About that Music Matters 45 Sonny Rollins "Newks Time":

In some of my recent posts, readers have commented on the recent Music Matters 45 rpm vinyl release of Sonny Rollins' Newks Time, citing rather severe problems sonically. As I mentioned in those comments, it surprises me that Music Matters would put out anything subpar - their standards sonically and in the whole presentation have been consistently sterling, and truth is I have not personally heard their Newks Time (but the comments posted and private emails I've received sure have pumped me to rectify that).

I did ask the good folks at Music Matters about it, and got the whole story. First, an email Music Matters was kind enough to forward to me, unedited or altered:

"Hi gang,

Tonight I'm sitting here listening to the test pressings of Sonny Rollin's amazing Newk's Time session. I'm blissed out....and here's why!

From the inception of Music Matters' Blue Note project, there have been a handful of sessions that we (Ron and I) dearly love but that apparently had master tape problems of one kind or another that made the prospect of being able to release them seem remote indeed.

One of these sessions was Sonny Rollin's amazing "Newk's Time". We had been told by various folks (including Michael Cuscuna) that the masters "had problems" and that it would be better to move on to other great Rollins titles on Blue Note. We did that (you'll see Sonny's great Vol. 1 from us soon and Acoustic Sounds has released Vol. 2) but Newk's Time has always been a favorite.

A few weeks before our last Blue Note mastering marathon at Acoustech in June, Ron and I decided to go ahead and request Newks' Time, despite all the warnings.

The session comes, and sure enough, there on the Newks' Time masters are dire looking warnings about "severe tape drop outs" all over the outer box and inner notes. Most of the fuss seemed to revolve around drops out on the first track "Tune Up".

Undaunted, Kevin went ahead and carefully spooled the tape up so we could have a listen and settle in to our battle plan.

The first thing that struck us all...well the first two things really...were how great Sonny sounded and how great the overall sound was. Sonny was in full flight, I was getting totally stoked and then it happened.... the dreaded "drop out"! I said "wait a minute!" but Steve was already on to it... "THAT'S no drop out!" He was right, this was clearly Rudy making a fairly radical fader move. Tape drop outs are obvious and have their own "sound". This was not a drop out.

We had been noticing (and commenting) on the fact that Sonny was moving in the stereo image. Then I started laughing since it was so obvious....Sonny was WALKING around the studio (the Hackensack living room) and Rudy was doing whatever he could, using his faders, to keep up with Sonny.
Anyone who has been to a Sonny Rollins concert knows that he is not a stationary player. I had vague memories of reading of Sonny's recording adventures with Rudy, of Sonny's desire not to be chained to a microphone.
It probably sounds like a small matter to most, but for Ron and myself, this was one of those Eureka Moments where everything suddenly makes sense.
We put up "Tune Up" again as Steve began to zero in on other things that the track needed.

The rest of the tracks were fine.....no "severe drop out" issues at all! Yes, you do hear things shifting around a bit as Sonny walks around, playing his tail off, but hey, that's what the man does...he needs to MOVE to play his absolute best!

There's an amazing track on this album that will take up all of Side C on our release....Philly Joe Jones and Sonny on an amazing duo work out on "Surrey With The Fringe On Top". I wish I had a camera to capture Steve hanging on for dear life with the faders trying to "walk" with Sonny and keep him present. He succeeded but needed a towel to dry off afterwards!
Thanks Steve! Thanks Kev! And THANK YOU SONNY!

Cheers,

Joe and Ron"

So there you have it, straight up.

But wait a minute - despite all that, it's clear - Newks Time DOES have some sonic problems, and damn, it costs $50 a pop for folks to get that! Is that right?

I suppose it is all a matter of perspective. If all it's about to you is pure, perfect, unblemished sonic nirvana, you might not be getting your fix with this one.

For me, though, it has always been about getting fantastic historical and LIVING performances in not necessarily the 'best' sound possible, but the most realistic and faithful sound possible - and a big part of that is representing that particular moment and place in time as faithfully as possible.

Those warts on Newks Time are part of the music. Hearing Sonny moving around, going off mic, moving side to side in the stereo image - those are all parts of that wonderful moment in time, they are part of the performance, part of that particular day at Van Gelder's - part of the history that Music Matters is doing such a fabulous job of reproducing, of archiving and preserving for my, and hopefully my kids, enjoyment going forward.

I would not reject Newks Time because of these artifacts (they are not flaws! artifacts is a better word, IMO) - and again, I have not yet heard the MM vinyl - I suspect I will embrace them as they bring me closer to that moment in time and closer to what is a truly great Sonny Rollins session.

I perfectly understand that others may see this differently. If nothing else, readers who have written me about Newks Time have pushed me into ordering a copy to hear for myself, and to give some thought to what exactly should be expected in preserving these performances. I'm grateful on both counts.