'Tone Poet' Jazz Reissue Series*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by cds23, Dec 23, 2018.

  1. Trifonius

    Trifonius Jazz

    Location:
    Europe
    Sure, maybe stream first because his blue note classic is much more straight forward than his other stuff:
    Scofield - Time on my hands; fantastic quartet with scolo and Charlie Haden and jack de johnette. Some tracks are really far out and especially lovano is heavy going there
    Scofield - meant to be, as good as the first one and maybe bit more straight forward. Still very exciting. Marc Johnson and bill Stewart I think.
    Scofield - what we do, brilliant record, see above. With bill Stewart and Dennis Irwin.

    Lovano - landmarks, great album
    Lovano - from the soul, great album
    Lovano - joyous encounter, same quartet as I’m all for you with hank jones

    im not sure which ones are on vinyl yet; I found the time on my hands one in good state on discogs. Scolohofo is a fantastic start, so I hope you dig that one.
     
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  2. R.T.Firefly

    R.T.Firefly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poland
    All this talk of Dolphy made me start the day with "Last Date". What a record... I have the Dutch edition where the liner notes explain some of the detail behind it. For those who don't know - it was planned as a part of a Dutch jazz radio magazine where apart from an interview the music would be played live in front of an audience. This time they had to record it a day before because of Dolphy's schedule. He did not want to start the recording until he was happy with the sound quality and at some point the technical guys told him to simply set it up himself. He kept running between the stage and the control room until he was happy. It is a good quality recording with rather narrow soundstage, sounding a lot of the time like mono. But it's crisp, clear and dynamic. And the music is very, very good.

    Dolphy died four weeks later and when the Dutch radio was doing an "in memoriam" the following month, they finished it with a quote from Dolphy recorded when he had visited them the previous time with Mingus. The quote was then added at the end of the record when it was released. I've heard it countless times and still every single time I hear it in Dolphy's soft voice... my allergy acts up... and I find it difficult to follow with any other record... "When you hear music, after it's over, it's gone, in the air. You can never capture it again."
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2023
  3. timzigs

    timzigs Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Central PA
    Nice remarks on the two upcoming titles. Sorry to edit, but every time I see comparisons to Monk, I feel the need to mention the great Herbie Nichols. Don't think I've seen much love for his upcoming TP. One of the highlights for me.
     
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  4. scotti

    scotti Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta GA
    Another great post, and why not, you are talking about the one and only Eric Dolphy! I have a stereo Limelight copy, sound is okay I guess, but not sure what they had to work with here. Of couse this was not his last performance though...

    Well now I'm in the mood for an Eric Dolphy session this afternoon. I have "Mingus X 5" pulled out along with what has to be my all time favorite RSD title in my collection "Musical Prophet". My local store only got one copy for that RSD and I got there around one in the morning to assure I would be first in line. A good thing as before the store opened there were others in line that were hoping to get it as well, but I paid my dues and #1698/3000 has it's own special room where it resides. What's cool is that this has "Iron Man", all of the bonus stuff, but also has a good sounding version of "Conversations" which just helps make this a fantastic release from Resonance Records. And of course we get "Pre-Bird" on 9/29 which I could not pre-order fast enough.

    If a fan of his music, "Musical Prophet" is a must have for your collection. I think you can still get it for around $130 to $150, but keep in mind it is a three record set with an awesome booklet!

    And yes, 4th listen to "At The Half Note Cafe Vol. 1" last night and @Swann36 I saw your post that it is a top 5 Tone Poet for you, very nice! If I was forced to pick only three from all the titles released so far from the series, this would have to be one of them.

    That's going to be a great Tone Poet and I like that one much better than the title they released for the BNC series.
     
  5. dwhhhhhhhhhh

    dwhhhhhhhhhh Active Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    Are there any good guides to which of the Tone Poets are essential, recommended, hidden gems, and inessential?
     
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  6. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I have the Mosaic set. He hasnt quite resonated with me yet completely. Maybe I will revisit the Mosaic before this new TP comes out. I do enjoy the previous Classic Reissue BN release and it can be had on Amazon or Discogs for cheap. Working my way through this 2023 list and will add some more layman comments as I discover.
     
  7. R.T.Firefly

    R.T.Firefly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poland
    Interesting coincidence that you wrote it just now...

