Tone Poet Blue Notes
- Thread starter poco a poco
- Start date
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
Personally I would go for Go West this bank holiday as you don’t know how long the offer will last. On the other hand the Village Vanguard set will most likely still be around at £72 - its list price according to Blue Note - next bank holiday (ie three weeks’ time.)
The Bish
pfm Member
Thanks Marchbanks, I have succumbed.
poco a poco
I'm Jim
I have been driving myself slightly mad with the Sonny Rollins - ‘A Night(s) At The Village Vanguard’ 3 record set Comparing it to my 2017 single copy. The new set is excellent and well worth having for the tracks on the other two LP’s. I think they did pick the best tracks for the single LP. I particularly liked the trios version of ‘April In Paris’ where Sonny humorously is very playful with both timing and dynamics varying both. Also ‘Get Happy‘ where I think the more concise shorter works better.
As to which version is better (preferable to me). I had to carefully match the levels although they are quite close, but Kevin Gray has his usual much longer run out. The 2017 gets closer to the label. Technically I think the 3 record set is a bit better with more detail and better dynamics. A very flat and quite pressing. My 20th Anniversary 2017 is also flat and quiet, but a bit rolled off in both Bass and Treble. strangely, especially for me, I do slightly prefer my single version. The new issue has a ‘stark quality’ that to me seems to compromise the musical coherence a bit on the common LP? This seems more so on the common LP than on the extra tracks? Perhaps I have just got used to my single copy?
As to which version is better (preferable to me). I had to carefully match the levels although they are quite close, but Kevin Gray has his usual much longer run out. The 2017 gets closer to the label. Technically I think the 3 record set is a bit better with more detail and better dynamics. A very flat and quite pressing. My 20th Anniversary 2017 is also flat and quiet, but a bit rolled off in both Bass and Treble. strangely, especially for me, I do slightly prefer my single version. The new issue has a ‘stark quality’ that to me seems to compromise the musical coherence a bit on the common LP? This seems more so on the common LP than on the extra tracks? Perhaps I have just got used to my single copy?
Nagraboy
Ausculta fili
Does anyone have any idea whether there’ll be releases of these two albums on Tone Poet or BN Classic series?
Kenny Dorham - Afro-Cuban
Lee Morgan - Lee-Way
I missed out on the Analogue Productions 45rpm release of the latter some years ago, and the SRX version of the former is just too much now.
Kenny Dorham - Afro-Cuban
Lee Morgan - Lee-Way
I missed out on the Analogue Productions 45rpm release of the latter some years ago, and the SRX version of the former is just too much now.
poco a poco
I'm Jim
Lee-Way won’t appear on as a Tone Poet as Joe has repeatedly said he won’t repeat those he did for Music Matters. Although there have been a couple of special exceptions. It may appear as a BN Classic, but when is anyones guess? I missed a Music Matters on this as well, but have a fairly good early copy. If you don’t want to wait a Japanese copy or the Elemental reissue should be fairly good.
Kenny Durham's Afro-Cuban could appear as either. I’d love a copy of this as well. All decent copies are expensive, £6K for an original, but I think this 1955 release is unlikely to be a priority as Joe Harley rarely does these as he likes stereo and this is of course mono. It would probably be a low priority as a BN Classic as well as sales may not make it worthwhile?
It could well be that the original album tracks on the tape have been used multiple times for reissues in contrast with the 'extra' tracks. So they are a bit worn. I've frequently found this to be the case on CD issues that contain extra tracks from the original recording sessions. The extra tracks tend to sound fresher.
Tape age and wear is real although I believe Joe Harley has said that he has not heard that to be the case. How could he possibly know, unless he heard the original tapes when they were fresh?
Nagraboy
Ausculta fili
The tapes used for this issue are the 7.5ips original and sole session tapes recorded on a portable tape recorder at the club and have only ever been used twice - once by RVG to transfer them to 2ng gen 15ips tapes on his studio machine, which became the origin for every LP and CD issue since initial release - and a second time when they were rediscovered and used for this LP issue. So this new reissue is the very first release to use the orginal session tapes.
poco a poco
I'm Jim
I did wonder if this was the case myself. Did RVG splice the individual 7.5” tapes together to make the 15” tape master for release and then disassemble them? Or and it would seem more likely do the final edit by re recording the individual tapes onto the 15” tape for release. In that case the release tape would be one generation removed from the original and many mastering engineers consider the that gives significant degradation. I would assume that the 15” master tape was used from then on for all reissues (so my 2017 reissue should be worst as that would be after quite a few previous reissues). Joe Harley seems to imply that they used the 7.5” tapes for all the triple LP’s including the original single release.
I agree that tape wear and just aging is a problem and how could anyone definitely know how much after 60+years?
Nagraboy
Ausculta fili
7.5ips was the maximum speed for the particular tape recorder he used on the location. IIRC these tapes were copied onto his studio recorder, which RVG then used to make the master.
poco a poco
I'm Jim
My apologies for the confusion over ips and inches (“) and not being clearer. Both are relevant, 1/4” tape was usually run at 3.5ips in stereo and 7.5”” in mono. This was a mono recording and so would have run at 7.5ips. Most pro 1/4” tape records did have the option of 15IPs. It seems unlikely RVG would have run at that speed given the size of the boxes (I.e) length of tape) Shown. 1” tape in pro recorders at that time could be run at 15ips or 30ips. Both were quite commonly used. 30ips was often used as 1” tape was relatively cheap then because of the amount used / available. Now for engineers who still use tape 30ips tape and recorders are rarely run at that speed because of the very high cost even for pros. So most pro recorders are run and equipped with lower speeds.
Nagraboy
Ausculta fili
Been playing the Sonny Rollins vinyl set this morning using one channel of my Croft preamp set at zero, so that I get sound from only one Quad monoblock and Harbeth 5 speaker. Sounds good. Sometimes I wish I had just one huge speaker in the middle of the room and just play mono all the time.
