advertisement


Tone Poet Blue Notes

To save me searching…where else has Mirrors featured on a BN album? It’s such a great ballad. Joe Chambers was a great writer as well as drummer.
 
You’re right, but I don’t have that. Best look for it!
I have both those other versions of Mirrors, and yea, I specifically looked them out because its such an amazing track on Breaking point - for me, neither of those other tracks reached the same heights, but it did seem the "right" thing to do to get the Joe Chambers version, as he was the writer :)
 
Last edited:
Interview with Kevin Gray where he seems to give the game away as to what to expect with the Tone Poet John Coltrane - Blue Train due in September. At about 13.5 minutes in he mentions it as being 2 stereos (one of unreleased tracks) and a mono. The two stereo’s as a package and the mono packaged separately. Kevin prefers the mono because of how Rudi had handled the added reverb on it and the wide separation with little centre fill on the stereo.


Quite a lot of other interesting stuff in this interview as well. Base roll off V volume reduction for long sides. Cutting from digital etc.
 
Interview with Kevin Gray where he seems to give the game away as to what to expect with the Tone Poet John Coltrane - Blue Train due in September. At about 13.5 minutes in he mentions it as being 2 stereos (one of unreleased tracks) and a mono. The two stereo’s as a package and the mono packaged separately. Kevin prefers the mono because of how Rudi had handled the added reverb on it and the wide separation with little centre fill.

Oh good, I can just get the mono, hopefully for the price of a TP :)
 
It's always interesting to listen to these guys talk about their craft. I can't say the same about the interviewer though. He seems like your typical audiophile in awe of audiophile reissues and is way out of his depth when it comes to technical and musical intricacies; his only response to Kevin's more technical or historical comments usually was nothing more than "oh, that's interesting", or "wow!".

I already have 3 copies of Blue Train including the Music Matters mono 33rpm one cut by Kevin Gray. It would be madness to add yet another version.

Interview with Kevin Gray where he seems to give the game away as to what to expect with the Tone Poet John Coltrane - Blue Train due in September. At about 13.5 minutes in he mentions it as being 2 stereos (one of unreleased tracks) and a mono. The two stereo’s as a package and the mono packaged separately. Kevin prefers the mono because of how Rudi had handled the added reverb on it and the wide separation with little centre fill on the stereo.


Quite a lot of other interesting stuff in this interview as well. Base roll off V volume reduction for long sides. Cutting from digital etc.
 
I don't think this is part of the Tone Poet series, but hopefully the quality of the pressings will be up to that standard.

https://store.bluenote.com/collecti...ts/charles-lloyd-trio-of-trios-signed-box-set

Am a big fan, so preordered and am really looking forward to it.
I had been looking at this as well and I streamed the first track on Chapel, Billy Strayhorn’s Blood Count, that is on YouTube and pre ordered that one from the set that is due here next week. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the signed box set will be available in the UK it seems it is exclusive to the US. It is not on the Blue Note UK store. Sorry to miss it as it is signed, but at least the lack of the box will help with my storage space problems even if I get all 3 records. Not a Tone Poet as you say and I’m not sure who mastered. I doubt it is AAA, but the sample streamed track sounds good. UK ones are pressed in Germany so probably pressed at Optimal. So like you I’m hoping the pressing is OK.


At 84 Charles Lloyd is still as productive and inventive as ever. :)

Here is the shorter Duke Ellington Johnny Hodges version of Blood Count:
 
I think digital recordings are so good now that it doesn't matter whether its AAA or not. I have Bill Frisell's Valentine and Lloyd's Tone Poem which are both cut on vinyl by Kevin Gray and they sound absolutely great. I expect they were recorded digitally.
 
My copy of Charles Lloyd’s Chapel has just arrived (earlier than expected). I don’t have time to give it a spin right now, but the pressing looks clean and flat. Gatefold sleeve with recording and mastering details on the back of sleeve.

It is not part of the Tone Poet series, but it might have well have been as it qualifies in most respects. Recorded by Adam Camardella. Supervised by Joe Harley and mastered by Kevin Gray. “Made in Germany” so I think pressed at Optimal.

A little bit about it in this Charles Lloyd interview with Don Was:
 
Warning - off topic.......

