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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MilesSmiles, Jul 19, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. btf1980

    btf1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yes.

    Quote below from post number 365 by Joe Harley.

     
  2. TimArruda

    TimArruda Well-Known Member

    Location:
    St. Petersburg, FL

    I hadn't really thought about it from the perspective of, for lack of a better term, "warhorse" titles being readily available. That's an excellent point. I would jump on something like Donald Byrd's Mustang. And also, I don't mean to come across as only wanting "safe" titles. I'm happy to have my horizon's expanded by those who know a lot more about the music than I, which is why I value the "Jazz Beat" threads so much. It's great to see what other people are listening to. Normally I can at least find a few tracks from any given album to listen to and see what I think. They are invaluable to me for finding new music. But I'm getting off track here. I like where you are going in your thought process, and I am hoping that after the next twelve are released over 2014, that we see some new titles that deserve to see the light of day again. Ultimately, I'm just being selfish, because I want to make sure that I like them! :D :cheers:
     
    btf1980 likes this.
  3. rpd

    rpd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville
    Someone pm'd me about this, but I accidentally left the conversation. Please re PM me...
     
  4. ssmith3046

    ssmith3046 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona desert
    Thanks! Ordered.
     
  5. Michel Jazz

    Michel Jazz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Antwerp, Belgium
    Musicmatters; 2500 copies of each number, first 1000 are numbered copies.
    The first +/-550 are reserved for Musicmatters subscribers and several copies in the 8 and 9 hundreds are hold back for later musicmatters subscribers....
    So that's about 1500 unnumbered copies....
     
  6. bilgewater

    bilgewater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    I've been led to believe (by posters here, for example) that some of the best sellers of the MM 45rpm series have been the slightly left-field ones by the likes of Eric Dolphy and Andrew Hill. Those went OOP fasty-fast, it seems.

    I happen to much prefer the postbop and modal albums of the 1960s on BN, by the likes of Wayne Shorter, Jackie McLean, Bobby Hutcherson, Elvin Jones, and Lee Morgan, over most of the 1950s hard bop warhorses and even Coltrane's BLUE TRAIN (not even in my top 5 of Trane LPs). It would just be too awesome if MM were to remaster Cecil Taylor's UNIT STRUCTURES or CONQUISTADOR. And I would die happy with a MM 33.3 version of Stanley Turrentine's mood masterpiece THE BLUE HOUR.
     
    NorthNY Mark and btf1980 like this.
  7. Josquin des Prez

    Josquin des Prez I have spoken!

    Location:
    U.S.
    Agree about the Cecil Taylor titles. They need a good treatment. I only have the 80s French EMI reissues of those.

    One of the Stanley Turrentine BM titles I'd really like to see is "Joyride" with Oliver Nelson arrangements.
     
  8. btf1980

    btf1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    You have no idea how badly I want more Andrew Hill material. I was so happy that MM did Judgment and Point of Departure. Imagine more titles like Blackfire, Smokestack or Compulsion. One of my favorite records is Hill's Passing Ships which wasn't released until 2003. A quality pressing of this would be wonderful. Listen to Noon Tide.

     
  9. btf1980

    btf1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I'd love Cecil albums, but I just don't see it happening. Not because I don't want them, but his work is too polarizing. Remember, Joe Harley posted that while Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch sold out pretty quickly, they also got the most negative reaction they had ever received for a release. He posted that a few years ago. Read it here. I was disappointed, but not surprised. I don't even consider Out to Lunch to be out there or inaccessible at all. Clearly, many don't see it that way.

