is Bobby Timmons.
I do have every MMJ 45 title, but I'm starting to get over the completist mindset. I stopped in the middle of the MMJ 33 series, when the company got bonkers with their sales/distribution games. I have all the Tone Poets but one, but don't plan to get the one I'm missing, and if Tone Poet digs into some of the 70s fusion/funk stuff like BN did I'll skip those too. If I can come up with 30 MMJ 45 titles to sell, that will help fund a new bike project I have in mind.
No room for Dex? Shorter, Hancock, and Henderson would surely make my top 5, probably along with McClean and Hutcherson (can I sneak Hill in too?). Tyner is on an upward projection. I'm keeping it to prominent frontmen at this point, otherwise Elvin, Tony, Eric, Bobby, Ron, and a few others get considered.
For $2k or so, you can get a Willy Hermann-restored Nakamichi 3-Head cassette deck and enough tapes to record those. Then you don’t lose the ability to listen to those ever again, at, I dunno, 85-90% of the fidelity of the record?
If we're doing Top Five BN artists, I'd say: 1) Kenny Dorham 2) Horace Silver 3) Bud Powell 4) Sonny Clark 5) Lee Morgan Jackie McLean goes in that Top 5 on occasion, but I have to be in a Jackie McLean mood. The artists on the list are in the "I will listen to them any day" tier. I'd put Dolphy on there, but despite one of his best albums being on BN, for me the bulk of great albums are on Prestige.
I love Dexter, but nah. Him, Hubbard, and Morgan are all amazing along with Byrd and really everyone else, but they don't quite crack my top 5.
Top 5 Blue Note artists is too difficult, but here goes. Just judging them for their output for the label. Otherwise, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, and Ornette Coleman would be here, but they did better work elsewhere (with the exception of Dolphy, but I don't want to include him for just one record): 1. Thelonious Monk 2. Wayne Shorter 3. Herbie Hancock 4. Andrew Hill 5. Lee Morgan Man, it hurts to leave off Art Blakey, Hank Mobley, Sam Rivers, Tony Williams, Grant Green, Jackie McLean, and on and on. Thankfully, in real life we don't have to choose just five.
For me: 1-Dexter Gordon 2-Art Blakey 3-Grant Green 4-Wayne Shorter 5-Herbie Hancock As far as all time greatest jazz sax players, you have Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, then you have probably Lester Young, then the next group Dexter Gordon is as good as anyone in it. Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Ornette Coleman, Stan Getz, Wayne Shorter. His Blue Note discography is legendary too with Go!, One Flight Up, Our Man In Paris, Dexter Calling, A Swingin' Affair, Doin' Allright, and Gettin' Around all being premier titles. That's my Dexter Gordon appreciation rant.
I have no desire to get into tape of any kind. Too expensive, too time consuming and too much a PITA. In fact, I sold a Nakamichi MR-1 in beautiful condition (i.e. not studio trashed) a year or two ago. Besides, I can stream a lot of this stuff on Qobuz and more gets added all the time. Not to mention, why spend $2k on a deck to preserve the music of records sold for $2k? Don't sell them to begin with.
I envy your ability to step away from the analog PITA! Myself, I just can't help but want to bring the wonderful sounds of my record collection on the road with me, and so I endure...
Actually, I would put Monk on my list, too, but for as much as I love the Blue Note albums - and as much as BN put him on the map for a wider audience - again, when I think of him I usually think of his Riverside output. Would love to see a BN Classic pressing of his stuff. It's the only major album of his that I don't own on vinyl. I'm actually reading Robert Kelley's bio of Monk now. About 100 pages into it and so far so good.
I didn't say analog is a PITA, and I'm not stepping away from it. Tape is a PITA. Actually, records are a PITA too, but worth the effort. For me tape is not.
I have the Mosaic of Monk's BN recordings (their very first release), but when it comes to listening to him I more often turn to his Riverside (I have the 22-LP Fantasy box with all of it) and the Columbia recordings.
Monk's masterpieces are on Riverside, and his best recordings from a sonic standpoint are on Columbia, but those Blue Note recordings are (also) legendary. Genius of Modern Music, indeed. Brilliant Corners on Riverside, though, might be his best all-around, and then there's Monk's Music and the other record with Coltrane. And the quartet with Charlie Rouse, and and and
Monk and Miles and Coltrane were legends and they had some early output on Blue Note, but you can't put their output on Blue Note in the top 5 IMO. If the Genius of Modern Music and his other 40s/50s blue note recordings are in your top 5 that's fine, that's an opinion. I don't think anyone should consider his non-blue note stuff though when ranking top 5 Blue Note artists, just the stuff released on the label. Monk didnt' even release albums on Blue Note until before 12" LPs were the standard. Late 40s and early 50s stuff. His top releases were all on Riverside and Columbia.
Right, I wasn't clear: I meant that complementing one's vinyl listening with some occasional streaming is not an option that I allow myself, however reasonable it is. Tape is definitely a PITA!
There is a lot I enjoy streaming on Qobuz, especially albums that were recorded digitally in the first place. However, I have a rather high-end network streamer/DAC so the results are very high quality. I used to be a digital curmudgeon, until I got the digital front end I have now. It was a game changer for me. I enjoy both analog and digital. In addition, I can enjoy streamed music in my office, bedroom, dining room, outdoor deck. I know how good a tape can sound after trying out that Nak MR-1 in my current system. My digital front end is no worse in terms of musical enjoyment, and much better in terms of convenience and access to catalogs.
No way would I try and rack my ears around choosing a top 5 BN artist list. Impossible I say depending on what mood I'm in. I could however squeeze around 10 to 12 or so into a top 5, would that count? But I have to admit I love seeing the choices listed here so far. Puts one in the mood for some great Jazz I say!
