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Tone Poet Blue Notes

Breaking Point due to land today... I’m pretty well catered for with Hubbard, got a fair few Blue Notes and very nice selection of original Atlantic stuff (including the wonderfully batshit Sing Me A Song Of Songmy with all the Stockhausen-ish analogue synthesis etc). Need a really good copy of Red Clay though. That’s the big hole in the collection.
 
poco a poco said:
Joe Harley has indicated that he and Kevin Gray will be mastering Grachan Moncur III’s Blue Note Of ‘Some Other Stuff’ in the couple of months.
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Yesterday I was looking for Echo and Prayer for you and ended up playing the first side of Some Other Stuff. It’s a great set, very distilled in places, nice to hear Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams play with such restraint. Even my lowly Heavenly Sweetness copy sounds very clear, can’t imagine how it will sound as a TP.
 
paulfromcamden said:
Me too! I'd forgotten about that.
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I’m still hoping I’ll stumble across a nice US original in the wild, but it’s one that really needs to get a Tone Poet-grade reissue. There are some superb albums lurking in the CTI catalogue. I think Speakers Corner have done it, but they are usually too warm and lush for my taste. I like some bite to things and Red Clay should certainly have some impact along with the funky groove. I guess RVG originally cut it, and ideally that’s what I want! The original US CTI albums I have all sound great.
 
Tony L said:
Breaking Point due to land today...
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Mine came last week. I think it's blindingly good. I'm still grumpy with Blue Note due to their crap quality control and more crap customer service, but this release has gone some way to restoring my faith.
 
Just playing now, sounds superb. I agree with whoever said the treble on this one is better, it’s in balance, less hyped-up or ‘hi-fi’, sounds far more like an RVG original to me. I hope this is where they are heading.

My one experience with the Blue Note store was highly irritating as their packaging is just dreadful. I ended up ‘winning’ to an absurd extent that I didn’t ask for (basically a large cover-damaged order, a replacement also arrived damaged, and a full refund and no request to return either order!), but I’d not use them again as it annoys me so much to see good records damged by genuinely hopeless packaging plus box-flingers of renown Hermes. It annoys me as they do have exclusives, and also some very good sales/discounts, but I just don’t want the risk of damage again.

I buy mostly from Amazon now as I have Prime so even if the price is no cheaper than Juno or Rough Trade it comes out as being so as there is no postage to add. Here’s a monetised link to Breaking Point (it will work for anything). My copy arrived in a nice corner-protected mailer inside an enormo-box with additional paper padding. A lot of card to stick in the recycling, but no prospect of cover corner dings, especially given Amazon have their own delivery network so things aren’t bouncing around all over the place they do with the Royal Mail or other couriers.
 
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Amazingly, it seems, I’ve never had an issue with the BN store. That maybe because I nowadays order all mine from an indie retailer. Not always the cheapest but everything is “in stock” and he sends it pronto. (Latest two due tomorrow).
Still loving the TP and Classics. Even the “average” titles are damn good.
It’s what my pension, clearly, is for!
 
Damn it.

Every sodding time I look at these jazz threads I end up spending many monies.

Hope they sound good, cos I am flying blind.

*looks at the large Gin & Tonic next to me*

it is a ‘shrug’ moment.
 
Postage issues is partly why I order online and collect in-person from Rough Trade Nottingham with these Blue Notes. It is a bit more expensive though - mostly because I end up buying a couple more titles off their shelves when I visit! They do have some good pre-owned jazz stuff sometimes. I’ve picked up some Japanese 80s-90s reissues lately.

Collected Breaking Point from there on Sunday. Will give it a spin next…
 
kingston12 said:
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'll never buy from Blue Note Store again. LPs shown as 'in stock' then not available once purchased. Delays of 3 months for delivery. Sudden refunds of purchases with no communications as to why. Uninterested and incompetent replies to emails....when they can be bothered replying.

I've decided recently not to buy anything online that can be bought in a shop I can get to on public transport. Too many bad experiences in the last couple of years. It takes a surprising amount of time and emotional investment to sort it all out. Especially when dealing with mulitple f*** ups a the same time.
 
mikechadwick said:
Where possible, support your local Record Store. If they don't usually stock Blue Note, Verve etc ask them to pre-order from Universal (or the relevant distributor). No need to deal with rubbish online retailers :) and, as a bonus (if you're lucky) you can build up a great rapport with the person behind the counter.
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+1 for this - if you're near Oxford, Carl and the team at Truck always get BN, BN Classics and others in for me on the release date. They don't have a huge jazz stock but have just moved the display to a more visible and prominent spot in the store.
 
I don’t have the luxury of a local shop, and even if I did, parking and getting to and from the shop would be a (literal) pain.
Also, given my experience, records can need returning for replacements - not always, but sometimes - so dealing with a shop can be hard work.
Therefore I use amazon. Returns are very easy. I recycle their excellent mailers for my Discogs sales (although I add crossply cardboard)
 
I like to support my local shops in SW London (and not so local ones in central London) as often as possible, but I must admit that the majority of my purchases come from Amazon based on price and ease/convenience of returns when necessary.
 
Tony L said:
I’m still hoping I’ll stumble across a nice US original in the wild, but it’s one that really needs to get a Tone Poet-grade reissue. There are some superb albums lurking in the CTI catalogue. I think Speakers Corner have done it, but they are usually too warm and lush for my taste. I like some bite to things and Red Clay should certainly have some impact along with the funky groove. I guess RVG originally cut it, and ideally that’s what I want! The original US CTI albums I have all sound great.
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I bought mine around 10-12 years ago when they were all also cheap: I paid a fiver for an original 1st press US, with 'Van Gelder' in the run out. I was going CTI/Kudu crazy in those days, and bought 40+ albums in quick succession. I can't believe what they're fetching these days!
 
I think Joe Harley and Kevin Gray have really exceeded themselves with Freddie Hubbard’s ‘Breaking Point’. This mastering and pressing is extraordinarily good. It really clarifies how good all the musicians are on this as well as the quality of Freddie’s (and Joe Chamber’s one) compositions. I thought at first when I put it on at my usual volume setting for Tone Poets and started that they had cut it a higher level than normal, but it is just that the dynamic range and frequency extension are exceptionally good (I’m not detecting any distortion, but I can see perhaps some people having slight problems tracking this cleanly?) . The mastertape must be in really top rate condition on this. Freddie and James Spaulding really have forceful impact on this, but at the same time you can appreciate the low level fine detail and of both of their great technical prowess. The sound of their totally integrated playing together yet still retailing their individuality of styleon the themes in all the tunes is wonderful. Their timing is impeccable. Perhaps gained from all the time they spent playing together in Indianapolis. As is the great exchanges between Eddie Chan and Joe Chambers on bass and drums in ‘D Minor Mint’ and ‘Far Away’. The lower notes from Khan’s Bass and Chamber’s kick drum are beautifully recorded and captured well beyond any version I have heard before. All this in an really large and deep soundstage that really fills my room.

I think this must be one of the very best Tone Poet reissues so far. I’m almost tempted to get a second one as a spare. Don’t pass on this one even if you think you have a good pressing. Wonderful stuff. :)
 
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