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

Just listening to Blue Train and Idle Moments again. They are superb and we'll worth the price if only all records were made this way.

 

I just checked my 8 new titles (damn... corner bumbs on almost every album.)
I will comment slowly on these records.
But first a 33rpm offcourse... blue train !
It was time to show my wife why I also would like to have the MM 33rpm serie.
So I showed here the sleeve of the 45rpm I have from Classic Records and then the MM. I asked here what is the expensive one.
Silly question was her answer; this one (finger on the MM) is easily the expensive one ! Do you really need the ugly cover of that new 33rpm serie...?
Euh... darling the one you're pointing at is the 33rpm.... you're kidding right ? Nop I'm not. But I wil sell the other one if sound is good.
Sound:
I first took another shot on the 4LP Classic record. I pushed the mono button on my amplifier and after the first song I changed to the new 33rpm.
I listen to both records twice, and some parts even 5 times. And these are MY thoughts; The classic is really good even when I pushed the mono button.
Coltrane is in the front, cymbals and drums are fresh... but when I changed to the 33rpm.. Coltrane is even more in the front and more clear but cymbals are less fresh and bass is a little bit on the heavy sound I really needed to adjust the amplifier's bass minus 1 or 2 on scale. Never had to do this before.
Conclusion:
Because they captured Coltrane very beautiful and its rather cheap (35$) with a fantastic cover (do not forget the pictures inside the gatefold !) and you only need to stand up every 20min instead of 10min. This MM album is a keeper. Is the sound GREAT ? Make the same record with less Bass then it could be great. Before bass adjustment I even thought there was something wrong with my speakers ( B&W 804N)
I'll keep my Stereo Classic records 45rpm's for now...
I never heard the AP 45rpm but it really makes me curious ....

I'll come back later for the Idle Moments... but then again I do not have the 45rpm either. (only a Japanese King)

 

Sounds like we have the same impression of the Classic 4 LP vs the new MM. See my comments above. I think you'll agree the Idle Moments is a much better sounding record in general.

 

Michel, where did you buy them. Corner damage does not sound like you purchased direct from MM.

 

I listened to the test pressing of M.M. 33rpm Somethin' Else and found a tiny but lousy stitching noise in spots.
Are they left on the stock issues?

 

I'm a subscriber directly from Musicmatters ! First time this happened I'll sent them an email on monday... hoping they can arrange something...

 

I'll hope you report this to MM...

 

Uh, doesn't it come out yet? If so, my bad.

 

No its the last one of the series that comes in Nov. 2014

 

True that..... If all records had been made the way MM's makes theirs, I wonder in CD would have ever supplanted vinyl......

 

I heard both Idle Moments last weekend and briefly heard the MM Blue Train yesterday. In general I did find the APs more transparent plus extended in the treble. The Blue Train mono mix is really good. I don't have a mono switch in my setup so I can't hear the AP45 folded down. However I don't think the AP stereo is antiquated by the mono, I'll continue to enjoy it since the 45 does sound "fresher".

Little touches MM do like coloring the Blue Train spine the same color as the album text is really cool. They did it with Lee Morgan's The Procrastinator as well. Get that one if you don't have it... one of Morgan's best.

 

Listening to the 33.3 rpm mono version of Blue Train right now and I wanted to lend my voice to the MM and AP (45rpm, stereo) comparison. I do not have a mono switch. I felt the MM was recorded at a slightly lower volume. I am also hearing a more immediate and vibrant sound from the mono. There seems to be more bite to the brass and definition to the piano. The image is of course much more compact and centered than the AP stereo version. Unlike what Michel Jazz describes in post #902, on my system I don't feel the bass is too heavy. I like it. It's quite punchy and more pronounced than on the stereo version. Overall I believe the stereo version sounds more diffuse, laid back perhaps, but still great, so don't get me wrong. The mono is punchier, I notice this on the attack of the piano in "I'm old fashioned" for example.

It's interesting that hvbias in post #911 mentions that the AP sounded fresher, more transparent and extended in the treble. On my system I do not recognize the first two observations though I kind of get his extended treble comment. Possibly because the AP sounds more spacious. Not sure. Systems, ears, semantics etc are too different to draw any firm conclusions and I respect everyone's opinion.