    I think the balance is finding a happy medium. Something that can sell well, but isn't just another blowing session. The war horse titles need to be reissued, it's a business, I get it. It would be economic suicide to focus primarily on "out there" material. There's a reason why there is no audiophile ESP-Disk reissue program. I just don't see the people who only listen to records like KoB and Time Out getting into that. This is not a dig against those records (I like them too), but there are some in our ranks who just want records like that over and over again. I just don't want everything to be a war horse. A pony every now and then is a good thing. I'm not sure how well Pete La Roca's Basra is doing in terms of sales (I hope amazingly), but weren't we all happy to receive that? Was anyone disappointed that Basra was reissued? A pony like that every now and then is nice. I championed the MM reissue of Basra to everyone within an earshot.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2014
  10. BRush

    BRush Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I was surprised to find out on the Acoustic Sounds Website that none of the AP Blue Note 45 Series have sold out. AP obtained some of the most popular titles in the Blue Note Catalog, so I figured that a few AP would have sold out by now. The mastering for both AP & MM is done by Steve Hoffman & Kevin Gray. Obviously the recession has hurt both series, but many MM titles have sold out. Both series began in 2008. Could it just be the shoddy Covers that are hurting the sales for AP?

    AP's Fantasy 45 series seemed to perform much better. It appears that 30 to 40 of AP's Fantasy series has sold out, mostly the Miles, Monk, Rollins, Evans titles.
     
  11. Roland S.

    Roland S. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rostock, Germany
    I also guess - these are the right points.

    Better times and limited to only 1000 pieces. (AP and MM 2500).

    And lets not forget: 50 US-Dollar is a lot of money for one album, even if it is pressed on 2x 45rpm, CD´s for the general audience that floating around are much cheaper if you´r not too critical about sound.
     
  12. antielectrons

    antielectrons Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    I found ordering from Acoustic Sounds to be a complete waste of time. They were very bad at providing shipping quotes to Europe and I just gave up in the end. ON the other hand odering direct from MM has been a joy and a lot cheaper.
     
    SergioRZ, abor1g and JMCIII like this.
  13. Josquin des Prez

    Josquin des Prez I have spoken!

    Location:
    U.S.
    I agree with you. I don't expect to see reissue treatment of some of the more outside stuff, but it's nice when it shows up. Sometimes we get really surprised with a title like Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz." (and "Shape of Jazz To Come").

    Otherwise, I really like the mid-60s releases. I'm glad to see that Miles mid-60s quintet albums are getting reissued too.
     
    btf1980 likes this.
  14. JMCIII

    JMCIII Music lover first, audiophile second.



    That's because Ron and Joe put customer satisfaction almost as highly as they do the remastering and packaging of their titles. In other words - they care.
     
    antielectrons and abor1g like this.
  15. Josquin des Prez

    Josquin des Prez I have spoken!

    Location:
    U.S.
    I have had great customer service from MM, and Ron has stepped in personally to help me out with an issue. However, I have also had great customer service from Acoustic Sounds: Nate and Stelley have taken care of me on numerous occasions. Nate is especially good about handling defects for me.
     
  16. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    The Fantasy series was the first 45 rpm subscription based service and with fewer audiophile jazz reissues back in 2003 it was easier for people to pick up many more titles. AP also marketed them very well and series 1 (and some of series 2) had really well known albums.
     
  17. jazdoc

    jazdoc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bellevue, WA, USA
    Hey guys,

    As a subscriber to the 45 rpm Blue Note series, I wanted to thank you for the wonderful ride! I am eternally grateful to own some of the greatest music ever recorded and all for the cost of a couple of pricey originals. Your love of the music and respect for the artists comes through in every element of the final product including the jackets, audio quality, sturdy mailers and customer service. Job extremely well done.

    Good luck in your future endeavors.
     
  18. vette442

    vette442 Senior Member

    The fact that you could get the same mastering from AP on SACD split the purchases on these titles across the formats, I'm sure. I have to buy the LPs to get the SH/KG or KG mastering of the Music Matters titles. I have a mix of 45 rpm LPs and SACDs for the AP Blue Note, Impulse and Verve titles.

    The cover quality wasn't that swift for the Fantasy series either.
     
  19. RelayerNJ

    RelayerNJ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Whippany, NJ
    It's also nice that they're choosing more of the rare titles such as the new Dizzy Reece instead of constant reissues of popular titles everyone owns already. Also, I'm all for Andrew Hill, but some of the later 60s BNs are not particularly great fidelity wise (Lee Morgan The Gigolo, Mobley The Flip, etc.). Why give a royal treatment to a session recorded poorly? I'll have to recheck my Andrew!! and Grass Roots copies (haven't in a while) But yes, some of the earlier Hill's would be killer!
     
