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Blue Note's Tone Poet Series
Now, Blue Note’s upping their game–and prices–with an all-analog series of heavy-weight pressings curated by Joe Harley, overseer of the Music Matters reissues of Blue Note albums marketed to audiophiles for years.
Whatever the reason, seems like everything is getting reissued on vinyl these days. (Take the thirty-fifth "anniversary edition" of Whitesnake's Slide It In. Please.) One constant in the reissue game, even back when it was the preserve of hobbyists and digital-deniers, is the Blue Note catalog (specifically their first run of long-players from the mid-fifties up to the late sixties). Various audiophile labels have taken a crack at some of the best-loved items from this cornucopia of hard bop goodness, both in 33 rpm versions and, for the true obsessives, double-disc 45-rpm issues that run $50-$60 and force you to flip sides every ten minutes. (As the joke goes, "What I love best about vinyl is the expense and the inconvenience.")
A couple years back, Blue Note got directly into the record business, issuing several dozen classics on digitally-sourced vinyl for around twenty-bucks each. In theory, a great idea, but the sound was lackluster and, in some cases at least, the pressings unacceptably noisy. (An almost unplayable copy of
Herbie Hancock
pianob.1940
Now, Blue Note's upping their game—and prices—with an all-analog series of heavy-weight pressings curated by Joe Harley, overseer of the Music Matters reissues of Blue Note albums marketed to audiophiles for years. The Tone Poet series boasts gatefold covers, 180 grams of bicep-exercising plastic, no digitalization in the production chain—and it runs thirty-five dollars a pop (roughly what the in-print Music Matters editions go for).
Eighteen releases are slated, with two coming out each month starting in February. Here are the selections (grouped by date of release) and one critic's deeply subjective thoughts about each one. The list is peeled from Blue Note's website, so if these editions don't appear on shelves as scheduled, blame the vinyl gods, not me.
February 8
Wayne Shorter
saxophone1933 - 2023
Chick Corea
piano1941 - 2021
Things start off with a bang—the Shorter album is one of the most intense of his classic run, while the Corea is a classic trio set, explorative without being abrasively avant-garde. Both are no-brainers should you have seventy dollars (or its currency equivalent) burning a hole in your wallet. March 15
Sam Rivers
saxophone, tenor1923 - 2011
Cassandra Wilson
vocalsb.1955
Okey-dokey. Fuchsia Swing Song is River's best known and most accessible album from his short run with the label ("Beatrice," off that album, is a minor classic), but Contours is arguably more consistent and boasts an absolutely killer line-up. Don't miss it if you favor Blue Note's left-of-center releases. As to the Wilson—I guess it's tasty as hell, and a remaster might let the percussion sparkle even more, but was it recorded to analog tape in the first place? Not my first choice from her extensive catalog, but should be an ear-tickler if you like that sort of thing. April 26
Gil Evans
composer / conductor1912 - 1988
Joe Henderson
saxophone1937 - 2001
Still on a winning streak. New Bottle is a feature for 
Cannonball Adderley
saxophone1928 - 1975
Ron Carter
bassb.1937
May 31
Lou Donaldson
saxophone1926 - 2024
Lee Morgan
trumpet1938 - 1972
Here's where things go off the rails, at least for fans of Blue Note's progressive tendencies. Nothing against Donaldson's output, but does it really require this luxury presentation? And is Cornbread even anybody's third favorite Morgan album? And didn't it already get a "standard" Blue Note vinyl release anyway? OK, I'm out of rhetorical questions. Not sure what they're thinking here.
June 28
Baby Face Willette
organ, Hammond B3b.1933
Dexter Gordon
saxophone, tenor1923 - 1990
Complete bewilderment descends upon me. Willette is Blue Note's least-known organist (out of what, frankly, is a very deep bench). As to Clubhouse—it's serviceable Dexter, but here it would make much more sense to redo one of the "standard" releases, like Go or Our Man in Paris, as they are considerably stronger musically.
July 26
Kenny Burrell
guitar, electricb.1931
Andrew Hill
piano1931 - 2007
Hill's resurgence and rediscovery at the turn of the century was one of the happier stories in jazz, and the spectacle of his Blue Note in-print catalog going from two or three albums to pretty much everything was a glory to behold. That said, his Blue Note debut has already received a "standard" reissue while many of his lesser known (and equally excellent) albums are hard to find on vinyl. How about some love for Smoke Stack (those dueling string basses will test any turntable), Dance with Death (wonderful work from 
Joe Farrell
saxophone1937 - 1986
September 6
Donald Byrd
trumpet1932 - 2013
Stanley Turrentine
saxophone, tenor1934 - 2000
As I have grown older, my appreciation for Stanley Turrentine has deepened (it was, I admit, pretty shallow to start), but an organ date seems an almost perverse choice when sessions with more musical color, like, say, Joyride, would make more sense for the luxury black stuff. As I have grown older, my appreciation for Donald Byrd has stayed pretty much the same. Big pass for me, but you make your own life-choices. October 25
Grant Green
guitar1935 - 1979
Tina Brooks
saxophone, tenor1932 - 1974
Grant Green and 
Ike Quebec
saxophone, tenor1918 - 1963
Sonny Clark
piano1931 - 1963
November 15
Hank Mobley
saxophone, tenor1930 - 1986
Stanley Turrentine—Comin' Your Way (Blue Note, 1961)
The mind reels. If you're going to do a Mobley joint, how about A Slice of the Top? A sequence of albums focused on sound should, one thinks, seek out at least some of the label's more ambitiously arranged sessions, even if people tend to think of a quintet as Blue Note's "classic" sound. Plus Top is just more distinctive than Poppin'. And no matter how much one loves Turrentine, would any sane person argue that he needs TWO selections out of eighteen, when classic artists like 
Bobby Hutcherson
vibraphone1941 - 2016
Jackie McLean
saxophone, alto1932 - 2006
Herbie Hancock
pianob.1940
So there you have it—eighteen Blue Note platters due to arrive in pristine editions over the coming year. So far, the focus is squarely on the label before the buy-out by Liberty Records, with only two outliers from its various reincarnations. Now it's up to the market to see if this eighteen are all we get or if another round comes down the pike in 2020. Gentlemen, get your wallets started.
Tags
Opinion
Chick Corea
Patrick Burnette
Herbie Hancock
Wayne Shorter
Sam Rivers
Cassandra Wilson
Gil Evans
Joe Henderson
Cannonball Adderley
Ron Carter
Lou Donaldson
lee morgan
Baby Face Willette
Dexter Gordon
Kenny Burrell
Andrew Hill
Joe Farrell
Donald Byrd
Stanley Turrentine
Grant Green
Tina Brooks
Ike Quebec
Sonny Clark
Hank Mobley
Bobby Hutcherson
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