I hesitate to pronounce one better than the other though maybe my opinion will change over time - I like the punchy sound of the mono the more I listen to it. Both provide an interesting sonic look at the music. It is wonderful to have a stereo version and a mono version of this exquisite record, plus the MM jacket (there I did it and I told myself I would not mention the jacket ! .

JW

 

Does anyone know if Blue Train was originally recorded in mono, or is it a fold-down from stereo?

Not that it matters. I'm just curious.

Just got my MM mono Blue Train this afternoon but need to wait until it reaches room temperature before I can play it, as the postal carrier left it outside in the - 29 C windchill.

Hot jazz meets the depths of a brutally cold Canadian winter.

The gatefold with the wonderful Francis Wolff black and white photos looks awesome.

Wonder how it's going to measure up sonically to my Acoustic Sounds stereo version.

 

Just sampled Idle Moments and Blue Train...pros: both sound fantastic!

Cons: I seemed to get one of the bad copies of Blue Train, some scuffing and marks on both sides. Also, neither of these pressings were dead quiet...ticks every now and then.

 

I remember them saying in this thread if it was recorded in mono, they released it in mono. No fold-downs for this 33.3 series

 

Wasn't it recorded in both mono and stereo ?

 

Well I adore the sound and packaging on both Blue Train and Idle Moments. Sound so good I want to jump into my speakers and drown in it.

My opinion is entirely uninformed, but perhaps unique: I've never heard either of them before, on any format (nor any of the others in the series). I'm thrilled that I've signed up to the new series and that I'll be experiencing all of these classic albums like this, for the first time.

 

Today I had some extra time for a few of the last 45rpm albums.
I started with Mr.T Jubilee Shouts. Great great record! This is the kind of remastering I would like to hear. Instruments coming @ you like you are in a jazz-club on 52nd street -never been there...- but we do have nice clubs here in Belgium... Unbelievable that the album needed to wait till 1975 for the first release.
I have that first release (gatefold of the BN-LA series) and it sounds good but far from Great like this MM album. Magical moments and the same could be said about Dizzy Reece - Star Bright and Horace Parlan-Happy frame of the Mind.... again Fantastic albums.

 

Jubilee Shout does have particularly amazing, lifelike and vivid sound. And the music's not too shabby either!

 

Lots of times when you go to mono the bass becomes more punchy and full- maybe that is partly what is going on- I've noticed that on Blue Notes as well as some of my Rock albums (Surrealistic Pillow for example). Overall I like Blue Train better in stereo. I have an RVG Lp (stereo), the classic records reissue. A 90's "wally" pressing and the Bluenote/capitol SACD. I'm not buying Blue Train again.

 

I'm with you. I've got a 60s RVG stereo pressing, the 90s "wally" pressing, the Classic mono, and the AP 45rpm reissue. Blue Train is one of my favorite albums, but I'm not going to buy another reissue of it. It would be rewarding these companies for being ultra-conservative in their LP selection. I'd break out my wallet though for nicely done reissues of lesser known titles like Duke Pearson's "The Phantom", Sam Rivers' "New Conceptions", Don Cherry's "Symphony for Improvisers", and so on.

 

I don't know what you're listening through but I'm listening through a Sherwood S5000 tube amp and I'm getting chills and goosebumps. Put some of these fantastic albums through period tube amps and you really start to feel like you've been transported to the times they were recorded in. Magical.

 

This afternoon I also listened to (first 2 songs) of Art Blakey's Volume 1 @ the Bohemia ,it's a mono... All my MM's (mono's & stereo's) do not give a punchy bass when played on my Technics equipment.

 

The Bohemia is going to be a little different since it wasnt recorded in Hackensack. There is no stereo version of Cafe bohemia. What stereo versions of which albums did you compare your MM mono's with? I'm talking take the same title- play stereo record, then play the mono record. Not always, but in general the mono version of something will be more punchy. Some people say that about the Beatles Stereo and Mono albums, and btw some like a punchier sound more- nothing wrong with punchy.

 

Well we did get Fuscia swing song and Point of Departure.