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Music Matters: The Blue Note Reissue Series
With some of the Blue Note recordings now pushing 60 years old, it's wholly appropriate to release a first-rate reissue series, but to do it right requires people who are fanatics about these titles and who bleed enthusiasm for the music. It also helps to have folks with the attention to detail necessary to worry about the weight of the vinyl and the type of ink used in the jackets. It requires folks who are a little crazy about making the best possible pressings, and are willing to go to any length to make it happen. Ron Rambach (far left above), owner of Music Matters, and his friend and co-conspirator, Joe Harley (second left, with Steve Hoffman, second right, Kevin Gray, far right), have personally overseen every element of the reissue series since its inception. They're both a little nuts about classic Blue Note records, and they've channeled their madness into an exceptional collection.
Rambach and Harley are music fans first and foremost, and they approached reissuing the Blue Note catalog as an extension of their dedication to the label. Original 33rpm Blue Note albums are scarce and outrageously expensive. Many collectors have at least one original Blue Note that they just had to buy, even though the vinyl had clearly been used for target practice. The label has so much cache that some folks will pay a premium for a scratchy, damaged Blue Note record just to have it, even when a CD of the same performance may be readily available. Rambach, a long time dealer in collectible vinyl, was concerned that people would only ever hear poor quality copies, and that they'd overlook lesser known titles: "I didn't know how the next generation was going to hear this music. It's the music that needs to be discovered. It's about bringing these guys back." Both men had a deep knowledge of the label's catalog through their own collections and felt strongly that, handled properly, a reissue could offer something new to enthusiasts.
Blue Note—under its original ownership— wasn't just any jazz record label, and therefore its recording history merits the special attention. Alfred Lion cut his first tracks in 1939 with some 78rpms of pianists
Meade Lux Lewis
piano1905 - 1964
Albert Ammons
piano1907 - 1949
Ike Quebec
saxophone, tenor1918 - 1963
Duke Pearson
piano1932 - 1980
Herbie Hancock
pianob.1940
Dexter Gordon
saxophone, tenor1923 - 1990
Sonny Rollins
saxophoneb.1930
J.R. Monterose
saxophone, tenor1927 - 1993
Sonny Clark
piano1931 - 1963
Herbie Nichols
piano1919 - 1963
Constant recycling of that catalog keeps many titles available, but reissues often come with compromised sound quality, especially on CD. The most comprehensive CD series—released in the early years of this new century—is a mixed bag of compression and alterations that doesn't do anything to flatter the music. There have periodically been a few great reissues of selected titles, but these have tended to stick with well-known, popular records. Saxophonist
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
Gil Melle
saxophone1931 - 2004
To get the best possible sound quality for the project, Rambach and Harley sought out the recording art's equivalent of an act of God: access to the original master tapes recorded by
Rudy Van Gelder
various1924 - 2016
The Blue Note tapes are unique, irreplaceable documents of a high point in American music, and therefore require special precautions. EMI takes great care in preserving this material in specialized archives. Of course, every time a tape is played or even handled there is a risk of damage. Music Matters had to secure a one million dollar insurance policy for each tape before EMI would release them. Under those circumstances even the most prosaic task acquired new gravitas. Harley recalled the anxiety of picking up the masters for saxophonist Hank Mobley's Soul Station (1960) from the courier, looking at the box sitting on his front seat, and having nightmare visions of wrecking his car on the way to the studio. From a distance it seems like quite an honor to have this problem, but it's also easy to imagine the anxiety.
As an archive medium, magnetic 50 year-old reel-to-reel tapes run the risk of degradation that comes with time, handling and use. The condition of the tapes was a concern from the outset. A compromised master could prevent the Music Matters crew from getting a first-rate analog impression with which to stamp new records. As luck would have it, those fears proved to be largely unfounded. The Scotch tapes (yes, that's the brand) were in surprisingly good condition and proved to be easy to work with. The sound quality was—for the most part—completely intact with remarkably few anomalies. A few titles suffered from sub par sound quality, and these were not included in this collection, but by and large the material was ready to go.
Starting with the introduction of the compact disc 25 years ago, collectors and audiophiles have kept a torch burning for needles and grooves, but in the mass music market vinyl records were as dead as the DeSoto. That began to change in recent years, partially out of nostalgia and a certain hipster factor, but also because when produced properly, records just sound damn good. Digital music, whether by CD or file sharing, disassembles music into ones and zeroes for storage, and then reassembles it for listening. By comparison, true analog—tape to lathe to record—is a direct impression of the sound. From the outset Rambach and Harley believed that only a true analog copy of the Blue Note tapes would yield the sound quality they wanted, so they decided to release the series on vinyl only. They made the additional decision to release each title on two 180gram 45rpm LPs instead of one 33rpm platter because, in their estimation, the higher velocity of 45rpm rotation reduces the impact of distortion as well as the loss of high frequencies as the needle moves to the center of the album. It costs more, of course, as everything—albums, covers and sleeves— has to be doubled to include all the music, but they are convinced the effort pays sonic dividends. Frankly, it's hard to argue with the results.
