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

I won't disagree. But its a free market and they can ask what they want. Doesn't mean that you have to buy from them. Also, it should stick in your mind that they do this and maybe do your buying from a more honest seller.....

 

Acoustic Sounds originated (and perfected) the idea of marking up albums that are in (very) limited supply...... Never been a big fan of theirs for that reason.

 

Enjoy the 45 RPM MM titles and that Quiet Kenny XRCD (it was very well recorded in the first place so Alan Yoshida's XRCD version should sound awesome)-we should all be happy there are so many ways to hear the tunes before buying these days

 

I remember ED did this same thing with the first round of Remasters from The Beatles. It really angered me, so I dropped them an email and unsubscribed from their mailings. I received an apologetic reply and then they lowered the price to MSRP again on their site. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I eventually got over it and still order from them now and then.

 

I got three arrivals today. Freddie Redd "Shades of Redd," Grachan Moncur II "Evolution" and Lee Morgan "The Procrastinator"

"The Procrastinator" is a nice surprise. I never heard this before and it could very well now be my favorite Lee Morgan album. This is really quite a gem.

Lee Morgan "Candy" and Hank Mobley "Another Workout" are on the way from Acoustic Sounds.

 

You have a lot of great listening to do. Enjoy b

 

The first I heard the 'Another Workout' which was on 45rpm I was really suprised by the Music, fantastic album!

 

I was also surprised by The Procrastinator, and it is definitely a favorite of mine. I also really like Shades of Redd -- it has some great tunes, and also the killer playing of Tina Brooks. Excellent album.

 

Like others I'm sure, I splurged with this ED sale and picked up a bunch more of the MM45s. Up to 71 total if my talley is right. Thanks for all the insight and recommendations. Now to let the finances stabilize...

 

I'm looking forward to what will come after the 33 1/3 MM Blue Note titles. I'm not too excited about the announcement to be frank. I understand that the 75th anniversary of Blue Note is coming up and that it's an important milestone, but I'm still tired of the same ol' titles. All the finest sheen in the world isn't going to revolutionize the sound of Blue Train, whether it's in mono or stereo. Which isn't to say that improvements weren't made, but that could be said about any reissue that was done in the past. Should reissue labels keep going backwards to incrementally improve past reissues due to a change in the mastering process? If so, we'd never move forward.

Don't get me wrong, I do not doubt that the upcoming MM version will be nothing short of fantastic, but who is the discerning fan of this music that is shopping from a boutique label like Music Matters that doesn't have most of these records in one version or another at this point? Do you want to keep buying "definitive" versions of the same records every few years, or any time some cables are swapped in the mastering chain? At some point in time, we have to just be content with what we have and look towards expanding our wings and trying something different.

Then again, business sense wise, I get it. Audiophiles are going to buy Blue Train again, along with Moanin' and everything else they bought the last time around in one iteration or another. To that end, I hope Music Matters is extremely successful, and I will cherry pick some of these titles myself. I just hope that the success of the these titles is a catalyst towards uncharted territory for whatever their next venture is after these 12 titles. We don't need reissues of the same albums with a new a sheen. We can't keep shining the same things when there is literally a treasure trove of material still under the dust. We as audiophiles need to step outside this box we have contained ourselves in. It isn't healthy. It's stagnant, stale and boring. It isn't respectful to the music either.

Whatever you do in the future Joe, Ron and co, please let it not involve a reissue of Kind of Blue, Time Out or Folk Singer.

 

ANy Tina Brooks is great Tina Brooks. But his work on Shades Of Redd is very good. And the MM 45 is superb.

 

Well, look at it from MM point of view. To them, this will be THE definitive version of those 33 1/2 LP's. Since they didn't get to do them at 45, here is their chance to do it their way. While I agree with you that it gets old buying the same LP's every few years, buying a version you feel is the best available makes sense. I didn't buy many of the AP 45's since the ones I did weren't worth the money (poor packaging and, to my ears, mastering), so these 33's are a godsend. I've heard test pressing of a couple (and may review a couple more) and I LOVE them. I for one will be buying these to replace the other reissues I have and that's it for these titles. What Ron and Joe have up their sleeve for after will be a closely guarded secret, but I can't wait to find out...... =)

 

My sentiments exactly. Now that this run of MM 45's is over, my immediate attention is filling in some holes of the AP Prestige MONO series.

 

The inconvenience and cost of the MM 45s has kept me from diving in so far. But I'd love to have definitive vinyl versions of some of my favorite BN titles. So my interest was kindled by the sale.

Then I read through the discussion of the new 33rpm series earlier in this thread. I'm going to pass on the 45s, even at the sale prices, and wait to see what else gets released on 33. Even if some titles released on 45 don't make it into the new 33 program, I have a pretty complete BN collection in decent digital format to tide me through.

Regardless of whether the 33s sound better than the 45s, I'm excited about them. If they are even close- say on the order of the Japan Kings- I'll probably be a customer. It is just too hard to find decent sounding early pressings of BN titles at prices mere mortals can afford.

I do hope they dig deeper into the BN catalog with this new 33rpm series...

 

I'll be patiently waiting for what their next chapter is after the Blue Note 33 1/3 titles.

 

Yup.

 

Are Vol I and II of the Jazz Messengers At The Café Bohemia the last 45 rpm Blue Note reissues from Music Matters?

 

This may have been addressed previously, but weren't the Music Matters titles originally limited to 2000 copies? The first couple dozen or so went OOP after a short while, but the rest, years later are still in print. So what's the deal? False advertising?

 

I believe they were runs of 5000 copies.

