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Tone Poet Blue Notes

mikechadwick said:
Strangely, Universal still seem to be selling in the Hubbard & Wilson releases for 6th May - mail out from local indie yesterday:
BLUE NOTE 06-May GERARD WILSON MOMENT OF TRUTH (Tone Poet) LTD 1LP

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In the early 1960s, the great composer, arranger, and bandleader Gerald Wilson began recording a series of spectacular albums for Pacific Jazz that stand as the most significant of his lengthy career. The second of those albums, 1962’s Moment of Truth, features Wilson’s dynamic big band on an action-packed nine-song set (seven of which were composed by Wilson) with highlights including the swaggering blues of the title track, the irrepressible Latin groove of “Viva Tirado,” and a fleet-footed version of “Milestones” by Miles Davis.
This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.
BLUE NOTE 06-May FREDDIE HUBBARD BREAKING POINT! (Tone Poet) LTD 1LP

0602435519821
One of the more remarkable albums in Freddie Hubbard’s formidable Blue Note oeuvre, Breaking Point! was recorded in May 1964 shortly after the trumpeter left Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers to form his own band. The quintet—with James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, Ronnie Mathews on piano, Eddie Khan on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums—moves assuredly from free-form playing and modal jazz to the blues and balladry on this five-song set of originals by Hubbard and Chambers.
This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.
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Yeah my guy is saying the same. We won’t hold our breath!
 
Nagraboy said:
I’ve got a cheap reissue with the original ‘Playboys’ cover. I think there was a copyright issue with the original title.
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Yes apparently Playboy threatened to sue unless they changed it. I did mention it once before back here:
https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/tone-poet-blue-notes.225147/page-52#post-4258911 Post 1029. I assume the Tone Poet cover will now be the ‘Picture of Heath’ Replacement Cover?
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https://www.discogs.com/master/269012-Chet-Baker-Art-Pepper-Playboys
 
RickyC6 said:
Curtain Call has just arrived and I’ve realised it was originally released in Japan in 1984 as Hank Mobley Quintet feat Sonny Clark, which I have so…I’d best compare then!
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Mine arrived yesterday and initiated a bit of a ‘Mobley Day’ for me (many put in the what are you listening to thread for today). I’m not sure why some consider this sub par Mobley as IMHO it’s up there with some of his best. Great line up and all are on form Mobley really excels in the ballad ‘Deep In A Dream’ with his rich almost ‘woody’ Tenor tone on this. Some great solos from Sonny Clark and Kenny Dorham really shines on ‘My Reverie’. It would be a shame for anyone to pass On this one.

Excellent sound on this Tone Poet reissues as well. Here the piano sound is excellent, much better than many of Van Gelder’s later piano recordings. It does have a narrower sound stage than usual with the Tone Poets reissue versions, but personally on my system at least I sometimes think they too wide. This is from Van Gelder’s joint mono and stereo period (March 57 to May 59) recording where he was experimenting with placement for the stereo releases and you can hear he makes some position changes on this recording. Both Tenor and Trumpet start mid left on side one with drums mainly central and bass a to the mid-right, but by side two Tenor, Trumpet and bass are pretty much central and drums to the right. Plenty of depth and room ambiance on this recording though surrounding the musicians. Still overall it really sounds good including the rhythm section. I’ll be interested in how your Japanese original sounds in comparison.

Joe Harley seems to have gone with the first Japanese CD cover, but moved the text around a bit. Some nice session photos on the inside of the sleeve.

Edit:
Just playing the Tone Poet reissue of Mobley’s ‘Poppin’ (a different line up Sextet rather than the Quintet Of Curtain Call) that also was first released in Japan with a different cover. This was also recorded in 1957 by Van Gelder, but a only few months later in October, ‘Curtain Call’ was recorded in August. Here the the sound stage is much wider and he seems to have settled at this time pretty much to the side two positioning of ‘Curtain Call’ for a lot of ‘Poppin’ Horns far left, piano central, drums sometimes central, but also at times with the towards to the right. Later of course he usually decided on saxes and horns both far left and right with the designated leader usually to the left, bass central and drums right.
DG Mono’s take on this period: https://dgmono.com/blue-note-mono-stereo-guide/
 
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Currently comparing Curtain Call to the Japanese Toshiba EMI first press (called either Hank or Hank Mobley Quintet featuring Sonny Clark)…the latter mistakenly (I think!) credits George Joyner as the bass player rather than Jimmy Rowser by the way.

