BN & MM = MMH (Marriage Made in Heaven)
Luuved the vid.
Thanks!
Doak
More Blue Note "Tone Poet" All-Analog Reissues Coming in 2020!
Harley again handpicked the titles, which cover the label's "créme de la créme output along with underrated classics, modern era standouts and releases from other labels under the Blue Note umbrella including Pacific Jazz and United Artists Records. The January 24th release of Hank Mobley's Poppin' (1957) and Stanley Turrentine's Comin' Your Way (1961), both available now for pre-order, will begin next year's offerings. Explore the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series on the Blue Note Store.
Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series – 2020 Release Schedule:
January 24
Hank Mobley – Poppin’ (Blue Note, 1957)
Stanley Turrentine – Comin’ Your Way (Blue Note, 1961)
February 28
Chet Baker – Chet Baker Sings (Pacific Jazz, 1954-56)
Grant Green – Nigeria (Blue Note, 1962)
March 27
Duke Ellington – Money Jungle (United Artists, 1962)
Herbie Hancock – The Prisoner (Blue Note, 1969)
April 24
Lee Morgan – The Cooker (Blue Note, 1957)
Dr. Lonnie Smith – All In My Mind (Blue Note, 2017)
May 22
Stanley Turrentine – That’s Where It's At (Blue Note, 1962)
Joe Henderson – The State of the Tenor: Live at the Village Vanguard, Volume 1 (Blue Note, 1985)
June 26
Bobby Hutcherson – The Kicker (Blue Note, 1963)
Jackie McLean – It’s Time (Blue Note, 1964)
July 24
Horace Silver – Further Explorations (Blue Note, 1958)
Jimmy Smith – Prayer Meetin’ (Blue Note, 1963)
August 28
Herbie Hancock – My Point of View (Blue Note, 1963)
Duke Pearson – The Phantom (Blue Note, 1968)
September 25
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Roots & Herbs (Blue Note, 1961)
Bobby Hutcherson – Oblique (Blue Note, 1967)
October 23
Tina Brooks – The Waiting Game (Blue Note, 1961)
McCoy Tyner – Tender Moments (Blue Note, 1967)
November 20
Donald Byrd – Byrd In Flight (Blue Note, 1960)
Lee Morgan – The Rajah (Blue Note, 1966)
December 11
Paul Chambers – Bass On Top (Blue Note, 1957)
John Scofield & Pat Metheny – I Can See Your House From Here (Blue Note, 1993)
Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series – 2019 Releases:
Wayne Shorter – Etcetera (Blue Note, 1965)
Chick Corea – Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (Solid State, 1968)
Sam Rivers – Contours (Blue Note, 1965)
Gil Evans – New Bottle Old Wine (World Pacific, 1958)
Cassandra Wilson – Glamoured (Blue Note, 2003)
Joe Henderson – The State of the Tenor: Live at the Village Vanguard, Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1985)
Lou Donaldson – Mr. Shing-A-Ling (Blue Note, 1967)
Lee Morgan – Cornbread (Blue Note, 1965)
Baby Face Willette – Face To Face (Blue Note, 1961)
Dexter Gordon – Clubhouse (Blue Note, 1965)
Kenny Burrell – Introducing Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1956)
Andrew Hill – Black Fire (Blue Note, 1963)
Donald Byrd – Chant (Blue Note, 1961)
Stanley Turrentine – Hustlin’ (Blue Note, 1964)
Grant Green – Born to Be Blue (Blue Note, 1962)
Tina Brooks – Minor Move (Blue Note, 1958)
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Hey Michael,
I hope the Xmas season is treating you well.
I was a huge champion of both the Tone Poets and BN80 series when they kicked off. I have a bunch from both, and many are first rate. As the year went along though, I found a number of these reissues have significant pitch stability problems. It can be particularly heard in sustained piano chords. Blue note have dismissed the problem despite multiple people noticing it. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts. Black Fire by Andrew Hill and Inventions and Dimensions by Herbie Hancock (side B) were some of the worst culprits if you'd care to take a listen.
All the best,
Don.
:)
To call those who are complaining about the pitch stability issues as "a few fetishists" is sort of insulting, and the very least dismissive. There are a couple of things wrong about that statement, anyway. For one, there are more than a few people who have cited these issues. There are more than 34 pages worth of citations in ONE THREAD on the Steve Hoffman Music Forum dedicated to just this issue.
Secondly, NO ONE is relishing the thought or prospect of having a record with speed stability issues. It's not slight.
The odd thing is that this problem wasn't a regular occurrence at ALL during the heyday of Music Matters and Analogue Productions' releases. In fact, no one seems to be able to cite an example of this pitch warbling that occurred on one of those releases.