    To justify the off-topic, I really was trying to find a TP that would fit as a follow-up to "Last Date" but just couldn't find a good one. What I went for will at least have a BNC connection.

    "Last Date" was introduced to me when I was a teenager by a jazz musician friend of mine who taught me a lot about free jazz and music in general. We were going through anything we could find with Dolphy on, so apart from the obvious names, for the first time in my life (deep pre-internet times) I heard names like Gunther Schuller or George Russell (can't remember, but it could also be the reason I heard Andrew Hill for the first time). "Last Date" was one of the first recordings for the piano/drums duo of Misha Mengelberg/Han Bennink. I had never heard of them before but soon learned they were big figures in Dutch/European jazz. I started actively looking for their music and at some point Mengelberg's name on a record became an automatic buy from me. I've never heard the man play something less than interesting, and he is often stunning.

    Mengelberg was a fan of Herbie Nichols. In the 1980's he took several sessions in an Italian studio in Milan where he recorded his versions of Nichols' compositions (collected on two records). One of those records is among my favourites ever. It's "Change of Season: The Music of Herbie Nichols" and the band is the duo from "Last Date" Mengelberg and Han Bennink, together with the great Steve Lacy, George Lewis on trombone and Arjen Gorter on bass. Absolutely fantastic record that never fails to put a smile on my face. The musicianship is simply stellar. The group sounds quite unusual because of the combination of soprano sax and trombone. The tone of the record is weirdly joyous even when they start a piece with the quote from a funeral march. I just finished listening to it again and I'm smiling. I think it was only released in Italy, but there is a nice inexpensive reissue from 2012 (including the LP and the CD!) that sounds very good.

    On-topic. I'm putting TP "Face to Face" on.
     
  8. mikemoon

    mikemoon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    I have to piggyback on these two great posts. I just happen to be sitting here listening the the AP version of At the Five Spot that recently arrived. What a great album!

    As far as Last Date, I acquired a Japanese pressing of this album ~10 years ago at Wax n Facts in Atlanta that included a message handwritten on the inner sleeve.

    "Men like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman who attain a certain hard-won serenity through their musical stuggles should perhaps be differentiated from musicians like the late Eric Dolphy, whose scrambling, strident and sometimes brilliant improvisations sounded like those of a driven man looking vainly for solid footing."

    I will also second the high recommendation for Musical Prophet. I got on Discogs a few years ago $100. It was mind blowing.
     
  9. scotti

    scotti Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta GA
    To make it easy, check out the profile of @Josquin des Prez as he was kind enough to list all of the ones he has in his collection except that marvelous record"Glamoured", he has them all ranked like that...keep in mind he is one picky guy though, haha!

    Or you could just catch up by reading 1681 pages of this thread. Have a feeling you will choose the above. Welcome to the forum and please join in the discussion, we have a good and amusing time here...
     
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  10. Josquin des Prez

    Josquin des Prez I have spoken!

    Location:
    U.S.
    And my copy of Byrd is out for delivery so I should get a chance to hear it when I get back from my bike ride today.
     
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  11. R.T.Firefly

    R.T.Firefly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poland
    Sure. Another timely coincidence: I think about a week later he recorded a date with Donald Byrd in Paris. There's a French pressing of it that I've been meaning to get. Maybe now's the time.

    Thanks. Don't have it. Will get it. I only got back to vinyl last year after two decades of digital. Lots of catching up to do. I'm really happy this is the golden age of great quality jazz re-releases. And that I never got rid of my records in the first place.
     
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  12. wontfunk

    wontfunk Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
  13. JoelWat

    JoelWat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dubai, UAE
    Nice call ! People don't mention this record often and I totally agree - Last Date is an amazing album. I bought a US stereo (Limelight) and the Dutch mono version (Fontana). There is an entire backstory on this record which you summarized nicely. I took some photo's and linked to some pertinent pictures online and wrote about it on my substack. The stereo version has amazing artwork. You can check it out HERE. One of the photo's of my US Limelight version I'll add here, the rest you can find when you click that link.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. I have the limelight version myself, how do you feel the Dutch compares sonically? I've never felt the Limelight version sounded that great, granted mine is a bit noisy despite looking quite clean
     
  15. SonOFJames

    SonOFJames Forum Resident

    Location:
    SoCal
    Have preodered both March Tone Poets, Dance With Death and Remarkable Carmell Jones.
     
