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

I like them too, with the exception of the XRCD24 titles. Because this last round of titles in the series were mastered in 24-bit resolution some were also used for hi-res downloads. Same mastering engineer as the earlier titles, Alan Yoshida. They sound good, just brighter than the earlier XRCD titles. I prefer the 90’s Japanese “The Blue Note Works” CDs over the XRCD24s.

 

Back when I was into CDs and expanding my jazz collection (mid-2000s) I collected dozens of the TOCJ-15XX and 4XXX (BN Works) series. Most of my FLAC files are from these CDs. I think they sound really nice too. They have been criticized on occasion for being rolled off on the high end. But that is better than sounding bright, IMO. And since I have the dreaded tone controls, I can adjust that...

 

SRX vinyl stands for “Silent Running Xperience.” Happy New Year !!!

Greetings from Greece.

 

I waited an hour since seeing this formal announcement on Facebook and nobody posted here yet, so here you go...

New for 2019! The Definitive Blue Note Vinyl Reissues from Music Matters Jazz on SRX vinyl

- New Silent Running Xperience (SRX) vinyl
- 12 Killer 33RPM all-analog Blue Note albums
- Original analog tapes with new mastering from Cohearant
- New titles announced daily at Music Matters Jazz
- Introducing Johnny Griffin & Joe Henderson Inner Urge first two titles
- Available for sale Midnight, New Year's Eve - 12:01 AM 1/1/2019


Here’s the thing…

Our mission at Music Matters has always been to get lovers of Blue Note jazz as close to the music as possible. We are obsessed with bringing listeners back to that studio in New Jersey, back to the very sessions when the musicians came together and played.

The musicians brought all their hardships into that studio - the struggle to create art - a living, breathing art, while having to endure the endless injustice and insult of racism, as we have seen in countless anecdotes and biographies. But they also brought hope and dignity and discipline and genius and joy, too.

They brought it all, the terrible and the sublime, into every session. And time after time they transformed it all and put it back into the world as some of the most beautiful and profound art created in the United States or anywhere else ever. And Rudy Van Gelder got it all on tape, every timeless bit of it.

The only reason we would come back with more would be if we heard those sessions again in a way that struck even veteran pros like us with the force of new revelation, in a way that gave us the sensation of hearing more fully and deeply from within the music itself than ever before. Put simply, we felt like we had to share it with you.

So, we’ve found that reason….. And it’s the vinyl! We’ve long wanted to get our all-analog re-masters of the original Van Gelder tapes onto something quiet and revealing, something that surpassed any vinyl formula ever developed.

So, for the past two years, in collaboration with Record Technologies Inc. and TPC Plastics we’ve been working on a vinyl formula that not only matches but surpasses the quality of the quietest vinyl ever put into production. Friends, we’ve finally achieved that goal!

We call it “SRX Vinyl.” SRX stands for “Silent Running Xperience.” SRX is our own proprietary formula, conceived and developed by Rick Hashimoto of Record Technology and manufactured by TPC Plastics.
Its noise floor is fathoms lower than any other vinyl we know of out there past or present. Records pressed with it look like normal black discs until you hold them up to the light and see that they are translucent and smoky, silvery gray in color.

What matters most though, is the sound of the music.

The near-perfect silence of SRX Vinyl virtually frees the music from groove noise and draws you further into the listening space, setting it in relief so distinct, full and spacious it’s nearly sculptural. You hear more of what’s on the original tapes, not only of the notes played on the instruments but the sense of the event itself. There’s a richer sense of being in the presence of human souls breathing, plucking, blowing, pressing …. Working on and out via their instruments. You hear them searching together, conjuring the music with one another, putting that beauty into the world once again, right now, right here.

That’s our reason for continuing and we can’t think of a better one. This time around and for the time being we’re doing 12 titles, released all at once. All twelve titles will be available to purchase starting on January 1st, 2019.

With The Music in Mind,

Happy New Year!

Ron & Joe
Music Matters Jazz

 

Test press review!

Johnny Griffin - Introducing Johnny Griffin, Joe Henderson - Inner Urge  - The Audio Beat - www.TheAudioBeat.com

 

$60 each? Dang. Presumably for the increased material cost, but still. I can talk myself into $40 for a single LP, but not $60. This is bumming me out.