It wasn't until this year, with the Tone Poet and 80th Anniversary series that this problem has cropped up. And one of the worst culprits, the aforementioned Inventions & Dimensions by Herbie Hancock, released as part of the 80th Blue Note series, was done to perfection just 7 years ago by Music Matters, released at 45rpm.
So why suddenly this year, and with these two series? Why has this not occurred until this year?
It's not like us plebeians necessarily have the answer. But it has occurred often enough, and sometimes egregiously, that we're asking, in the immortal words of Marvin Gaye, What's Going On?
AnalogJ, for the example you've noted, seven years has passed. In addition to the releases noted, Blue Note also did a transfer for the 75th anniversary, and who knows how many times there were other use of the tapes. Possibly each mastering is adding damage to the tapes.
The problem with some folks at SH is they cannot accept the tapes may be the issue, and implicitly/explicitly suggest it's the fault of KG or his equipment.
Why can't you accept it may be tape issues?
It's not that I WON'T accept that tapes address the issue. In fact, it seems perfectly acceptable as an explanation.
Here's the problem. No one involved in producing the records that exhibit three issues acknowledges the issue on the actual record. They're giving a generic response, but they don't acknowledge, for example, that the Tone Poet reissue of Black Fire has this problem to begin with. This is an album that probably shouldn't have been released to begin with, if the tapes were in bad shape, at least without some attempt at fixing the problem digitally if needed (something that Music Matters did with the title track on Song For My Father).
I question what happened in the 7 years between a brilliant reissue of Inventions & Dimensions 7 years ago and this one. If it was a matter of the tapes being mishandled when rewound, who was responsible for that? But again, who allowed it to be released in that bad a shape?
Buyers count on records being well produced. We all understand that the pressing process is not 100% always perfect. Non-fill, warps, surface noise do happen. Better pressing plants offer better odds of a good pressing. Individual copy defects do occur, nonetheless.
But before they get to the pressing plants, test pressings are made. The pitch fluctuation issues would/should be heard on those. How are these records being released with those defects?
Good news excerpt for the fact they are a month late from shipping current Tone Poet orders and have zero date on when they will be available but continue to take orders online. Vinyl Me Please is more than a month behind some shipments also....but will take your money.
Blue Note should note that these current titles are on back order.
There was an announcement several months ago that the November Tone Poets would be delayed...
I just didn’t see it when I purchased or in before my cart. Appreciate that.
Will the BN80 series continue ? Also AAA, and also excellent. Packaging is less sumptuous and price point is lower, but sonic quality is comparable to TP releases. I've been happy with both.
Mike, how do these compare to the Music Matters Jazz BN reissues?
To echo Don's comment, I've enjoyed these releases as well but this piano flutter issue is a real deal breaker for some titles. I'm worried about the next batch still exhibiting the same problem due to apparent lack of ability of the QC people to even hear the pitch instability. There is no way that this issue would be tolerated for a Bill Evans series...
There is no pitch correction that can fix this. Even with this said, many of us still enjoy b&w movies for the content. You will have to do the same here.
I have about 50 MMJ titles and 10TPs. I find them to be almost exactly as good as each other EXCEPT the piano flutter that is now consistent in various degrees on the TPs (as well as Blue Note 80th anniversary releases). It is the strangest phenomenon that I have ever encountered in my 30+ years of jazz record collecting.
The MMJ 45 issue of Herbie Hancock's "Taking Off" and the 80th BN issue of it.
I had a 70 blue label of Andrew Hill's "Black Fire" that did not have any pitch/flutter issues. I sold that off in anticipation of the TP which Side 2 of which will give some people motion sickness. I think that's the one Steve H. commented on.
The best example on Black Fire is ‘McNeil Island’ - if you have an older copy play that track back to back with the TP.
Thanks for putting Kevin’s explanation about the tapes here. I think I had seen that earlier and if that’s the last word on it then I can accept these anomalies being with us for posterity. Depending on the amount and type of piano playing (Sonny Clark’s staccato style does give the flutter a chance to show) I can still buy more TPs gladly. Anyone should give these a try and hear with their own ears, cuz that’s all that matters in the end. The all
analog process is priceless in its essence and these TPs are the last word in this amazing BN catalog.
For me personally, the Chet Baker Sings TP next year will be very interesting to hear as Russ Freeman’s style on ballads will test my ears intensely. I read an account of the recent RSD issue of Chet’s Riverside lp “It Could Happen To You” and they heard the flutter on it too. I’m awaiting the Craft box set and will assess that title myself. I have OJC copies of these Chet lps from the 80s I know like the back of my hand. If tapes
from 3 different labels all exhibit the exact same wear, then I’ll be glad that I haven’t sold those off for newer and fancier reissues because I personally can’t tolerate that particular effect of aging on tapes.
