Music Matters returns...and gets some competition!

 Music Matters returned in September with Art Blakey's "Free For All" and Herbie Hancock's "Inventions and Dimensions", both important titles in the Blue Note discography and both dates of some significance.

The Hancock is a 'latin-ish' recording featuring a rare appearance of Paul Chambers late in his career, and the latin percussion of Willie Bobo. Not at all a set of latin standards or latinish heads and with smiley face, percussion filled solos, this date is a through improvised set that is among Hancock's most adventurous and rewarding recordings. It shows what integration of latin instruments into a hard bop format that doesn't use the percussion in a patronizing or 'effects' way can be. Hancock gives wonderful solos,exceptionally spontaneous, with Chambers in particular playing at a peak, the bass almost soloing throughout, and Bobo is awesome.

I have been listening to the Heavenly Sweetness reissue of Inventions & Dimensions for some time and I liked it quite a bit. But as expected from Music Matters, Kevin, Ron and Joe have taken it to a new level. The tonality of Hancock's piano is fat, and percussive. Chambers is huge, but tight, and the beat is just so much stronger and organic than on the Heave nly Sweetness. Bobo is three dimensional. It has the organic quality that a great recording should have, and can only be considered another high point in the Music Matters series.

What is great about Music Matters is bringing back gems like this that are not formulaic or reissued to death warhorses. It's about rediscovery, and this is a prime slice of that. Thoroughly recommended.

Art Blakey's "Free For All" is another matter entirely. It is remarkable in that it features Freddie Hubbard in place of the drug-incapacitated Lee Morgan, and has a fierceness that is unique in the Blakey discography - and that is something, since Blakey on a slow day would ride red hot.

But again, the Music Matters time machine puts us right there. There are no ballads here, just 4 tracks perfectly suited to 45rpm cutting. Listen to what Shorter does with his tongue on the reed at the end of his solo on side 1. Amazing, it's right there in front of you. Blakey rides his cymbals so hot it is almost a barrage, and when he lets up abruptly near the end, it is a massive release of pent up tension. This is sonically a different world than the Hancock, and don't think that the "free" in the title alludes to free jazz, this is not that at all, it is a sizzling, ferocious hard bop date almost at the end of Blakey's prime period, almost as if Blakey knew the BN era was coming to an end - or at least that version of his band was - and let loose with a vengeance. Intense, and unique in the Blakey catalog. Music Matters puts you there and thankfully Hoffman isn't around anymore to blunt that ferocity - they let it all come through, and it s truly magnificent. Once again, Free For All comes through as a piece for reconsideration - it is just a monster. Don't miss it.

On the 'new competition' side of things, Analogue Productions is obviously feeling the heat from Music Matters. AP has a long history of substandard cover art and quality, and often 'name' mastering that was fine, but not up to the best possible at the price level. But the new 45rpm Brubeck "Time Out" sees Chad looking over his shoulder at Ron and Joe, sporting a very high quality cover, made at the same supplier Music Matters uses, very interesting gatefold photos, and the superb mastering of Bernie Grundman. The sound has never been better, and probably never will be again. As usual with Grundman, there is an astonishing openness and dimensionality, tonality is just dead on accurate, and the top end is open and sparklingly sweet. Grundman's hallmark is accuracy and faithfulness, so there is no 'fattening up' or EQ trickery here, no Hoffman-like blunting of the top end or mid range 'presence region' bump - just the straightest route to the music on the master, with great transparency, and honesty.

The thing I find about Grundman is - his remasterings keep on paying dividends with repeated listening. Other mastering engineers and the 'EQ consultant' play for the first listen - which often is impressive in the same way equipment in a dealer showroom can make a first impression - but subsequent listening yields diminishing rewards.

Kudos to Chad for raising the bar on this one. If there is one complaint, it is that the world hardly needs a new look at Time Out, but I am happy to have it regardless.