advertisement


Tone Poet Blue Notes

kjb said:
Temptation, temptation: prices dropping further.

Do I need McLean's Tippin The Scales?? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

In honesty a totally essential Jackie album, but still good and I have enjoyed it more and more since I have had it. I am a Jackie McLean fanboy though and pick up anything I don’t have of his if in a decent enough pressing. Recording / mastering is excellent. I posted this about just after released and there are some other posts about it around it: https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/tone-poet-blue-notes.225147/page-106#post-4654015
 
Well I have played Tipping the Scales again this morning and I am upping my assessment further to just about essential (*it should have said not totally essential in my previous post) I did say it grows on me more and more each time. It’s release was delayed from 1962 to 1984, but I can’t think that can be for any sub par musicianship. McLean, Sonny Clark (who is particularly good on the side two tracks including his own composition) and Taylor are all excellent and Warren contributes well. Worth it for the modal track Two for One alone. One of the best sounding Tone Poets as well.

There are some better McLean albums, but this is very good especially if at a lower price now.
* edit about previous post.
 
Last edited:
I bought the McLean because it’s a tone poet but had not had very high expectations of the music. I have been surprised by how good it is. Very curious why it was not released originally.
 
hockman said:
I bought the McLean because it’s a tone poet but had not had very high expectations of the music. I have been surprised by how good it is. Very curious why it was not released originally.
Click to expand...
I expect it was a combination of the amount of recorded material Blue Note had released by McLean in 1962 to 63 and that this was also a transition period for McLean where he moved much more towards the ‘Avant-Garde’. Tipping the Scales was recorded on 28th September 62. Blue Note had already released Jackie’s Bag in late 61, A Fickle Sonance and Bluesnik In 62. Plus Pacific Jazz and New Jazz also released McLean albums in 62.

In May 62 Jackie had already recorded Let Freedom Ring (released in 63) and in April 63 One Step Beyond and September 63 Destination Out and in November Evolution with Grachan Moncur. Clearly McLean’s direction had changed and possibly either he did not want Tipping released now or Blue Note thought it would not sell enough copies by 63/64?
 
You may be right about McLean. However, I am often bewildered by how some of the music left in the Blue Note vaults is often as good and sometimes better than what was actually released.
 
hockman said:
You may be right about McLean. However, I am often bewildered by how some of the music left in the Blue Note vaults is often as good and sometimes better than what was actually released.
Click to expand...
Yes clearly lots of good music got passed over, but I suppose it is not surprising when you look at the amount of music Blue Note was recording from the late fifties to just past the mid sixties when they were finally taken over by Liberty. In 1962 and 1963 alone RVG made 70 recordings for Blue Note at Englewood Cliffs. Almost 3 a week!:
https://dgmono.com/rvg-discography/

Blue Note then had to have the artwork produced and sleeves made. Have the records pressed, distributed and marketed. This would would seem to be a pretty much an impossible task for a small company like Blue Note. Even if it had been possible, although the overall market was quite big there were plenty of other companies putting out records for sale, some by the same artists. So plenty of competition for sales. Clearly Alfred and Francis made choices that were not always based purely just on the quality of the music, but a on number of complex commercial reasons, including retaining their artists.

We are lucky they believed in and actually recorded such an amount of great music by great artists that remained in the vaults for Michael Cuscuna to discover and release in the 80’s and Joe Harley in the present day.
 
gavreid said:
A couple of clues here as to future releases, both in TP and Classic. The TP list for 2023 will be released next month

Click to expand...
Gavin, l was watching this while you were posting. You beat me to it posting here. Glad to see Wayne Shorter’s Schizophrenia is going to be a Tone Poet next year. A great Shorter album.

Interesting to see some of Joe Harley’s Favourite Records as well. I was very glad to see one of his choices was the ECM of Jimmy Guiffre 3. A long term favourite of mine, although I only have CD copy. A very underrated record as are some of the other Jimmy Guiffre 3 recordings. He should have chosen his 1957 eponymous record as one of the alternatives as well as that has ‘The Train and the River’ on it. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that Dylan’s ‘Rough & Rowdy Ways’ would be one of his choices.
 
Harold Vick Steppin' Out and Bobby Hutcherson Stick Up! arrived yesterday. Been living with fairly miserable copies of Stick Up! for some time now, and this version eclipses them beyond expectations. It's an excellent album, no duds, great energy, monumental at times. Don't hesitate on this one.
 
Went to pickup the Bobby Hutcherson LP from the local indie and.......all sleeves split at the top seam! Waiting for more stock before I pick up my copy.
 
poco a poco said:
Interesting to see some of Joe Harley’s Favourite Records as well. I was very glad to see one of his choices was the ECM of Jimmy Guiffre 3. A long term favourite of mine, although I only have CD copy. A very underrated record as are some of the other Jimmy Guiffre 3 recordings.
Click to expand...

I think the Giuffre 1961 trio albums, Fusion and Thesis respectively, are essential and very influential, way ahead of their time - one could argue they were the influence for the ECM aesthetic from their beginnings to the present day (I hear that influence in contemporary artists such as Kit Downes and Tord Gustafson). Many European free improvisors have also cited these albums as a benchmark. Paul Bley rarely receives the recognition he deserves.
 
poco a poco said:
Gavin, l was watching this while you were posting. You beat me to it posting here. Glad to see Wayne Shorter’s Schizophrenia is going to be a Tone Poet next year. A great Shorter album.

Interesting to see some of Joe Harley’s Favourite Records as well. I was very glad to see one of his choices was the ECM of Jimmy Guiffre 3. A long term favourite of mine, although I only have CD copy. A very underrated record as are some of the other Jimmy Guiffre 3 recordings. He should have chosen his 1957 eponymous record as one of the alternatives as well as that has ‘The Train and the River’ on it. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that Dylan’s ‘Rough & Rowdy Ways’ would be one of his choices.
Click to expand...
I love that he loves the Dylan!
 
Graham H said:
I think the Giuffre 1961 trio albums, Fusion and Thesis respectively, are essential and very influential, way ahead of their time - one could argue they were the influence for the ECM aesthetic from their beginnings to the present day (I hear that influence in contemporary artists such as Kit Downes and Tord Gustafson). Many European free improvisors have also cited these albums as a benchmark. Paul Bley rarely receives the recognition he deserves.
Click to expand...

I need to explore more of his work. I love Music For People, Birds, Butterflies & Mosquitoes from 1973 - there's a freeness but also an uplifting lightness to the music that's very engaging. Rare to find music with that sense of looseness but without the discordancy generally found in European improv.
 
Interesting that the ECM/Verve Jimmy Giuffre may be reissued as a TP. The trio subsequently made a few more albums together that are similar in vein. I am a big fan of Giuffre as I am of Bley. I have most of Bley's albums, almost all of it is worth listening.
 
hockman said:
Interesting that the ECM/Verve Jimmy Giuffre may be reissued as a TP. The trio subsequently made a few more albums together that are similar in vein. I am a big fan of Giuffre as I am of Bley. I have most of Bley's albums, almost all of it is worth listening.
Click to expand...

As Jim said, Fusion/Thesis (1961 double LP on ECM) was one of his choices, not reissue. Interestingly a friend has the original Verve pressings and they sound quite different to the ECM set; more present, less ambient. I think Eicher must have added some ingredient (reverb) at mastering in keeping with the ECM aesthetic of the early 90s.

I’d agree Bley’s output is hard to criticise, I’m a big fan, but I do have an inclination toward his earlier 60s material such as Mr. Joy, Touching, Footloose, Turns etc. His solo LP Open to Love is also beautiful, in a robust kind of way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top