The Blue Note Thread

Jeff Lerner said:
I've historically been a casual jazz fan, but in the past year I have listened to way more jazz than I ever have before. Not sure if it's a covid thing or what. Anyway, I've realized that I fucking love Lee Morgan. I picked up some of his stuff in the udiscover sale last year, and then I just got my copy of the new Moanin, which I had not known he was on. Incredible Where do I go from here?
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Lee Morgan is to me, the most exciting trumpeter, he brings ENERGY to a line-up like no one else I’ve encountered. The Lee Morgan I’ve encountered so far that I felt I needed to own are the following

• The Sidewinder
• The Rajah
• Cornbread
• The Cooker

but he also shines on

• Art Blakey - Moanin
• Art Blakey - Roots & Herbs
• Art Blakey - Just Coolin
• Art Blakey - !!!Jazz Messengers!!!
• John Coltrane - Blue Train

Most of those have accessible and affordable recent AAA pressings! I’m also still a jazz novice, I’m sure people here have way better recommendations as mine have come mainly through TP and recent releases
 
Ghost said:
Lee Morgan is to me, the most exciting trumpeter, he brings ENERGY to a line-up like no one else I’ve encountered. The Lee Morgan I’ve encountered so far that I felt I needed to own are the following

• The Sidewinder
• The Rajah
• Cornbread
• The Cooker

but he also shines on

• Art Blakey - Moanin
• Art Blakey - Roots & Herbs
• Art Blakey - Just Coolin
• Art Blakey - !!!Jazz Messengers!!!
• John Coltrane - Blue Train

Most of those have accessible and affordable recent AAA pressings! I’m also still a jazz novice, I’m sure people here have way better recommendations as mine have come mainly through TP and recent releases
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Very good synopsis here from ghost. I will add that Search For The New Land still blows my mind every time I hear it.
 
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With Lee Morgan, I'd agree that you should get every Tone Poet and BN80 you can that he's either leading or featured in. I'd imagine anything done in the BN75 series like Search For The New Land will be a Classics pick later. The Classics already seems to be a re-issue series in AAA for those titles.
 
Ghost said:
Lee Morgan is to me, the most exciting trumpeter, he brings ENERGY to a line-up like no one else I’ve encountered. The Lee Morgan I’ve encountered so far that I felt I needed to own are the following

• The Sidewinder
• The Rajah
• Cornbread
• The Cooker

but he also shines on

• Art Blakey - Moanin
• Art Blakey - Roots & Herbs
• Art Blakey - Just Coolin
• Art Blakey - !!!Jazz Messengers!!!
• John Coltrane - Blue Train

Most of those have accessible and affordable recent AAA pressings! I’m also still a jazz novice, I’m sure people here have way better recommendations as mine have come mainly through TP and recent releases
Click to expand...
I agree, while it might be blasphemous to some I enjoy Lee Morgan even more so than Miles.
 
A distant cousin of Night Mather stole my wallet & bought a bunch of old Blue Notes. I hope they sound Ok (my wallet is in real pain this month).

A date with Jimmy Smith is my first Plastylite, sold as VG, there are a lot of surface marks, see what it sounds like when it's cleaned. The others look very dusty but clean.

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Both my Moanin and Soul Station have a big scuff on one side. Disappointed. The side of Moanin I did listen to felt a little off, felt like I heard more sibilance and distortion than Im used to in these Blue Not reissues. Of course im not gonna relisten to confirm though- back to amazon they go.
 
Just got my copy of Moanin' and wow you guys aren't kidding, this is the most scuffed up "new" record I've ever received. I mean the whole thing looks like someone rode it across the parking lot, both sides. I gotta think there's something wrong with these sleeves they're using. I cannot imagine this came off the line like this. I'm no fan of Optimal but I've never seen anything like this from them before. I'll spin tonight but considering how deep some of these scratches are I can pretty much guarantee this is gunna be no bueno.
 
e.s. said:
I've seen similar comments here a few times now, and I'm curious where this comes from. Optimal have pressed some of the best reissues in my collection, and I'd put them alongside Pallas, QRP, and RTI as one of the top pressing plants in the world.
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I've just had a fair share of pressing issues from them, whooshing, crackle, pops etc. Although I'm sure some of it may be down to travel in paper sleeves in some cases (not the whooshing, that's all them. But this issue with Moanin' and Soul Station is just bizarre, there has to be something wrong with these poly sleeves.
 
