Blue Note Tone Poet series
- Thread starter airdronian
- Start date
Clicks and pops. Pressing defects. Clicks are not a big deal for me, loud pops are. Both copies had them, and my tolerance for them on new vinyl is fairly limited. Especially since all the other Tone Poets I have (and the BN 80 series) have all been really good.
As I noted elsewhere here, I also just received "The Kicker" and it's great.
I find it pretty surprising that "The Kicker" is just now in its first release on vinyl.
JP
Junior Member
Yes. I've shelves full of the usual reissues, but these are a bit of a joy in discovery. As I've had good luck on the quality overall thus far, I just buy them blind and enjoy hearing a good deal of these albums for the first time. It's been years since I've had any interest in buying vinyl otherwise.
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watt
Site Supporter
You've described perfectly my experience with the series. I think I bought Money Jungle because it's one of my favorite records, and I wanted to hear how the Tone Poet version sounded. Then I started to take note of some of the other titles in the series, which were unfamiliar to me. Between this series and the Blue Note 80th reissues, I bought more records this past summer than in a long time.
Mine are out for delivery. But won’t be played till tomorrow. Really looking forward to hearing them.
JP
Junior Member
Yes the 80th are well done too. I’ve been picking those up as well.
Further Explorations and My Point of View were great. Haven‘t listened to Prayer Meetin’ yet. I’ve a few things to pack, price, and shop that I need to get to.
I don't think there's a great deal of difference, other than all the Tone Poets I'm aware of are 33.3 rpm (yay). And they generally don't touch the titles released by Music Matters, who also employed an advanced vinyl formulation (SRX) on a limited amount of titles near the end of their run.
I can't speak to all the MM albums, but I believe they were pressed at RTI, as is the TP series. Joe Harley (the Tone Poet) was part of the Music Matters team and is supervising the TP series.
Kevin Gray masters the TP, and did master at least some of the MM. One difference is that at one time Gray's mastering facility was Acous-Tech, which closed in 2010. Gray then opened Cohearent (with updated equipment and better results according to Michael Fremer), and works there today.
Analogue Productions presses at QRP, which I believe they own. They also utilize Kevin Gray @ Cohearent. Also Steve Hoffman was mastering some of the earlier titles.
They all have the premium jackets and artwork. I have a couple MM, some more recent Miles Davis reissues from AP, and several TP releases. For my purposes, the TP series is a smokin' deal (using pre-order) in comparison to the other series.
Blue Note itself (and other labels) are part of the Universal Music Group (UMG). New these days are the Acoustic Sounds series who are releasing titles from other UMG labels like Verve, Gramercy, etc. This has given us the recent Getz/Gilberto which I have, its pressed at QRP and mastered from the analogue tapes by George Marino at Sterling Sound.
I know there's been quality remasters done over the years by different labels (ORG, etc) but I think Music Matters showed that it was quite possible to specialize ( and monetize ) the catalogue which has driven the interest to continue with Tone Poets, and the Acoustic Sounds series.
These latter two aren't as exclusive as Music Matters was, which is a good thing in terms of price and availability.
Mine gets here Monday! I cannot wait.
The last two orders placed with Blue Note took over 3 months to get my order shipped. I ordered in-stock items that became out of stock after paying for my order. Also, my orders from Blue Note have not been properly packed and jacket corners are significantly damaged. I'd like to take advantage of their discount but the waiting and back and forth are no longer worth it for me.
I think the favourable pricing we were getting may be over. I was ordering Tone Poets in the $32 - $34 CAD range. Lately price has gone up on the BN 80 series and now Tone Poets. The pre-order benefit with Amazon isn't what it once was. 😧
Mine are arriving tomorrow...Boo.
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