I’m shockingly biased when it comes to these Japanese Blue Notes as I’m fortunate to have a good few and they sound soooo nice and just “right” to these ears.

it’s the same with this comparison I think. The TP sounds more “accurately mastered” whatever that means, in some way, but the ToshEMI just seems more eminently listenable. There’s a whole load of “air” (call it hiss if you will) around the top end that has been fixed on the TP, but I kinda like it. It sounds more real and as if that’s what it sounded like in the room. Maybe. I wasn’t there obvz.

I think I actually prefer SC’s piano a bit more on the TP but KD and Hank’s horns are much meatier on the ToshEMI.

There’s a tad more weight to the bass on the original as well.

I could easily live with both. And probably will. Oh and I’ve still got side 2 to go!

EDIT…KD on My Reverie…as poco pointed out, wonderful playing. I think he sounds even sweeter and more affecting on the Japanese issue.

FURTHER EDIT…some of that top end air…does start to be a tad intrusive on the last track. I can understand completely why KG/JH “calmed it down”.
 
My copy of Curtain Call still hasn't arrived from the Blue Note store. I just got a response from them to say they're chasing their supplier but don't know when they'll be able to ship it.

Bizarre that the official Blue Note store don't seem to be able to fulfil orders but Amazon and Juno have stock.
 
paulfromcamden said:
My copy of Curtain Call still hasn't arrived from the Blue Note store. I just got a response from them to say they're chasing their supplier but don't know when they'll be able to ship it.

Bizarre that the official Blue Note store don't seem to be able to fulfil orders but Amazon and Juno have stock.
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I asked Rough Trade Nottingham to order me a copy and it arrived a few days later. Very odd that Blue Note themselves can’t seem to.
 
paulfromcamden said:
My copy of Curtain Call still hasn't arrived from the Blue Note store. I just got a response from them to say they're chasing their supplier but don't know when they'll be able to ship it.

Bizarre that the official Blue Note store don't seem to be able to fulfil orders but Amazon and Juno have stock.
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I found it “once bitten twice shy” with the Blue Note store despite the regular discounts being attractive at times.
 
poco a poco said:
Article and interview with Kevin Gray.https://www.stereophile.com/content/kevin-gray-vinyl-mastering-master
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Some really valuable content in that article. Wish they’d had time and space to go into even more detail.


poco a poco said:
Nice monochrome photo of him by his wife as well.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/kevin-gray-vinyl-mastering-master
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Jim - I scrolled through the article about three times looking for a photo KG and his wife - then I thought you were being sarcastic meaning he was married to his mastering chain. Finally I re-read what you said. Doh!
 
He has a look of John Peel about him, combined with someone else whose face is vaguely familiar but whose name I can't recall right now.
 
poco a poco said:
I found it “once bitten twice shy” with the Blue Note store despite the regular discounts being attractive at times.
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Indeed. I've placed quite a few orders, but their stock control is too erratic to be reliable.

I placed an order back in March for a couple of Classic Series releases and Curtain Call all with a 20% discount. They held the others back until the delay release of Curtain Call, but when it eventually came out, they didn't get any stock of it, so I've not had anything from the order at all.

As you say, the discount is attractive, but the service is poor, and you could risk missing out on titles altogether.
 
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I had a phone call yesterday to say the copy of For Django that I had asked my local indie store for was waiting for me. This made me feel very grown-up, so in a fit of bravado I ordered this from Bezos World, which arrived two hours ago...

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Which means I now have - let's see - TWO Tone Poets. Please can I come and have a cigarette in the prefects' room?
 
Has anyone had double labels on any of these TPs? I've just opened my copy of Tippin' The Scales and the label for side 2 was not flat and really 'bubbly' in appearance.

On closer inspection, it was only attached by the top 1/3 of the label and underneath was another (properly attached) label.

I think I've seen this before somewhere, but not on these TPs.
 
kingston12 said:
Has anyone had double labels on any of these TPs? I've just opened my copy of Tippin' The Scales and the label for side 2 was not flat and really 'bubbly' in appearance.

On closer inspection, it was only attached by the top 1/3 of the label and underneath was another (properly attached) label.

I think I've seen this before somewhere, but not on these TPs.
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I have had it on a couple of occasions in general, but never on any of the Tone Poets and I have most of them. Usually easy to remove. My Tippin The Scales was fine. Just press operator error I expect?
 
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