Collecting Blue Note Jazz

Well, buying up hot stampers at $500 each was really never a financial option for me. But I visit local record stores, and buying up a few to keep the best and trade the rest is an option. Outside of Blue Notes, I bought a few copies of LPs by Joan Armatrading and Dionne Warwick and ended up finding some with distinctly better sound (some are WLPs). This effort did not cost much. I was intrigued by the example of Songs For My Father, as my two copies sound just OK (one blue label, one Liberty)...not bad, but I want to be impressed, as you seem to be with. Do you have any identifier in the deadwax on your version to identify it? Since some LPs sound fantastic on my system, I think maybe I just don't have a hot stamper, and you do. Otherwise, it could just be personal preference. I find the Blue Notes to be bright and less natural sounding than many Contemporary LPs. In comparison with the Columbia LPs, it seems the Blue Notes are quite a bit more expensive in general, and buying a few copies, again, seems worthwhile for favorite titles. On the reissues, I haven't tried Blue Notes yet, but I note that Aretha Franklin's original LPs on Atlantic sound (often blue/green label) much better than the reissues I have. However, I also have some good sounding reissues of other titles.

I have many original Blue Notes as well as Contemporary, Prestige and other Lables too. I have tons of reissues also. Many from the 70's and on the OJC label and other labels. I bought reissues from places like wdcdradio.com soundstage direct.com and a few on Ebay too. I have spent on average of about $12.00 ea. for sealed Jazz reissues from various labels. I also search Thrift Shops and Flea Markets and I choose only LP's that look to be in excellent condition. Average cost of them are between $0.49 and $3.00. I have compared many of the originals to some of the new reissues like Dave Bailey's 2 Feet in the Gutter. I got this for $7.99 on Soundstagedirect and the recording was fabulous. It was as quiet as the remastered CD I purchased but with more air and very good bass response too. I ended up buying all 3 Dave Bailey LP's. I have bought several highly rated reissues on Bluenote like Johnny Griffin Blowing from Chicago and while it was excellent at $40.00 the reissue was equally as good at $10.00. I often thought the bass on alot of LP's were a bit light lightweight on some LP's. But all have been very lifelike in it's sound. I have a couple Analog Production Blues LP's and they are simply wonderful. Maybe I'm just making good choices and the origial recordings were all excellent from the beginning.

I have heard in these pages and others to stay away from Scorpio Productions vinyl reissues but you will seldom know which recordings are Scorpio. From what I read they are mostly 180gm and are rumored to come from digital sources rather than original analogue tapes.

I can personally say that when I read a review of a jazz LP I buy the reissue first. If I like it enough I will go to the local audio store or a friends home to A-B it against premium vinyl reissues. Usually, there isn't much difference if at all to justify the huge difference in cost IMO. I won't say this is true for all out there but just for the one's I have purchased.

I can't justify spending $50 for a record when I can get it for pretty close for $10 or a 180 gm for under $15.00 in most cases. Soundstagedirect and wdcdradio are not the only places that sell quality reissues on the internet. I average about 4 LP's each order and I have yet to be disappointed with sound quality. MOST OF MY ORDERS ARE FOR BLUENOTES THAT I CAN'T FIND LOCALLY OR RECCOMENDED BY THE AUDIO PRESS. Also, many of the non 180gm records I have purchased are thick and do not flop like many of the 80's LP's and reissues. I say buy from a quality source and enjoy the music. One last thing no matter where you live Estate Sales are one of the best places to purchase vinyl and CD's. Check your local paper.
I also collect classical, rock, blues, R&B, jazz and folk and more.
There's allot of music out there. Recently I scored on some pretty good jazz on Audiogon. Check out labels like ECM, CTI, Pablo, Atlantic, Muse, Steeplechase, OJC, Discovery and others. They all have a great jazz catalog and the sound quality could be better than some of the premium labels mentioned above.

IMO, if you want quality, the MM releases are just out of this world perfect in every way -- quiet & well pressed vinyl with sonics to drool over (their covers are the best I've seen, BTW). I'm extremely pleased I signed up for these releases and continually look forward to the next delivery -- if you can spring the $$ & enjoy jazz; it's a no-brainer. Highly recommended.

Blue Note has a new series out that includes an LP mastered by Ron McMaster, as well as the commonly available VanGelder mastered CD included in the jacket. While these are not as fine as the 45RPM sets, they are less than half the price, sound great, and you don't have to get up and flip over the record twice per side. A really good alternative.

Avoid the Scorpio reissues, they are, for the most part, terrible, and sourced from digital media.

Your interpretation of the Blue Notes as bright and less natural than Contemporary (Label I presume?)is interesting. There's a big difference between BNs on vinyl and on CD. They are bright on CD. In fact I once panned Rudy Van Gelder based on the quality of the cds. RVG BN's are not perfect by any means. Pianos typically sound terrible. But on good pressings the horns and drums usually sound wonderful. Then there's a whole other debate about whether stereo or mono recordings are better (I prefer mono).

Contemporary made some great recordings too. They were also an early adopter of Stereo and some of these are excellent. Their pianos sound pretty good for the day. See if you can find Shelly Manne and his Men Play Peter Gunn (Contemporary Stereo (S)7025). Columbias in general are very inexpensive. Columbia was the biggest label around. They'd let smaller labels develop talent, then they'd come in, offer big money and take the best artists. Miles Davis from Prestige, Monk from Riverside, Brubeck from Fantasy, Ray Charles from Atlantic. As a consequence they printed a ton of records so they're cheap. On BLue Note, by comparison, there are some records that only got about 500 original pressings.

My Horace Silver record is a modern reissue. I think its a 200G reissue that I got from Acoustic Sounds.

Your 'Songs for My Father' are both reissues. The original - I believe - would have been blue and white with "New York, New York" on the label and most like the RVG stamp in the dead wax.

Chronologically the labels on 33 RPM vinyl would go (roughly) Lexington Ave (mid-late 50s); West 63rd St (Late 50's to early 60s); New York, New York (Early to mid 60's); Division of Liberty (Late 60s) and then sometime later they went to United Artists and the blue labels but I'm not sure when.

They way I look at it is this: If I'm contemplating buying an original and it costs more that about $25, I'll check and see if a high quality new reissue is available. If it is I'll go with the reissue every time.