I couldn't find the bit attributing the California lifestyle to the West Coast jazz sound in Hear Me Talkin' To Ya, where I thought I had read it. But I did see this bit from horn player John Graas, who attributes it to Gerry Mulligan:
Is this true? The catalog number and spine of this TP is BLUE NOTE 81589 All other stereo TPs state "BLUE NOTE STEREO 12345' And all mono releases so far omit "Stereo" from the spine and back cover. I could swear I listening to Further Explorations without a mono switch and it was centered imaging. If not I'll correct my above statement! Eek!
The catalog and spine do not state stereo like the other stereo releases in this series. All mono releases omit Stereo and just say nothing... Like this Further Explorations release. My turntable is still in the shop so I cant confirm and now I'm very confused. I have indeed listened to it using a mono switch and it sounded great. Sorry for the confusion if I'm wrong here!
No confusion except on your end. Stereo is plastered all over the record. The label says stereo. The catalog number with '8' at the beginning means stereo. On the back upper left of the jacket says stereo.
I'm 100% sure the labels are Stereo, but I don't actually remember if it plays Stereo, I just assumed. But now you left me thinking. I'll be back in a minute to let you know.
Just saw this and can confirm. Stereo all over. And I played a few seconds of it and it is indeed stereo. And classic stereo separation from that era. @chris8519
Correct. BST 81589 is on the label, and it is indeed stereo. If it were mono the catalog number would be BLP 1589.
Yeah, I would think it's a good possibility. The title selection of the Universal Japan series from a few years back picked a similar range of titles as have found their way into the Acoustic Sounds collection. Gerry Mulligan – Night Lights (2007, 200g, Vinyl)
Wow, the Lee Konitz + Gerry Mulligan is just cracking great music. How fun is it to get this re-release so quickly after The All Seeing Eye. From our perspective in 2021, these are 64- and 55-year-old recordings, respectively. But how much changed in those nine years! Thank you Joe for expanding the Tone Poet umbrella to include this rather "traditional" West Coast repertoire! The more issues we get in this series, the harder it is to pin down exactly "what" makes a Tone Poet a Tone Poet. I hope these wonderful recordings from the jazz idiom continue to be re-introduced to us all for many, many years!
I love it too. I was hoping for Breathe to be a matching Tone Poet but based on pricing, it doesn't seem so $27 for a two record set. I'll wait for the reviews.
I like the instrumentals on Breath, but will pass on the LP version because I don’t care for the vocals. I can stream it on Qobuz and filter out what I don’t want.
Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I saw some other people talking about it in the thread. This Ken Micallef dude is a pretentious d*ck! Made a video to pretty much foil Michael @ 45 RPMs ‘Audiophile Reissue vs Original Pressing’ video a mere hours after Michael dropped the video lol Someone in the comments said they liked the reissues as well, to which he replied “You haven’t heard anything. You don’t know anything. Go back to that channel where it’s all about style”. The quote may not be exact but it was to that effect. I can’t believe this grown ass man has his panties in a bunch over Michael and his channel. Yes, that Michael - the super chill, unassuming teddy bear of a man that gifts us with drool worthy videos of quality vinyl. LMAO it’s kind of pathetic man Ok, that’s it for my vinyl soap opera story. I’m loving my ‘All Seeing Eye’ and just received the Konitz today, can’t wait to spin it. Carry on good sirs
Yep. Mea culpa. I meant the confusion I created by stating it was mono. "Sorry for the confusion... I created". It's stereo. Wasn't familiar with the 8 prefix meaning. And when I pulled out the sleeve to check... I pulled it out far enough to only see the right side of the back sleeve. Comedy of errors. Damned if it didn't sound nice summed to mono though
Definitely confirms my earlier decision to unsubscribe from his channel. BTW I did watch his 3-part interview with Joe Harley, which was interesting because of what Joe said and took the time to explain, certainly not because of Ken’s questions and poor preparation. But knowing (because saying so himself in earlier videos) that he doesn’t like / hates the audiophile reissue treatment of Blue Note titles, I found it quite hypocritical of him to (1) invite Joe Harley and (2) not bringing up that particular subject in any way. But as the man also implied earlier, he’s actively pursuing more views and subscribers. And in these confused, anti-social times even unpleasant people like himself will always manage to find a target audience.
I'd like to chime in in Mr Mcallef's defence here. I watched the video in question. I found it to be a perfectly reasonable expression of his own thoughts/experiences regarding originals vs. reissues. I could not find any rude exchanges in the comments either. (Maybe they were deleted.) Not sure what the fuss is about. I'm a big fan of Michael 45rpm's channel too. Both guys have a lot to offer.
So great to hear! I know @recstar24 had some good things to say as well. I've had my copy for a few days now, but already knew the recordings well as I have a much older copy, so was waiting to be in the proper mood. But today is the day I sit back and give it a spin. An excellent choice for the series. What makes a Tone Poet you ask, well just about any nugget from the affiliated labels Joe chooses from that have not been given the proper love and care they deserve to delight our ears. Awesome post by the way.
Ken Micallef has absolutely trashed Music Matters, but been generally positive about the Tone Poet series, I think. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Joe’s a mensch for going on his channel.
No distortion on my copy, but I did have more surface noise than usual on the first spin. Cleaned it a second time and better. Not completely quiet, but it does not distract from the music. I think I've given up on saying I have a favorite Tone Poet, because I'll just come off like the boy who cried wolf. With that said, this might be...ah, caught myself.
Well I've been to my local indie record shop and placed an order for my first BN TP titles I ordered: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - The Witch Doctor Curtis Amy and Dupree Bolton - Katanga! Want to get Wayne Shorter's The All Seeing Eye too albeit that's a pre-order in this part of the world as it isn't officially released until 1 October. Looking forward to getting the records and hoping I'll get good pressings
The All Seeing Eye is my current top TP release. However, some copies may need two or more cleaning runs. This has been my experience with "noisy" RTI pressings -- they just need to be cleaned and played several times. I played my 33 RPM MMJ Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage last weekend and they are very quiet, but my notes dated sometime in 2017 indicate that they are "noisy" (I started re-cleaning all of my records using an AIVS two step process last week).
I watched Ken's video and basically he is saying it is case-by-case. The only thing most of cannot compare unfortunately however: original Blue Note pressings of course. He is not alone in saying that it is not only resolution and detail when comparing pressings.
Thanks for the info. Luckily I have a liquid/vacuum cleaning machine and I run all my records through that whether used or new. Herbie Hancock is one of my favourite artists and was the guy that basically got me into jazz in the first place so I'm envious that you have those as I know that the Music Matters releases are very well regarded. I currently only have Herbie in digital form but will hopefully get my hands on some of his titles in these recent BN re-issues.