Is it too early to have a top 5 BN Repress list ? TP, CL, 80 welcome...

Cornbread
Chet Baker Sings
Song For My Father
Sidewinder
Now He Sings Now He Sobs (just missed this one)

bonus: The Real McCoy
 
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Mather said:
Just got my copy of Moanin' and wow you guys aren't kidding, this is the most scuffed up "new" record I've ever received. I mean the whole thing looks like someone rode it across the parking lot, both sides. I gotta think there's something wrong with these sleeves they're using. I cannot imagine this came off the line like this. I'm no fan of Optimal but I've never seen anything like this from them before. I'll spin tonight but considering how deep some of these scratches are I can pretty much guarantee this is gunna be no bueno.
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jamieanderson1968 said:
I plan to clean my copy of Moanin' tomorrow so I will report back. But visually I see no issues with my copy.
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I just played my copy of Moanin' - the record itself looks great, not all scratched up like my copy of Soul Station, and it sounds pretty great, too. I'll need to compare it my 1977 Toshiba copy soon but overall I feel like I got lucky with a good copy of this one. Here's hoping BN realizes something was up with this round of Classics and does something moving forward to avoid the same issue.
 
JohnnyCashFan said:
Is it too early to have a top 5 BN Repress list ? TP, CL, 80 welcome...

Sidewinder
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I was all set to tell you Sidewinder will be back in late June b/c that's when BN said it will ship my order from November (!!!), but I then saw that it's not possible to place an order for it on the BN site, so that entire pressing may be sold out already.

The current mania for all-things-vinyl, especially AAA, is nuts.
 
tvham said:
I just played my copy of Moanin' - the record itself looks great, not all scratched up like my copy of Soul Station, and it sounds pretty great, too. I'll need to compare it my 1977 Toshiba copy soon but overall I feel like I got lucky with a good copy of this one. Here's hoping BN realizes something was up with this round of Classics and does something moving forward to avoid the same issue.
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I'm spinning mine now. The master to me, sounds SLIGHTLY distorted. Like the tape is starting to go. It's not bad by any stretch, but the piano especially doesn't have the crisp sound to it, gets kinda muddy on the higher registers, or when it's really driving. But again, not bad, just an observation. But of course, the main issue is the giant mass of scratches all over the disc which is causing some real nice pops and also random crackle. But all in all without the scratches and crackle I'd be pretty happy with this. BUUUUT, with the scratches and crackle... no sir... no sir I don't like it.
 
Mather said:
I'm spinning mine now. The master to me, sounds SLIGHTLY distorted. Like the tape is starting to go. It's not bad by any stretch, but the piano especially doesn't have the crisp sound to it, gets kinda muddy on the higher registers, or when it's really driving. But again, not bad, just an observation. But of course, the main issue is the giant mass of scratches all over the disc which is causing some real nice pops and also random crackle. But all in all without the scratches and crackle I'd be pretty happy with this. BUUUUT, with the scratches and crackle... no sir... no sir I don't like it.
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Yeah, I got lucky that my scratches in Soul Station were superficial. You definitely need a replacement copy for yours.
 
Mather said:
I'm spinning mine now. The master to me, sounds SLIGHTLY distorted. Like the tape is starting to go. It's not bad by any stretch, but the piano especially doesn't have the crisp sound to it, gets kinda muddy on the higher registers, or when it's really driving. But again, not bad, just an observation. But of course, the main issue is the giant mass of scratches all over the disc which is causing some real nice pops and also random crackle. But all in all without the scratches and crackle I'd be pretty happy with this. BUUUUT, with the scratches and crackle... no sir... no sir I don't like it.
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At every pressing plant there is one person in charge of Mather Quality Control
scratchingtips1.jpg
 
JohnnyCashFan said:
Is it too early to have a top 5 BN Repress list ? TP, CL, 80 welcome...

Cornbread
Chet Baker Sings
Song For My Father
Sidewinder
Now He Sings Now He Sobs (just missed this one)

bonus: The Real McCoy
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Nigeria (TP)
Inventions and Dimensions (80th)
Minor Move (TP)
Una Mas (80th)
A Swingin Affair (80th)
 
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