I first heard the Ellington/Strayhorn Blood Count driving to work one morning many years ago when Elvis Costello played it as one of his Desert Island Discs. Stunning piece.

So, here’s a question - is there a good reissue LP of And His Mother Called Him Bill that anyone can recommend? I only know the Bluebird CD (which is OK, perhaps a bit anaemic).
 
Warning - off topic.......

I first heard the Ellington/Strayhorn Blood Count driving to work one morning many years ago when Elvis Costello played it as one of his Desert Island Discs. Stunning piece.

So, here’s a question - is there a good reissue LP of And His Mother Called Him Bill that anyone can recommend? I only know the Bluebird CD (which is OK, perhaps a bit anaemic).
Graham,
I looked at this as well after my post above. The UK 1968 first pressing is available from UK sellers on Discogs even the ones marked as near mint. My experience of RCA Dynagoove pressings from this period (Classical) though is not good. Very light weight and noisy. The early RCA’s US pressing (non Dynagroove) are though excellent. The CD may be the better bet. Amazon has the 2016 Sony RCA at £3.99 that has the original cover, but I don’t know if that is the same mastering as your 1987 Blue Bird one. These seem to be from Austria and Italy.
 
So, here’s a question - is there a good reissue LP of And His Mother Called Him Bill that anyone can recommend? I only know the Bluebird CD (which is OK, perhaps a bit anaemic).

I have the Speakers Corner reissue. From memory it doesn’t sound fantastic, maybe a bit brash/distorted, in line with other SC RCA reissues of the period e.g. “Nina Simone Sings The Blues”. It might be as good as it’s possible to get from the tapes at this point (and at least SC are scrupulous about using tapes, as they explain on their website.)

It’s still listed in Diverse’s catalogue, albeit out of stock: https://www.diversevinyl.com/product/and-his-mother-called-him-bill/ . In my experience Diverse are pretty good at getting old SC reissues in, although it might take a while; best to order and forget about it.
 
Thanks chaps. I’ll look into all these options, including revisiting the 1987 CD. I imagine all Ellington recordings from the 50s onwards to sound technically as good as Blues In Orbit, but I guess that just isn’t the case.
 
Ah...Ellington. I am simply appalled and perplexed that there seems to be relatively so little interest in Ellington these days. There are not many commercial or audiophile reissues of his music compared to other jazz artists. He was an incredible composer, pianist and band leader and he made some fabulous recordings.
 
Ah...Ellington. I am simply appalled and perplexed that there seems to be relatively so little interest in Ellington these days.

I'm guilty of this. One of those people I'm aware of but don't actively seek out. Though recently I've been picking up random Ellington LPs as I stumble across them and really enjoying them.

I guess part of the 'problem' is that much of his work pre-dates the LP era - so for the first 25 years or so of recordings from 1927 onwards we have to rely on compilations which can be a bit of a minefield. Add all the air shots and issues of similar material, often with variable sound quality, and it makes for an intimidated discography. Discogs lists 513 albums and 980 compilations!
 
Graham,
I looked at this as well after my post above. The UK 1968 first pressing is available from UK sellers on Discogs even the ones marked as near mint. My experience of RCA Dynagoove pressings from this period (Classical) though is not good. Very light weight and noisy. The early RCA’s US pressing (non Dynagroove) are though excellent. The CD may be the better bet. Amazon has the 2016 Sony RCA at £3.99 that has the original cover, but I don’t know if that is the same mastering as your 1987 Blue Bird one. These seem to be from Austria and Italy.

I've got the 2016 Sony reissue on CD which sounds pretty decent - although I've nothing to compare it to. Not a bad make-do for £3.99.

I keep waiting for Sony to join in with the the boutique vinyl reissue programme and explore what is a very impressive back catalogue - if they still have access to master tapes. They did a pretty decent job of CD releases for the Miles Davis "complete" or "bootleg" series but have done surprisingly little to respond to the increased demand for vinyl.

Maybe some mainstream Miles, Monk, Ellington, Mingus, Brubeck, Getz etc or some of the less known releases in their CD Jazz Masterpieces series?

Any thoughts on why they've not gone down this line? Are the tapes lost or have they all been leased out to other companies?
 


advertisement


Back
Top