BTW - I started a separate issue on SHF to quarantine this divisive issue to its own thread. Steve Hoffman has commented on the issue and hears it as well. These issues are exhibiting themselves on sessions that were reissued within 5-10 years ago WITHOUT the issue before. I don't enough about how or why it is happening and would not lay blame on anyone. Remember that some people can't even detect the differences.
Hahahahaha! I just turned 50 and started breaking down at 45, but I feel 33&1/3 inside!
they are not the same product: although Kevin Gray mastered and lacquered the albums - TP is pressed at RTI (universally good) and BN 80 in larger quantities at Optimal. So far, I have had to send back 3 BN80s where the sound quality was so bad that I can only assume that my copy came from the end of a stamper run. It is easy to assume that historic recordings may be a little lo fi - but thanks to lossless streaming it was easy to identify poor pressings. How many LPs do they press per stamper at Optimal?
Many Grateful dead tapes have been well served by the Plangent Process.
I wonder if these issues would be good candidate? Piano wow/flutter is a deal killer for me, as well. (It's like trying to listen to Eddie Vedder hold a note.)
That would only work if you were making a digital transfer. Plangent is not used when everything remains in the analog domain.
I've purchased about a dozen of these Tone Poet / BN 80 and had to return half because of the warbly piano phenomenon. Obviously, it affects some people more than others...that certainly doesn't make them "fetishists".
What a ridiculous thing to say....especially coming from the self proclaimed king of vinyl. In 50 years of buying and listening to records, even when I owned my own record store...I've never heard anything like this.
The notion that all of these tapes just happen to all be going south in 2019 and just happen to all be mastered at Cohearent is a level of wishful thinking that attains epic proportions.
We have apples to apples comparisons to override such “logic.” One needn’t even reference originals, later Japanese copy tape reissues and certainly not CDs.
Instead, the reference Should be albums like Art Blakey’s Indestructible, which done by Kevin Gray in 2017. Freddie Hubbard’s Hub-Tones in 2015. And there are more examples. These reissues exhibited none of these problems.
Both the BN80 and Tone Poet series have basically been cranking out one
Both the BN80 and Tone Poet series have been cranking out one flutter-drenched mess after another. Anything with piano aside from the very first reissue (Shorter’s Etc.) is just a question of how many Dramamine wiil be required.
Here is a list of confirmed testing we have done at the Hoffman site. Samples are often still available in the “Tone Poet/Blue Note 80 Speed Problems” thread. Note that this only the titles previously done by Kevin Gray. Apparently we are supposed to believe that all of these tapes simultaneously went bad between the last time he mastered them and now.
Kenny Dorham - 'Una Mas' - 2011 Music Matters (Mastered by Kevin Gray at AcousTech): No speed problems.
Kenny Dorham - 'Una Mas' - 2019 Blue Note (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): Speed problems.
Freddie Hubbard - 'Hub-Tones' Music Matters 2015 (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): No speed problems.
Freddie Hubbard - 'Hub-Tones' Blue Note 2019 (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): Speed problems.
Art Blakey - 'Indestructable ' 2012 Music Matters (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): No speed problems.
Art Blakey - 'Indestructable ' 2017 Music Matters (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): No speed problems.
Art Blakey - 'Indestructable ' 2019 Blue Note (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): Speed problems.
Herbie Hancock - 'Inventions & Dimensions' 2012 Music Matters (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): No speed problems.
Herbie Hancock - 'Inventions & Dimensions' 2019 Blue Note (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant) Speed problems.
Dexter Gordon - 'Doin' Allright' 2009 Music Matters (Mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray at AcousTech): No speed problems.
Dexter Gordon - 'Doin' Allright' 2019 Blue Note (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant): Speed problems.
Joe Henderson - 'In 'n' Out' 2012 Music Matters (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant) No speed problems.
Joe Henderson - 'In 'n' Out' 2019 Blue Note (Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant) Speed problems.
If it's the tapes (and perhaps it is), could things go south for this many albums in just 2-3 years time in some cases? I could see a tape going bad from 1970 to 2019, but from 2017 to 2019? I think people are fetishizing because (a) they're audiophiles; and (b) there's an issue with their favorite music by trusted and loved producer/mastering guys and there isn't a solid response as to why things got weird with multiple tapes in such a short period of time.
Anyway ... i'd still rather have these releases with a wee bit of funkiness than not have them at all.
because I havn't bought an LP in 35 years but:
1. Wern't the original BN tapes copied to a more stable (or user friendly) tape at some point in the 60s or 70s? Or are truly original master tapes available for these releases?
2. If the tapes have degraded in last few years (I realize that still has to be proven) why not at least try Plangent? Perhaps because if the result is an improvement, digital replacements will be required (that might not satisfy the picky consumer) at huge expense to BN?
If it were me and I had to make copies of these tapes it would not be to another reel of tape and more loss, but to DSD for archiving purposes. THAT would make sense to me.
