Music Matters Definitive Blue Note 45 RPM and 33 & 1/3 RPM vinyl series (pt7)

I've got:

Speakin' My Piece (33)
Songs For My Father (2*45)
Blue & Sentimental (33)

Why oh why didn't I buy more of these when I had the chance. They're gone from the shops and importing doubles the costs.

 

At least you've got 3 winners there. Hopefully more will come your way for reasonable $.

 

Props to Music Matters.

After I emailed them a picture of the dish warp they expedited a replacement disc for me without requiring the return of the defective one. Balance has been restored to the universe.

I also now realize I am 14 titles away from owning their complete catalog.

 

Last time I visited Northend in Haarlem had some 33's in stock.

 

Are you talking about Memorial or Golden 8?

 

My wish is Joe's new project will also coincide with a new batch of releases from Music Matters.

 

Sorry, I meant Golden 8, but Memorial is also great.

 

Man, I wish I could get that level of service! In fairness, I've only had a two previous issues in over 200 discs, but my last two orders have had several warped discs and some audible scratches. I was required to ship them back (from Canada — not cheap), and the replacements had the same issues (in the case of "Headin' South", the same audible scratch on side A and B!), and two new ones had severe ridge warps. I've been waiting a month to hear if anything will happen with these.

I think I'm about 15 away, although there's only one title I'm missing ("Free For All"). I have all the 33s, starting with a subscription to the last set of 33s (late to the party) and piggy-backing the earlier 33s onto each shipment. Prior to that, I had a few of the 45s, but initially found them too inconvenient and expensive. But I got sucked in by the sound of those few, and when I found several others on sale, that was the start of the slippery slope to where I am now (just a couple of years later), trying to fill in the last few holes in the full set! Yipes!

The incredible thing about this series is that 95% of this music was new to me, and there's probably only one or two that didn't just knock me out! The selections were just fantastic, entirely up to the level of the sound and presentation.

I'm both excited and terrified (for my bottom line) by Joe's hint about new things brewing at MM — on top of this new Tone Poet series AND the upgraded Blue Note Review series. Man! This is not good!

 

In the past I have had to return records to get them replaced. I don't know why they made an exception this time. Maybe Ron made that decision. I did send them a photo that showed the dish warp on my TT.

 

I have a feeling we are going to see another run of the 33’s on some sort of super vinyl type formula. It gets them around the ONLY 3000 of each that’s mentioned on there hype sticker. (Kinda like they did with the color vareations.) And judging by how much they charge over the original msrp compared to the 45’s msrp I would say they are a lot more popular. I’m sure they are looking for a reason to put them back into print. Especially at those prices they are charging.

 

Based upon the mention of the upcoming release of Chick Corea's "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" - I decided to sample the album on a streaming service. What a fabulous album! This trio is great. Fun, energetic, creative, and on the edge but totally in control. Definitely will be buying this album.

 

A few years ago I was in a GW and they had an original Now He Sings along with all kinds of other Jazz keyboard LP's and a ton of old Maynard Ferguson. I passed on almost all of it. I wish I would have picked up the Corea LP but the cover kinda creeped me out....my loss.

 

Yup, I think there’s been enough bread crumbs dropped to lead us reasonably to that conclusion. The blue note catalog is looking good for the future me thinks.

 

I hope so. Just grabbed the BN75 of Adam’s Apple since it’s out of stock and hit $125. Would love to grab the MM of this one.

 

On the turntable - Our Thing.

 

You guessed it...I went back and bought it...along with some other gems...this has been an expensive month.

Oh yeah, two more MM orders too. Two more after I said I was “done”.

By the way, any spin the new Blue Note review and when is that tone poet series starting? Not that I need more excuses to flush my child’s future down the drain!

 

If you search for Joe Harley and his recent posts in this thread, I think he said February 2019 as a potential starting point for the Tone Poet series releases to start.

Not planning on the BN review, maybe I can throw a hint to the wife for christmas as I'm not planning on getting it for myself

 

THIS PRESSING is a good option for this title if you can find one for a decent price. It's the one I have. These Disk Union issues were never cheap and are getting pretty pricey though.

Japan Blue Note CD issues seem to get reissued ad infinitum. But I have yet to see this DBLP Disk Union Series come back into print. I sure wish they would reissue them again! They are great, but I found out about them too late, and only have three titles. Getting too spendy for me now..

 

I hope so too, but I doubt it. I'd love to buy copies of Sonny Rollins' "Live at the Village Vanguard" and "Newk's Time" (and also a bunch of others) for the rate they were originally set at, but that would require Universal to allow repressings (or an agreement that says so in the initial licensing contract).

 

Any thoughts on the quality of the XRCD AudioWave series versus their Music Matters counterparts? Two different formats, I know. Just looking for some general comparisons.

 

I think Joe Harley would have great input about this since he was involved with the project, but I think the XRCDs sound fantastic and are a great digital counterpart to the MM LPs.

@rxcory might have some thoughts as well.

 

With all of my gushing about the MM series I do need to say one not so glowing thing about the 33s. I know this was mentioned somewhat recently, but the 33s, while sounding great, do seem to suffer a bit more QC issues. I have had more than one 33 get to me that wasn’t up to 45 standards. Noisey vinyl, scuff or two, a little wavy, some weird pitch problem on Night Dreamer.

Even the latest 33 I got, Golden 8 is a bit noisey. It’s been cleaned and has some static pops and clicks. At least I thinks it’s static. Most, if not all, of the 45s I bought are all dead quiet and issue free (knock on wood for future purchases). I don’t think it’s anything worth returning Golden 8 for, even though I’ve returned a few, it’s just like I hold my breath a little bit when I drop the needle on a 33.

Anyway, not that I need to but here’s a word of caution to Joe Harley for the Tone Poet series, make sure you give the pressing quality as much attention as you do the mastering.

 

The 45s aren't always perfect either. I had several issues with them. In fact of the 31 33s I've have I had just one issue that was handled in an expeditious manner. Of the 45s I had at least five albums with defects, so I have experienced better QC with the 33s so far.

The best success I've had is with QRP pressed records.

 

Interesting addition. Thanks! I actually talked to Ron about the issues I was having, he seemed to blame my modest set up for the problems. I disagreed, but what do I know. I just listen to music and hear what I hear.

 

Going through the site again to get a list of everything $50 and under to sample online. There’s more $50 and under titles than I expected and a lot of them I’m not familiar with.

Thoughts on Cliff craft? Is it definitely stereo? I did a quick sampling in YouTube and liked what I heard, and I don’t have much 50s blue note (blue train and magnificent thad Jones)