Vinyl mastering and pressing is a dwindling art and there aren't many people left with the proper knowledge and equipment to make a really first class record. As they laid out their plans, Rambach and Harley knew exactly where to turn. Mastering duties were entrusted to Kevin Gray, owner of Cohearent Audio. With almost 40 years in the recording business, Gray has been the technical end of a number of recent, high-quality reissue projects. The Cohearent studio has an array of very high quality vintage components to facilitate transferring the music from tape to lacquer, including a modified Studer reel-to-reel deck, custom class A amplification, and a vintage Neumann cutting lathe, all heavy duty gear with the capacity to make first rate stampers. Despite decades of experience with this kind of material, Gray was still a little star-struck by the process. "It's an amazing window into history," he says. "The boxes have all of Rudy Van Gelder and Alfred Lion's hand written notes all over them." In some cases those notes, often from Lion to Van Gelder with production instructions, helped guide the remastering process as well.
Of course, remastering is only one step in a series of production links. Once the stampers are cut, they need to be pressed into hot plastic, and successfully managing that process takes some additional expertise. Anyone who remembers buying a record, only to find an off-centered hole, or a noisy, warped bit of wafer thin plastic, can appreciate the problems to be avoided in pressing a premium collection. Music Matters turned to the RTI pressing facility with a simple justification: according to Rambach, "RTI is the highest quality record plant in the country, period." Pointing to dead quiet vinyl and perfectly centered spindle holes he credits RTI's Rick Hashimoto and his team with really embracing the goals of the project to meet the high quality expectations. The success is easy to verify. As we'll get to in a moment, this is some of the finest vinyl you'll ever hear.
It was also important to Rambach that these albums look spectacular. Blue Note album covers had a distinct design language, and fidelity to that aesthetic was a top priority. The label's house look was defined by Reid Miles, whose bold, geometric color blocks—combined with Francis Wolff's black and white photographs—created a modern and sophisticated motif. In the book Blue Note: The Album Cover Art (Chronicle Books, 1991), editor Felix Cromey offered an eloquent summation: "As Blue Note embraced the musical changes of its recording artists, so Reid Miles caught the slipstream, creating sleeves that transcended the mugshots and mysticism of other genres' sleeves." To capture all of the design elements of the original covers, Music Matters turned to printer Jack Sloughton, whose company has been making record jackets for over 50 years. Accurate reproductions required painstaking color matching, as well as touching up any fading or discoloration. All of the jackets are printed on heavyweight, acid-free board to ensure longevity. "There was a tremendous amount of effort in getting these covers as perfect as possible," says Rambach. "We're psychotic about it." Indeed, the covers, which could have been an after-thought, are beautiful, and Wolff's dramatic black and white photos in the gatefold provide an additional window into the recording sessions.
These Music Matters reissues are a premium product, and the experience of handling and listening to them is really special. The attention to detail has paid off in spades, creating as luxurious a quality as can be obtained from 360 grams of vinyl. The hefty covers are something to behold, with vivid, deep colors, crisp photographs and the liner notes reprinted in their entirety. They invite a great old ritual: reading the promo copy while listening to the music. The vinyl itself is impeccable, with dead quiet black backgrounds and tremendous dynamic range. The 180 gram weight makes solid contact with the turntable platter and the stylus just seems to glide through the grooves—no pops, no ticks, no pings. It's hard to imagine any subsequent version ever bettering these pressings for their sonic and aesthetic quality.
But they are records, and they are meant to be played, leading the inevitable question: how do these Music Matters pressings sound? In a word: fantastic. But they still sound like old Blue Note records, and that requires some additional explanation.
Rudy Van Gelder
These albums all have the hallmark "Blue Note sound" that is a product of the space in which they were recorded. Van Gelder quite literally began recording jazz musicians in his parents' living room in the early 1950s, including titans like pianist
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Herbie Nichols recording in the Van Gelder living room. Note the drapes.
Now imagine trying to record a piano in your parents' living room with
Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990
Saxophonist 
Wayne Shorter
saxophone1933 - 2023
Lee Morgan
trumpet1938 - 1972
McCoy Tyner
piano1938 - 2020
Night Dreamer has never sounded better than it does here. The horns are full and clear with excellent tone nuance.
Reggie Workman
bassb.1937
Elvin Jones
drums1927 - 2004
Clifford Jordan
saxophone, tenor1931 - 1993
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto1920 - 1955
Coleman Hawkins
saxophone, tenor1904 - 1969
Art Farmer
flugelhorn1928 - 1999
As a Van Gelder recording, Cliff Craft has one unusual feature. It was recorded in 1957, the first year stereo was widely employed. The date pushes both horns to the far left, instead of the more common split arrangement. The piano is nicely recessed into the stage, and is as fully realized as any in this catalog. The walking bass line on "Soul-Lo Blues" is forward in the mix with a terrific "thwack," and the cymbals have a widely dispersed ringing tone to them. Overall this is an excellent recording with smooth, detailed sound and terrific instrument definition.