 

Me! I totally get what you are saying Atane, but I think you need to broaden your perspective a bit. Not all of us have been listening to jazz for years. I only seriously started listening to jazz in the past few years. I came late to the table for both the Music Matters 45 series as well as the AP stuff. I have been buying a few here and a few there regularly since I bought my very first Music Matters title, which was Blue Mitchell's "The Thing To Do". Seven of those twelve titles that will be coming out on 33 1/3 this coming year I don't have on vinyl. Most of them I refused to buy on AP because frankly I find the chintzy packaging insulting. I understand that there is a large number of people who will disagree with me, and say it's all about the music, or sound, but if I'm expected to pay $50 for an album, it damn well better come in premium packaging. In any case, that is neither here nor there. The point of the matter for me is that there are people who are new to the genre, or relatively new anyway. I am really excited about the 33 1/3 series.

Having said that, I totally understand where you are coming from. Just in the short time that I have been paying attention to premium "audiophile" re-issues, jazz or not, you see the same titles being released again and again. I wonder about the economics of the business though. I see quite a few serious jazz listeners here who comment somewhat regularly that they wish Music Matters, or whomever, would mine the Blue Note catalog more deeply and release more of the avante garde stuff that has not been re-issued. My question would be, how many copies of the titles that they've already released that would fit that description have they sold? I know this is obvious, but at the end of the day they area business and have actually sell the albums. I know from my perspective, that I have zero interest in that stuff. (This is not meant to be a judgment on the quality or validity of this music, just my personal taste.) How many music fans are out there, who are willing to shell out the money for premium vinyl re-issues, are also jazz fans? And of them, how many are interested in titles that would not be considered straight ahead jazz? I have no idea myself, but just a thought.

I agree, in principle. I haven't the foggiest idea what kind of material there is still under the dust. But you do have to realize that there are going to be new audiophiles (hopefully) all the time, who aren't familiar with this stuff. Here is the issue for me, and I bet Joe, Ron and company as well. When I'm in Dusty Groove, and run across an album I know nothing about and it's $10.00, I'm game to give it a try and see what I think. A lot of times I've discovered really cool stuff that way, a lot of times I've quickly put it back in the dust cover and moved on. At $35.00 (never mind $50.00), not including shipping, that's a different story for me personally. And that is talking about somewhat of an impulse buy, not a subscription. If a new series is started, and I'm not familiar with the majority of the titles at all, I've got some thinking to do. What kind of jazz are we talking? I recognize I don't necessarily represent most here, as I am fairly conservative in my tastes in jazz, but it really depends on the music as to whether I'm willing to regularly spend that kind of money. I'd love to be surprised with new titles I didn't know existed, but it's a balancing act between possibly being thrilled, or really turned off. It must be nerve wracking being in charge of picking those titles.

Anyway, I hope I'm not coming across as too contrarian, because in principle I totally agree with you. I'm excited about the new series this year, and also really excited to see what comes after.

 

Even so, why did the initial titles sell out so quickly while the rest are still available after several years?

 

You guys are a bad influence. Just placed my final order of 2013: 4 MM 45 titles:

Lee Morgan: THE PROCRASTINATOR
Jackie McLean: ONE STEP BEYOND
Jackie McLean: DESTINATION OUT
Pete LaRoca: BASRA.

NP: Hank Mobley: ANOTHER WORKOUT, MM 45 Sounds great!

 

At least according to this thread, the majority of titles people are listing as their favorite MM releases are more toward the avant-garde variety. Only Joe would be able to speak about the actual sales numbers.

When people are referring to more avant-garde titles on Blue Note, they are still relatively "safe" titles. With some exceptions, Blue Note did not release music suited to labels like ESP or BYG Actuel.

 

Maybe because those first few titles created enough stir to ensure selling out. And if you go to the MM site, you'll see that far more than the first few are sold out TO MUSIC MATTERS. Yes, there are copies still available from retail sellers - but those are limited to stock on hand, and, either now or soon the prices WILL rise. If you want them, like the old Mosaic boxes, you'd better buy now.

 

Fair enough. All valid points!

The thing is though even with "straight ahead jazz", there is still a lot of stuff under the hood. There is so much. It would be my wet dream for more adventurous titles to get the green light, but I know that it isn't everyone's cup of tea, and this is a business. I've long given up on expecting an audiophile release of things like Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures or Conquistador. I've stopped expecting things like that to happen. They just won't. Life goes on. I also know it's easy for me to sit here and say these things when I'm not the one putting anything on the line financially, but if I could voice an opinion (I always do...haha) - I'd rather have something like say Jackie McLean's Let Freedom Ring, Right Now!, Action Action Action, It's Time or Jacknife over Blue Train again. McLean is one man. Think of how deep this can get when you factor other seminal musicians on Blue Note. Imagine Donald Byrd's New Perspectives (criminal that no audiophile version of this record is available!), Mustang, or Off to the Races instead of Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else again.

This isn't to say that I don't think titles like Blue Train or Somethin' Else are worthy, of course they are - but there are currently audiophile versions of them available. Those titles I mentioned aren't available at all. We can quibble about the less than stellar packaging AP has with their 45rpm titles, or the improvements in the mastering chain available now, but the larger point is that you can still buy these titles in a variety of formats at the moment. They are available. These other equally important titles never see the light of day, and we are usually told that it's because they won't sell. How do we know that? Has anyone tried? These aren't George Braith records we are talking about. None of the titles I mentioned are so "far out" that they would be alienating, and I think they would sell well. Now, I'm just using these as examples. I have no idea of the legal matters and the acquiring of the rights needed for these type of things to happen. Those are things we aren't privy to, but I just wanted to point out that it isn't a proposition of either "war horses" or the avant-garde.

Nah, not contrarian. All fair points brought up.