Someone might also argue that 24/192 would be enough, but my experience as well as others who record have found that they, and I prefer 2496 over 24/192, but you might think that the math would say 24/192 has to be better. I have a tendency to think that the stability of a master clock becomes more critical as you up the sample rate. I could be wrong about that, but I know what my old ears tell me. I love 2496.
That said, I would be doing all archiving in DSD and not have to worry about deterioration, even though it is easier to manipulate PCM.
30% off and free shipping.
I ordered quite a few, will see how the wow and flutter sounds. But they won't get shipped until Jan 02/2020. I do though hope the wow isn't as bad as it is made out to be.
If the master tape is basically ruined or has significant problems, one might ask why bother with a reissue of the piece in the first place? Perhaps one could argue that the music is so valuable that it needs to be reissued- and that there is a large enough audience to accept it in the condition that it now presents itself, BUT the counter to that would surely be...are there NOT enough alternatives in the catalog (in this instance Blue Note jazz ) that would present as better candidates for reissue work...and that do NOT have worn out master tapes??? If Kevin is saying that ALL of the Blue Note pieces are now so old and the master tapes are so damaged and worn that this is the best one can get--which is what I think he seems to be saying, then maybe this is justification for the result...BUT is it justification enough for the choice of these particular TP releases...that is the ??
This is a business, the reissue business, and it is knowing that people will by reissues, regardless. The only way one would know that the quality is less than good is my this site and your comments by owners.
I would like to think that any entity that has R2R masters in storage that they are getting them transferred to DSD as soon as possible. If not the deterioration will continue and let buyers beware.
The fact that the 30% discount is out there is interesting, but shipping in Jan of 2020 is odd. I would cancel that order, regardless of the discount. There is other good music to be bought that is in good condition.
Joe Harley/Chad Kassem and co. have kept the metal parts for all of their MM/AP Blue Note reissues - these may well be the best analog representation of the original recordings still in existance (if the master tapes are degenerating at such a fast rate). I presume, particularly after the Universal fire, that record companies have been scouring the world (i.e. Japan) for the best surviving copies of the original masters.
Hasn't MM admitted to digital manipulation on some of their releases? Even if/when justifiable, it no longer counts as fully analog.
Also, there are posters on the SH forums claiming they hear the flutter issues on Tidal. That suggests to me that these tapes are getting handled quite a bit, and not simply for audiophile vinyl remasterings/reissues.
MMJ and the Tone Poet releases are up front about what is AAA and what is not. For example, Henderson's State of the Tenor, Vol 2 is from a digital master and the release is very clear about that. I don't think any other 2019 Tone Poet's weren't AAA. It is possible there may have been another 1 or 2.
I am not sure what your point is.
MMJ has disclosed to have digitally manipulated only one track: "Song For My Father" of same album on their original 45 RPM reissue because the master tape had flutter. On their most recent 33 1/3 SRX release of same, they used a newly discovered safety copy tape which did not have flutter and it is therefore 100% AAA. I have both. To my ears, on my system, the 33 SRX track sounds more substantial and has clearer phrasing and finger work on all three piano, sax and trumpet. The piano is more liquid. Cymbals have more clear attack and more textured sustain. These are not night and day differences, they are subtle, but repeated playing confirmed these impressions every time.
Not sure if you got word, Mikey, but just in case...
...Skippy White's legendary record shop in Boston is going away at the end of this year (or when his existing inventory is sold).
Ordered a Presley Mo-fi cd from him today. Sad, was a great store.
Turns out even though I paid through ebay for this Mo-Fi Presley CD, I never go it. Tonight I get an email from him that ebay inadvertently relisted it and he sold it...again. Load of bollocks. The price for that rare CD was $75 - a good deal, but I suspect he realized he could get double - then turned around and sold it for double and emailed me this lame excuse. For once in my life I am glad a record store is closing, underhanded sellers like that have no place in our hobby.
Hello,
First of all I'd like to chime in and say that's a fantastic news that Tone Poet will continue! Really fantastic! It will allow all of us who wants to get to analog and BN catalogue with affordable price - much more affordable than MM in my humble opinion. Second thing is that complaining about some hiss or imperfections on the masters which are 40-more years old it's ridiculous. You can remove most of the hiss as Michael Fremer said, but this process in intrusive to the overall tonal balance and will remove that "magic" Joe was saying. What I would like to say is just thank you again for these re-issues, amen.
The complaints are about acoustic pianos that sound like they are attached to a vibrato pedal. Many of these very same recordings had no such defects when released a little as 3 or 4 years ago...by the very same mastering engineer...at the very same studio. Get it now? Amen! The supposed audiophile vinyl fetishist who runs this site is too busy casting false accusations around about The Beatles box....and then having to eat his words...yeah he's too busy to sit down and really figure out what's going on here.