Gil Melle
saxophone1931 - 2004
Patterns In Jazz also taps a long controversy between mono and stereo Blue Note records. The debate often focuses on the hard, left-right panning of the instruments on the stereo records, and whether the mono pressings just sound more natural. Rudy Van Gelder began recording in stereo in 1957, using both stereo and mono tapes in tandem for a short time before abandoning mono altogether. Doing its part to fuel the flames, the Music Matters gang discovered that beginning in mid 1957 all of the mono issues were down-mixed from stereo masters. Each box was in fact marked in Van Gelder's hand, "Mo(no) master made 50/50 from stereo."
As one of the few true mono recordings in the series, Patterns In Jazz certainly won't settle this controversy, but its sound is revelatory. Mono recordings can sometimes sound stacked, with all of the instruments arranged in a narrow vertical pile. By contrast, Patterns In Jazz might be described as "Big Mono." The image is large and unified, very much the way a combo on a small bandstand in a club might sound. The instruments are centered, but there are discernable depth and lateral cues. The bell chimes, for example, on "Nice Question," very clearly originate deep in the right side of the sound field. On the aforementioned "Moonlight In Vermont," Melle's horn stands clearly forward of the band in a way that even the best modern recordings have trouble capturing. The album delivers some serious ammunition to the one-track camp: an exceptional example of a well- engineered, high-quality mono recording. It is also one of the overall best recordings in the series: a true "must hear" pressing.
If that sounds like a favorable review, it is. But that's not to say there aren't a few downsides.
First, as 45rpm records, some of the sides have only one track on them. Expect to get up every five minutes or so to turn them over. No big deal.
Second, at $50, these are expensive records.
Third, despite a recent resurgence in vinyl, there just aren't that many listeners out there who still have turntables. A high-resolution, downloadable digital version offered along side the vinyl might have delivered most of the sonic attributes, and been accessible to more listeners. Yes, downloads would be comprised of ones and zeroes, but digital at its best is getting pretty close to analog for sound quality. Nevertheless, Harley—who is also an executive at hi-fi cable giant AudioQuest—points out that a good turntable setup needn't cost a fortune and mentions a number of respectable all-in-one setups that include an arm and cartridge in the $200-$400 range. "People tend to be shocked that even an entry level table is plenty good enough to convey the vinyl effect." This might not be a solution that's available to everyone, for reasons of money, space or lifestyle (kids and turntables are not always a good match) but it certainly opens some options.
The Music Matters Blue Note reissue series offers an awful lot to jazz fans. But the exceptional quality of the vinyl and the exquisite covers notwithstanding, the most impressive thing about the collection may simply be how far they've dug into Blue Note's back catalog. Titles like saxophonists
John Jenkins
drums1931 - 1993
Kenny Burrell
guitar, electricb.1931
Sam Rivers
saxophone, tenor1923 - 2011
Grachan Moncur III
trombone1937 - 2022
Rambach is circumspect about his role in the effort, and readily allows that none of this would have come together without the skills and efforts of everyone involved. "I've got nothing but reverence for Rudy Van Gelder; Michael Cuscuna was paramount in getting this done; and the RTI team, and even our printer made enormous contributions." The Music Matters Blue Note Reissue Series is truly a collaborative accomplishment. In a world where music is shot around the world in seconds over the Internet, these old- fashioned vinyl records offer better sound quality than virtually any digital medium, and the format itself invites listeners to slow down and give the music some serious attention. With the music industry dominated by technology that turns music into a commodity, and sound reproduction into an appliance, these records offer something very special: a collection that is made by people who truly care about what they're doing and insist on the highest standards. It's hard not to deeply appreciate their effort.
Photo Credits
Page 1: Courtesy of Joe Harley
Page 3: Courtesy of Ron Rambach
Page 4: Francis Wolff, courtesy of Mosaic Images
Tags
Music Matters
Record Label Profiles
Greg Simmons
United States
Meade Lux Lewis
Albert Ammons
Ike Quebec
Duke Pearson
Herbie Hancock
Dexter Gordon
Sonny Rollins
J.R. Monterose
Sonny Clark
Herbie Nichols
John Coltrane
Gil Melle
rudy van gelder
Thelonious Monk
Miles Davis
Art Blakey
Wayne Shorter
lee morgan
McCoy Tyner
Reggie Workman
Elvin Jones
Clifford Jordan
Charlie Parker
Coleman Hawkins
Art Farmer
John Jenkins
Kenny Burrell
Sam Rivers
Grachan Moncur III
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