 

Unfortunately I do feel the same way. I would truly love to support these releases and keep supporting MM but the price point here may be above what I feel comfortable with spending for a single record.

 

Agree - I'll likely grab the two they've never done before (although I have the AP 45 of Griffin) and may have to sit out on the others, I still have a few of the other MM 33s on my wishlist but the current jacked up prices have me sitting tight just on principle. I'll just enjoy my McMaster or Connoisseur CDs or AP 45s for those. (Wahoo, Blue Hour, Whistle Stop, etc.). ~$45 each? I'm back in the pool.

 

Well, I guess it’s ok I share these TP’s that I’ve had for the past few months

 

Not unless you tell us how it sounds!

 

Currently listening to el barrio - the opening wail really hits you in the gut, because the background is so black silent that the image just explodes right in front of you.

This new SRX vinyl is going to be a treat for those of us that like to listen on headphones - you hear some pretty remarkable details that maybe were buried underneath the noise floor before, but now are present. Subtle details like the shimmer of bass strings vibrating against the fingerboard on really dynamic passages, fluttering finger pads, studio room and spacial cues, intense front to back layering in the soundstage, and even little studio murmurings under the breath of the musicians are all present and clear to hear. It’s just so much easier to pinpoint exactly where everything is placed, it really adds more to the enjoyment of the musical experience when your mind doesn’t have to work so hard!

You’d think with all this detail, that maybe it would be too much, and actually bring the tonal balance brighter. Not with the two TP’s I have - they are more related tonally to the 45’s than the 33’s, and have that same smooth, rich, flowing tonality that I know a lot of us appreciate about the 45’s. I don’t have the 45 of inner urge to compare, but when contrasted with my copy of mode for Joe, I’m confident in saying these easily match the dynamics and sense of flow and togetherness of the 45 series, but with absolute zero groove noise that I can detect on headphones at uncomfortable volumes

I will also add that the vinyl itself is probably the flattest most straight piece of vinyl in my collection with absolutely zero wobble detected while spinning on the platter.

I’d be curious what the other titles will be, I’m game for at least 6 of them lol.

 

10 of the new 12 releases have already been issued on 45rpm? Well, that is a bummer. If I am throwing down $60, it cannot be on a duplicate title.

 

Thankfully I don’t have all the 45’s I’m personally game enough and convinced with the quality to snag at least those titles I don’t already have.

 

Aw man, now you’ve done it. Getting itchy over here.

 

Price is a bit steep at $60. BUT depending what they release, if I was waffling about the 45 at $60, having it at 33 will likely push me to get it. I have a wish list I was going to get after Christmas. This news has me hopeful that at least a few of the ones I really want are about to issued on 33. VERY good news in my book.

 

For as good as the inner urge is, the griffin might even be of higher SQ! The mono presentation REALLY benefits from the silent “blackground” of the SRX vinyl, as i feel you get even more of that front to back layering and increased depth in the soundstage when its a quality recording and mastering. I might be more excited about the mono SRX MM’s than the stereos

 

So what's this one mysterious title that is brand new for the new series? Johnny Griffin and....(???).
The other 10 have already been done on 45rpm

 

Here's what had the SRX a month ago that we saw on their pages before they took it down

johnny griffin vol 2 (Blowin session)
henderson - inner urge
silver - song for my father
blakey - night in tunisia
dorham - afro cuban
mobley - quintet
sonny rollins - vol 1
shorter - adams apple

Those last two would definitely be in my cart day one.

 

Ooh, Adam's Apple. That one is going to benefit a lot from ultra quiet surfaces. Tempting.

 

Considering I never picked up song for my father, that one is a given ugh Ron take my wallet now!

 

Where are you seeing the $60 price tag?

EDIT right here:
New Releases

And "free shipping" now at $200

 

Yup. I just bought the BN 75 as a cheapie since the MM45 was out of stock. It's ok, but the drums don't have near the kick they should on the opening track. Love how MM sounds for drums anyway, so I'm excited if that's really one of the titles

 

Wow...great news? Will all 12 be available at once or will they be available 1 or 2 a month? Subscription series?

 

If that is the list... Tunisia and Afro Cuban would be mighty tempting, even with the price!

 

I vaguely recall hearing something about the current incarnation of Blue Note creating digital masters for all the classic albums originally recorded to tape, and that at some point they would stop licensing the original tapes for use with reissues. Apparently they haven't reached that point yet?