  16. SonOFJames

    SonOFJames Forum Resident

    Location:
    SoCal
    The Lovano Quartets At The Village Vanguard is a good one as well. Not sure if it's been done on vinyl.
     
  17. Trifonius

    Trifonius Jazz

    Location:
    Europe
    Yeah that’s also a good one. Especially that version of Monk’s Reflections is awesome. There is BN75 version of it I think, not sounding too great
     
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  18. JoelWat

    JoelWat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dubai, UAE
    I have no real preference...this is what I wrote in my article: Note that this is a live recording in front of a small audience. The sound is great. It’s open with good tonality, well-rounded bass, and nice sounding piano. In fact, this is one hell of a recording. I have no preference for either the Mono or the Stereo. The latter has a bigger soundstage and allows the instruments to breath a bit more, where the Mono is more direct and compact. Different listening experience, so it’s fun to have both. Tonally these records are very similar.

    One caveat - I have not listened to these two records on my new tt so once I do that I may revisit this opinion :)
     
  19. misteranderson

    misteranderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    englewood, nj
    Complete Dolphy/Little at The Five Spot CD is on now. Yeah, the piano's really out, but I think it's actually a little worse on the recent Elvin at Pookie's Pub thing.

    It kind of sounds like the same piano.
     
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  20. G E

    G E Senior Member

    Ordered Pictures of Heath, Night Train, and Byrd at Halfnote today

    after diner will order Mingus x5

    and likely try another Criss-Cross at the online crapshoot
     
  21. crispi

    crispi Vinyl Archaeologist

    Location:
    Berlin
    That's interesting. First of all, I had totally forgotten about that quote at the end, it's wonderful. Goosebumps.

    Secondly, I just listened to my Japanese CD from 1986 (32JD-100) and it's definitely plain mono. Is there a (narrow) stereo version around?
     
  22. Pimjazz0

    Pimjazz0 Forum Resident

    Why would you let anyone else than you decide for you. I assume you are familiar with most artists represented? That could give some direction. Otherwise just listen to the albums trough Spotify and decide for yourself which ones are essential and which are not. Following these lists of so called 'essentials' could really make you miss some beautiful music. I know that from experience.
     
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  23. CBackley

    CBackley Chairman of the Bored

    Alternatively, one can search this thread for the word “gem” and find some great lists that will help you narrow things down.
     
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  24. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I tend to agree.

    I understand it can be overwhelming to listen to 70 some odd albums and decide, but honestly I dont know of any other way to truly do this. Tastes vary so much. Take the Lovano TP for instance. If I had simply went by what is suggested then I wouldnt really know what I should do. Because about half the people are saying "Great album, recommended" and the other half are more "Eh, doesnt do much for me" Neither side is wrong. It simply leaves the only option being to listen and decide for yourself IMO.

    On the other hand, at least (as far as we know) these are not suppose to go oop any time soon. Though I still wouldnt drag my heels for years and years. But even if one listened to say two albums a day four days a week it would only take a couple of months or so to get through the list.

    If I were just starting out on the Tone Poets that is what I would do. Make a list of every title and go through a couple three or four days a week. They arent going to close shop in that time period. Each time a list comes out that is what I do. Usually listening to each album before I buy a couple of times. Between new music, various great jazz label reissues from decca, craft, ap, old ojcs etc etc I dont have the funds to just buy each TP unheard. Nor do I want possibly a dozen lps that I will never listen to. I have to pick and choose the best ones Ill actually listen to more so. Streaming these is a must for me. Though I know others just buy every TP that comes out, which is ok also. Just not my method or suggestion. Plus I love listening and wittling down the list.
     
  25. mikemoon

    mikemoon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    Yes, and sometimes a good list of recommendations can help someone narrow down which albums to at least prioritize while streaming/auditioning for a potential vinyl purchase.

    During the first 2 years, I had 90% of the Tone Poets released. I was almost tempted to be a completist. Then I pulled my foot off the gas, and since it's been about 25-50% of them released depending on the year. I probably have ~40-45 titles.

    I used to have more time in solitude to audition but in the past few years that time has reduced. Also, as you mention all the other jazz series to keep up with: Acoustic Sounds - Impulse, Verve, Contemporary; Decca, Sam Records, Speakers Corner, BNC, etc.

    This doesn't include new contemporary releases, other reissues and auditioning for vintage additions of original lps.
     

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