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Tone Poet Blue Notes

I'm still on the fence with the live Donald Byrd record. I've been streaming it a bit and quite enjoying it but can't make my mind up whether the TP will be "OK music that sounds great" or "really good music that sound great".

I have a problem with some TPs that, while I'm generally bowled over by the SQ, too often, over time, the music fails to stick. That said, Pepper Adams solos are starting to stand out on the stream of the live recording - although I do tend to lose focus when Byrd or Pearson are playing.
 
I’d buy it. I agree with you on some of the Tone Poet, I’ve certainly filed some in my collection I can remember nothing about as they are just generic Blue Note hard-bop to my ears without the stand-out tracks that make the classics classics. There are exceptions for sure, but I can imagine having a bit of a purge at some point in the future to say keep the best Stanley Turrentine album rather than having three etc.

I’d not put this Byrd in this category as it is a) very good, b) a very rare for Blue Note live gig recording, and c) sounds superb, right up there with the best Blue Notes. I’d put the two Ornette Coleman Stockholm albums (in the Round Trip box) in the same category. Records that when you do file them away you’ll never forget what you liked about them, and therefore they’ll be pulled to play again. I think I’d put this Byrd in my top five Tone Poets, certainly in the top ten.
 
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Hearing from my dealer that Universal are going to be halving the number of TPs and Classics issued in the UK so apparently only between 150-200 of each title. Seems crazy.
 
Yikes! I thought they were selling more than that to people on pfm let alone in the UK! I’m really surprised by that. It’s pretty obvious the over-produced the Ornette box given the hefty price drops on Amazon (the combination of being the most expensive title and I guess the most ‘difficult’ for many listeners), but I thought the rest were on safe ground. Some older titles are increasing in value hugely due to being out of stock everywhere.
 
Hearing from my dealer that Universal are going to be halving the number of TPs and Classics issued in the UK so apparently only between 150-200 of each title. Seems crazy.

Probably they can't press enough and the markets elsewhere have too few.
 
I’d buy it. I agree with you on some of the Tone Poet, I’ve certainly filed some in my collection I can remember nothing about as they are just generic Blue Note hard-bop to my ears without the stand-out tracks that make the classics classics. There are exceptions for sure, but I can imagine having a bit of a purge at some point in the future to say keep the best Stanley Turrentine album rather than having three etc.

I’d not put this Byrd in this category as it is a) very good, b) a very rare for Blue Note live gig recording, and c) sounds superb, right up there with the best Blue Notes. I’d put the two Ornette Coleman Stockholm albums (in the Round Trip box) in the same category. Records that when you do file them away you’ll never forget what you liked about them, and therefore they’ll be pulled to play again. I think I’d put this Byrd in my top five Tone Poets, certainly in the top ten.

That was the final bit of persuasion I needed - an order has been placed. Thank you!

Hearing from my dealer that Universal are going to be halving the number of TPs and Classics issued in the UK so apparently only between 150-200 of each title. Seems crazy.

That's either i) not good or ii) just what is needed for indecisive dithers like me.

I'll try and work whether it's i) or ii) in my own sweet time.
 
Aye it’s all a bit worrying but Bluesnik is on its way so that’s good.

I just got that confirmation that Bluesnik is one the way the same time as conformation that the Live Byrd record will arrive tomorrow.

Two new records on the same day :eek:
 
I’d buy it. I agree with you on some of the Tone Poet, I’ve certainly filed some in my collection I can remember nothing about as they are just generic Blue Note hard-bop to my ears without the stand-out tracks that make the classics classics. There are exceptions for sure, but I can imagine having a bit of a purge at some point in the future to say keep the best Stanley Turrentine album rather than having three etc.

I’d not put this Byrd in this category as it is a) very good, b) a very rare for Blue Note live gig recording, and c) sounds superb, right up there with the best Blue Notes. I’d put the two Ornette Coleman Stockholm albums (in the Round Trip box) in the same category. Records that when you do file them away you’ll never forget what you liked about them, and therefore they’ll be pulled to play again. I think I’d put this Byrd in my top five Tone Poets, certainly in the top ten.

Listening to the Byrd half note cafe tone poet tonight having just bought it. Sounds very very nice. Loveley recording. A must have indeed.

One of the systematic problems with streaming Blue Note releases to see if you "need" them is that the edition being streamed can be so qualitatively different to the TP or BN classic remaster.

I'm having a first play of the Byrd Half Note record and from the first seconds - the announcements before the show - there is a noticeable difference. What is almost in the background when streaming is clear and present in the TP edition and the difference becomes even more apparent once the music starts. I'm tempted to say the remasters make the music better - or at least present it in a way that makes in significantly more enjoyable.

This is a very fine record - really good music that sounds great.
 
I need a Tone Poet of Sonny Rollins vol. 1. Let's be having one please.
Unfortunately it won’t happen as a Tone Poet as it was a Music Matters reissue. Vol. 1 is Sonny Rollins Blue Note 1542 (mono). I’m lucky enough to have the 2x45rpm. It may of course eventually make it as a BN Classic.
 
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Unfortunately it won’t happen as a Tone Poet as it was a Music Matters reissue. Vol. 1 is Sonny Rollins Blue Note 1542 (mono). I’m lucky enough to have the 2x45rpm. It may of course eventually make it as a BN Classic.

I know what it is! BN Classic will do fine, thanks.
 
Just to further the RVG vs. Tone Poet discussion I have, as I said I would, just sold my Plastylite ‘ear’ first mono RVG pressing of Ornette Coleman’s Golden Circle Volume 2. As it has a light but very visible scuff on side two I wanted to play-test it in full as even with a mark it is a valuable record. FWIW I couldn’t hear the mark at all, not even a suggestion. It gave me an opportunity for an obviously flawed comparison between the Tone Poet stereo and the RVG mono. By this point the mono is a ‘fold-down’ rather than a different mono mix, and if anything that makes the comparison more relevant as it is a mono and stereo presentation of the same master. Not a distinct mix.

Everything I have said upthread is reinforced. The RVG just barks and bites. Alive and forceful. Coleman’s sax sounds amazing, just so much raw presence and attack. It is right in your face and the drums really kick. There is obviously compression here, but it sounds superb and adds to the artistic intent IMHO. The Tone Poet sounds lovely in a hi-fi sense, but it is just too ‘pretty’. The bite and aggression is gone, the sax is smaller and sweeter. It almost sounds like Norah Jones is about to start singing (not that there is anything wrong with Norah, I like Come Away With Me!). I’m obviously exaggerating a bit to make the point more clearly, it still isn’t ‘smooth jazz’, but I stand by my view that RVG knew *exactly* what he was doing and the TPs, lovely though they are, remove a fair bit of artistic intent in exchange for an audiophile loveliness. In a way I’m sorry to see this RVG Vol 2 go, but I have a lot of RVG-stamped Blue Note, Impulse, Verve etc in my favoured stereo form, and I’ll be really interested to know what @igor_xxxx makes of it when he eventually gets it (he has the Round Trip box too). I have a feeling he’ll like it!
 
What are the verdicts on the recent batch?

I'm streaming the Andrew Hill and liking it very much. Does it have the usual TP value added factor? If so, and given stories on numbers pressed going down, I'm going to have to relent on my no new records during lent vow....
 
What are the verdicts on the recent batch?

I'm streaming the Andrew Hill and liking it very much. Does it have the usual TP value added factor? If so, and given stories on numbers pressed going down, I'm going to have to relent on my no new records during lent vow....
Both are again excellent both musically and for sound quality although quite different. Pressings are top notch flat and very quiet. The Carmell Jones is of course more conventional musically, but the playing of all the musicians is also first rate and in particular Jones who really is ‘remarkable’ while he seems to remind me of Clifford Brown, his ability to have complete control over his tone and embouchure is outstanding. There are times here were he plays a long sustained note followed a flurry of fast trills that are perfectly clear and detailed. Harold Land follows his lead with this almost equally on tenor. Great stuff. Sound staging is a little left / right, but with with some centre fill bleed. The second track ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ that is basically a trio has Jones central though and he is recorded quite hot, but I’m not hearing and overload or distortion. This is a top rate recording.

The Andrew Hill is phenomenal, but I am a particular fan of his music. The quality of playing and improvisation of all the musicians is astonishing. Maybe showing the best Billy Higgins skills on record? A lot of it principle quite simplified, but what he does with just some hard rim shots and taps offset with some delicate cymbal work is amazing. I was particularly impressed with Joe Farrell, particularly his solos on soprano. Charles Tolliver is great as usual and Andrew Hill of course wonderfully inventive and you want at times to hear much more from just him! It takes a few plays to fully appreciated all that is going on here. Sound quality is probably the best of all the Hill Tone Poet’s and Classics so far. I doubt that even some of previous complainers on the SH Forum about the Hill Tone Poets will be able to find fault with this one.

The other good thing as well Amazon in the end only charged me £32 delivered after dropping the price and the are both still still at that price:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BS1G9314/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
 
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What are the verdicts on the recent batch?
I'm streaming the Andrew Hill and liking it very much. Does it have the usual TP value added factor?

Damce With Death is essential IMO, through composed jazz that sounds very fresh and contemporary with some great solo playing, especially from Hill. My TP copy should be with me by the W/E, replacing a rather lifeless Heavenly Sweetness LP and a Connoisseur CD from the 90s. The Conn CD is good, if a little light on bass (compared to other Conn BN CDs) - maybe this was intentional in the mix or a bit too much compression for CD release. I’ll let you know when I’ve heard the TP.

Can’t get too excited about the Carmell Jones. Starts off nicely with Gary Peacock pulling out the stops, then it all gets a bit ho-hum. A completely different beast to anything by Andrew Hill, but then again Hill is probably my favourite BN recording artist - next to Dolphy.
 


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