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Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissues

The New Land releases are expected 26th August and are available for pre-order. Blue Mitchell and Howard McGhee - Dusty Blue

https://www.facebook.com/newlandrecordsofficial/
Good to see that they are continuing with quality releases of less well known albums (in the Tone Poet manner) mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed by Pallas. I note it says “mastered from ....tape transfers” whatever that really means, but not too worried as I found Gerry Mulligan’s City Lights that they released really excellent both musically and for the mastering, sound quality and the pressing and it seemed to go down pretty well with many here.

Looks like more expenditure. £30 each, but reasonable if the quality is maintained. I am certainly in for the 1961 Bethlehem of the Howard Maggee Septet Of Dusty Blue as this has a great line up including Bennie Green, Pepper Adams and Ron Carter. Space is becoming more and more of a problem for me though.

The Blue Mitchell eponymous is later from 1971 originally on Mainstream and perhaps not as good as his earlier Blue Note albums and his 1966 ‘Bring It Home To Me’ is due as a Tone Poet in December. So I’m trying (again) to show some restraint, probably unsuccessfully again. :rolleyes:

Here are YouTube tracks from each.


 
Looks like more expenditure. £30 each, but reasonable if the quality is maintained. I am certainly in for the 1961 Bethlehem of the Howard Maggee Septet Of Dusty Blue as this has a great line up including Bennie Green, Pepper Adams and Ron Carter. Space is becoming more and more of a problem for me though.

Yes I just ordered the Dusty Blue. I'll wait to see what the damage will be for Blue Train in September before deciding on the other. The energy prices are really squeezing my new vinyl spend this year.
 
I've hit the jackpot with Blues Walk this month - a perfect pressing and perhaps the quietest to date.
 
Parker is spelt correctly on my Classic Records issue. It is a superb album, I’d recommend this one to anyone at the start of their Blue Note journey; upbeat, accessible, and lifted by the funky as hell congas.

PS Now I’ve pulled it of the rack I am obviously required by international law to play it.
 
My copy of Blues Walk arrived yesterday. It looks fine, but I haven’t had a chance to give it a spin yet though to fully check the pressing. I love the typo in the rear cover notes though where Charlie Parker is transformed into Porker! :D I’m fairly certain it is correct on the original issue.

That’s a pretty big snafu if it was right on the original! I wonder if there is a pressing where it was spelled incorrectly. Reminds me of the Herbie Handcock misspelling on one of the versions of Oblique, almost like someone was havin a larf..
 
That’s a pretty big snafu if it was right on the original! I wonder if there is a pressing where it was spelled incorrectly. Reminds me of the Herbie Handcock misspelling on one of the versions of Oblique, almost like someone was havin a larf..
Almost certainly on the original that was a mono. If you click on the rear cover photo of this one on the LJC website you can see it is spelt correctly as Parker. Although this is a slightly later stereo pressing the cover has one of the original Stereo labels stuck on of the type Blue Note used when they just used existing runs of mono covers.
https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/lou-donaldson-blues-walk-1958-blue-note-stereo/
 
Almost certainly on the original that was a mono. If you click on the rear cover photo of this one on the LJC website you can see it is spelt correctly as Parker. Although this is a slightly later stereo pressing the cover has one of the original Stereo labels stuck on of the type Blue Note used when they just used existing runs of mono covers.
https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/lou-donaldson-blues-walk-1958-blue-note-stereo/

Looks like Porker here in this 66 repress in a stereo sleeve. You'll need to save the image and zoom in. I thought it a bit odd that it would be reset rather than a facsimilie of the artwork

https://www.discogs.com/release/4420378-Lou-Donaldson-Blues-Walk
 
Looks like Porker here in this 66 repress in a stereo sleeve. You'll need to save the image and zoom in. I thought it a bit odd that it would be reset rather than a facsimilie of the artwork

https://www.discogs.com/release/4420378-Lou-Donaldson-Blues-Walk
While the Tone Poets Do a recreation of the original art work I think all the Classics are just reasonably high quality scans from the best cover Blue Note has available. You would have thought that they have mint condition original covers of almost everything in their archive to use, but perhaps not. Things go missing, even Mastertapes and 1966 was only a short time after Liberty took over.
 
While the Tone Poets Do a recreation of the original art work I think all the Classics are just reasonably high quality scans from the best cover Blue Note has available. You would have thought that they have mint condition original covers of almost everything in their archive to use, but perhaps not. Things go missing, even Mastertapes and 1966 was only a short time after Liberty took over.

I don't think there was a dedicated stereo sleeve until later and that is where the typo crept in
 
I don't think there was a dedicated stereo sleeve until later and that is where the typo crept in
Time they got a decent proof reader I will saw it straight away (but it did a se me hence the post) I take the job for a couple of pressings of each one. :rolleyes:;)
Edit: My post above has more typo’s than the one I mentioned. :oops:
 
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While the Tone Poets Do a recreation of the original art work I think all the Classics are just reasonably high quality scans from the best cover Blue Note has available. You would have thought that they have mint condition original covers of almost everything in their archive to use, but perhaps not. Things go missing, even Mastertapes and 1966 was only a short time after Liberty took over.

I've often wondered about this. I have this 1975 Japanese reissue of Mainstream 1958 with Tommy Flanagan's name get misspelt on the front cover. I guess they didn't have access to the artwork so had to recreate it.
 
Yes I found similar recently on the UK issue of Art Farmer - The Time & The Place, Cedar Walton changed his name to Coleman apparently.
 
I've often wondered about this. I have this 1975 Japanese reissue of Mainstream 1958 with Tommy Flanagan's name get misspelt on the front cover. I guess they didn't have access to the artwork so had to recreate it.
Paul,
I think I remember Joe Harley saying somewhere that while they recreate to get the best possible result if there was an error on the original they still go with that for authenticity. Seems a bit strange though as he has also said that they don’t stick to Van Gelder’s original mastering choices as they think they were limited by playback possibilities at the time and they think they can be improved. I don’t disagree with that, but unintentionally made typos seems odd in that context.
Edit: I of course know that one is not a TP. I think very few reissues are not from a scan of various quality. I think the Tone Poet criteria was that with Blue Notes, the mainly, Reid Miles cover designs were nearly as important as the music.
 
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Would loved to have heard Ewan Parker* and Charlie Porker** in the same band.

* see first press Karyobin.
** said to be overweight when he died, but I think ‘Porker’ is a bit unkind.
 


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