Larry young https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4HSPS23/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Unity&qid=1656617472&s=music&sr=1-6 Wayne shorter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B4HXKNC7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I was lucky enough to snag the MMJ 33rpm Adams Apple last year when they were repressed. This one is going to make a lot of people very happy. Unity is of course great as well, but Adam's Apple really benefits more from the Kevin Gray AAA treatment. It is more stripped down and to hear Shorters sax like this is glorious.
I don't understand why anyone would pay 25-50 for an LP of any BN that exists as a McMaster CD (especially an early one), since most used McMasters can be found for 5-15. But I'm not an LP guy, so what do I know.
What about someone like me who has bought most of the music matters lps, all the Classics lps, all the Tone Poets, a few 75ths, the blue note review lps, several King lps, several Classic Records lps, many 70s reissues, the BLNA lp series, etc.., and any used McMaster cd I come across? (Lol…the McMaster cds are great and underrated, imo)
Was there a series McMaster did for Blue Note. How many did he master? I'm not CD guy but I could play them in the car.
The MMJ SRX was mono - a different tape. KG also did the Disc Union which was mono as well. They sound quite different to the BNC.
Ahh yes, thats right. Well hopefully the mono wont be redone, wouldnt want the improvements in mastering techniques to make things sound worse and folks find out the hard way there also. Ill go with the AP 45 then and I dont know, what, 10 other versions that dont have the amount of distortion found on the new and improved(?) Classic Reissue Blue Note version to make the point.
Ron McMaster basically overhauled the whole Blue Note catalogue between 1984 - 2010. His first task was remasters for a campaign of US vinyl reissues starting in 1984 ( there was some crossover between the Pathe Marconi reissue series begun in 1982) and this led on to the CD editions he oversaw beginning in the later 80s. He had his own sound for the Blue Notes and I think they hold up well. The CD catalogue was pretty thorough with some of the more obscure Blue Note titles covered. There were also secondary series’ that developed from it, most importantly the ‘Blue Series’ out of the UK helmed for a large part of its existence by Dean Rudland who posts here. This was an innovative and sensitively curated series of compilations that presented a fascinating overview of Blue Note and its later affiliates under the EMI/Capitol banner. Highly recommended. The Blue Note (UK) ‘Blue Series’ 1986 - 2000s
He was their 'go to' guy for most regular issue CDs from the first, circa 1986, until they started the RVG series in 1999. Larry Walsh did some of the Connoisseurs (I think all the 1994 and some of the 1995), Horace Silver Horace-scope was mastered in Japan, most other pre 1999 were McMaster. Some don't like McMaster's 20-bit reissues, I think those started about 1997, I think they are fine for my listening purposes. Most BN CDs you find with a black tray jewel case will be McMaster, also a lot of the Connoisseurs and Rare Groove.
Is now a bad time to suggest a BNC boxset built around the conga players? In addition to the “never been this famous until now” Ray Barretto, it would feature the likes of Candido, Sabu Martinez, and Carlos “Patato” Valdez. Anyone else interested, or just me?
I think you could do a cool playlist with some of those tunes. One of those Freddie Hubbard Blue Spirit tunes with Big Black would make it. Overall though, it's not often a BN album gets additional percussion right for whatever reason. I think it mainly depends on how well they can integrate into the rhythm section. Some trap drummers, and maybe it just depended on the day, didn't mesh as well with congas.
My suggestion wasn’t completely serious, but they could make this one of the monthly “themes” with the BNC classic reissue series and just settle in on two titles that feature congas.
I have the MMJ 45, the MMJ 33, and looking forward to the BNC. Will definitely post some needledrops for comparison. I have Larry Young 45 as well, which sounds fantastic.
No idea. The only Connoisseur I got was Ike Quebecs Soul Samba. No clipping but I preferred Ron’s earlier mastering of that title. Has it ever been established what came first - the Connoisseur LPs or the CDs? It’s a bit hazy but my memory of that series was that at first it was a vinyl project that brought back on catalogue a bunch of lesser known titles. I bought a few of those but never got into the CDs.
I did buy occasional Blue Note CDs back then, but was mainly a vinyl buyer, so I may be wrong, but I also recall the Connoisseur series being launched with LPs and don't recall a simultaneous wave of the same titles on CD, but as I say I may have forgotten the CDs as I wasn't interested in them.
You said it right there! Most folks in this thread I’d guess fall into the “I’m an LP guy” category. It’s hard enough to build a great listening environment around one medium, let alone more than one, and for folks who are all in on vinyl playback these reissue series are precious gifts!
So I’ve been waiting for my copy of Blues Walk to arrive here in the land down under while reading the back and forth about the conga distortion on Play Ray for the last week or so. My copy arrived today and tonight I kicked back to listen to the entire record twice in a row with my wife loitering as I told her about the distortion brouhaha I’d been reading about here. Obviously this is just my perspective but I was actually expecting this issue to be way worse than what I listened to at home tonight. Is there distortion? Yes….. but I couldn’t honestly say it dampened my enjoyment of the record at all. As for my wife, she flat out said she couldn’t hear it (but she also thinks Linkin Park on Spotify sounds great!) And when I think of say, the Tone Poet of The Witch Doctor in which the drums are indeed horribly distorted throughout much of the record, the brief moments of conga distortion - which I’ll also note are really only obvious towards the very end of the song - are really quite mild, at least as far as I’m concerned. I can imagine over headphones they’d be a bit more jarring and I’ll probably give that a go tomorrow night just for the fun?!?! of it. But overall (and yes there is that brief volume drop in a later song of side 2 that lasts literally a second) I think the record sounds great and I’ll take some brief and in my opinion, mild, distortion over non fill or stitching any day. For a week or so I expected I’d be having one listen and instantly returning the record but I’m now really quite ok with keeping this one as it is after a few listens. I’ve heard far more distracting blemishes on jazz records than this. I do think the discussion about the mastering choices made are still worth having as I’m intrigued by why such a brief passage would be affected while the rest of the record is (apart from some of the standard issues of the era) nigh on perfect. And hey what about that blind piano player ! Amazing to think someone can play 88 keys without being able to see them. I’m absolutely in awe of that.
Yeah, I'm excited to these. Love the Wayne Shorter records I've heard recently, and have seen too many positive remarks towards Unity to not just go for it. Might be my last BC Classics dip til November (maybe October, but I want the Tone Poets that month, must see how much money I have. . .)
My memory is that at least the first 10 or so both LP and CD were done at the same time. There’s some like Whistle Stop and Slice of the Top that I have in both formats.
I’ve got the MMJ 45 of Unity but I’m excited to add a 33 Classic version to my library, I have to be in the mood for 45s. I don’t own a vinyl copy of Adam’s Apple at all, so doubly excited about that one. Most exciting pair of Blue Note releases (TP or Classic) we’ve had in sometime (imo/ymmv)