  20. btf1980

    btf1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Music Matters reissued Lee Morgan's The Gigolo and it sounds fine to me.
     
  21. davidbix

    davidbix Forum Resident

    *raises hand*

    While I was inching towards it last year, in rebuilding post-Sandy I only put together a decently nice system this past year and got into Jazz finally in the process. Still, I've been reluctant to get 45 RPM versions of anything except for favorite albums like In Utero (which also included a bonus 3rd LP) or heavily discounted items because of the price. If MFSL kept their price point at $40 maybe I'd be more inclined to pick up some of their newer 45 RPM titles like the new Rickie Lee Jones reissue, but they've joined everyone else at $50. For Analogue Productions titles (whether Blue Notes or other stuff like August and Everything After), I get the SACDs.

    Having said that, too many versions of the same titles are absolutely being repeated, whether it's jazz or classic rock. The Blue Note CDs suck, so I want nice analog or high res digital versions of as many Blue Note titles as possible. I want MFSL to continue expanding their horizons, whether it's more new wave in the Silver Label series, more alt rock now that they're done w/ Weezer and the Pixies, or even more pop rock like Hall and Oates since it's a change of pace. I want more titles from the "dark ages" of vinyl from '89 through the'90s. I want AP to follow up a great version of "August and Everything After" with more stuff out of their wheelhouse.
     
    Davidmk5 likes this.
  22. RelayerNJ

    RelayerNJ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Whippany, NJ
    maybe it needed the treatment then :)
     
  23. Josquin des Prez

    Josquin des Prez I have spoken!

    Location:
    U.S.
    I guess I'll give mine another listen, but I remember it sounding just fine also.

    I'm playing through some of my Jackie McLean titles (New Soil, One Step Beyond, Destination Out). Sure wish they would have done "New and Old Gospel." I really like that album and only have the French EMI reissue from the 80s (which all sound a bit flat and lifeless compared to what we are spoiled with now).
     
  24. Bill Hart

    Bill Hart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin
    So, if you guys had to pick 12 of the MM that are the best (musically and sonically), what would those be?
    And what would your picks be for those of the Blue Notes that MM has yet to reissue?
     
  25. DrJ

    DrJ Senior Member

    Location:
    Davis, CA, USA
    I am SO with you on all of these points.

    It simply boggles the mind that the material on PASSING SHIPS was never issued in its day, it is easily as good as his more heralded classics and is particularly interesting in hindsight, given his later larger ensemble recordings like A BEAUTIFUL DAY and the Jazzpar Prize recording THE DAY THE WORLD STOOD STILL - clearly this was a sound he was intrigued with for a long time. Music Matters should take on an LP issue.

    I'd also like to see them do other titles containing material that was never issued when originally recorded. A primo one would be Dizzy Reece's COMIN' ON (my favorite of all of his albums!).

    And, WE NEED MORE BOBBY HUTCHERSON audiophile vinyl reissues! It's ridiculous how little respect his work gets. COMPONENTS and DIALOGUE would be at the top of the list for me (Herbie Hancock's solo in the title track on COMPONENTS is one of the best he ever put down on tape, just jaw-dropping) - both flat out masterpieces - but I'd also love to see STICK UP!, PATTERNS, OBLIQUE, MEDINA, and TOTAL ECLIPSE. True the last of these may not be up to quite the same sonic standards as the others (not a RVG recording, pretty cavernous reverb, etc) but I'm sure it could sound better with a tender loving audiophile mastering job, and the music? Timelessly great. Even though Hutch as a leader never sold much, you'd think if nothing else the sidemen on these recordings - people like Herbie, Hill, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Harold Land, and McCoy Tyner - would sell some copies.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2014
    hvbias, abor1g, Parkertown and 3 others like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine